Unit rationale, description and aim
The emergence of digital innovations is reshaping industries, organisations, and management paradigms. These innovations serve as pivotal catalysts for change, affecting how companies create, capture, and deliver value, and influence managerial strategies. To maintain competitiveness, executives and managers must adeptly assess various digital technologies and emerging business models, discerning enduring trends from transient fads. Furthermore, digital innovations offer novel tools and methods for navigating uncertain and ambiguous environments. This unit equips students with the competencies needed to oversee digital innovations rooted in advanced technologies, ethics, and business model innovations. Further, students will gain the knowledge, tools, and strategies required to optimise these digital innovation opportunities and potential challenges within various organisational contexts.
The aim of this unit is therefore to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how to develop digital solutions, and harness innovation to sustain competitiveness.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Explain the importance and processes of digital platforms and innovations, how they are diffused and adopted and why they sometimes fail. | GC4, GC8, GC10, GC12 |
| LO2 | Analyse digital innovations, recognising strategies, ethical considerations, potential risks and negative impacts. | GC1, GC7, GC8 |
| LO3 | Apply user-centered methodologies to manage digital innovations | GC2, GC8, GC9 |
| LO4 | Evaluate technologies and adopt a strategic and sustainable approach to start and grow a business in today's digital landscape. | GC7, GC8, GC11 |
Content
Topics will include:
· Introduction to digital innovation
· Technologies and business models
· Open and closed ecosystems
· Managing digital innovation processes
· Responsible digital innovation
· Financial and marketing technologies
· Disruptive innovation and technologies
· Recognising opportunities through design thinking
· Market and product fit
· Enhancing user experience (UX) through operations
· Market entry
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment approach is structured to ensure that students achieve proficiency in accordance with the learning outcomes and develop a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. To pass this unit, students must demonstrate competence in all learning outcomes and achieve an aggregate mark of at least 50%.
Assessment tasks are designed to be both formative and summative, providing students with ample opportunities to gauge their progress and develop their skills. The assessment approach is consistent across all modes of delivery, ensuring fairness for all students irrespective of their learning environment.
Students will progressively be submitting assessment tasks during the study period, while receiving feedback from each to feed forward into their next task.
Strategies aligned with transition pedagogies will be utilised to facilitate successful completion of the unit assessment tasks. For each assessment, there will be the incorporation of developmentally staged tasks with a focus on a progressive approach to learning. This will be achieved through activities, including regular feedback, particularly early in the unit of study to support their learning; strategies to develop and understand discipline-specific concepts and terminology; in-class practice tasks with integrated feedback; and greater peer-to-peer collaboration.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment 1: Portfolio of Engagement Students will be evaluated on a combination of engagement in the unit via discussion board questions, responses to postings and evidence of successful engagement in selected weeks, or via a range of selected tasks. Submission Type: Individual Assessment Method: Online engagement Artefact: Portfolio evidencing | 20% | LO1, LO2 | GC1, GC7, GC8 |
Assessment 2: Research Report Students will research, analyse and compare digital innovation technologies with consideration of ethical and social positive and negative impacts. Submission Type: Individual Assessment Method: Research Report Artefact: Written report | 40% | LO1, LO2, LO4 | GC4, GC7, GC8, GC11 |
Assessment 3: Innovation roadmap Presentation Students design, present and report on an innovation roadmap with user-centered methodology to address an industry problem and manage digital innovations in a group setting. Submission Type: Team/Individual Assessment Method: Research Report Artefact: Individual presentation | 40% | LO3, LO4 | GC2, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC12 |
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit provides students with an active and engaging learning experience focused on the analysis and synthesis of knowledge, pertinent to business technology understanding and management. A blend of online learning materials and interactive workshops serve as dynamic environments where students actively participate in constructing and combining knowledge, both independently and collaboratively within group settings.
Through these workshops, students embark on a journey of understanding the pivotal role of management in driving impactful business outcomes within the realm of technology. By engaging with real-world case studies and practical exercises, students not only enhance their theoretical knowledge but also cultivate the practical skills necessary for effective technology management and integration with wider business operations to achieve digital innovation. Through the exchange of stories, insights, and reflections, students are immersed in an interactive learning environment, catering to diverse learning preferences and fostering collaboration among peers.
Further to this, to ensure students are ready to transition from the Diploma and articulate into the second year of undergraduate study, transition pedagogies will be incorporated into the unit as the key point of differentiation from the standard unit. This focuses on an active and engaging approach to learning and teaching practices, and a scaffolded approach to the delivery of curriculum to enhance student learning in a supportive environment. This will ensure that students develop foundation level discipline-based knowledge, skills and attributes, and simultaneously the academic competencies required of students to succeed in this unit.
Mode of delivery: This unit is offered in multimode to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants and maximise effective participation for isolated and/or marginalised groups.
Representative texts and references
Ancillai, C, Sabatini, A, Gatti, M & Perna, A 2023, ‘Digital technology and business model innovation: A systematic literature review and future research agenda’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 188, <doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.122307>.
Avelar, S, Borges-Tiago, T, Almeida, A & Tiago, F 2024, ‘Confluence of sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and digitalization in SMEs’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 170, <doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114346>.
Daim, T, Dabic, M & Su, Y, 2023, The Routledge Companion to Technology Management, 1st edn, Routledge.
Lingens, B, Miehé, L & Gassmann, O 2021, ‘The ecosystem blueprint: How firms shape the design of an ecosystem according to the surrounding conditions’, Long Range Planning, vol. 54, no. 2, <doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2020.102043>.
Liu, W, Liu, Y, Zhu, X, Nespoli, P, Profita, F, Huang, L & Xu, Y 2024, ‘Digital entrepreneurship: towards a knowledge management perspective’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 341–354.
Rajagopal & Behl, R (eds), Innovation, Technology, and Market Ecosystems: Managing Industrial Growth in Emerging Markets, 1st edn, Springer International Publishing.
Schrage, M, Kiron, D, Candelon, F, Khodabandeh, S & Chu, M 2023, ‘AI is helping companies redefine, not just improve, performance’, MIT Sloan Management Review, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 1–7.
Si, S & Chen, H 2020, ‘A literature review of disruptive innovation: What it is, how it works and where it goes’, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, vol. 56, <doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2020.101568>.
Tsou, HT & Chen, JS 2023, ‘How does digital technology usage benefit firm performance? Digital transformation strategy and organisational innovation as mediators’, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, vol. 35, no. 9, pp. 1114–1127.
Originally approved at Faculty of Law and Business Board on 00/00/2021