Doing Digital Business

Introduction

(Max 30 students each semester)

In a changing business environment, it becomes increasingly important to innovate business and service models. New technologies and social movements, such as artificial intelligence, the gig economy and big data, require businesses to constantly reinvent themselves, and future leaders need to be equipped with skills to guide their organizations through this change. In particular, the course will cover aspects of changing media and forms of engagement on the one hand, as well as innovation models on the other hand to help students design future digital organizations and business models. As part of this course, we also intend to visit and work with digital innovators and develop business model reinvention in practice. We will impart concepts or value proposition and business model design, as well as tools to assess the potential impact of digital market offerings. Furthermore, the course will look at both matters of interaction design, as well as alignment of digital initiatives with society and external stakeholders.

During the course there will be an intensive, multi-day study trip to Berlin. Students must be aware that the costs for and connected with the trip are not covered by BI Norwegian Business School. Students are expected to cover the travel and accommodation costs themselves. Detailed information about the study trip will be provided at the beginning of the course. 

Course content

Introduction: Digital Innovations
An overview of the current developments around digital innovations, and a showcase of current examples in the form of interesting research and company studies is given. Students will obtain insights into the way of thinking of foresight planning and get a first grasp of practical questions and challenges that can occur when conducting innovation research.

Digital Ventures and Value Propositions
The context of social ventures and start-ups - an important element for the course in general and the assignment in particular - is introduced. Students will familiarize themselves with examples and conceptual approaches to the topic of start-ups in general and social ventures in particular. They will apply the value proposition design method to get structured insights into the eco-system of social ventures.

Personas
In this session, students will get acquainted with the design of stakeholder personas. This qualitative approach serves to illustrate potential customers and stakeholders in a vivid and intuitive way. Students will learn about the conceptual underpinnings of personas, the application - with concrete cases and examples - and they will develop their own personas in an interactive exercise. 

Project Work and Guest Lectures
In these sessions, students will work hands-on with data to learn ways to model relevant research questions, discovering what different interest groups are taking about, and identifying potential needs. Thus, the tools and methods discussed in the previous session will be put into practice. Moreover, guest lectures will deepen the content from the previous sessions.

Project Presentation and Discussions 
The students will present their projects and the current status of their reports to the group. The assignments will be discussed critically with the other participants and the instructors of the course. The main findings, implications and challenges during the research project are addressed, trying to condense the key learning across the groups.