CEM640: Business Innovation and Strategy

Module code: CEM640

Module provider: School of Construction Management and Engineering, School of Built Environment

Credits: 20

ECTS credits: 10

Level: 7

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Dr Ruth Dowsett, email: r.m.dowsett@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: na

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list:

Last updated: 25 March 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

The Business Innovation and Strategy module is designed to encourage critical engagement with the prevalent narratives of strategy and innovation in the construction sector. The aim of the module is to enable students to understand why such narratives are persuasive, and thereby equip them to playing a proactive role in their implementation. The module is divided into two interconnected parts. The Strategic Management component focuses on how practising managers seek to set goals, create plans, and align resources to achieve long-term success. It explores key strategic concepts. Coverage includes: competitive positioning, the resource-based view (RBV), dynamic capabilities and strategy-as-practice. Consideration is also given to corporate social responsibility. The Business Innovation component highlights the role of innovation as an acclaimed driver of growth and transformation in the construction sector. Coverage includes the cutting-edge technologies that are routinely mobilised for the purposes of reshaping the built environment. Attention is also directed at how best to support the use of such technologies and, where necessary, to challenge their inappropriate implementation. The module further emphasises the persuasive appeal of strategy narratives that mobilise innovation as a means of ensuring sustained competitiveness.

Part 1: Strategic Management

A critical understanding of strategic management is essential for those aspiring to progress into leadership roles in the construction sector. The module charts the evolution of strategic thinking from competitive positioning through to the conceptualisation of ‘strategy-as-practice’.  Students will learn to evaluate alternative theories of strategic management and their relevance to the construction sector. Particular attention is given to the strategies adopted by contracting firms in response to the competitive environments within which they operate. Examples are drawn from both domestic and international markets. 

Part 2: Business Innovation

Business innovation is commonly held to be essential for the purposes of driving competitiveness, efficiency, and growth in the construction sector. It therefore comprises an essential element of strategy on the sector level. The quest for innovation can further be viewed as identity work on the part of its advocates. This part of the module introduces students to acclaimed innovations such as digital transformation and modern methods of construction (MMC). The aim is to encourage a reflective view  on how these innovations are applied to real-world construction scenarios. Particular attention is paid to the situated practices of managing innovation at both sector and project level.  The emphasis lies on the techniques used to analyse construction processes for the purposes of strategic innovation. 

Module learning outcomes

Part 1: Strategic Management 

1. Analyse and debate core concepts of strategic management.
2. Apply strategic management principles to real-world construction organisations.
3. Recognise and discuss the role of a strategist within organisations.
4. Compare and contrast different approaches to strategic management.
5. Understand key leadership qualities and their role in strategic decision-making.

Part 2: Business Innovation 

1. Analyse diverse perspectives on innovation in the construction sector and critique conventional views of its role in business growth and transformation.
2. Recognise and discuss the challenges involved in planning and managing innovation within the construction sector.
3. Apply appropriate methods to investigate the impact of technological innovations on the delivery and performance of construction projects.
4. Mobilise suitable techniques to investigate complex and ill-defined real-world construction innovation scenarios.
5. Compare approaches to align innovation initiatives with organisational strategic objectives.

Module content

Part 1: Strategic Management 

• Micheal Porter’s competitive positioning theory: positioning within an industry sector as a means of determining sustainable competitive advantage.  
• Resource-based view (RBV): identifying the internal resources, assets, capabilities and competences that deliver competitive advantage.
• Dynamic capabilities: emphasising the importance of firms being able to re-configure their operating routines in response to external change.
• Strategy-as-practice: focusing on strategists and the day-to-day ‘doing’ of strategy.
• Strategy-as-narrative:  seeing strategy as a discursive process through which leaders provide organisations with a sense of purpose. Strategy narratives are also depicted as a means of identity work.
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the construction sector: case studies from practice, with a particular emphasis on rhetoric vs reality.

Part 2: Business Innovation

• Drivers for innovation in business and construction, including technological, environmental, economic, and regulatory factors.
• Critical perspectives on innovation in the construction industry.
• Innovative technologies, digital tools, and information systems leveraged by firms to reshape the built environment (e.g. automation, robotics, AI, Building Information Modelling (BIM)).
• Methods to research, analyse and formally represent processes in design, construction and operations (e.g. Business Process Notation Modelling (BPNM), data flow diagrams (DFDs))
• Techniques to map and define organisational systems, functions, roles and relationships at firm, project group, individual and task level of analysis.
• Systems approaches, diagramming, approaches to process improvement, e.g. soft systems methodology.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

This module will be delivered through a combination of lectures and seminar sessions. Lectures will introduce key theoretical concepts, frameworks, and industry trends, supported by real-world case examples from the construction sector. Seminar sessions will be interactive and focus on in-depth discussions, case study analysis, and group activities, encouraging students to apply theory to practical scenarios.  

Study hours

At least 36 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The below information applies to all full time and flexible modular students on taught PGT programmes in SBE.

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline, excluding self-certified extensions): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Level 3 (i.e. foundation modules for Part 0) and Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline, excluding self-certified extensions), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline, excluding self-certified extensions): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline, excluding self-certified extensions): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline, excluding self-certified extensions): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to a self-certified extension, it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e. considered to be more that three calendar days late).

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

There will be a range of formative assessment methods embedded within the module delivery. Principally, the formative assessment feedback will take place during lecture and tutorial interaction. 

Reassessment

Additional costs