Southern Institute of Technology, Postgraduate Diploma, Business Enterprise

Postgraduate Diploma in Business Enterprise (186 Credits)

GBE.801 Business Enterprise Management (10 credits)

This paper aims to build on the principles, theory and practice of innovation and new venture development by providing students with a detailed and particularised overview of the business enterprise and innovation sector within the contemporary New Zealand economy.  It also seeks to provide students with the opportunities to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to establish a new business enterprise and operate it successfully in a competitive commercial environment, and gain an assured understanding of the purpose, nature and processes of developing a business model and plan.

GBE.802 Entrepreneurship and Innovation (10 credits)

The aim of this paper is to provide students with a detailed understanding of the principles, theory and practice of enterprise and new venture development; an awareness of and the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and attributes; a theoretical and practical understanding of the nature and applications of entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial management; the entrepreneurial organisation; and the nature and processes of innovation and new venture development.  It will also provide students with the skills, knowledge and strategies needed to establish and manage an innovative enterprise by emphasising the application of historical and theoretical constructs to practical, contemporary outcomes.

GBE.803 Enterprise Information Communications Technology (10 credits)

This paper aims to provide students with an understanding of the forms and methods of information communications technology, and with the knowledge of how information is processed and transmitted through electronic means. To develop students' knowledge, skills and ability to communicate effectively, knowledgeably and efficiently and to assist them to identify those communication styles and processes that will best promote optimum communication in business and entrepreneurial contexts.

GBE.804 Business Enterprise Operations: Marketing (10 credits)

This paper develops the theoretical and practical constructs that define business enterprise management, by providing students with a detailed, practically based, understanding of the operational aspects of a new business enterprise.   In particular, students will gain knowledge of marketing strategies for business enterprise; auditing and planning for competitive marketing environments; target marketing and customer profiling, marketing mix strategies (product, pricing, distribution and promotion); strategic analysis tools and marketing intelligence; and marketing growth strategies.

GBE.805 Human Resource Management in Innovation (10 credits)

The aim of this paper is to provide students with high level skills in assessing human resource performance and management issues in the context of new business enterprise, while evaluating factors such as the purpose and role of human management, its core activities, and its function in the establishment, management and expansion of new business ventures.

It also aims to provide students with an assured understanding of issues that are crucial to the effective and strategic management of human performance and resources in today's competitive commercial environment.

GBE.806 Financing Enterprise (10 credits)

This paper aims to provide students with a sound grasp of the theory, principles and practice of financial management of business enterprises, including those that are owner operated and controlled.  Emphasis is on finance theory, and the application of this theory to the specific circumstances of new business enterprises.  This paper also aims to familiarise students with practical techniques that will assist in asset management, arranging finance, analysing enterprise performance, and planning the future of the business, and ensuring that the principles of sound financial management are fully understood and recognised as critical to the survival and success of new business enterprises.

GBE.RM Research Methodology (6 credits)

To introduce students to statistical analysis techniques that are commonly applied within a business environment; outline research methodology, design and ethical considerations; and provide a “thinking framework” for formulating a dissertation proposal which will subsequently be developed into a comprehensive, research based, strategic or business plan.

GBE.807 Research Dissertation (120 credits)

The aim of the research dissertation is to allow students to carry out the specific research for which initial planning was completed in paper GBE.RM: Research Methodology.  This enables the student to generate an extended piece of original work that tests his or her ability to, apply accrued skills in research, data collation and analysis, draw valid conclusions, formulate recommendations, and report findings from the investigation in an appropriate academic format that complies with current good practice.

It provides students from any discipline or background with the opportunity to select a topic of choice centred on any innovative business product, service, venture or facility, for which they develop an initial scoping study that is subsequently developed into a comprehensive, research based business or strategic plan.

The dissertation is expected to reflect the cumulative knowledge and skills gained from the taught papers, in particular the application of principles and concepts underpinning entrepreneurship, to a theoretical construct and viable contemporary market model.  It is also expected to reflect the level and depth of original research required at this level, to the degree that it advances both the theoretical bases, as well as the practice, of models of innovation and entrepreneurship.