Module Directory

This module will allow students to learn about and critically reflect on the past, present, and futures of values, value and value creation. It will explore themes of what is considered "valuable" and why, along with different models of value creation. The latter will, of course, acknowledge the traditional business school focus on the private sector but move beyond this to include the public and voluntary sectors as well as the social economy and frameworks for de-growth necessitated by the Climate Emergency.

The aims of this module are:

• To enable preparation for students for further exciting study on this theme in their second and final years in EBS.


• To ensure students are well prepared for the world of work, management and leadership in the 21st century, with a strong sense of the different forms of value created by different sectors.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate understanding of the relationship between values, value and value creation across a wide variety of sectors (including, but not limited to, public and not-for-profit sectors, the private sector, the for-profit sector).


2. Demonstrate understanding of a range of frameworks for conceptualising sustainability and the use and stewardship of common resources.


3. Demonstrate the effective use of a values framework to portray the dimensions of value creation in a business or not-for-profit enterprise.

Part 1: Theory and concepts of Value

Summary: The first part of the module will explore different perspectives of value and introduce the core concepts of the modules.

• "Understanding Values and Value": This session will introduce the core concept of the module - the relationship between social values and understanding what constitutes ideas of economic and organisational value.


• "Introducing Value Perspectives": This session will present the main perspectives, including value-creation, value-extraction, and value distribution.


• "Exploring Organisational Design": This session will examine the different organisational designs focusing primarily on organisational governance and decision-making processes.

Part 2: Putting value into Practice

Summary: The second part of the module will examine how these value concepts are applied within diverse contexts and with different values.

• "Public Sector organisations perspective on value": This session will investigate value creation, extraction, and distribution within public sector organisations, investigating value creation, extraction, and distribution within the public sphere.


• "For-profit organisations perspective on Value": This session will investigate value creation, extraction, and distribution within the private sphere associated with values of for-profit firms.


• "Co-operative and Social Economy Perspective on Value": This session will focus on cooperatives and social economy organisations, and investigate value creation, extraction, and distribution with an emphasis on promoting positive social outcomes linked traditionally to the third sector and cooperatively owned organisations.


• "Value Frameworks". This session will present the key frameworks for understanding and measuring value.


• "Measuring Value: a breakdown of social return on investment": This session will focus explicitly on one of the most commonly used tools for measuring value and go through its various aspects and steps.

 Part 3: The Future of Value

• “Sustainable Value": This session will explore emerging models of value creation, extraction, and distribution as part of strategies to foster environmental sustainability such as de-growth models of economic development.


• "Commons Value": This session will explore alternative models of value, creation, extraction, and distribution based on principles of commons resource ownership and cooperative decision-making.


• Review and final assessment preparation.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 1-hour lecture per week.
• One 2-hours seminar every fortnight.

The seminars will be focused on groups working on a specific "value challenge" using a values and value creation framework for an organisation. This will consolidate the connection between values, value creation, noting organisational purposes and governance. The precise content of the seminars is to be decided, but likely to include some of the following: Value proposition; Key activities, resources, partners; Customer segments, relationships, channels; Financial: costs and revenue streams. The work in these seminars would be linked to the assessment based on Group Work.