Behavioural Insights for Business and Management
Module description
This module will provide an overview of the important insights from behavioural economics and apply to business, economics and management decision making context. It will teach students the core theory of behavioural economics, demonstrate how these can be applied to explain and inform the decisions made by stakeholders, workers, and consumers, and ultimately apply to business and policy-relevant issues. The module will focus on conceptual foundations (core assumptions and models), problem solving and applications.
Full module specification
| Module title: | Behavioural Insights for Business and Management |
|---|---|
| Module code: | BEE3064 |
| Module level: | 3 |
| Academic year: | 2020/1 |
| Module lecturers: |
|
| Module credit: | 15 |
| ECTS value: | 7.5 |
| Pre-requisites: | BEE2038 or BEE2024 |
| Co-requisites: | non-requisite BEE2025 |
| Duration of module: |
Duration (weeks) - term 1: 11 |
Module aims
The module aims to develop understanding of behavioural models and the ability to apply those theories to real decision making scenarios. The aim of this module is to enable the students to examine economic theory from a behavioural perspective, gain insights and hopefully apply to various decision making contexts. Quantitative skills will be developed through a series of problem sets. Critical thinking and communication skills will be developed in tutorials through group work and student presentations
ILO: Module-specific skills
- 1. explain and analyse the most important contributions of behavioural economics
- 2. apply the insights from the behavioural economics to critically analysing and understanding many economic behaviours in firms, organizations, and markets
- 3. understand projects reports and journal articles that used the concepts and methods introduced in the module
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
- 4. apply economic theory in case studies
- 5. evaluate the insights alternative theoretical models offer in case studies
ILO: Personal and key skills
- 6. demonstrate problem solving skills
- 7. demonstrate critical thinking and communication skills
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | 126 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 20 | Lectures |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 4 | Tutorials |
| Guided independant study | 126 | Reading, researching, preparation for lectures and tutorials, preparation for exam |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem sets | Bi-weekly | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 | Verbal |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 90 | 10 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participation | 10 | In-class questions every week during lecture time | 1-7 | Written |
| Mid-Term Exam | 30 | 60 mins | 1-7 | Written |
| January Exam | 60 | 90 mins | 1,2,4-7 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Participation, Mid-term exam and January exam | Exam, 2 hours | 1-7 | August/September Reassessment Period |
Re-assessment notes
Syllabus plan
Selected topics in behavioural economics will be covered. For each topic, we begin with the standard model of rational decision making, and discuss what types of behaviours this model can explain. We then move on to examine evidence from experiments and conclude with alternatives models that are proposed to account for the behavioural “anomalies”. The topics that we may cover (but not limited to) are as follows:
- Decisions under risk and uncertainty
- Temptation and self-control
- Social preferences: fairness and reciprocity
- Bounded rationality
- Social norms and social approval
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Main Textbook:
Angner, Eric. (2016). A Course in Behavioral Economics (2nd edition). Macmillan International Higher Education.
Other Recommended Reading:
Thaler, Richard and Sunstein, Cass R.. (2009). Nudge. Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, Penguin Books
Thaler, Richard. 1992. The Winner’s Curse. Paradoxes and Anomalies of Everyday Life. A Russell Sage Foundation Book. The Free Press, NY.
Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Other readings materials including journal articles: please refer to ELE module page.
Module has an active ELE page?
Yes
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
FT.com
Origin date
09/03/2018
Last revision date
28/02/2020