Content and structure

Program Content

The M.Sc. in Value Chain Management & Business Ecosystems (VCM&BE) focuses on networks of companies engaged in joint activities to create value for end customers at downstream stages of the value chain. Various activities take place within individual companies and in transactions between companies, contributing to value creation and forming the core of the program. These activities are primarily:

  • Strategy and Business Model Management
  • Procurement or Purchasing
  • Innovation
  • Production and Logistics
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Marketing & Sales
  • Business Informatics / Technology Management

The program also addresses the transformation of industrial markets through currently relevant megatrends.

In addition to numerous courses on digital transformation, the curriculum includes courses that deal with the challenges of sustainable value creation management and the increasing 'servitization' of industrial value creation. Students are introduced to a wide range of theories and frameworks (e.g., resource-based view and capability-based view, transaction cost framework, actors-activities-resources framework, relational contracting theory, service-dominant logic), which reflect the diversity of research that has developed around value chains and business ecosystems.

Structure

The M.Sc. in Value Chain Management & Business Ecosystems includes mandatory and elective modules. These modules are grouped into the following categories:

  • Processes (24 ECTS credits):

The individual courses aim to enable students to design, plan, control, and monitor value creation processes, value creation process chains, and entire value creation networks in a targeted manner.

  • Technologies (24 ECTS credits):

To plan, control, and monitor value creation processes and ensure their efficient execution, appropriate (information) technologies must be used. Students are taught practical application skills, particularly from business informatics.

  • People (24 ECTS credits):

The focus is on people as decision-makers, planners, buyers, negotiators, sellers, innovators, designers, employees, or supervisors.

  • Research (18 ECTS credits)

This module groups offers several research seminars from which you can choose. They allow improving your knowledge of research methodology and extending your capabilities to conduct research projects of your own.

  • Master's Thesis (30 ECTS credits)

Students are responsible for selecting their modules to achieve the total of 120 ECTS credits required for the master's degree. In the module groups Processes, Technologies, and People, modules totaling 24 ECTS credits each must be completed, with 18 ECTS credits from elective offerings within these module groups. The study of elective subjects aims to provide comprehensive, in-depth knowledge and methodological skills in a specialized area of business administration.