The Exeter MBA

Our 2025 elective in Behavioural Economics has now wrapped! 🎓💡

We explored why people don’t always act rationally—even with the right incentives. From impulsive choices to social influences, we unpacked how biases shape decisions in business, policy, and everyday life.

The goal of this elective is to help our students become better managers, decision-makers, or better at pursuing their life goals. Well done to all our participating students, who have learned more on how to drive better choices for business, health, and the planet! 🌍💸💚

Last week, our Exeter MBAs completed their final elective module — an inspiring exploration of Strategic Brand Management led by our Programme Director, Professor Donald Lancaster. 👨‍🏫💼

Over five insightful days, students honed the skills to build, position, and refresh brands, which are essential capabilities for any business aiming to thrive in today’s dynamic market. Students explored in depth around brand management practices, the brand at retail, brands in the digital world and brand strategy. 💡🤝

The week hosted a variety of guest speakers, ranging from insights surrounding sustainability, brand authenticity, brand assets and branding in the digital world. A huge thanks to Michael Beverland, Pierre McDonagh, Julie Atherton and Stephen Drummond for sharing your wisdom with our cohort. 🧠🎤

The elective closed out with an IKEA Brand Challenge with James Lancaster. Our Exeter MBA's took on the role of brand managers in this exciting simulation, where they were tasked in making real-time brand strategy decisions related to IKEA's “Complete Sleep” range. 💤

With this final elective now complete, we hope our MBAs will carry forward IKEA’s mission — “to create a better everyday life for the many people” — as they go on to lead 🌟, inspire 💬, and make meaningful impact in the world 🌍.