| Learning objectives |
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the
following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or
errors:
- Be able to identify the various elements of an entrepreneurial
strategy and address how these are linked.
- Have the ability to account for how to identify the right
customers and form a formal strategy for addressing such
customers.
- Be able to assess various technologies as the appropriate ones
for a given opportunity and make a coherent choice as to the
identified customers.
- Explain what a startup identity is and how the entrepreneurs
should proceed in creating a sensible identify for the firm.
- Describe various forms of leadership for small teams and
account for the dis(advantages) of each of these forms of
leaderships.
- Make comparative judgments across entrepreneurial strategies
and assess their relative strengths and
weaknesses.
|
| Course prerequisites |
The course is offered to bachelor students in the
5th semester as an elective
regardless of study line. It can be chosen as a stand-alone
elective or as part of
the three courses Minor in Entrepreneurship consisting of
Entrepreneurial
Finance, Entrepreneurial Strategy and Business Planning and
Business Models.
The course builds on the principles of strategy adapted to the
entrepreneurial
setting. It is complementary to the other courses in the
minor. |
| Examination |
|
Entrepreneurial Strategy:
|
| Exam
ECTS |
7,5 |
| Examination form |
Oral exam based on written product
In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product
must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The
grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and
the individual oral performance. |
| Individual or group exam |
Individual oral exam based on written group
product |
| Number of people in the group |
2-5 |
| Size of written product |
Max. 20 pages |
|
Individual: max 10 pages
Group with 2-3 members: 15 pages
Group with 4-5 members: 20 pages |
| Assignment type |
Case based assignment |
| Duration |
Written product to be submitted on specified date and
time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade,
and informing plus explaining the grade |
| Grading scale |
7-step scale |
| Examiner(s) |
Internal examiner and second internal
examiner |
| Exam period |
Winter |
| Make-up exam/re-exam |
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If a student participated in writing
the group essay, but was sick at the time of the oral examination,
the re-examination will be based on a resubmission of the original
group essay.
If a student participated in writing the group essay, but did not
pass the oral examination, the student can choose either to
resubmit the original group essay or to write a new, individual
essay within a specified time period.
|
Description of the exam
procedure
Oral exam based on written product and a randomly drawn
theoretical question from the taught syllabus.
The report should consist of a theoretical part applied to
the case, which the group will be
investigating throughout the minor. The subject of the
hand-in will be announced at the end of the course. Groups are
given a week to work on the
hand-in.
|
|
| Course content and structure |
|
Course Description:
Entrepreneurs face a number of choices from the very beginning of
their new
business endeavors. Making these choices in the blind may lead to
inefficiencies
and incoherent behavior even within a relatively narrow scope of
activities
which can have major implications for the startups overall
performance.
Determining and understanding the decision landscape as well as
making
coherent and consistent choices is at the very heart of starting
and running a
business. As a potential investor in a given start-up, it is also
of the outmost
importance to assess whether the newly established firm is pursuing
a strategy
that is sensible and coherent with the determined goals. Like
established firms,
startups benefit greatly from forming a strategy. But the
strategizing for small
firms differs somewhat from that of the more established ones.
This course provides an actionable framework for aspiring and
already active
entrepreneurs, which can help them make better and the right
coherent choices
with regard to establishing and growing their business.
Course Contents:
The course starts by addressing why entrepreneurs really need a
strategy and
identifying the dimensions of an entrepreneurial strategy.
The course will highlight four dimensions, which should be
addressed in an
entrepreneurial strategy: 1) identifying the right customers, 2)
choosing the
appropriate technology, 3) choosing an identity, and 4) forming the
entrepreneurial strategy. Furthermore, the course includes a
section which
discusses how entrepreneurial firms can be lead in various ways and
how
various forms of leadership in small teams may produce different
(dis)advantages.
|
| Teaching methods |
Teaching methods:
The pedagogical method is a combination of lectures, cases, and an
individual
homework assignment. A satisfactory high outcome of the exercises
requires an
active participation with basis in the literature and the lectures.
The homework
assignment is an integrated part of the learning process and not
only a part of
the exam. |
| Feedback during the teaching period |
| Office hours for feedback |
| Student workload |
| Lectures and exercises: |
166 hours |
| Exam: |
40 hours |
|
| Expected literature |
|
Expected Literature:
• Entrepreneurial Strategy by Joshua Gans and Scott Stern,
Forthcoming
• Gans, J. S., & Stern, S. (2003). The product market and the
market for
“ideas”: commercialization strategies for technology entrepreneurs.
Research policy, 32(2), 333-350.
• “Foundations of Entrepreneurial Strategy,”(forthcoming), J. Gans
, S.
Stern, and J. Wu
|
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