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2023/2024  KAN-CGMAO1004U  Market Development

English Title
Market Development

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for cand.merc. and GMA (GMA)
Course coordinator
  • Stefan Schwarzkopf - Department of Business Humanities and Law (BHL)
Main academic disciplines
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Innovation
  • Marketing
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 20-06-2023

Relevant links
Learning objectives
  • Identify and explain core elements of market, product and service development in an entrepreneurial context
  • Create and analyse market feedback
  • Ability to apply innovation diffusion models and critically reflect on their limitations
  • Critically reflect on their own group-based design-driven innovation process
  • Ability to create and evaluate a minimum viable product (MVP)
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Compulsory home assignments
The student must get 1 out of 2 activities approved in order to attend the ordinary exam.

The compulsory activities are a group presentation and an individual written reflection. The student must either get 1 group presentation (with slide deck) or 1 individual reflection assignment approved to attend the ordinary exam. Assessment will be on a pass/fail basis.

Students will not have extra opportunities to get the required number of compulsory activities approved prior to the regular exam. If a student has not received approval for the required number of compulsory activities or has been ill, the student cannot participate in the ordinary exam.

If a student, prior to the retake, is still missing approval for the required number of compulsory activities and meets the pre-conditions set out in the program regulations, an extra assignment is possible.
The extra assignment is a 10-page home assignment covering the required number of compulsory activities. If approved, the student will be able to attend the retake.
Examination
Market Development:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Written assignment
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration 48 hours to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

In their report, students will be asked to reflect theoretically, by drawing on the syllabus, on specific issues that emerged in their group work.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Both start-up entrepreneurs and managers in large companies often need to develop a market for their new products and services from scratch. They are facing a long journey from idea development to implementation (i.e. strategic market planning), prototyping and finally diffusion. This course aims to teach students the skills and theoretical knowledge needed to generate, implement, reinvent, and diffuse new product and service solutions. 

This course will focus on delivering theoretical knowledge, experiential understanding, and practical skills of how of firms and entrepreneurs develop a market for new products and services. We will take our starting point in the idea of design-driven innovation and take students through the innovation process in four phases:

1) Development: developing new ideas and learning to prioritize and choose between them

2) Implementation: strategic market planning for implementing the new idea in a given setting, by identifying possible drivers and barriers to the new idea

3) Prototyping: developing, reinventing and prototyping the idea by formulating a strategic plan for testing the new idea while taking feedback from the market into consideration

4) Diffusion: diffusing the idea by creating traction in a target market (go-to-market).

In that process, students will engage with theories and practices related to innovation, entrepreneurship, product development, business model development, and business- and marketing strategy. Students will learn how to generate, implement, reinvent, and diffuse new solutions. Working in small teams throughout the course, students will learn how to create and analyse feedback that can be used to create a fit between product/service and market. Students will address these problems both theoretically and practically through design driven innovation (Verganti) and effectuation theory (Sarasvathy). The course introduces students to the market-oriented sideof business (i.e. which products, services, and solutions to bring to market, and how, addressing questions related to pricing, channeling, communicating, etc.). The course is designed to build a transition to the more process-oriented course on ‘Market-Informed Decisions’.
Description of the teaching methods
The course is created to be an experience space. Based on Blended Learning principles, the course will provide a transformative learning environment wherein students actively discuss and experiment with theoretical approaches, business models and entrepreneurial tools, and pitch ideas and solutions to each other. In the first session, we will form student groups that will remain stable throughout the course, and will form the basis of a group project. At the beginning of the course, we will use a simulation-based ‘live case’ to set a challenge for all groups, who will then work on this challenge throughout the course. In the final week, all groups will present their solution to the rest of the class.
Feedback during the teaching period
Teacher and group feedback on presentations and product ideas (pitches).
Workshop-based discussions in class.
Student workload
Teaching 40 hours
Preparation 150 hours
Exam 16 hours
Expected literature

A list of relevant literature will be provided in class. Below please find an indicative literature:

Bogers, M., & Horst, W. (2013). Collaborative prototyping: cross-fertilization of knowledge in prototype-driven problem solving. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(4), 744–764.

Corsín Jiménez, A. (2014). Introduction: The prototype: more than many and less than one. Routledge. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1080/​17530350.2013.858059.

Goffin and Mitchel (2010), Chapter 1: ’Understanding Innovation and Innovation Management’, in: Innovation Management (pp.1-40).

Goffin, K., Varnes, C., van der Hoven, C., & Koners, U. (2012). Beyond the Voice of the Customer. Research Technology Management, July-Aug, 1–9.

Green, W., R. Cluley & M. Gasparin (2020), ‘Mobile market research applications as a new voice of customer method’, Research-Technology Management, 63:1, 49-55.

Kahn, K. (ed), The PDMA Handbook of Product Development, 3rd ed. 2013.

Kim, W C and Mauborgne, R. (2015), Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space. Harvard Business Press: Boston, MA.

Olsen, D. The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback. Wiley 2015.

Sarasvathy, S. D. (2009), Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham.

Schwarzkopf, S. (2019). The Social Embeddedness of Marketing. In: F. Wherry and I. Woodward (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Consumption. Oxford University Press, pp. 27-50

Searle, N. and G. White, ‘Business Models’, in Handbook of the Digital Creative Economy. 2013, pp. 45-56. 

Verganti, R. (2009). Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean. Harvard Business Press: Boston, MA.
Last updated on 20-06-2023