• Identify a relevant entrepreneurial problem in your company’s start-up process during the Startup Internship at CSE
• Mobilize relevant research literature that addresses the entrepreneurial problem and identify one or several shortcomings of the literature
• Develop a coherent research question that addresses these shortcomings of the academic literature
• Choose and adapt relevant methods for collecting and analyzing data during the Startup Internship at CSE
• Consider and discuss the implications of your study for the research literature and for addressing your entrepreneurial problem

‘The Startup Internship at CSE’ provides students with the opportunity to collect hands-on experiences in developing their own or another CSE startup while developing a research paper that tackles an entrepreneurial problem. ‘The Startup Internship at CSE’ offers students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience of developing an entrepreneurial venture. The main objective of the internship is to link business theory with entrepreneurial practice. The program has high demands both on the practical side of developing a startup or business idea within the entrepreneurial ecosystem at CSE AND on the academic side of crafting a qualified piece of academic research based on students’ entrepreneurial experiences.

The Internship Process

The internship process focuses on developing students’ entrepreneurial knowledge and equips them for resolving humanity’s challenges of today and tomorrow through building their own entrepreneurial venture. Therefore, it is required that students participate in 6-8 mandatory activities each semester that may include the following:

kick off and concluding events to plan, goal set, meet entrepreneurial peers and reflect; business development sessions (combination of teaching, workshop and peer-peer learning format), individual feedback from CSE staff; access to CSE startup workshops within customer, user & business validation, business model innovation, pitch & presentation practice among other workshops to build & apply one’s entrepreneurial competence, office space and what we offer as CSE workplace provider. If students fail to participate in all mandatory sessions, they cannot complete the ‘Startup Internship at CSE’.

The Supervision Process:

Students must find an academic supervisor within the first week of ‘the Startup Internship at CSE’. The CBS supervisor must be an academic faculty employed at CBS within the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship or with expertise knowledge within the startup’s business field. Individual students are eligible for four hours of supervision, and teams are eligible for five hours. During the first six weeks of ‘the Startup Internship at CSE’ students should reach an agreement with your CBS academic supervisor on a topic and a research question that is linked to their business problem and falls within the subject area of students’ study program. The academic supervisors are responsible for guidance on the research paper, which students will hand in at the end of the project. Their role is similar to a bachelor/master thesis supervisor in that they provide input and feedback on questions about academic literature, research question, methodology, and discussion of findings. They will not help you with developing students’ business. Teaching formats are individual or group sessions where the supervisor gives guidance or feedback on the students’ research paper. 

Bridging your Internship Experience with writing your Research Paper

CBS faculty associated to CSE will provide the students with input on how to close the gap between their practical internship experience and writing a research paper. There will be several sessions that – on a general level – cover topics such as identifying a business problem, formulating a research question, finding academic literature, collecting and analyzing data. It is important to stress that this input is specifically adjusted to the types of entrepreneurial experiences students have during their internship program. However, it is not specific in relation to each students’ individual project for which guidance will be provided by the academic supervisor.