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2025/2026  BA-BHAAA2504U  Entrepreneurship in Challenging Environments: Lessons from Ukraine

English Title
Entrepreneurship in Challenging Environments: Lessons from Ukraine

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 3 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration Summer
Start time of the course Summer
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Min. participants 30
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for General Management
Programme Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Martin Jes Iversen
    Vera Rocha - Department of Strategy and Innovation (SI)
For academic questions please contact Martin Jes Iversen (mji.si@cbs.dk) and Vera Rocha (vr.si@cbs.dk).
Main academic disciplines
  • Entrepreneurship
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 20/11/2025

Relevant links
Learning objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Understand entrepreneurial foundations: Explain the conceptual underpinnings of entrepreneurship and their relevance in challenging business contexts.
  • Apply theory to practice: Analyse real entrepreneurship cases within challenging business contexts (e.g., Ukraine) using the theoretical tools and frameworks provided in the course.
  • Evaluate opportunities: Critically assess business opportunities in challenging business settings, identifying effective practices and avoiding common pitfalls.
  • Synthetize diverse insights: Integrate theoretical foundations, research findings, guest speaker perspectives, and case-based evidence when navigating crises, assessing or developing business opportunities.
  • Adopt multiple perspectives: Develop the ability to consider and integrate different perspectives, by thinking like founders, investors, and customers when making entrepreneurial decisions.
Examination
Entrepreneurship in Challenging Environments: Lessons from Ukraine:
Exam ECTS 3
Examination form Active participation

The completion of this course is based on active student participation in class. The course will be considered as passed if the students participation - based on an overall assessment - in the class activities fulfill the learning objectives of the course. The individual student’s participation is assessed by the teacher.
The student must participate in A combination of assignment and presentation
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Grading scale Pass / Fail
Examiner(s) Assessed solely by the teacher
Exam period Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam 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.
Size of written product: Max. 5 pages
Assignment type: Essay
Duration: 20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Examiner(s): If it is an internal examination, there will be a second internal examiner at the re-exam. If it is an external examination, there will be an external examiner.
Description of activities
A combination of assignment and presentation: The student must participate in minimum 80% of the scheduled teaching.

The course combines lectures, case discussions, and guest speaker sessions. Lectures provide the conceptual foundations and global perspectives on entrepreneurship in Ukraine. Case studies illustrate how entrepreneurs – and female entrepreneurs in particular – can confront and resolve challenges in the startup journey when based in a challenging business context (e.g., a country in crisis). Guest speakers share their lived experiences and highlight diverse paths to entrepreneurial success. Together, these elements encourage students to actively engage with entrepreneurial dilemmas and build critical problem-solving skills.
The pedagogical approach emphasizes active participation, critical thinking, and experiential learning.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The course covers the multiple elements of the entrepreneurial process – the backgrounds and motivations of founders, team formation and early hiring, idea generation and implementation, financing challenges, and paths to scaling. The different sessions will provide additional nuances that are relevant to female founders and other groups of entrepreneurs that may still be underrepresented in entrepreneurship. In particular, the content of the course will be organized around the following four core topics:

  

Key topics:

  • The people behind the business: when and how to take the leap into an entrepreneurial career; the role of role models; forming founding teams; hiring in a resource-constrained environment.
  • Taking the idea to market: business model design, hypothesis testing, and principles of entrepreneurial strategy.
  • Funding an entrepreneurial idea: entrepreneurial finance basics, gender gaps in funding, alternative funding models, and negotiation tools.
  • Scaling a startup: growth strategies, critical success factors, and exit options.

 

By integrating theory with real-world examples, students will gain an academically rigorous yet practical understanding of entrepreneurship in a challenging context. The course is designed to help participants assess the viability and value-creation potential of new ventures and also equip them with tools to explore and advance their own business opportunities in these particular settings.
Research-based teaching
CBS’ programmes and teaching are research-based. The following types of research-based knowledge and research-like activities are included in this course:
Research-based knowledge
  • Classic and basic theory
  • New theory
  • Teacher’s own research
Research-like activities
  • Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
  • Peer review including Peer-to-peer
  • Activities that contribute to new or existing research projects
Description of the teaching methods
The pedagogical approach is based on a mix of the following activities:

• Lectures covering the key theoretical frameworks and discussing relevant research on the four main topics included in the course.
• Case discussions and critical reflections on case material and research findings, encouraging students to connect theory with practice and to articulate their own perspectives on entrepreneurial dilemmas.
• Insights from and dialogues with guests, offering first-hand perspectives on diverse entrepreneurial journeys.
Feedback during the teaching period
Students will receive feedback on their presentation ideas both from the teacher instructor(s) and from peers, during the course practice presentations.
Student workload
Teaching 18 hours
Preparation and Readings 66 hours
Further Information

This is an intensive 2-week course that cannot be combined with any other course
Expected literature
  • Gans, J., E. Scott, and S. Stern (2018), “Strategy for start-ups” Harvard Business Review, May-June 2018
  • Lazar, M., Miron-Spektor, E., Agarwal, R., Erez, M., Goldfarb, B., & Chen, G. (2020). Entrepreneurial team formation. The Academy of Management Annals, 14(1), 29–59.  https:/​/​doi.org/​10.5465/​annals.2017.0131
  • Wasserman, N. 2012. The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
  • HBSP Course pack: students will be able to acquire the relevant cases from the Harvard Business School site through the link shared on Canvas, at the beginning of the course.
Last updated on 20/11/2025