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2025/2026  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 Quarter
Start time of the course Autumn, Second Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for Governance, Law, Accounting & Management Analytics
Programme Master of Science (MSc) in Economics and Business Administration - General Management and Analytics (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 14-05-2025

Relevant links
Learning objectives
  • Identify and explain core elements of market and product development in an entrepreneurial context
  • Create and analyse customer feedback
  • Ability to apply innovation diffusion models and critically reflect on their limitations
  • Critically reflect on design-driven innovation processes
  • Ability to create and evaluate a minimum viable product (MVP)
  • Explain and discuss business model development, incl. revenue models
  • Create prototypes of physical products and discuss their role in the entrepreneurial process
  • Effective communication of a core value proposition (CVP) through pitches
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

Students will receive a short case study of a nascent product or service idea, and will need to answer 3-4 questions on how entrepreneurs can develop a market for this product/service. Students will need to reflect theoretically, by drawing on the syllabus, on the various steps and decisions in the entrepreneurial journey to a marketable minimum viable product.    
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 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 the theoretical knowledge needed to generate, implement, reinvent, and diffuse new products. 

This course will focus on delivering theoretical knowledge, experiential understanding, and practical skills of how firms and entrepreneurs develop a market for new products. We will thus take students through the market development process in four phases:

 

1) Ideation andDevelopment: 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, marketing, entrepreneurship, product development, and business model development. 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 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 side of business (i.e. which products and solutions to bring to market, and how, addressing questions related to pricing, channeling, communicating, etc.). The course is thus designed to build a transition to the more process-oriented course on Market-Informed Decisions.
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
  • Methodology
Research-like activities
  • Development of research questions
  • Data collection
  • Analysis
  • Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
  • Peer review including Peer-to-peer
  • Activities that contribute to new or existing research projects
  • Students conduct independent research-like activities under supervision
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. Each session will consist of a combination of lectures and exercises, including both individual and group work.
Feedback during the teaching period
Teacher and group feedback on presentations and product ideas (pitches).
Workshop-based discussions in class in each week.
Student workload
Teaching 30 hours
Preparation 160 hours
Exam 16 hours
In total 206 hours
Expected literature

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

 

The main textbook will be Heidi Neck et al., Entrepreneurship: The Practice and the Mindset. Third Edition, 2023. 

 

Supporting literature will be: 

 

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

 

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.

 

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 14-05-2025