Enterprise development in entrepreneurial environments
Module Summary
The aim of this theory-led, practically orientated module is to enhance learners’ conceptual and practical understanding of:
– The role of the entrepreneur in start-up processes.
– Practical ways of recognizing, assessing and articulating start-up opportunities.
– Methods for designing business models, products and validating market potential.
– Options for scaling up a start-up.
Module Outline
Level 7
University Credits 20
ECTS Credits 10
Module description
The module provides a theory- and practice-based understanding of entrepreneurial start-up motivations and processes. This has the practical benefit of allowing learners to assess the desirability and feasibility of starting up a business as a career option. The aim, therefore, is that learners emerge from the module with a solid academic and practical understanding of how start-up entrepreneurs go about creating, delivering and capturing value for their customers. They will also learn experientially through processes of brainstorming, prototyping, and customer engagement.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurs.
- Entrepreneurial Planning.
- Strategic Entrepreneurship.
- Innovation and Growth.
- Entrepreneurial Leadership
- Social Entrepreneurship
Learner experience:
The class is oriented around a group venture creation project in which learners develop a proposal for a viable, scalable new enterprise. The conceptual topics discussed in the class will be applied through the process of working on this assessment. The core idea for this will be shared with the work learners engage with in module – Finance for entrepreneurship, innovation, and enterprise development.
Delivery Period:
- 40% coursework (individual) – assesses Course Learning Outcomes 1, 2
- 60% coursework (group) – assesses Course Learning Outcomes 3, 4, 5Delivery Period: Trimester 1
Learning and Teaching activities
Total Hours: 200 (Lecture Hours 14, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10.5, Module Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 171)
Assessment
Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Feedback
- Formative: Written feedback for individual business plan draft that includes suggestions for how it can be improved for final submission.
- Summative: Summative feedback will be provided on all assessment.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, the learner will be able to:
- Understand and critically evaluate the linkages between entrepreneurship and enterprise creation, development, and growth, including the motivations which entrepreneurs have for creating new enterprises.
- Critically discuss alternative approaches and business models for the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities.
- Analyse different business situations where entrepreneurial opportunities are present or possible, taking into consideration the resources required to pursue an opportunity.
- Understand and evaluate critically the key elements and purpose of a business plan.
- Work with others to develop a business plan for a viable business concept which can guide the start-up of an enterprise process.
Reading List
- Davidsson, P., & Gruenhagen, J. H. (2021). Fulfilling the process promise: A review and agenda for new venture creation process research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 45(5), 1083-1118.
- Greene, F. J. (2020). Entrepreneurship theory and practice. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Johnson, M. P., & Schaltegger, S. (2020). Entrepreneurship for sustainable development: A review and multilevel causal mechanism framework. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 44(6), 1141-1173.
- Kimjeon, J., & Davidsson, P. (2022). External enablers of entrepreneurship: A review and agenda for accumulation of strategically actionable knowledge. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(3), 643-687.
- McMullen, J. S., Brownell, K. M., & Adams, J. (2021). What makes an entrepreneurship study entrepreneurial? Toward a unified theory of entrepreneurial agency. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 45(5), 1197-1238.
- Nielsen, S. L., Klyver, K., Evald, M. R., & Bager, T. (2021). Entrepreneurship in theory and practice: Paradoxes in Play. Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Thompson, N. A., Verduijn, K., & Gartner, W. B. (2020). Entrepreneurship-as-practice: Grounding contemporary theories of practice into entrepreneurship studies. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 32(3-4), 247-256.
- Wurth, B., Stam, E., & Spigel, B. (2022). Toward an entrepreneurial ecosystem research program. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(3), 729-778.
