Aggiornato A.A. 2015-2016
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
A.Y. 2015-16
MODULE – ENTREPRENEURSHIP
TEACHING MEMBER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MODULE:
Dermot Breslin Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship
Office: Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield, S10 1FL, UK
Office Hours: at Tor Vergata Campus between 11-15 April, & 25-27 May 2016
Office Phone: +44(0)1142223386
Mail: d.breslin@sheffield.ac.uk
CO-TEACHER :
Vittorio de Pedys Affiliate Professor of Finance, ESCP Europe
Contact : +39 335 5789566
Mail: vdepedys@yahoo.it , vdepedys@escpeurope.eu, vdepedys@unito.it, de.pedys@economia.uniroma2.it
OVERVIEW
The role of entrepreneurship in an economic unit has been well documented and is of interest not only to business people and politicians but also to students – the future entrepreneurs. Creating and growing a new venture inside or outside the corporation is a task that few individuals are able to accomplish, even though many profess the desire. This course is based on an understanding of strategic areas of business and applies the tools and analytical techniques of these areas to the new venture creation process in a domestic and international setting. The entrepreneurship module has been so designed that participants in the program will be well prepared to pursue careers as owner/managers. It also offers a generic examination of the general principles of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity. Adopting this unit does not confine the participants to the confines of small business and its related activities. It supports the full development of entrepreneurial skills and sensitivities for use in existing organizations, to facilitate the management of change and/or the achievement or organizational goals.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of this module, assuming that attendance, participation and completion of the assessment has been undertaken, the student should be able to:
- Understand what an entrepreneur is, what the benefits are, the risks, and the responsibilities.
- Understand what a good opportunity is and what kinds of opportunity sources there are.
- Understand how opportunities are discovered, and how the creative process can be enhanced.
- Understand the mechanics of entrepreneurial process, and key aspects entrepreneurial behavior.
- Understand the difficulties associated with small business start-up and survival.
- Understand key organizational challenges faced by small firms as they grow.
- Understand how all organizations can learn to evolve and behave more entrepreneurially.
SYLLABUS
The key topics taught in the module are the following:
• Introduction to Entrepreneurship
• Emerging Ideas
• Being More Creative
• Business Survival
• The Start-up Process Surviving the Start-up Process
• Growing the Business
• Corporate Entrepreneurship
• Business Planning
• Venture Capital Funding
• Learning to Evolve
TEACHING METHODS
The module will use a variety of teaching and learning methods to enhance learning and understanding including lectures, workshops and seminars, and it will place emphasis on developing critical skills of analysis, strategic choice and implementation through the use of workshops and case studies. Methods will include critical reading and thinking; engagement with new business ideas/opportunities from filmed case studies and presentations/pitches; conceptual development of models and theories of entrepreneurial practice; peer interaction; secondary data research and analysis; tutorial support and guidance.
Students will be expected to demonstrate independent study skills and personal initiative in workshops and seminars, which are provided as a forum for discussion. As such, there is a strong emphasis on dialogue and interaction between tutor and students with the sharing of ideas and experiences. These seminars will draw heavily from the students’ own experience and knowledge of organizations and business in general, and as a result the success of the seminars is very much dependent on the student’s willingness to participate. In preparing for seminars students should ensure that, in addressing the questions/areas identified for debate, consideration is given to:
• The use of relevant conceptual analysis in addressing the core issues of tasks/questions/case studies;
• Demonstration of understanding of the relevant essential reading material (to follow) and, where relevant, highlighting of alternative perspectives on the issues involved in the discussion;
• Encouraging involvement in discussion by the rest of your seminar group.
TEACHING EVALUATIONS
As far as every academic year is concerned, the students’ satisfaction about the courses taught at the University of Rome Tor Vergata is officially collected through on-line anonymous questionnaires.
REFERENCES
Breslin, D. (2008). The Nascent Small Business: An Evolutionary Approach. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 9(3), 177-186.
Breslin, D. (2009). Breaking the Mould: A Study of Donegal China. In Stokes, D., Wilson, N. & Mador, M. (Eds), In Search of Entrepreneurship, 2nd Edition, Thomson Publishing, pp. 374-376.
Breslin, D. (2010). Broadening the Management Team: An Evolutionary Approach. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 16(2), 130-148.
Breslin, D. (2011a). Evolution and Entrepreneurship. In Mole, K and Ram, M. (Eds), Perspectives in Entrepreneurship: A Course Text, Palgrave, London, pp. 107-119.
Breslin, D. (2011b). The Evolving Organizational Routine. In Belussi, F. and Staber, U. (Eds), Managing Networks of Creativity, Routledge, London, pp. 46-62.
Breslin, D. and Jones, C. (2014). Developing an Evolutionary/Ecological Approach to Enterprise Teaching. International Journal of Management Education.
Breslin, D. (2014). Opportunity Discovery through the Routine. 37th Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference, November, Manchester, UK
Breslin, D. (2015). Learning to Evolve: Developing a practice-based evolutionary language of entrepreneurial learning. In Rae, D. and Wang, C. (Eds.) Entrepreneurial Learning: The Development of New Perspectives in Research, Education and Practice, Routledge, London.
Breslin, D., and Wood, G. (2016) Rule breaking in Social Care: the Case of a Small British Provider. Work, Employment & Society
Breslin, D. (2016a). Enhancing and Managing Group Creativity through Off-Task Breaks. 6th International Symposium of Engineering Education 14 - 15 July 2016, Sheffield, UK
Breslin, D. (2016b). Small Firm Growth, Group Selection and the Struggle of Competing Identities. 16th EURAM Conference, June, Paris, France
Hamermmesh, R., Heskett, J., and Roberts, M. (2005) A note on managing the growing venture. HBS note no. 9-805-092
Hellman, T. (2006). A note on valuation of venture capital deals. Stanford Graduate School of Business, case E-95, rev. 20
Mauborgne, K. (2004). Blue ocean strategy. Harvard Bus Review
Roberts, M., and Barley, L. (2004). How venture capitalists evaluate potential venture opportunities. HBS note no. 9-805-019
SLIDES
Additional slides from the weekly presentations will be added on the website to support the students’ study.
ANALYTICAL SYLLABUS
PART I: (Lecturer: Dermot Breslin): Learning to Evolve and Behaving Entrepreneurially
Lesson 1: (11th April): Introduction to Entrepreneurship - (Breslin, 2011a)
Lesson 2: (12th April): Emerging Ideas: The case of Donegal China - (Breslin, 2009; Breslin & Jones, 2014)
Lesson 3: (13th April): Being More Creative: including in-class creativity workshops - (Breslin, 2014; Breslin, 2016a)
Lesson 4: (14th April): Business Survival - (Breslin, 2008; Breslin 2015; Breslin and Wood, 2016)
Lesson 5: (15th April): Business Growth & Corporate Entrepreneurship - (Breslin, 2010, Breslin, 2011b)
PART II: (Lecturer Vittorio De Pedys): Planning for Growth
Lesson 6: (28th April): Opportunity templates and Business plans - (“R & R” HBS case 9-386-019)
Lesson 7: (29th April): Managing the Growing Venture - (“Dr. John’s product ltd”, HBS case 9-803-063)
Managing risk/reward in new ventures and innovation - (Kim,M auborgne “Blue ocean strategy” Harvard Bus Rev , oct 2004)
Lesson 8: (5th May): How Venture Capital Evaluates New Ventures - (“Neverfail computing” , Babson case Bab069)
PART III: (Lecturer Dermot Breslin): Assessment
Assessment Session 1: (26th May) In-Class Group Presentations
Assessment Session 2: (27st May) Pre-Exam
ASSESSMENT
The assessment for this module will consist of two parts as outlined below:
Group Presentation (35% of total marks): In groups of between 3-4 students will analyse the MotionTechnics case study and present answers to the questions set below. Groups will be formed in the first session on Monday 11th April. Students will work independently in groups on this activity over the duration of the module from April to May. Students will then present their analysis of the case study in a 30 minute presentation to the class (followed by up to 20 minutes Q&A), during the pre-exam session on 26th May 2016. Students are expected to also provide a 2 page executive summary of their key findings.
Examining the case of MotionTechnics (Breslin, 2016) please answer the following questions:
1. Describe the entrepreneurial process which allowed MotionTechnics to explore different market opportunities between 2008 and 2011?
2. What growth-related factors can explain the operational problems MotionTechnics experienced in 2011?
3. How did the growth of MotionTechnics since 2012 constrain its ability to adapt and pursue different market opportunities?
In answering these questions, students should draw on relevant theories taken from the module, to support and justify the arguments they present.
Final Written Exam (65% of total marks): In the exam students will answer four questions on topics covered in this module. Excellent answers are those which represent an appropriate mix between theory and practice (i.e. business examples). Theoretical connections among the different topics are also very welcome. The pre-exam will take place on 27th May 2016.
Prof.ssa Lucia Leonelli
