EN
IT
Updated A.Y. 2019-2020
A.Y. 2019-2020
Module – Entrepreneurship
Responsible for the Module
Dr. Massimiliano Pellegrini
Qualified Associate Professor of Organizational studies and Entrepreneurship
Office : Room 3C-3, 3rd floor Building B
Mail: massimiliano.pellegrini@uniroma2.it
Overview
This course aims at offering a comprehensive view over entrepreneurship, understanding of its strategic areas and how they translate into businesses, and applies tools and analytical techniques for development a new venture creation process or to act entrepreneurially. 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 an organizational corporation is a task that few individuals are able to accomplish, even though many profess the desire. The entrepreneurship module has been designed so students will be well-prepared to pursue careers as owner/managers, foundation of new venture or to develop entrepreneurial skills useful in existing organizations, to facilitate organizational changes and innovation. To do so, from a theoretical perspective, the course offers a general examination of fondant principles of entrepreneurship and of entrepreneurial activities/processes. In a practical sense, instead, the course supports a full development of entrepreneurial skills, mindsets and attitudes, and strategic thinking.
Learning Objectives
This course aims at offering a comprehensive view over entrepreneurship, understanding of its strategic areas and how they translate into businesses, and applies tools and analytical techniques for development a new venture creation process or to act entrepreneurially. 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 an organizational corporation is a task that few individuals are able to accomplish, even though many profess the desire. The entrepreneurship module has been designed so students will be well-prepared to pursue careers as owner/managers, foundation of new venture or to develop entrepreneurial skills useful in existing organizations, to facilitate organizational changes and innovation. To do so, from a theoretical perspective, the course offers a general examination of fondant principles of entrepreneurship and of entrepreneurial activities/processes. In a practical sense, instead, the course supports a full development of entrepreneurial skills, mindsets and attitudes, and strategic thinking.
Upon successful completion of this module, assuming that attendance, participation, and completion of the assessment has been undertaken, the student should be able to:
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
1. Acquire and demonstrate a good understanding of the general concepts related to entrepreneurship. In particular:
1.1 The entrepreneur, his/her characteristics, traits, risks, and responsibilities;
1.2 The entrepreneurial process from spotting the opportunity, surviving the fist years, and growing;
1.3 The business model and plan;
1.4. The financial aspects of an entrepreneurial venture.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE:
2. Being able to apply creative techniques in concrete situation
3. Showing the ability to interpret and elaborate a business plan, its financial forecasts, and a model of business from an idea of business.
MAKING JUDGEMENTS
3. Being able to elaborate autonomous strategies and plans to develop and implement entrepreneurial ideas.
4. Showing relational and entrepreneurial abilities to engage with concrete situations so to spot or create opportunities
COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
5. Presentation skills and pitching ability in reason of the many exercises.
CONTENTS
The key topics taught in the module are the following:
-
The Entrepreneurial Manager
-
Entrepreneurial process and the approach to opportunities
-
Creative techniques
-
The business model
-
the Business Plan
-
Financial projections
-
Financial instruments for start-ups
Teaching methods
The module will use a variety of teaching and learning methods to enhance learning and understanding including lectures, cases, workshops and videos and group work. 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 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 tutors 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 the discussion by the rest of your seminar group.
Attendance
The attendance is not mandatory but the course indicates different assessment modalities in relation to attending and non-attending students (As already mentioned in the exam section). Thus, attendance and continuous participation are strongly recommended. To determine the attending students will be introduced formal rules for the control, such as collection of signatures at the begging of each lecture. A delay of more than 20 minutes, not communicated and/or agreed upon, will be considered as half absence. The threshold to be considered an attending student is set around the 75%.
References
Main textbook
-
Ostewalder A., Pigneur Y. (2010), Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (1st edition), Wiley and Sons.
Other book references
-
Kuratko, Donald F. & Hornsby, Jeffrey S. (2009). New Venture Management: The Entrepreneru’s Roadmap. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
-
Kim C. W. and Mauborgne R. (2005) Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School
Other studying materials
-
Shane S., Venkataraman S. (2000) The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research”. Academy of Management Review, 25(1): 217-226.
-
Sarasvathy S.D., (2001), Causation and effectuation: toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency”. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 243-263.
-
Stevenson H. (2003), A perspective on entrepreneurship, HBS, 13 April 2006
-
Stevenson H. (2000), Intellectual foundation of entrepreneurship, HBS USASBE/SBIDA 2000, San Antonio, Feb 2000
-
Blank S. “Why the lean start-up changes everything” Harvard Business Review, May 2013
-
Hamermmesh, R., Heskett, J., and Roberts, M. (2005), A note on managing the growing venture. HBS note no. 9-805-092
-
Sahlman W. “Some thoughts on business plans”, HBS, 14 Nov 1996
-
Hellman, T. (2006). A note on valuation of venture capital deals. Stanford Graduate School of Business, case E-95, rev. 20
-
Roberts, M., and Barley, L. (2004). How venture capitalists evaluate potential venture opportunities. HBS note no. 9-805-019
Slides and other materials such as case studies, tests, and simulations and exercises will be either put on the website or distributed directly in class.
Assessment
Attending students
The assessment for this module will consist of two parts as outlined below:
Group Presentation (40% of total marks): In groups students will create a pitch presentation for an innovative idea and present it along with being able to answers/doubts the questions that may arise. Groups will be formed during the first/second week.
The presentation should emulate a pitch of your innovation idea during a business plan competition/innovation fair. The group of students will pitch this idea creating a presentation (or other visual support material) and giving a speech to explain it. The presentation will last approximatively 30 minutes; circa 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 for the Q&A session.
Presentation structure and material: there is no a mandatory format for the presentation. Students can use slides, handouts, or redact a small report or yet create a video. The only rule is being creative and convincing!
The structure of the presentation will follow a business plan structure (please refer to slide packs number 4 and 7 for the explanation of each element):
• Executive summary
• Business model (CANVAS model)
• Product’s Idea
• The Team
• Marketing
• Business Process & Organization
• Implementation Plan
• Risks
• Finance (projections of revenues, costs and cash flows)
Students are required to provide to the instructor a soft copy of the presentation/visual support used for the presentation. The assessment will be graded in relation to, the ability to use pertinent theories to the specific case, the coherence of the overall idea and so the inherent ability to reflects about the several parts constituting the presentation and their logic connections, and finally the ability to pitch the idea and the overall clarity of the presentation. Partially also the level of details provided during the presentation especially in relation to its contextualization will be considered. Accordingly, this assessment aims to evaluate largely the ability to applying knowledge and theories to the concrete situations, the ability to reflect and making judgment and the communication skills. Only partially the level of knowledge on the subject will also be assessed.
Students will receive a direct feedback after the presentation but the official grade will be released only after having carefully reviewed the presentation and the whole set of presentation.
Individual Written exam (60 of the total mark%)
The written exam will contain four open questions about topics covered in this module as indicated in the syllabus. Excellent answers are those with an appropriate mix between theory, pertinent to the questions, and practice, i.e. business examples in which the theory can be applied. Yet, theoretical connections among different topics/theories, the ability to criticize and reflect upon the validity of the theory, and elaboration of strategies to a better implementation are also evaluated. For these reasons, the written exam aims to verify a proper acquisition of knowledge, the ability to apply this knowledge to concrete business cases, and the capacity of making own critical judgments. Yet, the communication skills, in the form of clarity and logic flow and structure of the answer will be also evaluated.
The total time for the written exam is 2 hours.
To be considered attending students, please refer to the specific paragraph.
Non-attending students
Individual written exam. The written exam will contain one case study/hypothetical situation related to entrepreneurial real file experiences and four open questions about topics covered in this module as indicated in the syllabus.
For the case study/hypothetical situation, the students will need to interpret the real context offered and elaborate his/her own strategy, according to the theory, to solve the problem.
For the open questions, excellent answers are those with an appropriate mix between theory, pertinent to the questions, and practice, i.e. business examples in which the theory can be applied. Yet, theoretical connections among different topics/theories, the ability to criticize and reflect upon the validity of the theory, and elaboration of strategies to a better implementation are also evaluated. For these reasons, the case study part aims to develop abilities in making critical judgments mostly; in addition to that, the open questions verify a proper acquisition of knowledge, the ability to apply this knowledge to concrete business cases. Yet, the communication skills, in the form of clarity and logic flow and structure of the answer will be also evaluated.
The total time for the written exam is 3 hours.
Updated A.Y. 2019-2020
A.Y. 2019-2020
Module – Entrepreneurship
Responsible for the Module
Dr. Massimiliano Pellegrini
Qualified Associate Professor of Organizational studies and Entrepreneurship
Office : Room 3C-3, 3rd floor Building B
Mail: massimiliano.pellegrini@uniroma2.it
Overview
This course aims at offering a comprehensive view over entrepreneurship, understanding of its strategic areas and how they translate into businesses, and applies tools and analytical techniques for development a new venture creation process or to act entrepreneurially. 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 an organizational corporation is a task that few individuals are able to accomplish, even though many profess the desire. The entrepreneurship module has been designed so students will be well-prepared to pursue careers as owner/managers, foundation of new venture or to develop entrepreneurial skills useful in existing organizations, to facilitate organizational changes and innovation. To do so, from a theoretical perspective, the course offers a general examination of fondant principles of entrepreneurship and of entrepreneurial activities/processes. In a practical sense, instead, the course supports a full development of entrepreneurial skills, mindsets and attitudes, and strategic thinking.
Learning Objectives
This course aims at offering a comprehensive view over entrepreneurship, understanding of its strategic areas and how they translate into businesses, and applies tools and analytical techniques for development a new venture creation process or to act entrepreneurially. 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 an organizational corporation is a task that few individuals are able to accomplish, even though many profess the desire. The entrepreneurship module has been designed so students will be well-prepared to pursue careers as owner/managers, foundation of new venture or to develop entrepreneurial skills useful in existing organizations, to facilitate organizational changes and innovation. To do so, from a theoretical perspective, the course offers a general examination of fondant principles of entrepreneurship and of entrepreneurial activities/processes. In a practical sense, instead, the course supports a full development of entrepreneurial skills, mindsets and attitudes, and strategic thinking.
Upon successful completion of this module, assuming that attendance, participation, and completion of the assessment has been undertaken, the student should be able to:
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
1. Acquire and demonstrate a good understanding of the general concepts related to entrepreneurship. In particular:
1.1 The entrepreneur, his/her characteristics, traits, risks, and responsibilities;
1.2 The entrepreneurial process from spotting the opportunity, surviving the fist years, and growing;
1.3 The business model and plan;
1.4. The financial aspects of an entrepreneurial venture.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE:
2. Being able to apply creative techniques in concrete situation
3. Showing the ability to interpret and elaborate a business plan, its financial forecasts, and a model of business from an idea of business.
MAKING JUDGEMENTS
3. Being able to elaborate autonomous strategies and plans to develop and implement entrepreneurial ideas.
4. Showing relational and entrepreneurial abilities to engage with concrete situations so to spot or create opportunities
COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
5. Presentation skills and pitching ability in reason of the many exercises.
CONTENTS
The key topics taught in the module are the following:
-
The Entrepreneurial Manager
-
Entrepreneurial process and the approach to opportunities
-
Creative techniques
-
The business model
-
the Business Plan
-
Financial projections
-
Financial instruments for start-ups
Teaching methods
The module will use a variety of teaching and learning methods to enhance learning and understanding including lectures, cases, workshops and videos and group work. 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 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 tutors 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 the discussion by the rest of your seminar group.
Attendance
The attendance is not mandatory but the course indicates different assessment modalities in relation to attending and non-attending students (As already mentioned in the exam section). Thus, attendance and continuous participation are strongly recommended. To determine the attending students will be introduced formal rules for the control, such as collection of signatures at the begging of each lecture. A delay of more than 20 minutes, not communicated and/or agreed upon, will be considered as half absence. The threshold to be considered an attending student is set around the 75%.
References
Main textbook
-
Ostewalder A., Pigneur Y. (2010), Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (1st edition), Wiley and Sons.
Other book references
-
Kuratko, Donald F. & Hornsby, Jeffrey S. (2009). New Venture Management: The Entrepreneru’s Roadmap. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
-
Kim C. W. and Mauborgne R. (2005) Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School
Other studying materials
-
Shane S., Venkataraman S. (2000) The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research”. Academy of Management Review, 25(1): 217-226.
-
Sarasvathy S.D., (2001), Causation and effectuation: toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency”. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 243-263.
-
Stevenson H. (2003), A perspective on entrepreneurship, HBS, 13 April 2006
-
Stevenson H. (2000), Intellectual foundation of entrepreneurship, HBS USASBE/SBIDA 2000, San Antonio, Feb 2000
-
Blank S. “Why the lean start-up changes everything” Harvard Business Review, May 2013
-
Hamermmesh, R., Heskett, J., and Roberts, M. (2005), A note on managing the growing venture. HBS note no. 9-805-092
-
Sahlman W. “Some thoughts on business plans”, HBS, 14 Nov 1996
-
Hellman, T. (2006). A note on valuation of venture capital deals. Stanford Graduate School of Business, case E-95, rev. 20
-
Roberts, M., and Barley, L. (2004). How venture capitalists evaluate potential venture opportunities. HBS note no. 9-805-019
Slides and other materials such as case studies, tests, and simulations and exercises will be either put on the website or distributed directly in class.
Assessment
Attending students
The assessment for this module will consist of two parts as outlined below:
Group Presentation (40% of total marks): In groups students will create a pitch presentation for an innovative idea and present it along with being able to answers/doubts the questions that may arise. Groups will be formed during the first/second week.
The presentation should emulate a pitch of your innovation idea during a business plan competition/innovation fair. The group of students will pitch this idea creating a presentation (or other visual support material) and giving a speech to explain it. The presentation will last approximatively 30 minutes; circa 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 for the Q&A session.
Presentation structure and material: there is no a mandatory format for the presentation. Students can use slides, handouts, or redact a small report or yet create a video. The only rule is being creative and convincing!
The structure of the presentation will follow a business plan structure (please refer to slide packs number 4 and 7 for the explanation of each element):
• Executive summary
• Business model (CANVAS model)
• Product’s Idea
• The Team
• Marketing
• Business Process & Organization
• Implementation Plan
• Risks
• Finance (projections of revenues, costs and cash flows)
Students are required to provide to the instructor a soft copy of the presentation/visual support used for the presentation. The assessment will be graded in relation to, the ability to use pertinent theories to the specific case, the coherence of the overall idea and so the inherent ability to reflects about the several parts constituting the presentation and their logic connections, and finally the ability to pitch the idea and the overall clarity of the presentation. Partially also the level of details provided during the presentation especially in relation to its contextualization will be considered. Accordingly, this assessment aims to evaluate largely the ability to applying knowledge and theories to the concrete situations, the ability to reflect and making judgment and the communication skills. Only partially the level of knowledge on the subject will also be assessed.
Students will receive a direct feedback after the presentation but the official grade will be released only after having carefully reviewed the presentation and the whole set of presentation.
Individual Written exam (60 of the total mark%)
The written exam will contain four open questions about topics covered in this module as indicated in the syllabus. Excellent answers are those with an appropriate mix between theory, pertinent to the questions, and practice, i.e. business examples in which the theory can be applied. Yet, theoretical connections among different topics/theories, the ability to criticize and reflect upon the validity of the theory, and elaboration of strategies to a better implementation are also evaluated. For these reasons, the written exam aims to verify a proper acquisition of knowledge, the ability to apply this knowledge to concrete business cases, and the capacity of making own critical judgments. Yet, the communication skills, in the form of clarity and logic flow and structure of the answer will be also evaluated.
The total time for the written exam is 2 hours.
To be considered attending students, please refer to the specific paragraph.
Non-attending students
Individual written exam. The written exam will contain one case study/hypothetical situation related to entrepreneurial real file experiences and four open questions about topics covered in this module as indicated in the syllabus.
For the case study/hypothetical situation, the students will need to interpret the real context offered and elaborate his/her own strategy, according to the theory, to solve the problem.
For the open questions, excellent answers are those with an appropriate mix between theory, pertinent to the questions, and practice, i.e. business examples in which the theory can be applied. Yet, theoretical connections among different topics/theories, the ability to criticize and reflect upon the validity of the theory, and elaboration of strategies to a better implementation are also evaluated. For these reasons, the case study part aims to develop abilities in making critical judgments mostly; in addition to that, the open questions verify a proper acquisition of knowledge, the ability to apply this knowledge to concrete business cases. Yet, the communication skills, in the form of clarity and logic flow and structure of the answer will be also evaluated.
The total time for the written exam is 3 hours.
EN
IT
Updated A.Y. 2018-2019
TEACHING MEMBER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MODULE:
Massimiliano Pellegrini
Qualified Associate Professor of Organizational studies and Entrepreneurship
Office : Room 3C-3, 3rd floor Building B
Mail: massimiliano.pellegrini@uniroma2.it
CO-TEACHING MEMBER
Vittorio de Pedys Affiliate Professor of Finance, ESCP Europe
Contact : +39 335 5789566
Office : Room 3C-4, 3rd floor Building B
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 the entrepreneurial process and key aspects entrepreneurial behaviors.
- 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.
- Cover the whole entrepreneurial path, form spotting the opportunity to a exiting the venture
- Focus on the financial aspects of the entrepreneurial venture (business case, business plan, pitching, financing rounds, etc).
CONTENTS
The key topics taught in the module are the following:
• The Entrepreneurial manager
• Getting started: Emerging Ideas and spotting of the opportunity
• The Start-up Process
• Managing uncertainty: Business Survival
• Growing the Business
• The business Case
• the Business Plan
• Venture Capital Funding, financial projections and capitalization tables
• Realizing value: Liquidity events
TEACHING METHODS
The module will use a variety of teaching and learning methods to enhance learning and understanding including lectures, cases, workshops and videos and groupwork. 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 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 tutors 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 the discussion by the rest of your seminar group.
REFERENCES
Stevenson H. “A perspective on entrepreneurship” HBS, 13 april 2006
Stevenson H. “Intellectual foundation of entrepreneurship” , HBS USASBE/SBIDA 2000, San Antonio, feb 2000
Blank S. “Why the lean start-up changes everything” Harvard Business Review, may 2013
Hamermmesh, R., Heskett, J., and Roberts, M. (2005) A note on managing the growing venture. HBS note no. 9-805-092
Volker M.E. “Making the business case”, Bookboon
Sahlman W. “Some thoughts on business plans”, HBS, 14 nov 1996
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
ASSESSMENT
The assessment for this module will consist of two parts as outlined below:
Group Presentation (up to 50% of total marks): In groups students will analyse the cases provided by the Instructor and present answers to the questions set Groups will be formed during the first week.
Final Written Exam (at least 50% of total marks): In the exam, students will answer 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.
Updated A.Y. 2018-2019
TEACHING MEMBER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MODULE:
Massimiliano Pellegrini
Qualified Associate Professor of Organizational studies and Entreprenurship
Office : Room 3C-3, 3rd floor Building B
Mail: massimiliano.pellegrini@uniroma2.it
CO-TEACHING MEMBER
Vittorio de Pedys Affiliate Professor of Finance, ESCP Europe
Contact : +39 335 5789566
Office : Room 3C-4, 3rd floor Building B
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 the entrepreneurial process and key aspects of entrepreneurial behaviors.
- 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.
- Cover the whole entrepreneurial path, form spotting the opportunity to a exiting the venture
- Focus on the financial aspects of the entrepreneurial venture (business case, business plan, pitching, financing rounds, etc).
CONTENTS
The key topics taught in the module are the following:
• The Entrepreneurial manager
• Getting started: Emerging Ideas and spotting of the opportunity
• The Start-up Process
• Managing uncertainty: Business Survival
• Growing the Business
• The business Case
• the Business Plan
• Venture Capital Funding, financial projections and capitalization tables
• Realizing value: Liquidity events
TEACHING METHODS
The module will use a variety of teaching and learning methods to enhance learning and understanding including lectures, cases, workshops and videos and groupwork. 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 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 tutors 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 the discussion by the rest of your seminar group.
REFERENCES
Stevenson H. “A perspective on entrepreneurship” HBS, 13 april 2006
Stevenson H. “Intellectual foundation of entrepreneurship” , HBS USASBE/SBIDA 2000, San Antonio, feb 2000
Blank S. “Why the lean start-up changes everything” Harvard Business Review, may 2013
Hamermmesh, R., Heskett, J., and Roberts, M. (2005) A note on managing the growing venture. HBS note no. 9-805-092
Volker M.E. “Making the business case”, Bookboon
Sahlman W. “Some thoughts on business plans”, HBS, 14 nov 1996
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
ASSESSMENT
The assessment for this module will consist of two parts as outlined below:
Group Presentation (up to 50% of total marks): In groups students will analyse the cases provided by the Instructor and present answers to the questions set Groups will be formed during the first week.
Final Written Exam (at least 50% of total marks): In the exam, students will answer 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.
