Syllabus

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this course, students are able to

1. Describe and discuss basic entrepreneurship tools,
2. Explain the central entrepreneurship frameworks about opportunity recognition, effectuation and business models,
3. Apply those frameworks to a real case

Credits: 3

Schedule: 02.03.2023 - 13.04.2023

Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):

Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Arne Kroeger

Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):

Ass. Prof. Dr. Arne Kröger (arne.kroeger@aalto.fi)

CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):

Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):

Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English

CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD

Content

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  The workload includes time for preparing presentations about selected topics, peer-evaluations, classroom teaching and preparing the exam.

  • Basics of entrepreneurship
  • Creativity, Idea Development & Innovation
  • Venture Opportunities
  • Business Models
  • Case Study Module: Corporate Entrepreneurship
  • Venture Funding (incl. Impact Investing)
  • Venture Growth (incl. Growth Strategy Implementation)

• applies in this implementation

  Objectives, relevance for practice and lecture topics

  At the end of this course, students i) are able to describe and discuss basic entrepreneurship and innovation tools, ii) are able to explain the central entrepreneurship frameworks about opportunity recognition, effectuation and business models, and iii) are able to apply those frameworks to a real case.

   

  Launching an enterprise has several advantages, such as being your own boss, realizing your own ideas and experiencing greater autonomy in general. However, entrepreneurship is more than founding an enterprise. It is a particular way of thinking and an approach of solving problems and can, therefore, also be practiced in large corporations (corporate entrepreneurship).

   

  This course investigates the entrepreneurship process in a consecutive order. It starts with the venture idea which emerges from receiving it from someone else (e.g., via open innovation), accidental discovery or the desire to start a business. The theory of effectuation developed by Saras Sarasvathy (2001) offers an approach how wanna-be entrepreneurs can generate a venture idea. Having created a venture idea, entrepreneurs enter into the process of developing a business opportunity (Vogel, 2017). Peter Vogel (2017) provides a comprehensive overview of attempts to conceptualize the development of business opportunities and develops his own framework that ends with the exploitation of business opportunities. A key contributor for the successful exploitation of a business opportunity is a business model. One of the first conceptualizations of the business model construct is provided by Raphael Amit and Christoph Zott (2001). This article can therefore be seen as a key article for understanding the sources of value creation that determine the success of a new venture. Furthermore, entrepreneurs need funding for growing their enterprise.

  
  

Assessment Methods and Criteria

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Group assignments

  Grade of intermediate group assignment

  30%

  Individual assignment

  Final Multiple Choice-Exam

  70%

  Total:

   

  100%

• applies in this implementation

  
  

  Didactic approach and organization

  Like the metaphor of the three blind men feeling an elephant, this course combines different lenses on entrepreneurship: i) a scientific, more abstract lens, ii) a lens on entrepreneurship tools that entrepreneurs can use and iii) a lens on the practices of actual enterprises. Aggregating those lenses aims to demonstrate that entrepreneurship is more holistic than a cookbook of recipes.

  The course comprises a lecture and a case module. The course will take place in MyCourses and will be complemented by Zoom lectures. It contains individual and group work and individual and group assignments and will build on a variety of methods: front teaching (Zoom), video self-study, group work (including peer evaluation), and audience response system.

   

  Lecture module

   4.1 Paper Discussion

  Please prepare the article of Sarasvathy (2001) for the lecture on 16.03. This is extremely important for your ability to participate in the lecture on the 16.03.

  The article of Sarasvathy (2001) has gained a lot of traction in entrepreneurship research and practice because it suggested a new approach to starting a business. It therefore gave impetus for effectuation research and is the most frequently cited effectuation article in the entrepreneurship literature. A description of how this article fits into the big picture of this course is provided in the section 1. Objectives, relevance for practice and lecture topics.

  In the lecture on the 16.03.2023, the students will be randomly assigned to a break-out room, discuss 1. Processes of Causation and Effectuation, 2. the Rudimentary Theory of Effectuation Processes in Business, and 3. the Propositions for the Role of Effectuation Processes in Businesses with their peers and apply the effectuation theory. 

  Furthermore, 5 randomly chosen MC-Questions will be discussed. The final exam will also contain 3 MC-Questions of the total pool of suggested MC-questions.

  
  

  4.2 Video self-study:

  The videos for self-study will be available in MyCourses in the section “Materials” from the first lecture on. They explain the essential knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation management. The corresponding slide deck is also available in MyCourses in the section “Materials”. Consecutive watching of the videos is recommended. Students will have several opportunities to ask questions about the content of the videos. It is highly appreciated if students e-mail their questions to the lecturer two days before the lecture.

  
  

  4.3 Group work (including peer evaluation):

  For the group work, all students will have the same submission deadline and are required to read two scientific articles. This task addresses the learning outcomes ii) and iii). This purpose students need to familiarize with the two central concepts of Entrepreneurship of Venture Opportunity and Business Models. One approach to familiarize with a concept is to read an article and write an essay about it in which of the content of article is transferred to a real case. Another approach is to read an article and an essay and to judge the transfer of the content of article to a real case. The group work will cover both approaches.  The group work will follow four consecutive steps.

  Step 1: Team formation

  Students are asked to form groups of min. 3 and max. 5 students themselves and to indicate their team formation in the Group Choice Module in MyCourses  07.03. at 23:59 pm.

  The groups will perform different tasks (see below for further details). They can connect with each other via MyCourses (General Discussion Module on the course homepage) and work on the tasks online or in face-to-face meetings. 

   

  Step 2: Development phase

  Each group will be randomly assigned to one of two cohorts: Venture Opportunity or Business Models

  Depending on the assigned cohort, the groups are supposed to answer one of the following questions:

   

  Cohort	Article	Task
  Venture Opportunity	Vogel, P. 2017. From venture idea to venture opportunity. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 41(6): 943-971.	Please illustrate the “Venture Opportunity Development and Exploitation stage” (as outline in Vogel, ETP 2016) for a freely chosen enterprise in Finland.
  Business Model	Amit, R. & Zott, C. 2001. Value creation in e-business. Strategic Management Journal, 22: 493-520.	Please explain the framework “Sources of value creation” (Amit & Zott, SMJ 2001) for a freely chosen enterprise in Finland.

   

  Depending on the assigned task, each group will prepare an essay of 1500-2000 words + 5 PPT slides (excl. cover page and references) in which the essay is visualized. 

  Upload format: "Group Name_Cohort_Case.PDF“, example: 1. Group_Venture Opportunity_ResQ.pdf.

  The deadline for uploading the essay and presentation is: 16.03. at 23:59 pm.

  
  

  Step 3: Evaluation phase

  After the development phase, the evaluation round starts. Each essay and presentation of one group from the development round is evaluated by one assigned group of the cohort. 

  Afterwards, each group uploads their completed excel file in MyCourses with their group name: "Group Name“, example: “1. Group.xlsx” in the section “Assignments” until 23. 03. at 23:59 pm.

   

  The submissions and evaluations will be reviewed by the lecturer afterwards and the grades adjusted if necessary to assure fairness and comparability.

  The three suggestions for improving the presentation will be forwarded to the corresponding group from the development phase.

  
  

  Step 4: Presentation

  Finally, each group from the development phase will present is essay to its peers in the lecture on the 30.03.
  

Workload

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  This course contains individual and group work and individual and group assignments and will build on a variety of methods: front teaching, video self-study, group work (including peer evaluation), development of multiple-choice-questions, and audience response system.

• applies in this implementation

  4.4 Final Exam on 13.04.2023 at 09:15-10:20

  The final exam of the lecture module will be a one hour open book online exam in MyCourses of 33 MC questions. It can contain questions about everything that has been uploaded in MyCourses. You can attend the re-exam if you are not able to attend the final exam.

  
  

  Exam Grading:

  50-59 points              1

  60-69 points              2

  70-79 points              3

  80-89 points              4

  90-100 points            5 (best grade)

  
  4.5 Re-Exam on 27.04.2022 at 09:15-10:20
  

  There will be a Re-Exam on the 28.04.2022. It will take place in MyCourses. No additional registration is necessary. 

  
  

  Assessment of the course

  The final grade will be calculated as follows:

   
  

  Group assignments	Grade achieved in the development round	30%
  Individual assignment	Final MC-Exam	70%
  Total:		100%

DETAILS

Study Material

• applies in this implementation

  
  

  Literature

  Compulsory literature (uploaded in MyCourses in the section “Materials”)

  • Amit, R. & Zott, C. 2001. Value creation in e-business. Strategic Management Journal, 22: 493-520.
  • 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.
  • Vogel, P. 2017. From venture idea to venture opportunity. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 41(6): 943-971.

   
  

  Recommended complementing literature

  • Zacharakis, Andrew, William Bygrave, Andrew Corbett, 2016. Entrepreneurship, 4th Edition. Wiley.
    For the chapter Creativity, Idea Development and Innovation.
  • Bessant, John R., Tidd, Joe 2015. Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 3th Edition. Wiley.

  
  

  Titles of relevant journals in the field

  • Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice
  • Journal of Business Venturing
  • Entrepreneurship & Regional Development
  • Academy of Management Journal
  • Academy of Management Review

  
  

Substitutes for Courses

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Substitutes for Courses

Prerequisites

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Prerequisites

SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

4 Quality Education

8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

FURTHER INFORMATION

Further Information

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Registration via Sisu ends at the time when the first lecture starts.

  Teaching Language : English

  Teaching Period : 2022-2023 Spring IV
  2023-2024 Spring IV

  Enrollment :

  This course is only for students of other Aalto schools than School of Business and Open University students. The maximum number of students is 495.

• applies in this implementation

  
  

  Navigation in MyCourses

  MyCourses is an essential part of this course, and students are required to use it frequently.

   

  Course Homepage

  • Table with submission deadlines
  • Group choice module
  •  General Discussion Forum
  • Final MC exam will be posted here
  • Results of the final MC exam will be posted here

   

  Section Materials

  • Course Articles
  • 4 lecture Videos in which the essential knowledge is explained
  • Lecture Slides

  • Self-Study Videos

  
  

  Assignments

  • Assignment “Development Phase”: essays and presentations and assessments
  • Assignment “Evaluation Phase”: assessments
    
    

  Practicing Exercises

  • Practice Questions (Basics, Creativity & Innovation, Opportunities)
  • Practice Questions (Business Models) 
  • Practice Questions (Venture Funding & Venture Growth)
    

Details on the schedule

• applies in this implementation

  
  

  Lectures, Formats, Content & Submission Deadlines

  Lecture date	Format	Content
  02.03.	Zoom lecture (09:15-12:15)	Practicalities Basics of Entrepreneurship Creativity, Idea Development & Innovation
  09.03.	MyCourses, self-study, group work	Watching and understanding the videos about essential entrepreneurship and innovation management knowledge Preparation of intermediate assignment (group work)
  16.03.	Zoom lecture (09:15-11:30)	Discussion of the causation and effectuation principles 5 audience response system questions on those principles Opportunity to ask questions about the videos
  23.03.	MyCourses, self-study, group work	Watching and understanding the videos about essential entrepreneurship and innovation management knowledge Preparation of intermediate assignment (group work)
  30.03.	MyCourses, self-study, group work	Presentation and feedback of presentations à max. 20 minutes Exercises on Venture Funding and Venture Growth Module Opportunity to ask questions about the videos and the exam
  13.04.	MyCourses (09:15-10:20)	MC-Online Exam
  27.04.	MyCourses (09:15-10:20)	Re-exam in MyCourse (No separate registration necessary)

  
  
  

  Deadlines	Tasks to Pass the Course (details see below)
  07.03. at 23:59 pm	Indicate team formation in Group Choice Module in MyCourses
  16.03. at 9:15 pm	Read article of Sarasvathy (2001)
  16.03. at 23:59 pm	Submission of essays: 1500-2000 words + 5 PPT slides (excl. cover page and references)
  23.03. at 23:59 pm	Submission of Evaluations: Review criteria + Grades on the essays and presentations + 3 suggestions for improving the presentation
  30.03. at 09:15 pm	Presentation of the Essay from the Development Round
  13.04. at 09:15 am	Final exam in MyCourse
  27.04. at 09:15 am	Re-exam in MyCourse (No separate registration necessary)

   
  

Description