Syllabus

Title
5578 Course IV - Business Project Part 2
Instructors
Lea Zwickl, MSc(WU),MA, Konstantin Grün, M.A., Univ.Prof. Dr. Isabella Grabner
Contact details
konstantin.gruen@wu.ac.at; lea.zwickl@wu.ac.at; isabella.grabner@wu.ac.at
Type
PI
Weekly hours
2
Language of instruction
Englisch
Registration
02/21/22 to 02/21/22
Anmeldung durch das Institut
Notes to the course
Subject(s) Bachelor Programs
Specialization in Business Administration Course IV - Management and Controlling
Course IV - Strategy and Managerial Accounting
Dates
Day Date Time Room
Monday 05/02/22 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.002
Monday 05/09/22 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.002
Monday 05/16/22 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.002
Monday 05/23/22 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.002
Monday 05/30/22 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.002
Wednesday 06/08/22 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM D5.1.003
Monday 06/13/22 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.0.002
Monday 06/20/22 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.0.002

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Contents

BUSINESS PROJECT:

This time, the IfU Business Project will be held in collaboration with tink,  an online retailer and leading expert for everything related to the Internet of Things, and focus on the topic of “Explosive Growth in an Innovative Start-Up: Managing the Austrian Market". Specifically, students will be consultants who will test the firm’s business model and, with the assistance of revenue generation and customer preference analyses, identify further growth potentials in the Austrian market. In addition, central differences to the German market should be identified, so that Austrian-specific measures are possible. Your work will result in recommendations for action that are presented to tink’s top management team at the end of the project. 

This is a real-life consulting course that blends research and practice. This award-winning (WU Excellence in Teaching, Ars Docendi State Prize) course is unique, as participants will be both WU’s SIMC master and IfU bachelor students. The master students will act as team leaders.

In a collaborative project with our partner, students are asked, inter alia, to:

  • conduct an in-depth analysis of the industry, including the key drivers of change and prevailing trends,
  • investigate customer preferences and perceptions surrounding Smart Home Gadgets,
  • evaluate revenue models suitable for tink,
  • analyze central differences between the Austrian and surrounding markets.

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS:

  • Students will learn about business model analysis in a fast-moving environment as reflected in tink's fast growth over the last years. You will gain consulting experience in research-focused consulting project and learn how to do a practically relevant research study. Students will gain unique real-world insights into the smart home and online retailing industry and will have the opportunity to learn empirical research methods, such as expert interviews and survey study.
  • Students will be able to develop and train their team-working and leadership skills. According to the “IfU Business Project Approach“ which has been awarded the Austrian State Prize for teaching (Ars Docendi) in 2016, up to five Master Students will take the role of team leaders and lead small teams of Bachelor students. The experienced challenges of leadership will be discussed in class and all students (Bachelor and Master students) will have the opportunity to get invaluable „learning by doing“ leadership experience for their future career.
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Learning outcomes

After completing this class students will be able to:

  • conduct an in-depth business model analysis
  • critically read and make sense of research articles
  • structure complex business problems
  • design and implement practice-oriented research projects

Apart from that, completing this course will contribute to students' abilities to:

  • organize and manage a large-scale project in the field of strategic management and management accounting
  • pursue the project management (PM) activities and master the use of various PM tools
  • structure complex and ill-defined problems
  • apply theoretical knowledge from different fields to find creative hands-on solutions to real-life business problems.
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Attendance requirements

In order to successfully pass this course, your absence is limited to 20% of our appointments.

The interim workshop (16.05.2022) and the final presentation (13.06.2022) are compulsory!

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Teaching/learning method(s)

 

  • Coachings and training sessions
  • Group discussions about research papers
  • Group assignments
  • Individual (in-group) assignments
  • Practitioner feedback
  • Peer coaching

The course uses a collaborative project- and problem-based learning approach. This implies that students will need to develop solutions to complex questions on an individual and/or group level. To support this process, a mix of instruments will be used: Input lectures/training sessions will provide basic concepts for the next steps, coaching sessions will provide early feedback, and workshops and presentations will demonstrate the ability of students to successfully structure problems and provide meaningful answers. Practitioner input will give students guidance and feedback on their progress.

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Assessment

The final grade of the course will depend on:

  • Interim workshop: 30%
  • Final presentation, incl. peer and project partner evaluations: 60%
  • Participation: 10%

Grading scheme

  • Excellent ≥87,5%
  • Good ≥75,0%
  • Satisfactory ≥62,5%
  • Passing ≥50,0%
  • Fail <50,0%
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Availability of lecturer(s)

Contact hours: Tuesdays starting from 5:15 p.m. Dienstagsbier or via Email

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Other
The interim workshop (16.05.2022) and the final presentation (13.06.2022) are compulsory! More information will follow.
Last edited: 2022-01-31



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