Entrepreneurial innovation and international growth are two preconditions to sustained competitive advantage. Especially in small and medium economies like Austria, companies must expand beyond their national borders at a very early stage. Leveraging your competitive advantage in foreign markets requires in depth knowledge about these markets and a financial strategy that accounts for the additional risks in cross-border business. In an ever accelerating, globalizing world, companies must sustain their entrepreneurial initiatives through supportive internationalization and financial strategies. This course uses a real life example of an entrepreneurial corporate partner company to teach how to apply international strategic management in an entrepreneurial environment. Students will develop recommendations for strategic product innovation, international expansion and financing strategies. The corporate partner company will be Aluflexpack, a global leader in flexible aluminium packaging solutions, which seeks to expand its product line and internationalize into new foreign markets.

During the course, students

• Study academic theories on International Entrepreneurship, International Business and International Finance
• Apply these theories to a real-life case company
• Learn to work on interdisciplinary tasks and business cases
• Work in teams to develop business cases for the case company
• Develop their analytical capabilities using real-company data
• Pitch their entrepreneurial and financial concepts to company representatives

Attendance of all virtual and/or presence sessions is mandatory.

Course design:

The course combines theory on international entrepreneurship and strategy with a real-life corporate entrepreneurial venture.

Students work in 6 groups on three sets of competitive entrepreneurial pitches and strategies in three different business segments:

(1) Technical Applications
(2) Battery Pouch Cells
(3) Tubes

Groups receive two coaching session with academic supervisors Prof. Puck and Dr. Müllner and/or company representatives.

       · Wiki (group)                                                              30 %               03.05.2022   

· Mid-term presentation (group):                                  20 %               03.05.2022

· Competitive case presentation (group):                      50 %               23.05.2022

· In-class contributions  (individual)                             10 %                (bonus)Selected

Jakob Müllner             Jakob.muellner@wu.ac.at

Jonas Puck                  Jonas.puck@wu.ac.at