In a business environment characterized by globalization, digitalization, and disrupting technological change as well as rapidly changing customer needs, entrepreneurship and innovation become essential for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. This relentlessly changing business environment also continuously facilitates opportunities for both entrepreneurial individuals and established firms.

In this course, students will gain an understanding on how entrepreneurs can use their limited resources effectively to leverage the full potential of their business ideas and how established firms can manage innovation systematically without limiting entrepreneurial thinking and acting of their employees. According to this dual focus, the course is divided in an entrepreneurship part and an innovation part.

In the entrepreneurship part, students will learn how to identify, evaluate, and exploit business opportunities. Special focus will be placed on topics like managing a start-up, funding new ventures, business model innovation, and marketing innovative products and services.

The innovation part will focus on contemporary methods for management innovation and highlight the interplay of innovation management with strategy and organization. Such aspects include technology strategy, portfolio management of new product development projects, and innovation culture. Specific emphasis will be given on the recent trend towards open innovation and new forms of organizing for innovation.

For both blocks, practitioners will be invited as guest speakers. They will give insights into their personal experience with founding a venture and managing innovation in established organization, respectively, and answer students’ questions.

After completing this course students will have the ability to:

• Understand basic entrepreneurship and innovation theories and their practical relevance

• Understand the importance of theory for entrepreneurial management practice

• Understand the dynamic nature of innovation and corresponding implications for strategic management and management control

• Critically reflect on modern approaches to entrepreneurship and innovation management

Apart from that, completing this course will contribute to the students’ ability to:

• Efficiently work and communicate in a team

• Work on solutions for challenging and complex practical problems

• Improve their oral and written communication and presentation skills

• Translate insights from class discussion to practical problems

• Be more comfortable with ambiguity and complexity in business decision making

• See business challenges as holistic rather than compartmentalized

The general structure of this course is as follows:

* The course consists of 7 modules (4 on entrepreneurship, 3 on innovation management).

* Each of these modules comprises 4 hours.

* The first 2 hours (9.00 am to 11.00 am) in each module are designed as "online sessions". You don't have to come to class during this slot. Instead, you can use it to listen to the lecture cast for the respective module. You'll be provided with the lecture casts early in November.

* The remaining 2 hours (11.00 am to 1.00 pm) in each module are designed as "offline" session. We will meet in person to discuss the contents of the lecture casts, clarify on open questions, and give you the opportunity to apply the contents to mini cases.

To complete this course with a positive grade, students must attend 80% of scheduled "offline" sessions (classes from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm in room TC.1.02).
 

The final grade of the course will depend on:
 

• Participation in the (offline) sessions: 15 % (individual assessment)

• Case studies during (offline) sessions: 35 % (group assessment)

• Written examen: 50 % (individual assessment)