In a business environment characterized by globalization, digitalization, and disrupting technological change as well as rapidly changing customer needs, innovation becomes essential for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Innovation as the core needs to be managed in different contexts such as established firms (corporate innovation management, intrapreneurship) as well in newly created firms (entrepreneurship) and the rapidly changing business environment facilitates manifold opportunities for both established firms and entrepreneurs.

In this course we will look at key processes of managing innovation such as:

• Opportunity recognition and exploitation
• Strategizing for innovation
• Sourcing for innovation
• Organizing for innovation
• Marketizing for innovation

In this course, students will gain an understanding on how established firms can routinize the non-routine by focusing on contemporary approaches. Students will also gain an understanding how to effectively manage innovation in the context of start-ups. Overall, specific emphasis will be given on the recent trend towards open innovation and new forms of organizing for innovation.

After completing this course students will have the ability to:

• Understand key processes of innovation
• Understand how such key processes translate into the context of established firms as well as start-ups
• 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 6 modules

* Each of these modules comprises 4 hours.

To complete this course with a positive grade, students must attend 80% of scheduled sessions

The course will combine various learning methods to deliver the different topics to the students. These will include readings, lectures, in-class discussions, input from guest speakers, student presentations in class, and case studies.

The final grade of the course will depend on:

• In class-participation: 15 % (individual assessment)
• Group assignments: 35 % (group assessment)
• Written exam: 50 % (individual assessment)

The exam will be held on 31.1.2025 (exam duration: 60 minutes, “BYOD=bringyourowndevice” exam, open book exam, 5 transfer questions).

Please note that for the exam the use of AI-based software for text generation such as ChatGPT is not permitted.

The following grading scale applies:

Excellent (1)             87.5%-100.0%

Good (2)                  75.0% -<87.5%

Satisfactory (3)      62.5% -<75.0%

Sufficient (4)           50.0% -<62.5%

Fail (5)                          <50.0%

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