Students are required to possess basic knowledge about business management and organization, as well as innovation management.
Radical and rapid changes in new digital technologies together with opportunities coming from a globalized and interconnected economy, favor the establishment of new firms and their role in global innovation processes. In the recent years, the role of entrepreneurship has become paramount for the growth of economic systems so that also large and established companies recognize corporate entrepreneurship as strategic behavior and take advantage of it, through strategic renewal, venturing and innovation.
Entrepreneurship is a process of change and innovation to new products, organizational forms and market solutions to pursue new business opportunities. The entrepreneur is an agent of change and an innovator who seizes opportunities and needs and gathers resources to pursue them.
This course aims at analyzing different entrepreneurial phenomena from a number of perspectives, at both individual and firm level. Although the course is mainly practically oriented and the final output is a business model canvas of a new venture based of an innovative idea, students will also be provided with the theoretical and methodological basis to understand Entrepreneurship as a field of study in the global economy. At the end of the course, students will be able to: (1) analyze in detail the value of an entrepreneurial idea through different perspectives (strategy, technology and marketing); (2) conceive and write a business model canvas for an innovative idea; (3) effectively use the tools and know the actors needed to launch and grow small and medium-sized enterprises.
The course contributes to learning objectives of the master program, particularly for what concerns the understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena and the ability to prompt an entrepreneurial approach.
Entrepreneurship as a career: cognitive models, data and global trends. Business opportunities: What makes a business opportunity different from an idea? Activities, process and challenges of new firm formation (startups): the effectuation approach. Entrepreneurship within established companies (intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship). Enterprises and social context: university-entrepreneurship and family-entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial strategies: internationalization, growth and funding of small businesses. Business model innovation and business model canvas. Tools for new business launch: design thinking, lean startup and experimentation.
Teaching is organized through lectures, with special attention to the confrontation and direct dialogue with the students, who can, during the lessons, formulate proposals for in-depth study or debate.
During the course cycles of meetings will be organized, with qualified actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, aimed to deepen methodologies and application fields.
Within the course cycles of seminars will also be organized with practical exercises, concerning the development - through laboratory activities - of a new business design and launch.
Project work (80% of the final grade): Written project work + oral (presentation). The project work consists in an originally written business model canvas for an innovative startup (work in team).
Discussion (20% of the final grade): Class discussion and elaboration of two conceptual essays to be illustrated to the classmates and the faculty (individual work).
For non-attending students, the exam consists in a written exam, which mirrors – in terms of contents, approaches and difficulty – the exam that is available for attending students.
Would the course be taught in blended or distance-based teaching modes, modifications might be carried out with respect to above, to make the course and the exams accessible under the new teaching modes.