Business Initiative

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 3. Good health and well-being
• 4. Quality education
• 5. Gender equality
• 8. Decend work and economic growth
• 9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
• 12. Responsible consumption and production
• 13. Climate action

Objectives

The course aims to capture the specificities, diversity and drive of the entrepreneurial phenomenon in our country, to awaken entrepreneurial concerns among students, to analyze the characteristics of the entrepreneur and to learn first-hand about projects that have been launched and who is behind them. During the semester, students work in a simulated way on the launch of an entrepreneurial project in order to discover, through practice, the entire theoretical framework that lies behind this academic discipline. As an additional but fundamental objective, each student carries out a process of self-knowledge based on the identification of their essential values, their skills and their own entrepreneurial or non-entrepreneurial spirit.

Learning outcomes

• It shows entrepreneurial initiative and analyses the business community as the protagonist of entrepreneurial activity.
• Demonstrates skills in team management and empowerment.
• Solve problems and situations specific to professional activity with entrepreneurial and innovative attitudes.
• Communicate clearly, to all types of audiences, knowledge, methodologies, ideas, problems and solutions.

Competencies

General skills

• Acquire an ethical commitment and a sense of social responsibility in professional actions.

Specific skills

• Devise integrated business plans for development of business initiatives.

Basic skills

• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.

Core skills

• Project the values of entrepreneurship and innovation in one's academic and professional career, through contact with a variety of practical contexts and motivation for professional development.

Content

1. Introduction to Entrepreneurship
   1. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial attitudes
   2. SMEs and startups in the economy
   3. Manifestations of entrepreneurship
   4. The entrepreneurial process
   5. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project
2. The business community
   1. Definition of entrepreneur according to his functions
   2. Psychosocial and personality traits of entrepreneurs
   3. Sociodemographic characteristics of entrepreneurs
   4. Typology of entrepreneurs
3. Entrepreneurial skills
   1. Leadership
   2. Negotiation
   3. Relationship capacity
   4. Teamwork
4. Creativity, innovation, business idea and business opportunity
   1. Identification and evaluation of business opportunities
   2. Generating business ideas: creativity and innovation
   3. Initial feasibility analysis of the business idea
   4. Methodology lean startup
5. Value propositions
   1. Introduction
   2. Value proposition: definition and characteristics
   3. The customer as the recipient of the value proposition
   4. Creating value throughout the sector chain
6. Business models
   1. Introduction
   2. Business models: concept and elements
   3. He business model canvas
   4. He canvas in practice
7. The business plan: beyond a business plan
   1. Concept and usefulness of a business plan
   2. Types of business plans
   3. Structure and content of a useful business plan
   4. Index for preparing a business plan... and, if necessary, a company plan
8. Self-knowledge bonus
   1. Core values
   2. Personal skills
   3. Entrepreneurial, cooperative or non-entrepreneurial approach

Evaluation

The evaluation activities and their respective weights are as follows:

1. Description of a real entrepreneurial initiative: 15%, preferably in teams of 3-4 people, although other compositions are valued, including the possibility of carrying out the work individually; written or multimedia presentation
2. Outline of a new business proposal, based on the description above: 15%, in teams with the same composition chosen for the previous work; written or multimedia presentation
3. Experience reports "Professionals in the Classroom": 20%, individual, written presentation or in multimedia format
4. Control 1: 22.5%, individual, written
5. Control 3, end of integration: 22.5%, individual, written
6. Participation and attendance: 5%, individual

The final grade for the course is the sum of the grades obtained in the seven previous assessment activities. If the passing grade (5 out of 10) is not achieved, a make-up exam (integration) is held to recover the marks from the tests (during the month of June). The other activities are assessed continuously during the regular class period and cannot be recovered.

Methodology

The subject content is acquired through various teaching activities:

• Face-to-face explanatory sessions by the teacher, which aim to analyse, understand and discuss (and then apply) the key concepts of the subject. The information is practically all available in the documents that the teacher provides to the students and in the basic textbook for the subject.
• Face-to-face sessions in the classroom, dedicated to searching for information and working in teams to write the assignments - individually or in teams - required for evaluation and with the tutoring of the professor.
• Experience sessions "Professionals in the Classroom", led by entrepreneurs and businesswomen, who will visit us in the classroom to explain their project.
• Practical sessions in which workshops are held in groups.
• You can also organize a session based on the methodology of the inverted class or flipped classroom.

Bibliography

Key references

• Rodríguez, A., Fernández, Z., Nieto, M.J., Revilla, A. (eds.) (2014). Manual de creación de empresas: De la oportunidad a la puesta en marcha. Civitas.
• Urbano, D., Toledano, N., Lamolla, L. (2016). Invitación al emprendimiento: Una aproximación a la creación de empresas (2 ed.). UOC.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.