Entrepreneurship

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 8. Decend work and economic growth
• 9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
• 12. Responsible consumption and production

Objectives

Entrepreneurship is the fundamental mechanism of today's global economy, it is the driver of innovation that constructively impacts in the country's economic growth, in an enterprise's competitiveness and also in the community's quality of life. Creativity and entrepreneurial skills are the basis of this entrepreneurship course that provides practical development and learning for the students, by working on the fundamentals of becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business. The students will learn about the ideation process, in order to generate an innovative business idea, and the business plan as an useful tool to rethink the business, define the business model and asses the business idea.

Learning outcomes

You will learn to develop, practice, and realize your entrepreneurial mindset to thrive in the dynamic, uncertain, and exciting world ahead! The key learnings are the following:

• Learn the essential attributes of an entrepreneur.
• Recognise entrepreneurship typology, intrapreneurship characteristics and a company's internal creative culture, social entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship.
• Acquire new concepts and techniques about ideation and creativity to explore new business ideas.
• Know the key elements to design the business model.
• Identify, elaborate and asses a business plan.
• Identify their own training needs and organize their own learning with a high degree of autonomy in all kinds of contexts.

Competencies

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.
• Students have developed the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies with a high degree of independent learning.

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. Ideation
   1. Practicing entrepreneurship
   2. Innovation and design thinking
   3. Value proposition and its canvas
   4. Business models and its canvas
2. Planning
   1. Marketing plan
   2. Organizational plan
   3. Operations plan
3. Funding
   1. Early sources of funding I
   2. Early sources of funding II
   3. Venture capital, private equity and corporate venture capital
   4. Public sources of funding
   5. Deal sourcing and screening
   6. Financial plan
   7. Valuation of new ventures
   8. The term sheet and negotiating with investors
4. Growing
   1. Monitor tactics and key metrics
   2. Corporate governance
   3. Intellectual property
   4. Exit strategies

Evaluation

• Class participation and attendance: 10%
  This course is intended to be interactive and engaging as we explore entrepreneurship together. Your participation and attendance will greatly impact the final grade you earn in the course. You should sign the attendance sheet when entering class each session. Any points for in-class assignments or pop quizzes are forfeited when you are absent, and you will be less prepared for exams. Notice that there is a minimum of 80% attendance.
• Exam: 30%
• Reflections: 10%
  Homework will be given related to class.
• Entrepreneurial idea: 50%
  You will develop and pitch your own new entrepreneurial idea. Resources and further description of the exercise will be given in class. A component of the grade is individual based depending on your leadership inside the project.

Due date policy / Late penalty

All exercises and assignments should be turned in prior to the start of class on the assigned day. Exercises/assignments turned in after the due date will receive a zero.

Methodology

We will be using a practice-based approach to examine entrepreneurship. The key methodological points are the following:

• The subject has a practical orientation; a high level of attendance will be required by all students.
• The sessions include a different range of conceptual theories, themes and case studies.
• Student will be expected to participate and contribute within the group and the framework of the course, a minimal attendance of 80% will required by all students.
• The professor will provide a combination of individual and group tutoring depending on the individual needs of each student.
• The timetable will outline the structure of the course, hours of classes, working times of subgroups, key deadlines.

Plagiarism or the copying of someone else's work is penalised at all universities, and according to the Comunity guidelines of the UVic-UCC, it constitutes serious or very serious offenses. That is why during this course, any sign of plagiarism or improper appropriation of texts or ideas from other people (see what is considered plagiarism) as well as the undeclared or improper use of artificial intelligence in an activity, automatically results in a fail and/or other disciplinary measures.

Bibliography

Key references

• Alemany, L., & Andreoli, J. J. (2018). Entrepreneurial finance: the art and science of growing ventures. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/management/entrepreneurship-and-innovation/entrepreneurial-finance-art-and-science-growing-ventures
• Neck, H., Neck, C., Murray, E. (2018). Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset. SAGE.

Further reading

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