ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION: A BUSINESS MODEL APPROACH - 2019/0

Module Overview

In order to compete, governments around the world are concerned, increasingly, to create entrepreneurial cultures, people and organisations. Entrepreneurship, with its emphasis on innovation, is seen to be the means by which both businesses and economies achieve sustained competitive advantage. Accordingly, this module introduces the student to the concept of entrepreneurship and shows him/her how it is possible not only to develop more personal entrepreneurial capability but how enterprise cultures can be created within both economies and regions.

This module is designed to help you understand how to identify and assess new venture opportunities in either a start-up or a corporate environment, particularly in the digital economy. It uses tools, such as business modelling, lean start up and open innovation frameworks to understand how entrepreneurial innovation has shaped existing products/services and its potential for future innovation. In the course of this examination it also considers how entrepreneurial innovation can be encouraged and, importantly, how it can be squandered or lost. Students will be given the opportunity to assess, and develop, their own entrepreneurial skills and attributes. In an age where entrepreneurs are becoming ever more essential to the achievement of competitive advantage for both economies and companies, this module represents cutting edge knowledge about the subject for students to apply theory in practice.

A range of different business models are considered alongside processes and prospects for innovative development. Students are encouraged to research existing products/services and, using the business model framework, to develop systematic plans for entrepreneurial innovation in a chosen field.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

GUMETA CHAVEZ Humberto (SII DUFE)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

The module is divided into three broad areas:

1) Entrepreneurship and the Environment

• Approaches to the Study of Entrepreneurship: Considers the difficulties involved in reaching a definition of entrepreneurship.


• The role of Entrepreneurship in Economy and Society


• Support and influences on Entrepreneurship development

2) Entrepreneurship and the Person

• The nature, characteristics and Behaviour of the Entrepreneur


• Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation


• Entrepreneurship, Motivation and Teams

3) Entrepreneurship and the Organization

• Initiating New Entrepreneurial Ventures: Explores the theory and practice of new venture creation. 


• Business Models and Planning - how business models can be used to determine the feasibility of the new venture, how they evolve, and what elements are critical in business plans.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Group work: Alternative indivual assignment 1500 words

Assessment Strategy

Assessment consists of one piece of course work that consist of two parts, as follows:

Part One: The Concept for a New Venture

A written group assignment (3000 words), conducted in small teams, which evaluates the ‘innovation potential’ of an existing or proposed product or service and the resulting implications for business models. This project will use a standard (but flexible) analytical format (the ‘business model canvas’) and will offer students a choice of products/services. The use of this small team approach is necessary because innovatory ideas rely on dialogue and challenge.

Part Two: An individual reflection on Entrepreneurship

A written assignment (up to 2000 words), carried out individually, which allows the student to consider an aspect of their own entrepreneurial experiences, characteristic, or potential in light of the theory and examples presented throughout the module. The student is encouraged to explore their personal perspectives on the topic of entrepreneurship, and to deepen their knowledge of the application of the entrepreneurial theory to their own practical circumstances.

Students will receive feedback and support throughout the module during pre-arranged personal discussions with the academics. In addition, their presentations are reviewed during the module, with verbal feedback and written comments provided to give substantive mid – term corrections and guidance.

Module aims

• This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of enterprise at the individual, firm and societal level of inquiry. The module will enable students to understand frameworks of entrepreneurial behaviour, innovation and wider societal issues and enable them to relate such frameworks to practice. The purpose is to enable students to increase their capacity for entrepreneurial activity, and be aware of the importance of enterprise in the economy.
• The aim of this module is to introduce participants to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship, and to develop in them the attributes of the entrepreneur.Specifically the objectives are to enable participants to:
• Evaluate the various frameworks of entrepreneurship
• Analyse the economic and social role of entrepreneurship
• Evaluate the factors affecting the development of entrepreneurship
• Critically evaluate the types of support that can stimulate entrepreneurship and an enterprise culture
• Critically assess and explore the processes involved in developing their own entrepreneurial capability and in creating an entrepreneurial venture
• Identify their own potential as innovators.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The teaching and learning strategy is designed to benefit passive as well as active learners. Apart from catering for the needs of both types of learner, and, therefore, providing  a  teaching and learning strategy that is fairer and does not disadvantage either group, it is intended to promote sound understanding of theory and how it may be applied in practice. Whilst, in Honey and Mumford’s terms, the pragmatist and activist learners are given the opportunity to experience the theorist and reflector learning styles, the theorists and reflectors are able to learn by doing, thereby helping develop  in them the attributes of the activist and pragmatist. This is seen as important in a programme that is intended to educate students “for” entrepreneurship rather than simply educating them “about” it. Hence it carries more weight in the assessment process. 

The teaching and learning methods include   

• interactive lectures  


• guest lectures (role models and subject matter experts)  


• case analyses  


• group projects  


• presentations


• SurreyLearn


• support materials


• reading


• Individual and Group work

In addition the module teaching team are accessible throughout the semester to address and clarify questions. Office hours will be provided. Feedback given will be oral and written on an individual basis and summative.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN3132

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2019/0 academic year.