Entrepreneurship [EFASM405]
Learning outcomes
The course EFASM405 - Entrepreneurship aims to - Develop the skills needed to identify, select and exploit a business opportunity; - Introduce the tools that can support the creation of new activities (Lean start-up, Business Model, Business Plan, Financial Plan); - Develop entrepreneurial attitudes (initiative, creativity, sense of responsibility); - Understand the economic and societal challenges of entrepreneurship.
Content
Based on rigorous conceptual foundations, this course introduces a series of tools useful for the development of an entrepreneurial project, within an existing firm or through the creation of one's own company. The aim is not only to identify a starting idea but also to elaborate the business model that allows to exploit it. In addition to the development of an opportunity, we will discuss the costing of the entrepreneurial project and, in particular, the issues involved in drawing up a business plan and a financial plan.
Teaching methods
This course alternates : - ex cathedra sessions (theoretical concepts), - exercises and workshops, including team work on their project (applications), - presentations by professionals (discoveries), The emphasis is on interaction between students within their group and between groups, through practical work on their entrepreneurial projects.
Evaluations
The assessment consists of the development of an entrepreneurial project carried out in groups of 2 to 4 students. The aim is to identify a business opportunity and propose a coherent business model for its exploitation. This may be the creation of a new company (fictitious or not), or an opportunity for a partner organisation (university spin-off, existing companies, public organisations, non-profit organisations, etc.). For student entrepreneurs who are serious about starting their own business or launching a real project with a partner organisation, they can apply as a project owner and select their own teammates, regardless of whether or not the team members are enrolled in the course. • In case the project owner wants to select students from the Entrepreneurship course, he/she will have the opportunity to present his/her concept already in the second session. He/she will be able to post his/her job offers on the course forum and organise job interviews to "hire" the rest of his/her team. The project leader will announce at the outset whether he or she is looking for teammates who wish to invest in the project in the longer term or whether, on the contrary, the partnership will only last for the duration of the Entrepreneurship course. • In case the team includes external partners (who are not enrolled in the Entrepreneurship course), the team will have to submit a letter of intent in which it will argue this choice. The letter of intent should be sent to julie.hermans@unamur.be by 01/04/2019 at the latest. In addition, the presence of external partners will be required at the mid-term presentation. The evaluation is carried out in two stages: 1. Presentation of the opportunity in "pitching" mode (5 minutes max) in front of a jury, in the compulsory presence of the whole team. 2. Final report to be submitted as a team on webcampus by 1 June 2019 (.doc; .docx, .pdf). This final report will describe the targeted opportunity and the group's entrepreneurial approach to address it, including the evolution of the project from idea to final report (e.g. feedback on the remarks received during the mid-term presentation). Structure/content of the report (example) : - A summary of the project (1 page - executive summary format) - The project team: profiles, functions, motivations, operating mode, roles and involvement of each person - Presentation of the project: context, value proposition, business model - Action plan: identification of the most important assumptions of the business model (with arguments) and validation plan - Project costing: budget, needs and sources of funding - Your critical reflection: key events that moved your project forward, group dynamics and learning, relationship with the field, reflections on the economic and management concepts used. The final report will be a maximum of 15 pages, excluding annexes and bibliography (put additional information, evidence, illustrations, etc. in the annexes). It will be assessed through the following criteria: - The consistency of the proposed business model - The quality of the plan to validate the business model (are the assumptions well formulated? are the planned actions feasible? do the planned actions really validate the assumptions?) - The level of validation of the business model: use of primary data (interviews, surveys) and secondary data (reports, site) to validate assumptions and cost the project. - The quality of the critique of the group's entrepreneurial approach based on the entrepreneurship literature (readings are proposed in the "reading portfolio" file on webcampus) o Example: Did your group follow an effectual or causal approach? What difficulties do entrepreneurial teams usually face, and how did your own team cope with them? Which entrepreneurial attitude seems to be the most central in entrepreneurship, and how did you develop it in your team? o Possible sources: Small Business Economics, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Revue de l'entrepreneuriat, Revue internationale PME, etc. - Form o Compliance with instructions and deadlines o Quality of visual and/or written material (cover page, structure, illustrations, relevant annexes, etc.) o Quality of writing (style, spelling, referencing, etc.) To be able to validate the course and access the second session, students must have developed an entrepreneurial project in a project group of 2 to 4 students in the first session. The second session consists of the writing and oral defence of a report (maximum 5 pages) that presents the ways in which the business project could be improved compared to its previous version. The report and defence will be done individually. The date of the oral examination will be arranged directly with the course tutor (the student will contact julie.hermans@unamur.be before 15 July 2019). The report will be sent by email one week before the date of the oral exam. During the oral exam, the student will present the business opportunity addressed by the project and the business model chosen to exploit it (5 minutes maximum). The presentation will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion (Question & Answer). The evaluation criteria are the same as in the first session.
Recommended readings
A. Osterwalder, Y. Pigneur (2010) Business Model Generation, self published S. Sarasvathy et al (2001). Effectual entrepreneurial expertise and bounds. pennState
Language of instruction
French / FrançaisLocation for course
NAMUROrganizer
Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales et de gestionRue de Bruxelles, 61
5000 NAMUR
