Bachelor 2020/2021

Entrepreneurship

Type: Compulsory course (International Business and Management Studies)

Area of studies: Management

Delivered by: Department of Management

Where: St.Petersburg School of Economics and Management

When: 3 year, 4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Instructors: Рождественский Игорь Всеволодович, Sergey Melchenko, Климшина Елена Викторовна

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Contact hours: 40

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course surveys principles, concepts, practices and instruments of entrepreneurship with focus on innovation and technology entrepreneurship in the context of modern economic trends. Course material is based on best Russian and international practices and examples. The course will involve a certain number of guest lectures by prominent and relevant experts, as well as expert panels for project assessment with experts from startup and venture investor community. The practical part of the course work comprises group projects of real startups either generated within the course, or attracted from elsewhere.

Learning Objectives

• to give students enough theoretical and practical knowledge to launch and develop own technology startup project, as well as to work in a startup team.
• to use startup project metrics
• to evaluate entrepreneurial project outputs

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Know basics of modern technology innovation entrepreneurship
• Be able to develop appropriate strategic scenaria of project development
• Know basics of principles of innovative product development
• Know basics of venture and grant financing of innovative startup projects
• Know basics of business and financial modeling in startups
• Know basics of startup and product life cycles
• Be able to formulate and explore product ideas and market hypotheses
• Know basics of entrepreneurial universities and institutes of development
• Know basics of markets and marketing of innovative products, technology and opportunity scouting
• Have experience in presenting own projects to experts, potential customers and investors
• Have experience in developing a startup project
• Know basics of current economic trends as a source of ideas and technology demands

Course Contents

• Introduction to the course. General information. Innovation economy. Experience based entrepreneurship.
  Evolution of technologies and products. Technology readiness levels. Corporate cultures. Industrial innovations and strategic perspectives. Processes and scenaria of innovation commercialization. Ideation. Business thesis. Customer discovery and customer validation. Business models and financial models for startups.
• Product development and design thinking.
  TRIZ and Theory of Constraints. Agile and waterfall.
• Venture capital and corporate venture. Project life cycle from the investors’ point of view.
  Business angels. Venture funds. Corporate investors. Deal process and structure.
• Infrastructure for innovations.
  Business incubators, technoparks, accelerators, tech transfer centers.
• Russian system of Higher Education and Innovation Ecosystem
  Building Entrepreneurial University in Russia
• Lean startup and lean canvas
  Business thesis, hypotheses and problem interviews in customer discovery. Customer validation and value proposition. Customer segmentation. MVP and channels to customers. Key metrics and introduction to sales. Working with investors. Pitching for the investor. Entrepreneurial university. Conclusions and discussion.

Assessment Elements

• Group course projects
  Projects are accomplished by the groups of 4-5 students are presented in the written form (presentation) and verbally at the class. Each student is assessed individually, which means that each student should participate in the project presentation. Group course projects are graded from 1 to 10.
• Exam
  The exam is taken in written form and contains 6 questions based on the lecture material. Exam grades are from 1 to 10.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.3 * Exam + 0.7 * Group course projects

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Per Davidsson. (2016). Researching Entrepreneurship. Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.spr.insten.978.3.319.26692.3

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Бизнес-планирование : учеб. пособие / В.А. Баринов. — 4-е изд., перераб. и доп. — М. : ФОРУМ : ИНФРА-М, 2017. — 272 с. — (Среднее профессиональное образование). - Режим доступа: http://znanium.com/catalog/product/652953