Position in curriculum 

Required for the Entrepreneurship track within the International Economics and Business Master (REBO) and the Sustainable Business Innovation Master (GEO); elective for the Masters in Science & Innovation Management, Sustainable Development and Energy Science (GEO); elective for the Master in Science & Business Management  (Science); required for the university wide Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Innovation track. 

Contents
Entrepreneurship focuses on identifying new opportunities for creating value for customers or users and commercially developing those opportunities to establish a profitable business. Sustainable entrepreneurship combines the traditional focus of entrepreneurship with an emphasis on opportunities to alleviate social or environmental conditions. Sustainable entrepreneurship is about entrepreneurs striving simultaneously for profit and for improving local and global environmental and social conditions.

This course is addressed to students interested in exploring the challenges of sustainable entrepreneurship, both in SMEs and in larger organizations. The course will provide academic insights into the entrepreneurial process and in particular:

• The challenges of launching and sustaining a new business;
• The challenges of keeping the entrepreneurial spirit in large organizations.
• The challenges of aligning profits with social and environmental value.
• The course is based on lectures, case discussions and seminars with guest speakers.

The overall objective of this course is to make the students aware of the opportunities offered by an entrepreneurial career, the skills needed for and academic knowledge about entrepreneurial processes, in the context of sustainability. The course emphasizes the business & management perspectives to entrepreneurship, while the economics perspective is emphasized in the course “Economics of Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ (ECMEEI).

Learning objectives
This course is designed to provide academic knowledge on the development, market introduction and management of new sustainable business. The major course objectives include:

• to provide understanding of (sustainable) entrepreneurship (what entrepreneurship is, cognitive foundations of entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial opportunities, distinctive characteristics of entrepreneurs),
• to provide understanding and skills about the processes of starting a new sustainable business (business planning, resource acquisition, capability development for launching a new sustainable business), and
• to provide understanding and skills about running and managing a new sustainable business (marketing strategies, operational strategies, growth strategies, and exit strategies).

This necessitates that students understand the concepts of sustainability and sustainable entrepreneurship, and that students learn about the economic, environmental and social problems facing local and global communities and recognize the opportunities that arise from this. Finally, students should be able to evaluate the risks and rewards of undertaking sustainable entrepreneurship, which involves finding ways to measure the economic as well as social and environmental risks and rewards of a new venture.

Format
This course is an interactive and participatory course that teaches students the key concepts in the class by developing a new business plan, a business case, or by doing applied research related to sustainable entrepreneurship. Students are expected to attend and participate in all classes and take part in all group discussions.

• Project / Business Planning: Students are required to develop or evaluate a business plan for a new sustainable business, to develop ac ase for an existing business, or to conduct applied research related to sustainable entrepreneurship. This is a group assignment and guidelines will be given to students during the course.
• Final Exams: The exams consist of open-ended questions. The questions are based on the key course concepts that are taught and discussed during the course.

 

Assessment method

• Case discussions and (evaluation of) project / business planning 40%
• Written exam 60%