Syllabus for Entrepreneurship D

Decisions and guidelines

The course syllabus was approved by the board of the Department of Business Studies on delegation from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Learning outcomes

This course prepares participants for a future career as entrepreneurs, either as founders of new businesses or within already established companies. It also provides the cornerstones for launching and implementing entrepreneurial projects within already established organisations.

By the end of the course, participants will know how to identify, account for and pro-actively deal with some of the most common challenges involved in launching a new business venture. Specifically, they will be able to:

• understand and account for the fundamental pre-conditions for entrepreneurship,
• write a business plan and effectively communicate and "sell" new business concepts to other people,
• understand and actively use financial statements and basic company valuation,
• compare and critically assess different sources of financing and select those that best fit the requirements of the new entrepreneurial venture,
• carry out an industry analysis and formulate a business strategy for the new venture that can be communicated to external stakeholders,
• plan and argue for the internationalisation of new ventures, which involves systematic and strategic selection of entry into foreign markets,
• plan the guide launching and development of new business ventures inside established corporations.

Content

The Entrepreneurship D course has a distinctly practical orientation. Discussions are carried out about real-life cases to identify and deal with common problems and challenges during the early start-up phase. Analytical models and tools are applied to issues such as selling and marketing new products and services, balance sheets, income statements and cash flow analyses, financing the growing firm, industry analysis and business strategy, entry into foreign markets, and entrepreneurship inside the established corporation.

Instruction

The language of instruction is English. Teaching involves a mix of: (a) lectures that introduce organising frameworks and analytical tools, (b) guest lectures where active entrepreneurs and prominent practitioners share their business experiences and insights with the course participants, and (c) real-life case discussions. In the case discussions, course participants apply analytical models and tools for deciding about real-life problems in companies or projects in the start-up phase. Some of the cases involve role plays around various business situations and problems.

Assessment

The student will get one single grade, equivalent to 7.5 credits.

The examination consists of a take-home exam and oral and written assignments, carried out both individually and in groups. The grade for the entire course is based on an assessment of all parts of the examination.

Grading criteria are presented in the study guide that applies to the course section. The following grades will be used, pass with distinction (VG), pass (G) and fail (U). Examinations handed in late will not be assessed except under special circumstances. Any remaining supplemental work must be handed in by the deadline specified in the study guide.

For students who have not received a passing grade for the course, the entire course (including all examinations) will have to be redone during subsequent course sections.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Uppsala University does not accept cheating or plagiarism. Suspected incidents of cheating or plagiarism are reported to the Vice-Chancellor, which may issue a formal warning to the student or suspend the student from studies for a certain period.

NOTE: Only completed courses can count toward a degree.

Other directives

The course overlaps/substitutes among others the following courses in Entrepreneruship: 2FE012, 2FE026, 2FE031, 2FE033, 2FE105, 8FE623.