Prospectus

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The World of Entrepreneurs

Course
2019-2020

Tags

SBE

Admissions requirements

None. Please note that 100-level courses do not mean “less work” but “less preparation” (as in no prerequisite courses needed). This is not a course for students who do not have time to study!

Description

“Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” — Peter Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (1985)

This 100-level course will introduce you to the innovator’s and entrepreneur’s disruptive role in society. The point is not that you need a special talent. It’s that you can identify and address a need. Everyone has an opinion on what works and doesn’t. Everyone can see how small or dramatic changes might improve matters. The problem is that few people agree on how to tackle problems. The challenge is thus to organize and make a difference. This class will focus on the influences and processes advancing or inhibiting change.

In this course (and the major), “SBE” refers to Social and/or Business Entrepreneurship in which (not-)for-profit “enterprises” compete with other enterprises to produce “products” (goods or services) that create value for society. Both social and business entrepreneurs create organizations that are financially self-sustaining. These definitions thus exclude governments that face no competition and charities, which depend on donations.

Course objectives

Skills:

  • ompare past entrepreneurial cycles with current entrepreneurial activities

  • Identify a challenge, investigate its threats and PESTLE influences, and evaluate potential solutions to that challenge

Knowledge:

  • Discriminate between incremental and disruptive innovation

  • Explain the tensions among monopoly rents, innovation and social welfare

Timetable

Once available, timetables will be published in the e-Prospectus.

Mode of instruction

The course is taught through two-hour seminars. Students will be expected to participate in both large and small group discussions; present and defend their ideas within an academic setting; and take part in group projects. The instructor will facilitate and ensure the efficient running of the discussion, but students are responsible for its quality.

Assessment

  • Class participation: 15% (continuous weeks 1-7)

  • Individual presentation: 15% (due week 5)

  • Peer critiques: 2 x 10% each (due week 6)

  • Group project & presentation: 15% (due week 7)

  • Individual essay: 35% (due reading week)

Please note:

  • In accordance with article 4.8 of the Course and Examination Regulations (OER), within 30 days after the publication of grades, the instructor will provide students the opportunity to inspect their exams/coursework.

  • There is a no re-sit policy at Leiden University College.

Blackboard

There will be a Blackboard site available for this course. Students will be enrolled at least one week before the start of classes.

Reading list

Multiple academic and popular articles.

Registration

This course is open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator. Interested non-LUC students should contact course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.

Contact

David Zetland (d.j.zetland@luc.leidenuniv.nl)
Leiden University College, Room 4.37

Remarks

This course is open to all students, but it is also the first course in the social and business entrepreneurship minor