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ENTREPRENEURSHIP & SMEs
Année du cours : 1 année(s)
Etablissement : IÉSEG School of Management
Langue : English
Formation(s) dans laquelle/lesquelles le cours apparait :
Période : S1 ou S2
No specific prerequisites are necessary for being able to attend this course. The willingness to be “active” participants through contributing to discussion during lessons and to work in group will be welcome.
At the end of the course, the student should be able to :
1) understand and know the framework of a start-up firm, a research spin-off firm and, more generally, of small and medium businesses (SMEs):
a) have learned some basic notions about technological entrepreneurship and start-up/research spin-off definition, main characteristics, problems and needs;
b) understand the actual institutional and technological environment, the role and the key characteristics of science parks, incubators, venture capitalists, business angels etc.;
c) define what is an industrial partnership, an industrial district/cluster and a business ecosystem as well as their characteristics; define the difference between formal and informal entrepreneurship networks;
2) develop and implement an economic and strategic analysis thanks to the exercise of:
a) the business model analysis of a science park or incubator (located in Europe) through the investigation of its Internet website and some grey and scientific literature about it;
b) a SWOT analysis building (starting from the analysis of the chosen science park-incubator);
3) act in the actual constantly moving economic environment (influenced by the Internet and ICTs):
a) be able to critically discuss and think over the consequences of the Internet and ICT revolution on the actual context of entrepreneurship&SMEs: virtual proximity, use of tools like e-mails and Skype are changing the way to do business and the relationships among the different actors involved, etc.;
b) be a member/founder of a start-up or be involved in an industrial project.
1) Research spin-offs and start-up firms: definitions, main characteristics, problems and needs;
2) The importance of structures linked to the territory: the relationship among research spin-offs, universities, start-ups, science parks and incubators;
3) How to choose the case-study and how to write the report (index, introduction, theoretical framework, case-study analysis; discussion and conclusions, references). Some basic concepts about business models, SWOT analysis, comparative analysis, will be provided;
4) Industrial partnerships, alliances, business ecosystems: their role and utility for research spin-off/start-up;
5) Science parks, innovation clusters, industrial districts, physical and virtual agglomeration phenomena, various forms of proximity: presentation of these concepts and active discussion with the students;
6) Formal and informal networks: their role for European SMEs. The case of French and Italian SMEs dealing in Brazil;
7) Discussion and policy suggestions about the actual role and relationships among science parks/incubators and research spin-offs/start-ups. Some reflections on networks, traditional industrial partnerships and the emerging importance of business ecosystems following the Internet and ICT revolution
8) Presentation of the various case-studies by the different students and general discussion.