This class exists in these courses :
• IÉSEG > IESEG Degree - Programme Grande École > Semester 2 > 2,00 ECTS

Prerequisites

No specific prerequisites are necessary for being able to attend this course. The willingness to be "active" participants through contributing to discussion during lessons will be welcome.

Learning outcomes

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) being able to implement the new concept of business model canvas, one of the actually most used frameworks for describing the elements of business models;
c) understand the actual institutional and technological environment, the role and the key characteristics of science parks, incubators, venture capitalists, business angels etc.;
d) define what is an industrial partnership, an industrial district/cluster and a (digital) 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) business model analysis of some successful companies;
b) SWOT analysis building;
c) business model canvas building;
d) pedagogical exercises: reading/discussion of press articles and videos seeing/discussion about successful start-up case-studies (history of a business case: steps for product creation…);
3) act in the actual constantly moving economic environment (influenced by the Internet and ICTs):
a) being 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;
b) being a member/founder of a start-up or being involved in an industrial project.

Course description

1) Start-up and research spin-off firms: definitions, main characteristics, problems and needs. The relationship among start-ups, research spin-offs, universities, science parks and incubators;
2) Some basic concepts about business models, business model canvas, SWOT analysis, will be provided;
3) Industrial partnerships, alliances, (digital) business ecosystems: their role and utility for SMEs following the Internet and ICT revolution;
4) Science parks, incubators, innovation clusters, physical and virtual agglomeration phenomena, various forms of proximity, formal and informal networks: presentation of these concepts and active discussion with the students;
5) The actual context of the Internet and ICT diffusion: their influence on company strategy and development;
6) The most important aspects of SMEs' development, success and growth: active discussion with the students through articles' reading and videos' seeing;
7) Analysis of the history and of the business model of some successful companies;
8) Reading in classroom (followed by interactive discussion with the students) of journal and press articles: cf. The Economist, Forbes, The Times, The Guardian, Journal of Business Strategy…;
9) Pedagogical exercises: projection (followed by active discussion in classroom) of video series "from idea to business" and of videos about "successful entrepreneurial case-studies" (from Agoranov Parisian incubator): the students see every video in order to listen to the history of a business case and the various steps for the product creation; some breaks are suggested during every video in order to ask questions to students (i.e. verify what they have understood, ask what they think about the video content and which are their comments). This process has the aim to foster interactive discussion with students and their critical thinking.

Class type

Class structure

Teaching methods

• Interactive class
• Presentation
• Project work
• Research
• Tutorial

Assessment

- Student active participation during all the course lectures (regular class attendance and punctuality, useful contributions to discussion, interest and attention, attitude to be actively involved in the debate with all the other students, capacity to think “critically” and to feed the debate with a constructive added value), written answers provided in class after the videos projection (pedagogical exercises), (40%)
- Written formal exam in class after the four days of lessons in class: the student will have to read the history of a successful company (that will be assigned the day of the exam) and then discuss critically the case-study through a reconstruction of the main steps of the company development, growth and success. The student will have to provide evidence of having understood and applied to this case-study the main concepts learned in class during all the course (60%).

Recommended reading

• Salvador E. (2011) “Are science parks and incubators good "brand names" for spin-offs? The case study of Turin”, Journal of Technology Transfer, vol. 36 (2): 203-232; -

• Benghozi P.-J., Salvador E. (2014) “Are traditional industrial partnerships so strategic for research spinoff development? Some evidence from the Italian case”, Entrepreneurship&Regional Development: an International Journal, vol. 26 (1-2): 47-79; -

• - Salvador E., Mariotti I., Conicella F. (2013) “Science Park or Innovation Cluster? Similarities and differences in physical and virtual firms’ agglomeration phenomena”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour&Research, vol. 19, n. 6, pp. 656- -

• Salvador E., Pinot de Villechenon F., Lopez-Rizzo H. (2014) “European SMEs and the Brazilian market: the key role of social networks”, European Business Review, vol. 26, n. 4, forthcoming; -

• Christine K. Volkmann, Kim Oliver Tokarski, Marc Grünhagen, (2010), « Entrepreneurship in a European Perspective, concepts for the creation and growth of new ventures », Gabler Verlag, Springer; -

• Thomas N. Duening, Robert D. Hisrich, Michael A. Lechter (2010, 2015), « Technology Entrepreneurship, Taking Innovation to the Marketplace », Academic Press, Elsevier; -

• Thomas N. Duening, Robert A. Hisrich, Michael A. Lechter (2009, 2015), « Technology Entrepreneurship: Creating, Capturing, and Protecting Value », Academic Press, Elsevier; -

• Efraim Turban, Linda Volonino, (2010) « Information Technology for Management, Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy », 7th Edition International Student Version, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. -

• RECOMMENDED READING -

  Class books :
  Press articles and scientific papers (published on well recognised International reviews) will be the main source of reference for the course: here are some selected references:
  - Salvador E., Benghozi P.-J. (2015) “Research spin-off firms: does the university involvement really matter?”, Revue Management International, vol. 19, n. 2, pp. 22-39;
  - Salvador E. (2011) “Are science parks and incubators good "brand names" for spin-offs? The case study of Turin”, Journal of Technology Transfer,

Internet resources

• IESEG Online

  I will upload a copy of the slides used in classroom the day after every lesson; I will also use the School Intranet site to put on-line further articles in the case the students will not be able to find the documents needed for attending the course and for analysing the case-study. I prefer to give priority to the capacity of students to search on the Internet and find scientific and grey literature by themselves.