Understanding Entrepreneurialism

BUS61704

Synopsis:

This module will equip students with an understanding of the values underpinning entrepreneurialism and engender an entrepreneurial mind-set, inspiring them to adopt entrepreneurial behaviours, including creativity and innovation, problem-solving skills, manage risks, overcome challenges, and cope with failures.

This module will explore the characteristics and traits of entrepreneurs and demonstrate that exploiting a new opportunity is a process involving planning, resourcing, managing activities including risks (the journey), and teamwork. A fundamental outcome of entrepreneurship is creating value through developing new products and services to meet identified market needs, which may involve establishing a new business entity. To start a successful business, an entrepreneur must be highly motivated, have entrepreneurial characteristics, a high-risk appetite and key management skills. Entrepreneurship involves mobilising human capital and social capital as well as financial capital. These entrepreneurial competencies are as important to the success of new ventures as the nature of the market opportunities they address

Experiential learning: Learning is achieved through undertaking a hands-on group entrepreneurial project involving identifying market needs, proposing innovative solution(s) and assess various risks, where students will take individual responsibility, rely on teamwork to solve problems/challenges, and learn from one another.

Action learning: Participation in class and group discussions throughout the process of entrepreneurial journey facilitates students in equipping an entrepreneurial mind-set and adopt entrepreneurial behaviours.

This is a coursework-based module, involving both individual and teamwork. Students will be assessed on participation throughout the module, group project, and individual assignments.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon completion of the module you should be able to:

PLO3: Apply critical and creative thinking skills for problem solving and decision making in a business context.

PLO4: Display innovative entrepreneurialism.

PLO5: Demonstrate leadership, teamwork, communication and social skills in business.

Transferable Skills: Skills learned in this module of study which utilized in other setting.

Details of each assessment task:

Assessment Task 1 - Participation throughout the semester

Individual Assignment: Participation+ Guest Lecture Reflection WriteUp (20%)

Students are expected to participate actively in lectures and tutorials, group discussions, and submit online assignments.

• 5% FROM YOUR IN CLASS ENGAGEMENT

• 15% FROM YOUR 3 GUEST LECTURE REFLECTIONS ((Please be informed that the number of Guest Lecture & the reflection reports subject to change based o Guest speakers availability.Any changes will be updated

accordingly in advance.)

1. Lectures and tutorials: students are to engage in class discussions by providing their ideas and opinions, as well as ask questions during guest speaker session(s).

2. Online channels: students are to submit online assignments through TIMEs to demonstrate learning progress throughout the module.

Assessment Task 2 - Group Project

Group Assignment: Entrepreneurial Venture Project (40%)-This is a group assignment. Students will be assigned by the tutor into teams of 3 to 6 students.

The group is to ideate, design and plan an entrepreneurial venture through steps of problem identification,opportunity assessment, and market analysis. Then present the business plan in the context of pitching the business idea. The group project consists of 3 parts:

1.   Proposal – using template provided (not graded by week 5 or 6(TBC)

2.   Written work - Business plan (Week 11)

3.   Final Presentation – pitch the business plan and present your entrepreneurial journey (week 10 till Week 13)

Group Project Part 1 - Group Project Proposal + Business Plan (30%)

Leaning on teamwork, team members are to brainstorm and propose a business idea, starting with assessing the needs and opportunities (through identifying the problems) in the market.    Team members are expected to actively voice out their opinions and at the sametime listen to other members’ ideas. Each team is to submit a proposal by session 4.

The Proposal

Follow the template given.

The proposal is not graded but a chance for you to get feedback and think through if it is visible. It is   not a fix formula that you must follow through to the end of the semester but works as a guidance and you may improvise wherever needed.

The Business Plan

•    Format – average 15 pages for the content of the business plan (Microsoft Word, A4 size),

excluding appendix, references, and other forms such as cover page and group project declaration form. (use your own judgement in terms of number of pages, 15 pages is usually the standard for business plan with the intention to test water, if your group would like to take the idea forward to the real world and do a more extensive business plan, feel free to do so).

•    Style. – either the contemporary style. that is more visual or traditional style. that is more wordy

•    Times New Roman Font, size 12 at 1.5 spacing

•    To include but not limited to:

1.   The team (team member names and roles/tasks)

2.  Vision & Mission

3.   The product and/or service

4.   Business model & Pricing (depending on your business model, pricing would be either cost + mark-up or subscription based, refer to lecture on Business Model)

5.   Target market (who will be your customer, where are they)

6.   Target market analysis (e.g. How big is your market? Who are the existing players/your competitors? Growth rate/potential of this market? How willing are your target customers to purchase your product?). This may be done through either primary data (you survey or interview potential customers) or secondary data (look online)

7.   Market positioning (e.g. are you going for affordability, niche, or high end)

8.   Promotion & Marketing (how and where do you promote/market your product/service)

9.   Financial projection – (1) estimated expenses at startup and 6 months ahead; (2)

estimated revenue at startup and 6 months ahead; Optional: estimated profit projection at startup and 6 months ahead

10. The entrepreneurial journey: challenge(s)/problem(s) faced during this group project as an entrepreneurial team & solution(s), and conclusion of the journey (key learning & what can be improved)

To do well, (1) do supply your business plan with visuals – such as charts, tables, graphs, and sample design of your marketing materials or product; (2) pay attention in classes. In plain words,  show your efforts. And, NO, you don’t have to follow exactly the sequence as above, you may also do your own research online to find the most fitting format according to your line of business/industry.

Submission:

Softcopy – Microsoft Word (myTIMeS)

Step 1: Turnitin Tab on TiMes: Only the Content (including accompanying graphs, tables, pictures, figures, etc, without cover page and declaration form) & References (if any)

If you include cover page and declaration form, the Turnitin will show HIGH percentage of similarity.

Step 2: Compilation of everything into 1 Microsoft Word file on myTIMeS (there will be submission folders created for your respective tutorial groups)

In ONE file

1.   Assignment Cover page

2.    Marking Grid

3.   Turnitin Report (the whole Turnitin report)

4.    Content of the report

5.    Reference list (if any)

6.   Appendixes (if any)

7.    Group members declaration form. and time sheet

Group Project Part 2 - Group Project Presentation (10%)

Each group has maximum 15 minutes to present the group project.(time may vary depending on

the semester and number of students, tutors to inform. and confirm the time allowed) To include:

(1) Pitching your business idea to a potential investor/lecturer/tutor

(2) Your entrepreneurial journey as an entrepreneurial team

Submission:

Softcopy – submit in the file that is Microsoft PowerPoint (myTIMeS)

Timeline of this Group Assignment:

Assessment Task 3 - Individual Assignment

Individual Assignment: Individual Report (20%)

This is a piece of individual work.

Choose  an  entrepreneur  of  your  preference  and  analyse  the  entrepreneur.  You  may  choose  an entrepreneur: (1) whom you know first-hand (either through your observation of someone you know; or you interview the entrepreneur), or (2) do a research through secondary sources such as biography or internet. For those who choose someone you know, yes, it is ok if the person is your parents or siblings, please do attach some “proof”, such as archival photos, the business’ social media page, etc. There is no restriction on the nationality of the chosen entrepreneur and entrepreneurship is not bounded by nationality. The focus is on the entrepreneurialism of the chosen entrepreneur. It is common  for  any entrepreneur to start/own/operate several businesses at the sametime. One business may have started with many challenges at the start but went well afterwards, and viceversa. Of the businesses started up by an entrepreneur, may have different progress and all. So, use your own judgement in deciding the context to illustrate your analysis and learning.

Questions to answer:

1.   Provide a brief background of the chosen entrepreneur – points to consider but not limited to: childhood, education, skills, and others. Analyse his/her entrepreneurial characteristics, and entrepreneurial leadership qualities.

2.   Entrepreneurial motivation and context for starting up the business(es)

3.  What was the problem that the entrepreneur identified in the market? How did the entrepreneur address the problem? Who were the entrepreneur’s target market?

4.  The success and/or failures of the business (What went wrong, what did the entrepreneur did to salvage the business? Or what did the entrepreneur did exceptionally well to make the business success?)

5.   How does the entrepreneur inspire you to be a future entrepreneur?

Tips to dowell in answering these questions: (represents the content of your essay/report)

•     Write the assignment following the 5 points above into 5 parts. Start with the question number, the question, followed by your answer.

•     Higher scores will be given for analysis instead of pure descriptive content. You are to analyse the entrepreneur, not to copy and paste from the internet. For example,

From the internet:

Ms X started XYZ at the age of 17, the business led to a huge success. Following the success, she expanded quickly, getting USD10 million investments from angel investors. However, due to pandemic, her business went downhill, and she was in huge debt. Not giving up, she found new ways of selling her products online and the business is once again successful.

Your own analysis in your own words:

The entrepreneur Ihave chosen is Ms X. It is admirable tome that she was bold enough to start  her  business  at  the  age  of  17  despite  not  having  a  degree  and  work  experience. Although she was successful in getting USD10 million investment, she lost it all due to pandemic. The fact that she didn’t give up despite the huge debt shows her perseverance. Therefore, we can see that her entrepreneurial traits include being bold, risk-taking, and perseverance.

•     You must apply the concepts or principles learned in this module.

•     You must support your discussions with relevant theories.

Format

Write your answer in a report with the following format:

•     Work must be typewritten using Times New Roman Font, size 12 at 2.0 spacing.

•     Length:  2000 words  (plus  minus  10%),  not including cover page, reference list, tables, charts, illustrations, and Turnitin report. Marks will be deducted for excessive length. It is advised to spread between the questions, for example, not to have a descriptive story of the entrepreneur for 1,000 words and 200 words for each of the other points. Do include visuals.