General provisions

The course is offered as a single subject course and can be included in an education programme at Uppsala University according to the degree system. The course syllabus was approved by the board of the Department of Business Studies on delegation from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Entry requirements

60 credits

Learning outcomes

This course prepares participants for a future career as entrepreneurs and founders of new companies. They gain practical insights into those aspects of running a business that are particularly salient during the early development of a new company.

By the end of the course, participants will know how to identify and account for some of the most common challenges involved in starting a company or launching a new business venture within an established organisation. Specifically, they will be able to:

• Understand the fundamental pre-conditions for entrepreneurship.
• Design a business plan and effectively communicate and "sell" new business concepts to other people.
• Distinguish between different sources of financing and assess which best fit the requirements of the new entrepreneurial venture.
• Understand financial statements (balance sheet and income statement, and cash flow analysis).
• Perform an environmental analysis and formulate a business strategy for the new venture that can be communicated to external stakeholders.
• Plan for the internationalisation of the new venture through foreign market entry.
• Plan for the launching and developing new business ventures inside established corporations.

Content

The Entrepreneurship 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 of a company. Analytical models and tools are applied to issues such as selling and marketing new products and services, understanding financial statements, financing the growing firm, competitive strategy, entry into foreign markets, and entrepreneurship inside the established corporation.

Instruction

The course is taught in 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 are exposed to a range of business problems and asked to decide about real-life problems in companies or projects in the start-up phase.

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, pending availability on the course.

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: Entrepreneurship A 2FE031, Entrepreneurship 2FE033, Entrepreneurship 2FE026, Entrepreneurship, Basic Course A 2FE012, Entrepreneurship, avancerad kurs D 2FE623, Entrepreneurship 8FE623.