MAN 632 Advanced Entrepreneurship (Spring 2024)

Lecturer	Dr. Nora Zybura
Course Format	Elective
Course Credit	6 ECTS
Language	English
Assessment	Final examination (50%), 4 team cases including (40%), peer evaluation (10%)
Examination date	tbd.

Course Outline

Successful entrepreneurs pursue new business opportunities in a pioneering way. They significantly contribute to innovation, growth and employment generation. Meet top entrepreneurs who share their experience and insights in MAN 632 and explore their entrepreneurial challenges in real-life case studies.

The course approach:

We bring distinguished entrepreneurs to class who share their insights, lessons learned and advice on how to build and grow a business from a Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Business-to-Business (B2B) and Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) perspective.

We work on real-life case studies with newly developed and most recent Mannheim Business School Cases. You will prepare your results and suggestions, present in Case Study Sessions and deepen your insights by discussing and reflecting your insights with the founders coming to class (Cases 2024: Amorelie, Stocard, VC-Case, Foodspring).

We develop tools and concepts based on an underlying strategic perspective to grow the venture. We will address and connect the three focus areas of 1) Team, Culture and Communication, 2) Growth-Oriented Marketing and Strategy, 3) Financing Growth and Corporate Entrepreneurship

The blend of unique practical insights from top entrepreneurs, discussing concepts on how to advance the business with them, and theoretical insights and tools, will enable you with outstanding skills and a great network. This will support you in advancing your own venture and/or your corporate career in the future. Next to the practical insights and tools, you will also gain fundamental insights into theoretical perspectives on entrepreneurship to prepare your master’s thesis and/ or future research career.

Next to the speaker series in this class, you are invited to MCEI's flagship events – Start-up Lounges and Founder Talks. These events will further inspire you in your startup journey, connect you with our startup ecosystem and expand your network even further.

Prerequisites

You do not need any other prerequisites to join than passion for Entrepreneurship and Start-ups.

The course is open to all M.Sc. MMM, M.Sc. MMBR, M.Sc. Bus. Edu., M.Sc. Bus. Inf., M.A. K&W, M.Sc. Econ. and International Students regarding the Examination Rules & Regulations. For all other disciplines: Feel encouraged to apply/ participate and we will try our best to accommodate you for credit or as a guest listener.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course students...

will have gained fundamental insights into both practical and theoretical perspectives on entrepreneurship

have learned best practices and gained deep insights from top entrepreneurs

will have built a solid entrepreneurial network to advance their own business and careers

have gained knowledge on how investors look at new ventures

will be acquainted with case study training and elements of problem-based learning (PBL)

will have improved their case solving and presentation skills

have a solid foundation e.g. for a seminar or master thesis at our chair – especially for the „Inside the Venture“ theses

have improved their problem solving capabilities

If you want to start your own startup project in class: Apply for our course MAN 631 next semester.

Registration and Final Course Decision

Please register via the Student Portal (https://portal2.uni-mannheim.de) during the central University of Mannheim registration period. It is not necessary to register for case study sessions upfront. We will coordinate case study groups via the MCEI pages when the course enrollment is final. You will form teams of 5–6 for this course and each team has to present 4 Cases each in the Case Study Sessions. Number of teams will be based on the number of students enrolled in this class.

Next to your Portal² registration, please join our MAN 632 course group on the MCEI platform. Instructions will be provided throughout the first session and via e-mail to all students who have registered via Portal². In this class, we will not work with the University of Mannheim ILIAS system. You need the MCEI course group to obtain your study material and stay up to date regarding all course information and relevant discussions. In case you face trouble signing up, please contact the course coordinator. Click here to register for the course group!

Place and Time

Lecture: 15 February – 30 May 2024 (Thursdays) from 1:45 pm – 3:15 pm, O 148 MVV Hörsaal (Ostflügel)
Case Studies: 7 March 2024 (L9, 1–2, Lecture Hall 001), 21 March 2024 (L9,1–2, Room 409), 18 April 2024 (L9, 1–2, Lecture Hall 001), 16 May 2024 (L9, 1–2, Lecture Hall 001)

Assessment

Final examination (50%), 4 team cases including (40%), peer evaluation (10%).

Students who miss the Case Study team formation and the cases will fail this part of the course (constituting 50% of their grade). Dropping the class after team formation is not possible, as partial grades are obtained.

Persons in Charge

Professor: Prof. Dr. Michael Woywode

Course Coordinator: Dr. Nora Zybura

Course Load and Language

ECTS: 6

Language: English

Readings and Resources

Readings & Resources:

See detailed course outline below.

Course Material:

All course material (where applicable) will be provided via the MCEI Group „MAN 632 Advanced Entrepreneurship FSS 2024“. We will not use ILIAS at any point in this class. Please do not be irritated by the ILIAS option not being available.

Additional Information and Recommendation

Students are encouraged to join our Start-up Lounges and Founder Talks on a regular basis – they are part of your overall entrepreneruial experience. Transferring insights from class to the real world by learning from real startups and their challenges forms a substantial part of your learning. Remember that networking is an enabler of amazing opportunities. Readings are mostly designed as a self-study element for your preparation at home. They form an important basis for a sophisticated discussion from theory and practice in class and put the entrepreneurial realities into perspective. All students are expected to prepare their readings diligently. Your active participation in class will benefit you significantly in preparing for the exam, which is a continuous learning endeavor in this class rather than 1 week of learning materials by the end of class.

Notice for repeat students: We strongly recommended you fully retake this class with regular attendance – we have changed the grading scheme and some content.

Preliminary Schedule and Course Content for Spring 2024 – Please Check back for Updates (Last Update: 10 April 2024)!

Session 1 | 15 February 2024 | O 148 MVV Hörsaal (Ostflügel) | 1:45 pm – 3:15 pm

Introduction & Outlook

The Basics of Start-up Development

Attention: Make sure to register on Portal2 so we can contact you about the course details. You will receive some course information prior to the first session on your university email address. If you have trouble registering for the course, please contact the course administrator.

Core Readings:

Welter, F., Baker, T., Audretsch, D.B., & Gartner, W.B. (2017). Everyday entrepreneurship – A call for entrepreneurship research to embrace entrepreneurial diversity. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 41(3), 311–321. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12258
Achtenhagen, L., Naldi, L., & Melin, L. (2010). “Business growth”—Do practitioners and scholars really talk about the same thing? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(2), 289–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00376.x
Shepherd, D. A., & Patzelt, H. (2022). A call for research on the scaling of organizations and the scaling of social impact. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(2), 255–268. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258720950599
Ireland, R.D., Hitt, M.A., & Sirmon, D.G. (2003). A model of strategic entrepreneurship: The construct and its dimensions. Journal of Management, 29 (6), 963–989. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-2063_03_00086

Dr. Nora Zybura

Ansprechpartnerin Start-ups und Gründungen

Bereich: Entrepreneurship

Profil

Universität Mannheim
MCEI/ Institut für Mittelstandsforschung
Schloss, Ehrenhof Ost – Raum EO 271
68161 Mannheim

Tel.: +49 621 181-2889
E-Mail: noramcei.de

Bild: Alexander Münch