Entrepreneurial Enterprises, offered in SP1, SP3, SP6
Undergraduate course BUSS 3043
Answers to FAQs about entrepreneurship courses in general
Answers to FAQs about this course in particular
See what's special about entrepreneurship courses.
Research shows that entrepreneurship is a key driver for business and economic development; it involves identifying and evaluating business opportunities, and providing entrepreneurial drive and initiative to organise the resources that you need to turn the business idea into a new venture. It also involves finding ways to innovate to add value, both for the customer as well as for the new venture so that it can make a profit. This course focuses on the starting point, which is entrepreneurial activities by individuals that turn ideas into innovation and lead to the creation of new venture start-ups. The output is a feasibility report (or business case) that summarises the technical, market and financial feasibility of the business opportunity.
A "free elective" (BUGE course): This is a business elective for students who are enrolled in degrees in the Division of Business. This is also a "free elective" for students enrolled in other divisions. This course is available to students from all campuses. You may need to check with your Program Director if you have space for such an elective in your degree, and if you are eligible to do this course (the coordinator of this course cannot check this for you).
You can enrol online for this course in the same way that you enrol for your other courses. If you have any problems in enrolling, contact Campus Central. The HECS fee for this course is shown on the course home page.
Cross Institutional Enrolments: If you are enrolled in another university and you have space in your degree for an elective course, then you can apply through your own department to take this course as a cross-institutional transfer student. We have a number of people doing this already. You will also need to get the form signed by the course coordinator, who is located in Room 20 on Level 3 of the Elton Mayo Building at the corner of George Street and North Terrace, City West Campus.
Audit Students: If you do not have room in your degree, you can apply to attend this course as an audit student, but there is a fee attached. UniSA Campus Central (8302 0511) can provide information about this option and the fees. The HECS fee for this course is is shown on the course home page.
What if you have a timetable clash? You may have a timetable clash with one of the lecture/seminar sessions, and this may stop you from enrolling in this course. You can get an over-ride form from the Campus Central office, complete it, sign it and give it to Campus Central staff. You do not need any other signatures. This will allow you to enrol.
Next scheduled: There are three separate deliveries of this course in SP1, SP3 and SP6 in 2009, and one delivery at Whyalla in SP4. Download the detailed timetable for this course. Put the seminar and workshop dates in your diary!
You might like to consider also enrolling in the course BUSS 3048 Entrepreneurial Commercialisation for New Ventures in SP4 (Winter School), or the course BUSS 3049 Entrepreneurial Business Planning in SP6
Prerequisites: You need to have completed a minimum of 36 units of study before taking this course (that is, the equivalent of one year of full-time study). Refer to the Frequently Asked Questions page for the reason why there are pre-requisites for this course.
Course home page: follow this link Please note that the key dates (census and withdrawal dates) for all courses are on the "Class Timetable" page that you can access from the course home page.
Course coordinator: Peter Balan.
Teaching and learning arrangements
This course is run in intensive mode only (face to face). We regret that it is not available in external or on-line mode. Lecture/seminar sessions are conducted over five days, and these are followed by optional workshops conducted over the next 6 weeks (check the detailed timetable). Altogether, these formal sessions are equivalent to a standard semester-long course. Lecture/seminar and workshop sessions are supplemented by independent study, and teamwork. This course therefore requires 120 hours of student time - which is the same as a standard semester-long course. Check the answers to FAQ for this course for detailed comments about course delivery.
Aim
The aim of this course is to develop student insight into the principles and practices of entrepreneurship and its role in creating enterprises whether these enterprises operate in the profit or not-for-profit sectors, are small, medium, or large.
On completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Explain the concepts and practice of entrepreneurship
- Explain the difference between entrepreneurship and innovation and their relationship
- Describe the process of turning a product idea into a commercial reality
- Understand how to present a business opportunity with the aim of attracting resources
- Explain the legal issues facing entrepreneurs
- Describe the different sources of finance for developing business opportunities
Syllabus
The nature and importance of entrepreneurship; forms of entrepreneurship; the entrepreneurial process; the entrepreneurial mind; creativity, ideas and innovation; screening entrepreneurial opportunities; identifying resources to support entrepreneurial activities; intellectual property issues; accessing finance and other resources; the entrepreneurial team; assessing risk; business structure and ethics; entrepreneurial strategy; finding and reaching customers and marketing innovation; feasibility planning.
Assessment
| Individual assignment | 10% |
| Team project report | 40% |
| Final examination (two hours written exam) | 50% |
Team Project Report
The class will be given one business idea that all teams will work on for the project report. You will have access to the business idea at the start of the lecture/seminar series.
Textbook
A book of readings can be purchased from Campus Central (City West). You will need a copy. You will find that the text used in previous years (Timmons, JA & Spinelli, S 2009, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, 8th edn, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY) will be a valuable reference and will expand on the course materials.
Sessions and modules
There are six lectures/seminar sessions for this course, with each consisting of several modules that each lasts about an hour. Each module has 5 main components:
- Introduction to the topic - this addresses the topic covered by this module, how it links in with previous and forthcoming topics, resources available for it (textbook, readings, etc.), and work required.
- Lecture on the topic. The key issues, and how they fit together. This is an overview, and does not go into detail (that is left for students reading).
- Exercise on this topic - working alone, or in small teams, each with 3 or 4 students.
- Feedback from teams to the whole class, with responses by lecturer.
- Comment by lecturer on practical outcomes, contribution to theory, and answers to further questions.
Sessions and modules
|
Session |
Modules |
|
Session 1: Entrepreneurship and innovation |
Introduction to the course Entrepreneurship Innovation |
|
Session 2: Dynamics of entrepreneurship |
The entrepreneurial mind Entrepreneurial risk Entrepreneurship and its forms |
|
Session 3: Generating and screening business ideas |
Opportunity recognition Screening business opportunities Protecting your idea The concept statement |
|
Session 4: Organising resources |
Building a resource base Accessing finance Accessing people and other resources |
|
Session 5: Practical applications |
Entrepreneurial ethics Entrepreneurial strategy Practical marketing Reaching your customers; distribution channels Forecasting sales |
|
Session 6: The feasibility plan |
The feasibility plan Course review |
There is an optional workshop session following the lecture/seminar series, and this is followed by a report presentation and review session. These are listed in the detailed timetable for this course.
For more information about this course, please see this page of Frequently Asked Questions.