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Faculty
Svetlana Drevskih / Søren Henning Jensen, CBS

Course Coordinator
ISUP Secretariat

Prerequisite/progression of the course

This course is for graduate students (economics and business lines).

Course content, structure and teaching

Small and medium enterprises are the main driving forces of the economic development in any economy. However, in the business schools around the world there are not much focus on studying this type of companies in terms of strategic management, innovation and their organisational challenges. This course has an ambition to give students acquaintance with the specifics of management and functioning of SME in order to make them see the potential that SME usually contain. The purpose of the course is to uncover and discuss typical prejudices and assumptions the students might have in regard to SME and the managerial challenges connected to this type of companies. The emphasis will be on managerial issues connected to growth of the entrepreneurial companies as well as further development of SME from the innovative perspective. Issues related to acquisition of start-up companies (max 5 years old) with purpose of further development and growth will be also presented and discussed during the course. The introductory part of the curse (1-3 lectures) will be mostly focusing on the theoretical issues relevant for the above mentioned topics. The second and main part of the course will have more practical approach and will be focused on case studies and group work/discussions and presentation connected to the cases. Students must expect some homework in groups, where class presentations or short written assignments will be required. At the end of the course students must chose one or several case related topics discussed during the course and write 2-3 pages synopsis, which should be hand in before the oral exam and create the basis for the oral presentation at the exam.

The course's development of personal competences

The students will get insight into specifics of management and functioning of SME with focus on entrepreneurial and innovative aspects of their environment. The students will develop understanding for the skills and competencies which are necessary for successful management of SME. The students can also strengthen their interpersonal competencies and cooperation skills through group work and case discussions.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course the student should be able to:

• Understand how SME are organized and in which way their structure and behaviour are different from the large multinational companies and why different managerial skills are needed to mange them (when comparing to a multinational company)
• Have insight into latest studies on SME’s managerial and strategic issues
• Have broad comprehension of concepts, theories, models and frameworks to analyse the relations between SME and their markets, customers and suppliers
• Have insight into challenges connected to further development of a small enterprise upon acquisition
• Analyze different managerial styles in SME and the strategic consequences of these different managerial models.
• To discuss and propose strategic solutions to specific cases related to SME
• To relate to innovation and be able to find solutions to apply innovation in the context of a SME

Teaching methods

Lectures, exercises, case study discussions and project work. Lectures will be complemented with discussions of real life cases and group work focused on finding strategic and managerial solutions for the situations proposed in cases. First part of the course will be mostly based on presenting and discussion of theoretical material, while the second part will be concentrating on case discussions and group work (more practical approach). The course is very interactive and active participation of students is expected.

Examination

Final exam: Oral exam on basis of synopsis.

Re-take exam: 24-hour written exam equivalent to the oral exam.

Recommended literature

Phillip A. Wickham, Srategic Entrepreneurship, Fifth edition, 2006, Practice Hall

Sidst opdateret af Christine Albrecht 28.01.2010