Course content
This course introduces in an empirical, but theory-based form to foundational concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation. Conceptual and theoretical perspectives will be presented and discussed in close relationship to empirical cases. Students discuss a variety of cases of entrepreneurship and innovation in different political, cultural, and historical contexts. They wll learn how entrepreneurs identify opportunities, how they overcome traditional approaches and structures, and how they create new markets and business organizations in different institutional environments. A global perspective on entrepreneurship helps reflect and challenge the wide-spread assumption that entrepreneurial behaviour is universal or uniformly understood. While many definitions of entrepreneurship centre on opportunity recognition, innovation, and venture creation, alternative interpretations emphasize subsistence, community stewardship, social obligation, and collective action. Students examine how historical, cultural, and institutional contexts shape what counts as entrepreneurship, who is recognized as an entrepreneur, and which forms of innovation become visible or valued.
The cases used as empirical material situate entrepreneurship within the dynamics of globalization in which geopolitics as well as global flows of capital, technology, people, and ideas influence entrepreneurial opportunities and behaviours. Attention is given to the uneven impacts of globalization, highlighting how entrepreneurs in emerging economies, informal markets, or indigenous communities often innovate under constraints and conditions that differ markedly from those in advanced capitalist economies. Through comparative examples, students will begin to appreciate entrepreneurship as a diverse, context-dependent phenomenon rather than a one-size-fits-all process.
The case material covers different historical epochs, different national and political environments, and companies in different markets and of different size and involves topics such as Financing Entrepreneurship in different Contents, Innovation in and for Emerging Markets, Social Entrepreneurship and Community-driven Innovation, Indigenous Entrepreneurship, Crisis-driven Entrepreneurship and Resilience, Digital Entrepreneurship and Platform Economies, Failed Innovation, or Institutionalization of Innovation. These and other topics will be addressed empirically and conceptually through engagement with foundational concepts and theories of entrepreneurship and innovation and through comprehensive case analysis.
Please note that this course requires active participation and that it is intended to teach this course in block sessions of 5h every second week (see description of teaching methods). Furthermore, the course is not an instruction in setting up new business ventures.
See course description in course catalogue