Module BUSS3011: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Department: ECONOMICS FINANCE AND BUSINESS (BUSINESS) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

BUSS3011: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To introduce Entrepreneurship as a strategic organisational issue with implications for business management, and to demonstrate one enactment of entrepreneurship, i.e. as the creation of a new business venture.
• An exploration of subsequent small business management issues will provide a balance to the more corporatist models of larger scale businesses offered elsewhere in the degree programme.

Content

• Entrepreneurship - comparative theories of entrepreneurship drawn from, amongst others, the disciplines of psychology, sociology and economics.
• entrepreneurship as individual and organisational phenomena.
• organisational features and management styles for encouraging entrepreneurial behaviours within public, private and social enterprises.
• entrepreneurship as enacted through venture creation and corporate renewal.
• Small Business Management - theories of business creation, survival, growth and harvest.
• the ownership-management interface-separation in the small business.
• holistic management in the small business.
• small business relationships and the importance of the task environment.
• the life-world of the entrepreneurial owner-manager and the impact on personal and organisational learning.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module, students are expected to: have an understanding of the main perspectives of entrepreneurship including theories from psychology, sociology and economics.
• be able to describe and critique the major theories of entrepreneurship including individual and corporate entrepreneurship.
• be aware of the different contexts in which entrepreneurship may be enacted.
• know the major processes and dynamics involved in the 'entrepreneurial act', including individual vision and motivation.
• demonstrate an understanding of the key elements and processes of business creation, survival, growth, consolidation and harvest.
• understand the internal form and structures of the emergent small business.
• understand the holistic nature of managing a small business.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Modes of Teaching and Learning to be used.
• The entrepreneurial owner-manager learns through interaction with his/her particular life-world.
• This module will attempt to reflect this type of 'learning through action' whenever possible so that students can gain a greater understanding of this life-world.
• Lectures, supported by structured reading, will be used to underpin the knowledge requirements of the module, providing students with a sound conceptual and empirical base for further study.
• Special guest lectures (entrepreneurs) will be used on occasion as 'live' case studies to demonstrate an immediate application of theories presented.
• Seminars based on case studies will provide students with the opportunity to consider and apply what they have learned about both entrepreneurship and small business.
• Presentations (individual and group) will provide students with the opportunity to critique, synthesise and apply what they have learned.
• Assessments to be used.
• Formative assignment will enable student to demonstrate ability to comprehend the knowledge presented.
• Contribution to group presentation will enable student to demonstrate ability to work collaboratively with others, to communicate orally, and to synthesise material.
• Also to apply concepts and theories to practical situations.
• Summative assignment will test the student's critical knowledge and understanding of key issues in the module area.
• Also to argue coherently and communicate effectively in writing, working to length and time constraints.
• Written examination will test the range, depth and sophistication of student's knowledge and understanding of the module's subject-matter, and their ability to argue coherently and communicate effectively in writing, working under time constraints.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Contribution to a group presentation.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University