Durham University
Programme and Module Handbook

Postgraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2017-2018 (archived)

Module BUSI4L510: New Venture Creation (Taught)

Department: Business School (Business)

BUSI4L510: New Venture Creation (Taught)

Type Tied Level 4 Credits 10 Availability Not available in 2017/18 Module Cap None.
Tied to N1T717

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

  • New Venture Creation (Online) BUSI 4L410

Aims

  • To develop students' understanding of entrepreneurship through the lenses of opportunity examination, new venture creation, and small business management, including contextual issues therein.
  • To develop students' understanding of the requirements necessary to create new business ventures and the challenges and approaches to sustainable growth.
  • To understand differences among small business owners, managers, and their entrepreneurial teams.
  • To look beyond upper echelon logic to think about entrepreneurship across the firm and not just by the small business or new venture owner.
  • To develop links with the Business School’s research strategy by incorporating research into young and new venture entrepreneurship.

Content

  • Differences among new venture/small business owners and the need for entrepreneurial teams
  • Entrepreneurial finance
  • Sustaining entrepreneurship and managing growth strategies
  • The policy environment
  • Networking strategy
  • Execution intelligence
  • Exit strategies
  • Contexts for new venture creation (e.g., the family, the corporation, the public sector)

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:
  • Upon successful completion of the module, the students will:
  • have a critical appreciation of the complex and interactive processes and dimensions associated with new venture creation, growth and survival;
  • have a critical appreciation of how to successfully manage the new venture for launch, growth and sustainability.
Subject-specific Skills:
  • Upon successful completion of the module, the students will:
  • be able to identify the critical characteristics associated with successful new venture creation, launch, growth and exit;
  • be able to diagnose and treat symptoms relating to new venture creation, launch, growth and exit;
  • be able to apply appropriate specialist knowledge and techniques to examining new venture creation as a process, the performance of the firm, and pathways to its growth;
  • have a toolkit for managing the entrepreneurial firm.
Key Skills:
  • Written communication; planning, organising and time management; problem solving and analysis; using initiative; computer literacy.

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

  • Learning outcomes are met through classroom-based workshops, supported by online resources. The workshops consist of a combination of taught input, groupwork, case studies and discussion. Online resources provide supplementary material for the workshops – typically consisting of directed reading and video content.
  • The formative assessment includes classroom-based exercises involving individual and group analyses of specific business situations/problems relevant to the learning outcomes of the module. Feedback will be given as appropriate.
  • The summative assessment comprises a case analysis and learning log. The individual case analysis is designed to test students' understanding of relevant concepts, and their ability to apply and interpret what they have learned to the analysis of a particular case entrepreneur or entrepreneurial firm in depth. The individual learning log tests students’ skills of critical reflection as well as their learning of material covered, discussed and considered across the module, with a particular emphasis on demonstrating change in knowledge and worldview.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity Number Frequency Duration Total/Hours
Workshops (a combination of taught input, groupwork, case studies and discussion), timetabled in blocks 6 Over a 3-day teaching block 4 hours 24
Preparation, reading and other independent study 76
Total 100

Summative Assessment

Component: Written Assignment Component Weighting: 50%
Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
Individual case analysis 1500 words 100% same
Component: Written Assignment Component Weighting: 50%
Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
Individual Learning Log 1500 words 100% same

Formative Assessment:

Individual report on a chosen entrepreneurial firm or recent new venture (1000 words).


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