Entrepreneurship

SCIENCE AND THE ENTREPRENEUR ~ Scientists are constantly tinkering with ways to improve current designs or solve problems. They look for further applications of current products and develop ideas into useful applications that add value to the discipline and society as a whole. Scientists take lessons from the world around them as well as find inspiration for discoveries through creativity, curiosity and necessity. The scientist, by nature, is an entrepreneur. This course will examine the innovation, application, development and collaborative relationships of the entrepreneurial scientist as well as analyze the thought processes behind the discoveries, risks and research of a scientist. The topics will extend over the disciplines of chemistry, biology, environmental science, computer science and materials science as well as looking into the business aspects of bringing an idea or product to market. This course will draw materials from books, current literature and personal accounts of professionals.

EXPLORING INTERSECTIONS-EXAMINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH AN EDUCATIONAL LENS:ES~ This course will examine opportunities for intersecting education, entrepreneurship, and social issues. It will explore the educational slant of certain social entrepreneurship and non-profit ventures, and will consider the strengths and challenges of each approach. Students will ethically consider how organizations may impose a particular worldview and the potential implications of this worldview on those they serve and those they are educating, understanding that no educational tool or strategy is free of specific ideologies or values. Students will examine how non-profit ventures promote themselves and seek needed funding. A major component of the class is working with a local non-profit organization. This course is also listed as EDUC 10700. This course is aligned with the Educational Studies Major/Minor Program Goals and Outcomes. This course counts toward the entrepreneurship minor.

Core: Meaning/Ethics/Soc Responsibil

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET/CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION:CM ~ Creativity and innovation are key elements in developing an entrepreneurial mindset. In this course students will be exposed to new approaches to thinking creatively. These approaches will change the way students create ideas, identify problems, and develop solutions. In this class we will convey these methods through interaction, reflection, and experiential learning in groups and individually. Creativity is about the creative process: what it is, how to improve it, how to work with it. Using a project-focused approach, students will learn about creative thinking as it applies to the development of innovations and inventions in the arts, sciences, and business. This course focuses on alternative representations of the opportunity recognition process. Students will learn how to move from an idea as a vague concept to an innovation as a well-designed idea. This course is designed to continue to expose you to new ways to enhance your creativity. This course also explores how teams screen creative ideas to determine whether or not they are worth pursuing, how to work within a team to develop an idea and present it to others. You need to be willing to risk expressing your creative ideas and thought and possibly looking or acting foolish in the quest for insight and innovation. Counts toward ENTR minor.

Core: Creative Methods

SEMINAR: ~

INDEPENDENT STUDY ~

SPECIAL ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT ~ This course will focus on the basic elements needed to start a business, and culminate in the development of a business plan for a student-run enterprise. Concepts covered will include: opportunity identification, feasibility analysis, legal structure, marketing/communication, customers and markets, leadership, management and organization, operations plan, and financial planning – sales forecasting, income statements and cash flows. Prerequisites: ENTR 20510 or basic MGMT/ACCT/MKTG/COMM courses.

Prerequisite: ENTR 20510

FIELD EXPERIENCE ~

ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING ~ This Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) course is structured to bring traditional marketing theory, concepts, and frameworks together with the rapidly evolving technology and social media perspectives into an integrative framework called “entrepreneurial marketing” (EM). EM represents a strategic type of marketing built around six core elements: opportunity, innovation, calculated risk taking, resource leveraging, proactive behavior, and customer intensity. we will explore how marketing and entrepreneurship affect and are affected by one another. We will examine entrepreneurial and marketing concepts to determine how they apply to, and how they can aid the practice of, the other. We will look at the role of marketing in entrepreneurial ventures, and the role of entrepreneurship in marketing efforts of all firms. Attention will be devoted to understanding why marketers resist entrepreneurship as well as the common mistakes entrepreneurs make when it comes to marketing. Implications will be drawn from the latest trends in marketing and in entrepreneurship. Hands-on cases will be used to assess real world problems at the marketing entrepreneurship Interface with primary learning activity being a "live EM planning project".

Prerequisite: MKTG 15500

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS ~ The course focuses on entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial ventures, and the entrepreneurial process through lecture, case studies, and the analysis of enterprise plans. There is an emphasis on developing skills conducive to venture success, including opportunity identification, creative thinking, problem solving, innovation, organizing, planning, goal setting, market analysis, decision making, communicating, and team building. Additionally, the course looks at how entrepreneurs, as creative visionaries, develop innovative strategies aimed at goal achievement by effectively linking internal core competencies to external competitive advantage, resulting in successful ventures. The course is intended to provide the student with the basic knowledge necessary to create new business ventures and to innovate within existing organizations. Counts toward ENTR minor.

Prerequisite: ENTR 20510

ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE ~ Entrepreneurial Finance is a required course for the minor in Entrepreneurship. This course provides students with the essential tools and technical knowledge to manage a new business venture. Entrepreneurial Finance discusses, illustrates and analyzes the following major topics for a successful manager: the way to pursue your entrepreneurial dreams, analyzing financial statements, managing cash flow, avoiding behavioral decision bias, raising debt and equity capital, valuing your business and marketing your venture.

Prerequisite: ACCT 22500

INTEGRATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP ~ The course is designed to build upon the base knowledge that was acquired in ENTR 20500 or 20510 and ENTR 30600. It will provide a strong conceptual framework for the study, understanding, and application of entrepreneurship. The overall approach to the course is designed around working with “real world” start-up companies. This course will meet off-site throughout the entire 3-week semester at the Shaker Launch House Incubator. Working in small groups, students will be assigned to work with and analyze a start-up company that is contemplating going to market with a new venture. Students will be interfacing with the assigned entrepreneur throughout the entire course/process, analyzing the feasibility of the venture and making a final “Go to market” recommendations presentation. Counts toward ENTR minor.

Prerequisite: ENTR 20510 and ENTR 30600

START-UP COMMUNITIES: A COMPARISON OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS ~ The current catch phrases—incubators, angel networks, crowdfunding, accelerators, business plan competitions—usually disappoint when conducted in isolation. When do they work, it is because of the existence of a comprehensive ecosystem that supports growth entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a powerful force that many cities and countries are working to boost to make their economies more competitive. But all too often the attention and resources are devoted to singular interventions not systemic change. For entrepreneurs to thrive, there needs to exist a supportive ecosystem of interconnected key elements that come together to facilitate innovation and growth. Through reading, discussion of those readings, onsite visits, reflective journaling in response to pointed prompts, and a final reflective paper, students will compare and contrast two entrepreneurial ecosystems. This is a study away course.

THE ETHICS OF MAKING MONEY:ES ~ What is your own attitude about and relationship with money? What is money, anyway? Why did it come into being, and how has it changed over time? Other than making money in order to stay alive and stay in business, what do people and corporations and their employees have a duty to do, or not do, regarding money? This course will seek to do five primary things: First, it will acquaint students with several prominent ethical theories (e.g., virtue-based systems, utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, natural law, social contract theory). Second, it will familiarize students with the history and evolution of money, both as an idea and in its many tangible (and increasingly, intangible) forms, and its multifaceted implications for ethics. Third, it will explore the science of happiness, including the relationship between money and happiness, including why so many people covet money but ultimately find that it cannot ensure their happiness. Fourth, it will beckon students to look inward and come to terms with their own attitudes about and relationships with money, and the roles it could play in their lives. Fifth, it will explore a select set of issues and dilemmas in business, and the subjects in this section of the course will include: the nature of the corporation; corporate social responsibility; whistle-blowing; environmental practices; and globalization. The intent is that students will come to have a basis on which to evaluate their own behaviors and corporate behaviors, with eyes open to identifying what will create happiness for individuals and society, and what will detract from the happiness of individuals and society, and thereby be better prepared to foster things that are meritorious and modify things that are lacking. Also listed as ETH 33000.

Core: Meaning/Ethics/Soc Responsibil

SEMINAR ~

SPECIAL TOPIC ~

BUSINESS PLAN PRACTICUM ~ The course is designed to bring together all of the elements of entrepreneurship - in the context of an original enterprise concept that the students themselves conceive and develop as a viable, sustainable, and truly innovative new venture. The centerpiece of the course is the end result - a new venture. The new venture is detailed through an enterprise plan developed by the students. the expectation is that each plan will be of sufficient quality to be presented to potential investors. Prerequisites: Required courses; junior and senior standing only; minimum GPA of 2.0; and faculty permission required. Counts toward ENTR minor.

Prerequisite: ENTR 20510 (may be taken concurrently) and ENTR 30600 (may be taken concurrently) and ENTR 32100 (may be taken concurrently)

INDEPENDENT STUDY PRACTICUM ~ The Independent Study is designed by the student in conjunction with a Hiram College faculty member. The product of the Independent Study is detailed academic research. The intent is to have the student research directly correlate the entrepreneurial processes to their chosen major. Prerequisites: Required courses; junior or senior standing; minimum GPA of 2.5; and faculty permission.

Prerequisite: ENTR 20510 and ENTR 30600 and ENTR 32100

STUDENT RUN VENTURE INTERNSHIP-PART I (SRV) ~ This course is intended for E-minor students who have completed the core course requirements for the E-minor to help the student learn what it takes to manage a small business and succeed as a manager. Students will conduct a supervised internship managing one of the College’s student-run ventures (Terrier Bakery, Olive Branch Fair Trade Store). Working in teams consisting of a general manager, operations manager, marketing/sales manager, human resource manager, and a finance manager (from ACCTXXX – Accounting Workshop), students will be responsible for the daily operations of their assigned SRV. Students will work closely with the Instructor, the faculty SRV champion, and the students-workers in the related SRV (this may include students in the SRV connected course and/or paid student workers). The majority of the work will take place outside of the classroom and it is the responsibility of the student SRV Teams to coordinate their time and activities to assure the productive operation of the SRV. Prerequisites: ENTR 20510 and ENTR 30600 and ENTR 32100 or permission of instructor. Counts toward ENTR minor.

Prerequisite: ENTR 20510 and ENTR 30600 and ENTR 32100

Corequisite: ENTR 48510

STUDENT RUN VENTURE INTERNSHIP-PART II (SRV) ~ This course is a continuation of ENTR48500. In addition to continuing to manage the daily operations of their assigned SRV, students will also develop (or revise) the SRV’s business plan (organization, marketing and financial). Students will also be responsible for developing a succession plan to assist the transition for next year’s group of SRV interns. Prerequisites: ENTR 48500 or permission of instructor. Counts toward ENTR minor.

Prerequisite: ENTR 48500

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (INTERNSHIP) ~ The objective of the Integrated Entrepreneurship Experiential Learning Program is to enable students to acquire practical experience, which will broaden their knowledge of systems, organizations, and cultures while integrating the formal study of entrepreneurship and their chosen major. Such experience aids in the development, maturity, and confidence of the student. Prerequisites: Required courses, junior or senior standing, minimum GPA of 2.0, and faculty permission. Counts toward ENTR minor.

Prerequisite: ENTR 20510 and ENTR 30600 and ENTR 32100