Whereas the "Resource mobilisation" course of the Entrpreneurship minor deepens your understanding on how to launch and grow a venture from a resource-based perspective, this course aims to highlight the importance of the process stages that precede the launch of an entrepreneurial venture as we have learned that the developmental process that results in the birthing of new ventures has a long-lasting impact on venture survival and/or entrepreneurial growth. This course provides a bird’s eye view on factors and processes that lead to the launch of entrepreneurial ventures. It builds a foundational understanding of the initial stages of the entrepreneurial process that will allow you to deepen your understanding of entrepreneurship in the subsequent courses of the Entrepreneurship minor.

Primary course objective:
You understand the critical role of the individual-opportunity nexus in initiating new ventures;

Secondary course objectives:
[1] You understand how disciplinary perspectives have enriched (and continue to enrich) the scholarly understanding of the entrepreneurial process [2] You understand why the stages that precede the formal start-up of a new venture are so critical to understanding the outcomes of enterprising behaviour. [3] You know how personalities and cognitive characteristics shape the emergence of new ventures. [4] You understand how and why new entrepreneurial opportunities arise. [5] You are able to explain how entrepreneurs screen and select their opportunities [6] You can decide on approaches to assess and enhance the value promise of embryonic business concepts.

Not many will contest the societal impact of enterprising individuals and entrepreneurial ventures on our economies. Entrepreneurs often start-up new companies with the intention to challenge (and sometimes even overthrow) incumbents. In the process, they create new jobs and apply competitive pressure on established firms. Entrepreneurs supposedly have an important direct and indirect effect on driving innovation.

Not surprisingly, academics have sought to unravel the entrepreneurial process. From their findings we learn that all that happens prior to a formal launch of a new venture is critical to understand the essence of entrepreneurship. For example, we know that many more people see opportunities than individuals that actually seek to exploit the opportunities that they have discovered.

In this course you will explore why and how opportunities are created and/or discovered by more or less enterprising individuals. In addition you will explore why only a few of those that see an opportunity will actually engage in efforts to further explore and exploit the opportunities that they have spotted. You will identify factors that drive entrepreneurship at the level of enterprising individuals. You will explore how personality characteristics, experience & education, and social embeddedness shape entrepreneurial journeys. You will learn that entrepreneurship is not necessarily about taking risk as many entrepreneurs put a lot of effort in minimizing (or even outsourcing) risk prior to the launch of their venture.

e-Reader with papers;
Set of teaching cases (sold by MC4E for approx. €30).

The courses of the Entrepreneurship minor (see also http://maastrichtentrepreneurship.nl/minor.html) draw on the scholarly entrepreneurship literature. They do NOT expect that you have already developed an understanding of the functional domains of business administration or small business management (e.g. strategy, marketing, accounting, HRM, finance, operations). We encourage you to take the two introductory courses of the minor (Birthing new ventures and Mobilising resources [EBC2145; EBC2146]) BEFORE taking the other courses of the Minor. As this minor is delivered in English, your command of the English language in speech and writing should be good enough to actively prepare for, participate in, and contribute to the classes.