‘Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Business Development’ is aimed at creating students’ sensitivity and competencies for generating business on the basis of a product/service concept they develop(ed) during their studies (at the UT). This HTHT package consists of two minors: ‘Innovation & Entrepreneurship’ (M9) and ‘New Technology Business Development’ (M10).

In minor 9 participants are introduced to the ins and outs of running a virtual company in order to learn about and plan for all aspects related to starting up a company on the basis of a product/service concept created by anyone in their venture team prior to this module.

In minor 10 participants build on this experience by exploring the commercial and financial value of an invention made within the UT (and disclosed to the business development team) in order to assess the attractiveness of it to invest in. In this case, the inventor(s) may not aspire an entrepreneurial career and intend(s) to transfer the technology to a commercializing company or to attract an entrepreneur who takes the responsibility of gaining revenues by starting up a UT spin-off to exploit or commercialize the invention.

Minor 9 –  Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Basics) 15 EC in Quartile 1:

- Introduction to Entrepreneurship

- Innovation Management

- Financial Management of Innovative Enterprises

- (Lean) Start-up project.

Minor 10 – New Technology and Business Development (Advanced) 15 EC in Quartile 2:

- High-tech Marketing

- Intellectual Property Management

- Technology Management

- Technology Exploitation project.

Module 9 starts with an introductory Acceleration program that sensitizes (non-business) students for the dynamics of entrepreneurial business model development for 4 days. This is a quick way of making students aware of the knowledge they lack and need to master for operating in and communicating about (their) business. It also introduces in developing a technology-based start-up into a successful company. In a playful manner, participants interact in multi-disciplinary teams in both the Acceleration program at the start of the module and in the project during the module where the lean start-up approach is taken to develop a team member’s product of service concept into a business plan. For business planning, students need additional knowledge that is offered in three introductory courses on entrepreneurship, innovation and financial management. In these courses, this decision-centered approach is taken further into case teaching where again students work on real-life problem situations companies have dealt with in order to prepare for a properly analyzed and argued decision to be made for the case proponent.

Introduction to Entrepreneurship is about different forms and categories of entrepreneurship, the differences and commonalities between the entrepreneurial and the innovation process, as well as the jargon and conceptual basics of business disciplines like strategy, finance, marketing, and personnel and organization.

The subject of innovation management introduces students to different forms and categories of innovation as process and as result. As a discipline, it is largely based on corporate as well as policy practice, and translated to technology-based start-up theory in order to help students understand the typical differences between large and small organizations in their strategies and resource management for commercializing new product and service ideas.

Finally, to avoid the Valley of Death pitfall, students are introduced to the basic instruments of financial management of innovative enterprises. Focus is on understanding and composing a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement as part of acquiring and managing resources to invest in and develop the technologies required to realize and market their product/service idea.

Module 10 is the more advanced part of the minor package building on the module Innovation & Entrepreneurship in adding the subjects of intellectual property management (IPM) Technology Management (TM) and marketing in a high-tech context (HTM). Specific for this more advanced marketing topic is the role of e.g. the new product development process and of patent licensing as a way of exploiting inventions and thereby gaining revenues without having to invest heavily in product development and manufacturing capabilities. The three course subjects are complemented with a 7EC project in which student teams study ways in which a UT invented technology can be exploited in order to support the decision whether or not to appropriate the idea and consequently make expenses for patenting as a university, or suggesting other ways of diffusing the idea to the innovators.

The subject of IPM focusses on patents for the role of technology in our university and therefore this innovative entrepreneurship package. The other intellectual property rights (IPRs; trademarks and copy right) will be dealt with shortly in both IPM and HTM. IPM deals with not only legal, but also organizational, informational, commercial and financial aspects of patents and patenting in order to build a coherent strategy on generating not only costs but also revenues on them.

TM is the next step after Innovation Management. What is specific for a technology based firm and how to manage and innovate it.

HTM deals with such topics as the role of technology standards, new technology acceptance and adoption, innovation in networks, and the new product development process as part of the open innovation context in which such issues need to be dealt with.

Both these subjects are conventionally organised into courses that stage wise provide students with theoretical concepts and analytical models to apply in data gathering and use for interpretation purposes in the project work.

 

Minor 9:

1. Appreciate the different ways of generating business on the basis of new technology for their future professional career

2. Use business jargon that helps them understand and effectively communicate with business experts, such as management consultants, market researchers, and accountants

3. Apply pivotal, analytical models for conducting a field inquiry for the purpose of planning the commercialization of a new technological idea

4. Produce a well-structured plan and pitch to communicate their business ideas

5. Understand the way venture stakeholders, such as investors and future employees, perceive their inventive ideas and business plan.

 

Minor 10:

1. Understand that revenues on the basis of new technology can be created while third party investment and entrepreneurship is involved

2. Use business jargon that helps them understand and effectively communicate with technology and intellectual property experts, business experts and market researchers

3. Apply pivotal, analytical models for conducting a field inquiry for the purpose of studying the business potential of a new technological idea

4. Produce a well-structured report and present their business analysis orally

5. Understand the way inventors, potential technology adopters, and  investors perceive an inventive idea and its business potential

6. Collaborate multi-disciplinarily using project management skills.

What we try to achieve in this prolific UT minor package, is to have undergraduate students from engineering programs meet and collaborate with students from social science programs in a semester of entrepreneurial project-based education activities. Both social science and engineering students therefore gain more knowledge about ways of valorizing new technology-based ideas. This multi-disciplinary teaching approach is to have students not only meet informally, but make them explore each other’s professional worlds in a business context that is. Engineering students will need to understand and communicate with social science educated professionals to be effective in developing business and the other way around.

No other than language proficiency. Module 10 can only be entered after successfully finishing module 9 or an equivalent module from your Major program. Address the contact person named below for questions on equivalence. Of course, information material to substantiate claims of such need to be linked or attached when contacting by e-mail

Textbooks and cases on Entrepreneurial as well as High-tech Marketing, The Lean Start-up, Entrepreneurial Finance and Intellectual Property Management.

Fulltime

Minor 9 (15 EC):  

Learning objectives 1, 2 & 5: Reports and ranking of firm

Learning objectives 2 & 3: Written tests and assignment/case reports

Learning objectives 4 & 5: Written, individual report and presentation (in business planning project)

Minor 10 (15 EC):

Learning objectives 1-4: Written tests and case reports

Learning objectives 2, 4, 5 & 6: Intermediate and final reports, peer assessment, and presentation

The learning agreement signed by the student and his Examination Board must have reached the UT-contact person before the enrollment ends.