Course:Opportunity Development in the Entrepreneurial Venture

From SharedExperienceProject

This course has been submitted as ENTR 4331.

1 Course Description
2 Context and Motivation
3 Required Course Materials
4 Learning Objectives
5 Mark Allocation and Assessment Schedule
6 Learning Activities and Methods of Assessment
7 Content and Topic Schedule
8 Resources
9 Course authors and contributors
10 Copyright

Course Description

In this course, students will work to develop an understanding of how opportunities are identified, selected and developed for the creation of a new venture. Students will build an awareness of the local and global factors that lead to favourable conditions for opportunity development, as they work towards a single relevant, innovative and scalable opportunity that has the potential to attract outside financing. Opportunities will be analyzed using a range of practical tools and methodologies. Assessment will, where possible mirror the processes and criteria relevant to entrepreneurs in the real world.

Prerequisites: ENTR 3301: The Entrepreneurial Experience and ENTR 3302: Innovation and Creativity for Entrepreneurial Practice

Context and Motivation

It is critical that an aspiring entrepreneur understands how to come up with good ideas, assess those with respect to personal and environmental fit, gain insights regarding the marketability of a corresponding opportunity, and pitch to a key person or organization that could enable success. Unfortunately in business education this process is often assumed to be intuitive for students or treated quickly in a course on business planning.

ENTR 4331 is the first of four highly integrated and increasingly immersive courses in which you will develop their own entrepreneurial ventures. It is a hands-on course requiring you to engage deeply in the idea-to-opportunity process described above. After a learning experience including idea generation, primary and secondary research, business modeling, network building and critical thinking, you will pitch your opportunity concept to an experienced panel. The ventures with the highest potential for success will be identified and will form the focus of study for the subsequent courses in the entrepreneurship program: ENTR 4332 and ENTR 4343.

Required Course Materials

The readings for this course are available electronically. As such you will need a reliable internet connection and access to a printer.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives and methods of assessment for this course are given in in the table below.

Four areas of focus have been identified for the objectives that you should achieve during your time in Mount Royal’s entrepreneurship program. The course objectives below are categorized according to these areas of focus that are common to all courses: 1) entrepreneurial toolset, 2) personal mindset and brand, 3) experiential and knowledge construction, and 4) team, networking and communication.

Mount Royal has identified six institution-wide learning outcomes that describe the core abilities you should develop during your studies, regardless of your academic program. These outcomes and abilities help prepare you for a life of continuous learning, and have been identified as critical to success in the workplace. The relationship between the course objectives and the college outcomes is also shown below.

**Learning objectives for this course**
Outcome thread	Student learning objectives	Methods of assessment	Link to institution wide outcomes
Entrepreneurial toolset objectives	Demonstrate understanding of and ability to apply fundamental knowledge and skills related to opportunity development, e.g.: idea generation primary and secondary research venture modeling network building critical thinking the persuasive pitch	Topic quizzes Idea exercises	Thinking
Personal mindset and brand objectives	Recognize and demonstrate the attitudes, behaviors and personal characteristics required of successful creative entrepreneurs for opportunity identification Demonstrate reflective ‘habits of mind’ and ongoing commitment to developing your entrepreneurial creativity practices	Reflective journal Opportunity challenge project	Communication Thinking
Experiential and knowledge construction objectives	Apply the above concepts and methods to identify your own innovative, scalable venture opportunity Work individually to explore for ideas and assess their potential as new venture opportunities Assess and demonstrate fit between your entrepreneurial attributes, environmental conditions, ethical constraints and timing Work individually and with peers to identify information requirements, generate a search strategy and carry out research at the levels of relevant businesses, industries and markets Design and test first-order business model(s) and strategies to establish feasibility of your concept	Idea exercises Opportunity challenge project	Thinking Information retrieval and evaluation Communication Ethical reasoning
Networking, team and communication objectives	Clearly communicate and pitch (written and verbal) to persuade others of the merits of your opportunity Establish your own personal social network as a resource for the development of this and future opportunities Work effectively as an individual, in peer groups and with an external network (of supporters and experts) to achieve your objectives Collaborate, communicate and manage projects using appropriate computing tools	Interview with an entrepreneur Entrepreneurial experience challenge	Group effectiveness Computer literacy Communication

Mark Allocation and Assessment Schedule

Your final mark for the course will be computed as a weighted average of the marks you receive in each of the above assessment tasks. The weights used to compute that final mark and the schedule of the assessment tasks are given below:

**Assessment for this assignment**
Methods of assessment	Weight	Scheduled due date
Topic quizzes and idea exercises	20%	Weeks 1-12
Opportunity Challenge Project Idea generation and assessment Primary research Business models	45%	Week 5 Week 8 Week 12
Final pitch	20%	Week 13
Reflective journal	15%	Weeks 7 and 14

Learning Activities and Methods of Assessment

For the purposes of formal feedback and grading, you will be assessed based on your performance in each of the following tasks:

Topic Quizzes and Idea Exercises

Instead of a midterm exam, quizzes and/or in-class exercises will be used to provide regular feedback on how well you are meeting the learning objectives of each topic. Directions and timing will be announced in class, but expect to be assessed in this way most weeks, especially for the first half of the course. The exercises are designed to highlight important concepts and guide you through the process from idea generation, to marketable insight, to viable opportunity, to pitch.

Opportunity Challenge Project

In this course, you will identify and develop your own entrepreneurial opportunity. This will be achieved through a three-part experiential project:

Part I: Idea Generation and Assessment

You will identify a number of possible ideas and conduct secondary research on a variety of them in order to determine their potential as entrepreneurial opportunities. A self-assessment and an analysis of the fit between your entrepreneurial attributes and your ideas will be conducted to identify 1-3 potential venture opportunities for further analysis.

Part II: Primary research

Once the pool of ideas has been narrowed as described above, you will engage in primary research with industry experts from across the value chain to further test your venture concept(s). You will be responsible for identifying the research problem, designing appropriate research tools, conducting the research and analyzing the results. This will result in at least one innovative new venture opportunity.

Part III: First-order business model(s)

Here you will develop at least one first-order business model for each venture opportunity you are evaluating. Details will be provided in class.

Final Pitch

You will pitch your opportunity to an expert panel that will select the highest potential opportunities to move onto the next stage of venture development in ENTR 4332 - Modeling and Start-up of the Entrepreneurial Venture. Your pitch will include a representation of the offering and will be supported by a written document containing research results, first-order venture model, high-level strategies and required resources.

Reflective Journal

You will reflect on your process of idea generation, opportunity identification, assessment and development. This will include your activities around creative thinking techniques, network building, engagement of external experts and communicating your passion. Journals will be submitted twice in the term.

Content and Topic Schedule

The following tables provide the topic schedules and links to the content for each topic in this course. When curriculum development has been completed for the course, there will be one link for each topic to its own topic-level description of learning objectives, teaching and learning activities and assessment activities. As described in our Entrepreneurship Curriculum Design Principles and Process Document , this is intended to speak to future teachers of the program. A sample topic can be found here: Topic 1: Vision and Mission.

**Topic Schedule**
Week	Topics	Assessment tasks
#	Topic 1: Models of entrepreneurial intentions Process Intention Creativity	TBD
#	Topic 2: Identifying the right opportunity for you Personal assessment Passions, knowledge, skills	TBD
#	Topic 3: Macro environmental and network Macro environmental analysis Building a diverse network	TBD
#	Topic 4: Creativity and fit Creative thinking technique Assessing the ‘fit'	TBD
#	Topic 5: Micro environment Micro environmental analysis Primary research Experts and stakeholders	TBD
#	Topic 6: Modeling and assessment First-order business modeling Development of assessment criteria Assessment	TBD
#	Topic 7: Building your case What’s the vision? Developing and testing high-level strategies and business models Identifying resource requirements Understanding your audience’s needs	TBD
#	Topic 8: The perfect pitch Communicating your passion Story telling Presentation tools Persuasive communication	TBD

Resources

The following sources are not intended to be read by the student. They are included here for completeness to provide a representative cross-section of the resources that are informing the development of this course:

Ardichvili, A., R. Cardozo, S. Ray. (Jan 2003). A theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development. Journal of Business Venturing. New York:Vol. 18, Iss. 1; pg. 105
Baron, R.A. (2006). Opportunity Recognition as Pattern Recognition: How Entrepreneurs "Connect the Dots" to Identify New Business Opportunities. The Academy of Management Perspectives. Briarcliff Manor:Vol. 20, Iss. 1; pg. 104
Butler, J. E. (2004). Opportunity Identification and Entrepreneurial Behaviour: An Introduction. Information Age Publishing
Price, C., A. D. Meyers. (2006). The 12-Step Innovation Roadmap: How to Analyze and Prioritize New Business Ideas. Physician Executive. Tampa: Vol. 32, Iss. 2; pg. 52, 3 pgs
Ditkoff, M. (2008). Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling (in an Uphill World).
Krueger, N., M. Reilly, A. Carsrud (2000) Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing. Vol.15, issues 5-6, Sept-Nov 2000, pp. 411-432
Lux, S. (2005). Entrepreneur Social Competence and Capital: The Social Networks of Politically Skilled Entrepreneurs. Academy of Management Proceedings.
Shell, G., and M. Moussa. (2008). Strategic woo. T+D, 62(7), 76-78.
Shepherd, D.A., D. R. DeTienne. (2005). Prior Knowledge, Potential Financial Reward, and Opportunity Identification. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Waco: Vol. 29, Iss. 1; p. 91
Stevenson, H. and S. Spence. (2007). Identifying and exploiting the right entrepreneurial opportunity…for you. (MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2007), 9-808-043.

Course authors and contributors


Role	Name(s)
Authors	Laurie Jensen
Contributors	Alex Bruton Patricia Derbyshire Stephen Kenny

Copyright

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