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BUSI4X215: Thinking Entrepreneurially

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Type Tied
Level 4
Credits 15
Availability Available in 2023/24
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Management and Marketing

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • The module aims to:
  • Introduce a psychological approach to entrepreneurship
  • Help students to understand how they can cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, which can be applied in an entrepreneurial or organizational context
  • Improve students confidence in decision-making in dynamic and uncertain environments, using entrepreneurship as a relevant context
  • Empower students to practice self-empathy and empathy when they engage in, or manage entrepreneurial actions.

Content

  • Introduction: The entrepreneurial mindset
  • Entrepreneurial ideas into action
  • Entrepreneurial decision-making under uncertainty
  • Impulsive entrepreneurial action
  • A psychological perspective to raising capital
  • Adapting, persisting, and failing entrepreneurially
  • Leading entrepreneurially
  • Emotions and entrepreneurial wellbeing.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Improve their capacity to think entrepreneurially in different organizational contexts.
  • Understand how individuals cognition, including their emotions and neurodiverse traits, influence entrepreneurial action.
  • Demonstrate a broad understanding of the main theories of entrepreneurial action.
  • Understand how the interplay between an individuals entrepreneurial mindset and the broader environment influences entrepreneurial intentions, decisions and actions.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Students will be able to:
  • Develop cognitive skills such as the ability to think critically about entrepreneurial processes within new or established firms.
  • Develop ideation skills, by learning techniques that will help them to generate ideas.
  • Develop empathy which can improve relations and communication with future stakeholders such as customers, employees, and investors.

Key Skills:

  • Written and oral communication skills
  • Planning, organizing and time management
  • Decision-making
  • Presentation skills
  • Teamwork
  • Critical evaluation skills (group presentations involve students exchanging feedback).

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

  • Learning outcomes will be met through a combination of lectures, seminars, group presentations where students will exchange feedback, and engagement with the modules summative assessment.
  • The lectures will introduce students to a psychological approach in entrepreneurship. The seminars will entail participation in games and exercises that will help students to immerse in entrepreneurial ideation and decision-making under uncertainty. The seminars will also encourage students to make connections between lecture-based theoretical content and empirical content based on popular podcasts.
  • The summative assessment will involve a written discussion of a podcast episode on a topic related to the lecture content, to test students ability to integrate theory and practice.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures8weekly2 hours16 
Seminars8weekly1 hour8 
Preparation and reading126 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: Individual AssessmentComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Individual Essay2500 words100Same

Formative Assessment

Students will receive feedback on their seminar contributions and a group presentation, where students will also exchange feedback.

More information

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Current Students: Please contact your department.