ENTREPRENEURSHIP and INNOVATION

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Rationale

Entrepreneurship and Innovation are increasingly becoming critical areas of management for any business as they are closely associated with value creation and employment creation – both in the public and private sectors with greater emphasis in the private sector as the driver of economic growth the world over. In order to survive and remain relevant in the 21st century, businesses need to take an entrepreneurial approach and be innovative in the manner they do business. This module is designed to allow you to explore entrepreneurial activity and innovation capabilities of businesses both new and established businesses. The focus of the module is on practice and addressing real challenges and opportunities faced by businesses in the 21st Century while also developing your own entrepreneurship and innovation skills.

Assessment

There are two forms of assessment that will be used during the module. On a weekly basis, you will gain ‘informal formative feedback’ which will be derived to aid your learning. This feedback is not recorded against your records, but is to be used by you to improve your work further. This feedback will be gained from your tutor and peers and is available through seminars, workshops and face-to-face tutorials. The second form of feedback is ‘summative’ and will be the grade and feedback gained from the work you will submit at the end of the module.

ASSIGNMENT (100%)

For this assignment, you have two options (1) to either use an existing business as a case study, or (2) write a business plan based on a new business idea.

Option 1: Using an existing business: You are a consultant for a Small or Medium Enterprise (SME). Your task is to critically evaluate and assess the degree of entrepreneurship and innovation in 2 areas of the business (see recommended structure below). This will be followed by appropriate and feasible recommendations that clearly demonstrate creativity on how the business should exploit existing or identified entrepreneurial and innovation opportunities while mitigating identified macro and micro challenges faced by the enterprise. You will begin by analysing the macro and micro environment and consider the challenges and opportunities they present for your chosen business (see proposed structure below). You must apply entrepreneurship and innovation principles, concepts, theories and models throughout the report.

NB: For the purpose of this assignment, a Small and Medium business is defined as any business employing no more than 250 people and/or has an annual turnover of up to US$10m and the business could be UK based or from another country. You are unlikely to pass if you choose a business that falls outside these parameters.

Option 2: Writing a business plan for a new business: You are to prepare a unique business plan based on an idea you have for a new or imaginary business (see proposed structure below).

In both cases, the assignment should be presented in the form of a 3,000 word business report or business plan (excluding tables and references).

Option 1 (Existing Business) Recommended Structure

If you have chosen to write a report on an existing business, the report should be structured as follows:

Introduction – Of the business with aims and objectives
Analysis of the environment – An analysis of the macro and micro environment and how it provides entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities and challenges for your chosen business.（600）
Critical evaluation of Entrepreneurship and Innovation –You should be able to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of key issues surrounding entrepreneurship and innovation in the business by critically evaluating the degree of entrepreneurship and innovation in any 2 of the following areas of the business: Products/ Services; Business Model; Growth strategies; E-Entrepreneurship; Financial and bootstrapping strategies; Succession and Inheritance issues in family To do this, you should be able to apply key principles, concepts, theories and models of entrepreneurship and innovation explored during lectures, workshops and seminars.（1200）
Recommendations – Based on your critical evaluation of the business, demonstrate creativity, innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset by formulating a series of feasible recommendations that will help the business exploit its entrepreneurial potential and innovation （1200）
Conclusion- Drawn from the evidence presented

As a guide to the word limit for the report, the analysis of the environment section should be no more than 600 words, the Evaluation section about 1200 words, and the recommendations section around 1200 words. NB: This word count breakdown does not apply to business plan.

Recommended structure for the Business Plan (New Business)

If you have opted to do a business plan for new or imaginary business, the following is the recommended structure you could follow:

Introduction: of the business proposition (product/service concept), aim and objectives, proposed business model and background and motivation of the entrepreneur(s).

Business Model: Product/Service concept details, value proposition and complete the BM canvas for the proposed business.

Analysis of the Market/environment: In which the new business will be established and how it provides opportunities for your kind of business including the identified gap in the market that you intend to fill and why you think this is a good/sellable opportunity.

Marketing and Sales plan: The market segment being served, your Competitive analysis and pricing strategies. Marketing and promotional plan, strategies and budget. Expected market share, etc. supported by monthly sales forecast for at least one year. Breakeven analysis growth forecasts and growth strategies.

Operational plan – Capacities, capabilities, resources, staffing, processes and logistics. May also includes regulatory and legal requirements e.g. licensing and registration requirements.

Financial plans: Capital requirements, profit margins, and other financial statements business including as a minimum, 12 monthly cash flow projections for the first year (additional financials will add value to the plan).

SWOT analysis in relation to the proposed business and of yourself (i.e. state of readiness).

Conclusions and Recommendations: Based on the SWOT analysis i.e. how you will turn weaknesses into strengths and threats into opportunities including your PDP.

NB: In all cases, the overall coherence is more important than any single section and evidence of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking should be evident in either the report or the business plan. (Please remember to include a word count at the beginning of your assignment).

Formatting/Presentation requirements

The assignment should be word processed and double line spaced. Use of bullet points should be avoided or used sparingly.

Use Ariel size 11 point for your report fully justified
State the word counting for each section as stated above (business reports only)
Each page should be numbered except for the contents pages (if any)
Use single line
Presentation must be formal in language and style and must adhere to the structure given above.

Referencing requirements

All work should be referenced using the Harvard format – there are handouts available online at the library website and are available as hard copy in the library if you are unsure of this.

Exercise caution when using Wikipedia, Google or Yahoo – the former is not peer assessed and the work is not always reliable and the later are search engines. Do not rely too heavily or exclusively on such

Use textbooks and journal articles (newspaper articles may at times be acceptable). You should however, make more reliance on journal articles as these are peer reviewed and are often more recent than text books. If you are to use text books, these should be the latest so it is important to check whether you have the latest edition. Citations should be used very minimally and in limited circumstances, you may reference lecture material such as handouts and presentation

Recommended reading list and resources Purchase

Burns, P. (2016) Entrepreneurship and small business: start-up, growth and maturity (4th Ed.)

Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Essential Reading

Barrow, C., Barrow, P. & Brown, R. (2015) The Business Plan Workbook: A practical guide to New Venture creation and development (8th Ed.) Kogan Page

Burns, P. (2014) New Venture Creation: A Framework for Entrepreneurial Start-Ups, Palgrave Macmillan

Drucker, P. (2012) Innovation and Entrepreneurship. London: Routledge (Available as e-book at; http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=385865)

Stokes, D. and Wilson, N. (2010) Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Andover: Cengage Learning (Available as e-book at; http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=339605)

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