Curriculum
In addressing the challenges described above, there are two pillars to the curriculum: an academic theory-oriented one, and a practitioner one. In delivering such an entrepreneurship minor, it is appropriately conceivable to completely blur the line between theoretical understanding and experience. For example, the minor could be made up of venture creation, punctuated by a set of workshops and readings and lectures, altogether assessed with one single course grade. However, this introduces assessment issues. Where students may completely shirk on learning about entrepreneurship theory in their preference for the experiential portion of the minor, and yet pass the course. To avoid the extremes of this ‘substitution effect,’ which compromises the objectives of the minor, we design these two pillars each with a separate course with a separate grade. Students must pass both courses to obtain the minor.
Our Minor in Entrepreneurship breaks down to three components, as follows. First, “Entrepreneurship in Practice” (or EiP, 15 EC) provides the student practical experience in many aspects of starting their own business. The semester starts out with a multimedia Kickoff with special guests (i.e. past students), followed by three introductory 3-hour lectures designed for the non-B/E majors, which addresses Challenge #3 described above. Subsequently, interactive workshops on mindmapping, trend-finding and project management are delivered. These first two weeks of the semester culminate in the Start-up Factory, a 2 ½ day incubator bootcamp. Students are assigned to preliminary groups that each include at least 1 B/E major. This addresses Challenge #1. At the Start-up Factory, with the help of coaches from the HvA , students learn to brainstorm and present their ideas in a go/no-go format. Other activities, such as a viewing of Dragon’s Den and an outdoors group activity serve to help build teams and challenge thinking. While there are few restrictions to team formation outcomes, the assignment helps to ensure that each group starts off with at least some substantial business background.
Five EC’s are attributed to setting up the company, five EC’s are attributed to writing the business plan, and the remainder is awarded for the individualized Lessons Learned.
After the Start-up Factory, with the McKinsey NewVenture as their reference text, student teams craft ‘Start-up Documents’ which outline their proposed set of milestones and deadlines. Students are then coached continuously to craft and refine their team Business Plans. A crew of mentors and coaches provide workshops and a legal structure is provided to protect the students. Individual ‘Lessons Learned’ reports are submitted at the end of the semester. The minor culminates in a final Kickout, where teams give their presentations in front of a formal jury and audience. The interactive nature of EiP ensures that it gives students an experience very different from other academic courses.
Second, in “Cases in Entrepreneurship” (or CiE, 5 EC), students learn key concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial management through the intensive study of a number of Harvard Business School cases. Students are also acquainted with research in entrepreneurship and small firms, and become familiar with its multidisciplinary nature. Scholarly readings are drawn from top-tier academic journals such as Academy of Management Review, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Management Science, and Journal of Management Studies. Readings are drawn from leading practitioner journals such as MIT Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, and California Management Review. Concepts and theories acquired in these articles are then applied to the HBS cases. In order to avoid situations where B/E students feel unchallenged or where non-B/E students feel overwhelmed, B/E majors are enlisted to help train the non-B/E students to adopt business and entrepreneurship mindsets. This addresses Challenge #2. The CiE course grade is based on weekly homework and class participation, short papers, and a comprehensive 3-hour in-class exam (which covers all material covered in the minor up to that date, including Business Basics).
In addition to these two required courses, students are required to take 10 ECT’s of elective courses that complement the theoretical and practical approaches to entrepreneurship. Currently they can select from the following: Arbeids- & Organisatiepsychologie (512P, 4 ec); Business Informatiemanagement (BV, 6032, 5 ec); Financial Accounting (PV, 153P, 5 ec); Financiering (PV, 152P, 5 ec); Informatie en Organisatie (BIKIO5, 5 ec); Management Accounting: Inleiding (PV, 150P, 4 ec); Marketing (BV, 6010, 5 ec); Ondernemingsrecht (SV, 3005, 5 ec); Operationeel Management voor Bedrijfskunde (KV, 6594, 5 ec); Organisatie en Management (PV, 170P, 6 ec); Strategisch Management (BV, 6019, 5 ec). Recent student feedback indicates that these offerings are not sufficiently related to the core. Thus, additional electives (e.g. a set of six courses, each 5 ECT’s) are planned to be made available jointly with the Vrije University Amsterdam.
The minor is delivered in English during the Spring semester, in order to attract international students. The minor is delivered entirely in Dutch during the Fall semester.
Multiple surveys assessing personality and entrepreneurial dispositions are administered by coordinators and the central faculty before, during, and after the minor. Results are revealed to each student at the beginning and end of the minor. Students will find these pre- and post-minor results to be useful as a dashboard that can help them chart and assess their development. For staff, this helps to better understand the areas in which students are learning and not learning, and thus how improvements might be made to the program.
For the future, we are aiming to grow the minor to 80 students per semester. We are also looking into the possibilities of inviting external entrepreneurs or inventors to come and mentor the teams on a volunteer basis. As the program flourishes, we hope to attract more corporate sponsorship.
Our Minor in Entrepreneurship breaks down to three components, as follows. First, “Entrepreneurship in Practice” (or EiP, 15 EC) provides the student practical experience in many aspects of starting their own business. The semester starts out with a multimedia Kickoff with special guests (i.e. past students), followed by three introductory 3-hour lectures designed for the non-B/E majors, which addresses Challenge #3 described above. Subsequently, interactive workshops on mindmapping, trend-finding and project management are delivered. These first two weeks of the semester culminate in the Start-up Factory, a 2 ½ day incubator bootcamp. Students are assigned to preliminary groups that each include at least 1 B/E major. This addresses Challenge #1. At the Start-up Factory, with the help of coaches from the HvA , students learn to brainstorm and present their ideas in a go/no-go format. Other activities, such as a viewing of Dragon’s Den and an outdoors group activity serve to help build teams and challenge thinking. While there are few restrictions to team formation outcomes, the assignment helps to ensure that each group starts off with at least some substantial business background.
Five EC’s are attributed to setting up the company, five EC’s are attributed to writing the business plan, and the remainder is awarded for the individualized Lessons Learned.
After the Start-up Factory, with the McKinsey NewVenture as their reference text, student teams craft ‘Start-up Documents’ which outline their proposed set of milestones and deadlines. Students are then coached continuously to craft and refine their team Business Plans. A crew of mentors and coaches provide workshops and a legal structure is provided to protect the students. Individual ‘Lessons Learned’ reports are submitted at the end of the semester. The minor culminates in a final Kickout, where teams give their presentations in front of a formal jury and audience. The interactive nature of EiP ensures that it gives students an experience very different from other academic courses.
Second, in “Cases in Entrepreneurship” (or CiE, 5 EC), students learn key concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial management through the intensive study of a number of Harvard Business School cases. Students are also acquainted with research in entrepreneurship and small firms, and become familiar with its multidisciplinary nature. Scholarly readings are drawn from top-tier academic journals such as Academy of Management Review, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Management Science, and Journal of Management Studies. Readings are drawn from leading practitioner journals such as MIT Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, and California Management Review. Concepts and theories acquired in these articles are then applied to the HBS cases. In order to avoid situations where B/E students feel unchallenged or where non-B/E students feel overwhelmed, B/E majors are enlisted to help train the non-B/E students to adopt business and entrepreneurship mindsets. This addresses Challenge #2. The CiE course grade is based on weekly homework and class participation, short papers, and a comprehensive 3-hour in-class exam (which covers all material covered in the minor up to that date, including Business Basics).
In addition to these two required courses, students are required to take 10 ECT’s of elective courses that complement the theoretical and practical approaches to entrepreneurship. Currently they can select from the following: Arbeids- & Organisatiepsychologie (512P, 4 ec); Business Informatiemanagement (BV, 6032, 5 ec); Financial Accounting (PV, 153P, 5 ec); Financiering (PV, 152P, 5 ec); Informatie en Organisatie (BIKIO5, 5 ec); Management Accounting: Inleiding (PV, 150P, 4 ec); Marketing (BV, 6010, 5 ec); Ondernemingsrecht (SV, 3005, 5 ec); Operationeel Management voor Bedrijfskunde (KV, 6594, 5 ec); Organisatie en Management (PV, 170P, 6 ec); Strategisch Management (BV, 6019, 5 ec). Recent student feedback indicates that these offerings are not sufficiently related to the core. Thus, additional electives (e.g. a set of six courses, each 5 ECT’s) are planned to be made available jointly with the Vrije University Amsterdam.
The minor is delivered in English during the Spring semester, in order to attract international students. The minor is delivered entirely in Dutch during the Fall semester.
Multiple surveys assessing personality and entrepreneurial dispositions are administered by coordinators and the central faculty before, during, and after the minor. Results are revealed to each student at the beginning and end of the minor. Students will find these pre- and post-minor results to be useful as a dashboard that can help them chart and assess their development. For staff, this helps to better understand the areas in which students are learning and not learning, and thus how improvements might be made to the program.
For the future, we are aiming to grow the minor to 80 students per semester. We are also looking into the possibilities of inviting external entrepreneurs or inventors to come and mentor the teams on a volunteer basis. As the program flourishes, we hope to attract more corporate sponsorship.