Subject Overview

Strategic Entrepreneurship examines how organizations discover, evaluate and exploit opportunities while simultaneously creating and sustaining competitive advantage. It integrates entrepreneurship, strategic management, innovation, business-model design, analytics, technology, governance and responsible growth across start-ups, established firms and social ventures.

Learning Goal

Students will be able to analyze entrepreneurial environments, formulate evidence-based strategies, design and validate innovative business models, allocate resources under uncertainty, manage growth and corporate entrepreneurship, and implement ethical, technology-aware strategies that create sustainable stakeholder value.

Syllabus

1. Foundations of Strategic Entrepreneurship

Learning Objective: Explain entrepreneurship, strategy, value creation and competitive advantage; distinguish strategic entrepreneurship from small-business management and conventional strategic planning; examine Schumpeterian innovation, Kirznerian opportunity discovery and the strategy–entrepreneurship interface.

Category: foundation

2. Entrepreneurial Mindset and Decision-Making Under Uncertainty

Learning Objective: Develop opportunity-oriented cognition, creativity, resilience and calculated risk-taking; apply causation, effectuation, bricolage, experimentation, real-options reasoning and cognitive-bias awareness to decisions under ambiguity.

Category: foundation

3. Opportunity Identification, Evaluation and Validation

Learning Objective: Use problem discovery, customer insight, design thinking, jobs-to-be-done and market research to identify opportunities; assess desirability, feasibility, viability, timing, scalability and strategic fit through hypotheses, prototypes and evidence.

Category: core

4. External Environment and Industry Analysis

Learning Objective: Analyze macroeconomic, societal, technological, regulatory and ecological forces using PESTEL, scenario analysis, industry life cycles, Porter’s Five Forces, strategic groups, competitor analysis and market sizing.

Category: core

5. Resources, Capabilities and Entrepreneurial Advantage

Learning Objective: Apply the resource-based view, VRIO, value-chain analysis, core competencies, knowledge-based theory and dynamic capabilities; determine how human, social, intellectual and organizational capital support defensible advantage.

Category: core

6. Strategic Positioning and Strategy Formulation

Learning Objective: Formulate entrepreneurial strategy using mission, vision, stakeholder analysis, SWOT/TOWS, generic strategies, differentiation, focus, blue-ocean logic and strategic choice; align opportunity pursuit with organizational purpose and capabilities.

Category: core

7. Innovation Strategy and Intellectual Property

Learning Objective: Manage incremental, radical, disruptive, architectural and business-model innovation; apply diffusion, technology life-cycle, open-innovation and portfolio concepts; select suitable patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets and licensing strategies.

Category: core

8. Business Models, Value Propositions and Market Entry

Learning Objective: Design and assess business models using the Business Model Canvas and value proposition tools; develop revenue, pricing, channel, partnership and platform choices; compare first-mover, fast-follower, niche, licensing, alliance and acquisition entry modes.

Category: application

9. Lean Venture Development and Go-to-Market Execution

Learning Objective: Apply lean start-up, minimum viable product, build–measure–learn and agile practices; design customer acquisition, sales, branding and retention strategies; use experiments, cohort evidence and product–market-fit indicators to guide pivots or persistence.

Category: application

10. Entrepreneurial Finance, Analytics and Valuation

Learning Objective: Estimate capital needs, cash flow, break-even points, unit economics and runway; interpret customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, churn and growth metrics; compare bootstrapping, debt, crowdfunding, angel, venture-capital and corporate funding; introduce valuation, cap tables and term sheets.

Category: application

11. Corporate Entrepreneurship and Organizational Ambidexterity

Learning Objective: Explain intrapreneurship, strategic renewal, corporate venturing and innovation ecosystems; design structures, cultures, incentives and leadership systems that balance exploration with exploitation and overcome organizational resistance.

Category: advanced

12. Scaling, Ecosystems and International Entrepreneurship

Learning Objective: Evaluate growth pathways including replication, franchising, alliances, mergers and acquisitions, platforms and ecosystems; address operational scaling, talent, culture and resource constraints; assess international opportunities through institutional, cultural and entry-mode analysis.

Category: advanced

13. Digital Transformation, Platforms and Artificial Intelligence

Learning Objective: Assess how cloud, data, automation, digital platforms, network effects and AI reshape opportunities, capabilities and business models; identify responsible AI use cases, data requirements, cybersecurity risks, algorithmic bias and human oversight needs.

Category: contemporary

14. Ethics, Sustainability, Risk and Governance

Learning Objective: Integrate stakeholder theory, corporate responsibility, ESG, circular-economy and social-entrepreneurship principles into strategy; manage legal, reputational, operational and technology risks; establish founder accountability, board governance, compliance and ethical decision processes.

Category: strategic

15. Strategy Implementation, Performance and Future Directions

Learning Objective: Translate strategy into priorities, resources, milestones and accountability using roadmaps, OKRs, balanced scorecards and leading indicators; conduct strategic reviews and adaptation; evaluate emerging developments such as generative AI, climate innovation, deep technology, decentralized models and regenerative enterprise.

Category: strategic