This interactive study-unit is designed to introduce students to the world of entrepreneurship and to stimulate their thoughts and reflection on the fundamental issues and research trends in the field. This introductory course constitutes the foundations upon which the subsequent study-units in this Entrepreneurship module will be built. 

Topics to be covered include:

• Defining entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship
• The discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities
• Social capital in entrepreneurship
• The personality approach to entrepreneurship
• The cognitive approach to entrepreneurship
• Start-up success factors
• Sustainable entrepreneurship
• Introduction to business planning.

This study-unit will explore entrepreneurial behaviour in different organizational contexts, e.g. the entrepreneurial individual running their own business, the corporate entrepreneur, the entrepreneur in the public sector, social entrepreneurship and the practice and development of personal entrepreneurial behaviour. Theory, concepts and extant research will be supported by case studies and the experiences of practicing entrepreneurs.

Topics to be covered include: 

• The entrepreneurial learning process and the creation of new forms of knowledge.
• Experimental behaviour, risk, and reward.
• The role of motivation, attitude towards entrepreneurial behaviour, and achievement in entrepreneurial performance.
• Antecedent factors influencing entrepreneurial performance: culture, the environment, social capital, human capital.
• Entrepreneurship as a complex social process, social constructionism and perceptions of reality. 
• Barriers to the development of entrepreneurial behaviour within organisations.

This study-unit explores two perspectives on business planning. That of traditional theory in business and management which utilises rationality, logical frameworks and analysis to predict an uncertain future in an attempt to control it and that practiced by many successful entrepreneurs which utilises heuristic experimental learning, the management of risk and the exploitation of available resources to control an unpredictable future thus minimising the need to predict it.    

Topics to be covered include:

• The discovery or recognition of business opportunities.
• Evaluating opportunities and the emergence of a new venture.
• Environmental scanning. 
• Enterprise development and the underlying processes of causation and effectuation.
• Sensemaking and sensegiving.
• The role of story/narrative in simplifying complex ideas. 
• Emotional intelligence.
• Stakeholder theory and managing performance.
• The pyramid principle: logic in effective communication.

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