Academic management

Entrepreneurship is a common elective course (year 4, first semester) for  three degrees of the Jovellanos Faculty of Commerce, Tourism and Social Sciences: Degree in Tourism (GTURIS), Degree in Commerce and Marketing (GCOMAR) and Degree in Social Work (GTRASO). However, for university procedures, the course has been assigned to the Degree in Tourism, within the unit "Business management" and the module "Tourism firm management”.

This course exposes students to a similar situation to that experienced by an entrepreneur who decides to start a self-employment business. The approach emphasises practice, participation and learning-by-doing. The general aims of the course are as follows:

• Practicing and integrating the knowledge acquired in other courses.
• Encouraging entrepreneurship among students.
• Facilitating contact with real external institutions and agents.
• Training the interpersonal skills that are required for working in a team.
• Improving written and oral communication in a demanding professional context.

Although not a requirement, it is recommended that the student has successfully completed an introduction to business course. Moreover, it will be easier to follow the course if the student has previously studied subjects such as accounting, finance, marketing, human resources and strategy.

The student will: (i) develop the kind of entrepreneurial attitudes that are demanded by the labour market, either to work as an employee or self-employed, (ii) consider self-employment as an option after finishing the degree, (iii) establish contact with the programs and institutions that support entrepreneurship and (iv) be able to comprehensively assess the viability of a business idea.

As the course seeks to put into practice and integrate knowledge, it will necessarily train many of the competencies of the degree. Anyhow, the competencies that will receive greater attention are:

• CG1. Analytic and synthetic abilities.
• GC6. Ability to work in a team.
• CG9. Decision making.
• CG20. Initiative and entrepreneurship.
• CE12: Leading and managing different types of tourism organizations.

As far as learning outcomes are concerned:

• RA3.16. Presenting tourism projects to and negotiating with different agents.
• RA3.18. Understanding the basic principles of leading and managing firms.
• RA3.22: Planning, managing, organizing, coordinating and controlling the different departments of a tourism firm.

Unit 1. Introduction

1.1. Importance of new business initiatives and entrepreneurship

1.2. Different roles: entrepreneur, manager and investor

1.3. Entrepreneur, intrapreneur and social entrepreneur

1.4. Institutions and programs that support entrepreneurship

1.5. The business plan

Unit 2. The business idea

2.1. Innovation as a goal

2.2. Sources of business ideas

2.3. Problem-Solution

Unit 3. Customer and product

3.1. Customer discovery and validation

3.2. Product development: minimum viable product

3.3. Market scope: benchmarks, competitors and key suppliers

3.4. Market research tools

Unit 4. Strategy

4.1. Value proposition and strategy

4.2. Business model

4.3. Tools: positioning map, matrix, canvas and SWOT analysis

Unit 5. Functional decisions and implementation

5.1. Team and alliances

5.2. Operations: processes and resources

5.3. Marketing

5.4. Legal aspects

5.5. Finance

5.6. Implementation

5.7. Future prospects

Unit 6. Presenting the business plan

6.1. Successfully presenting and defending the business plan

6.2. Verbal and non-verbal communication techniques

Methodology. The course tries to simulate the process of identifying and evaluating a business idea that a real entrepreneur would follow. The methodology for the whole semester is based on practice, contact with the real business world, teamwork and learning-by-doing. Each group of students will be responsible for developing and defending a business plan for an innovative new venture.

Activities requiring attendance:

• In the weekly lectures the theoretical contents of the course will be developed. Occasionally, entrepreneurs or external professionals could give a talk.
• Practical sessions will consist on group work under the supervision of the lecturer.
• Group tutorials will be devoted to partial presentations of the business plan.
• In the event of adverse public health conditions, teaching activities not requiring attendance may be introduced. In this case, students will be informed of the changes.

Activities not requiring attendance:

• Group work: sharing views and commenting the different parts of the business plan, as well as preparing the presentation.
• Student independent work: information searching and developing the assigned tasks.

Work plan. During the first practical session of the course, the lecturer will establish the groups. Within a week, the group composition will be closed (late entry will be increasingly penalized, except in cases of justified force majeure). During this first week, students will be required to complete a form with their contact details, organized the group and appoint a manager/coordinator. Every group should propose several business ideas that comply with these requirements: self-employment initiatives, low/medium investment, innovative and a priori appear to be viable. The lecturer will comment the proposals with the group and choose one to proceed to develop the business plan.

At the end of the semester, a public onsite and/or virtual conference will be organized. Every group will have five minutes for presenting its project. Questions from the audience will be accepted.

Schedule.

The assessment of student learning in the ordinary evaluation period will be based on the three elements of the table:

The evaluation in the extraordinary evaluation periods will be based in two elements:

As far as students under differentiated evaluation are concerned, the wo elements described in the following table will be taken into consideration. Anyhow, this system will be analysed and approved by the Governing Committee.

In all evaluation systems, the written report will be marked taking into consideration both the substantive issues (originality of the idea, feasibility, sources of information, use of business concepts, development of own ideas) and the formal issues (grammar, spelling, order, clarity, layout). On the other hand, the oral presentation will be evaluated considering the revealed knowledge of the topic, formal rigour and ability to catch attention and convince the audience.

In the event of adverse public health conditions, assessment methods not requiring attendance may be introduced. In this case, students will be informed of the changes.

The student will have access to all teaching materials and additional resources in English in the Virtual Campus of the University of Oviedo.

Main textbook:

Aulet, B. (2017). La disciplina de emprender. LID, Madrid. English version: - (2013). Disciplined entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful startup. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.

Other references:

Brunet, I. and F. Baltar (2010). Creación de empresas. Innovación e instituciones. Ra-ma, Madrid.

Castro Abancéns, I. and J. I. Rufino Rus (2010). Creación de empresas para emprendedores. Pirámide, Madrid.

González Domínguez, F.J. (2012). Creación de empresas. Guía del emprendedor. Pirámide, Madrid.

Hidalgo, J. (2017). Idea, producto y negocio. Libros de cabecera, Barcelona.

Jiménez Quintero, J.A. (coord.) (2012). Creación de empresas. 2 volúmenes. Pirámide, Madrid.

Osterwalder, A. and Y. Pigneur (2011). Generación de modelos de negocio. Deusto, Barcelona. English version: - (2010). Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.

Priede Bargamini, T.; C. López-Cózar Navarro and S. Benito Hernández (coord.) (2010). Creación y desarrollo de empresas. Pirámide, Madrid.

Ries, E. (2012). El método lean startup. Deusto, Barcelona. English version: - (2011). The lean startup. Crown Business, New York.

Veciana Vergés, J.M. (2005): La creación de empresas. Un enfoque gerencial. Servicio de Estudios de La Caixa, Barcelona.