Instructional goals
This course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of how innovation and entrepreneurship are shaped by systematic processes, organizational behaviors, and emerging technologies. It emphasizes the development of both analytical and applied competencies in opportunity recognition, creative ideation, and the design of innovative business models. This course explores the systematic processes, methods, and behaviors that underpin innovation and entrepreneurial success. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the sources of innovation and the role of scientific and data-informed methods in opportunity recognition. The course also examines real-world examples of how companies leverage new technologies to achieve competitive advantage, while examining why many firms fail to do so.
Prerequisites
No
Intended learning outcomes
You should develop the following skills from this course: Identify and evaluate the main sources of innovation, including user-driven, technology-push, and ecosystem-based models. Apply systematic methods for opportunity recognition and innovation, drawing on scientific, behavioral, and design-based approaches to inform decision-making. Understand how breakthrough ideas are developed and how innovators translate them into successful startups through structured processes and entrepreneurial strategies. Analyze how firms leverage emerging technologies and innovation strategies to build and sustain competitive advantage, and critically assess the reasons why many innovation initiatives fail. Examine the role of entrepreneurial ecosystems, including institutions, networks, and regional environments, in shaping technological innovation and the success of startups.
Course Contents
The majority of learning will occur through interactive debates and contributions to constructive, class-based discussions (reading-focused). Students will apply course concepts in a group project that utilizes mixed-methods research to investigate technological innovation trends within a chosen real-world firm or ecosystem. Key questions of the course: Is there a systematic method or behavior that leads to innovation? What are the sources of innovation? Is there a scientific method of recognizing opportunities and innovating? How do innovators come up with breakthrough ideas, and how do they turn them into successful startups? How companies leverage technologies and innovation to sustain competitive advantage, and why many others failed? What is the role of the entrepreneur’s and firm’s ecosystem in fostering technological innovation? Final group project You will work in groups to investigate, using mixed-method research, technological innovation trends in real-world firms and their networks and ecosystems. There is a word limit for the project paper, including all exhibits. While providing some details is necessary, it is essential to emphasize analysis over description. You are welcome to utilize your industry contacts.
Reference Books
All information concerning the course, the lecture notes, the support materials and the exercises and all communications will take place through the e-learning page. A list of the required and suggested readings is included in the detailed program.
Teaching Methods
The course mixes theory with practice, and students will be challenged to apply principles, concepts and frameworks to real-world situations. Before each class, students are supposed to study the material – usually papers and / or case studies – suggested in the reading list.
Assessment Method
The grade is based on an individual written exam (30%), and group project (70%).
Thesis assignment criteria
No specific requirement.
Week 1
Innovator’s DNA The Innovator’s DNA, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen, and Jeff Dyer HBR (December 2009), https://hbr.org/archive-toc/BR0912
Week 2
Systematic Innovation The Discipline of Innovation, Peter F. Drucker, HBR (August 2002), https://hbr.org/archive-toc/BR0208
Week 3
Research and Development and New Product Development Demil, B. & Lecocq, X. (2010). Business model evolution: In search of dynamic consistency. Long Range Planning, 43(2–3), 227–246.
Week 4
Methodologies and Tools Creswell, J. W. (2021). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. SAGE Publications.
Week 5
Exploration and Exploitation of Innovation: Ambidextrous Strategies Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit Charles A. O’Reilly III & Michael L. Tushman (2011) California Management Review
Week 6
AI, organizational knowledge, and data-driven innovation Generative AI as Source of Change of Knowledge Management Paradigm” (Human Technology, 2024) by Kaczorowska‑Spychalska et al.
Week 7
Business Model Innovation HBR, Ovans, 2015, “What Is a Business Model?”
Week 8
What is a Startup? And what is Scaleup and Unicorn Blank, S. (2013). Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything. Harvard Business Review, 91(5), 63-72.
Week 9
ou Don’t Need to Be a Silicon Valley Startup to Have a Network-Based Strategy Bonchek, M., & Libert, B. (2017). You Don’t Need to Be a Silicon Valley Startup to Have a Network-Based Strategy. Harvard Business Press.
Week 10
Open Innovation Chesbrough, H. (2003). The Era of Open Innovation, MIT Sloan Management Review, 44, 3, 35–41 Von Hippel, Eric. Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press, 2005 - Index and Introduction
Week 11
Open Innovation Chesbrough, H. (2003). The Era of Open Innovation, MIT Sloan Management Review, 44, 3, 35–41 Von Hippel, Eric. Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press, 2005 - Index and Introduction
Week 12
Group project presentation