Marketing &

Entrepreneurship





Outline Syllabus:

What is entrepreneurship?
Understanding the role of the entrepreneur.
Market opportunity recognition.
Constructing a business model.
Evaluating opportunities.
Entrepreneurial marketing.
Business planning and formation.
Managing growth.
Sustainable business development.


Assessment Criteria and Marking Guidelines
The course is 100% based on assessed course work.
(1) INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK 2000 words (70%)
Assignment Background

Burns (2011) distinguishes between owner-managers and entrepreneurs and
discusses a variety of factors which influence the decisions on whether to start up
a business and whether to grow it . Within what he describes as situational
factors, Burns highlights the importance of events which act as triggers for
entrepreneurial activity,

Most people, at some time in their life, have an idea that could form the basis for establishing
their own business. But few people choose to do so. What is needed is a trigger to spur them
into action, to turn these ideas into reality. These triggers can take the form of push or pull
factors. Push factors are those that push you into self employment unemployment or forced
redundancy, disagreement with your boss, being a misfit and not feeling comfortable in an
organisation and for some reason, or simply having no alternative because, for example, you
have a physical disability or illness. These are very strong motivations for self-employment, but
not necessarily to grow your business. Pull factors the need for independence, achievement
and recognition, personal development and wealth are positive reasons for setting up a
business. Sometimes the factors combine and an entrepreneur emerges with a positive
motivation, for example to make a success of an innovative idea, having felt a misfit in their old
organisation. (Burns 2011, pg 53)

Burns (2011) then discusses the blocks that inhibit entrepreneurial action and
concludes that,

All too often these triggers are blocked by other factors the need for regular income, a family to
support, no capital or a doubt about your own ability. These all boil down to two things
insufficient self-confidence and an inability to cope with high risk and uncertainty. Without these
key ingredients the business will not get past the ideas stage. (Burns 2011, pg 53)

Burns P (2011) Entrepreneurship & Small Business, Palgrave Macmillan

Assignment Task

Select an entrepreneur and analyse their journey through the entrepreneurial
process, from the initial idea through to start-up & growth. Discuss, with
examples, whether your analysis supports Burns assertions about triggers and
blocks. Critically evaluate whether these factors alone fully explain the reasons
for your entrepreneurs decision to start up, and the growth of their business.
Based on your response what do you conclude about creating a successful new
venture?

[You are reminded to make use of examples from your analysis and draw upon wider reading of
the entrepreneurial literature, in your response.]






(2) GROUP COURSEWORK - 2,500 Words (30%)
Working in self-selected teams of three faculty you are required to identify a
potential new venture opportunity and evaluate whether it will be feasible.
This will require you to conduct primary and secondary market research and
prepare a one year projected cash flow. There is no one format to present this,
but your report should include:
Description of the Business Concept (Potential Opportunity)
Market Analysis (Industry, Competitors and Customers)
One year projected cash flow and break even
Group Evaluation of the concept
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
concept?
Is the business concept feasible? (Yes or No)
Would your group pursue this venture? Why or
why not?
Discussion of how the concept has evolved
through the course of the research.

The following grid may help you in conducting your group evaluation. Evaluate the
concept against the following eight criteria, using a score of 1 (very poor or very
unattractive) to 5 (very high or very attractive) and display your groups results in a
grid.

You Group Member 1 Group Member 2
Group
Member...........
Attractiveness
of idea Would
you enjoy doing
it?

Ability to
undertake Do
you have the
skills needed to
do it?

Practicality Is it
something that
really can be
done?

Potential market
demand Will
customers buy it?

Ability to
combat
competition Is
there competition
and can you
combat it in some
way?

Ability to
differentiate
Can you
differentiate it in
some way that
can be sustained
over a long
period?

Price potential
Can you avoid
competing simply
on price?

Resource
availability Do
you think you
have, or can get,
the resources you
need to start up
this business?



Your report may include texts, charts, diagrams, pictures, tables etc ~ it is up to
you ~ please remember that in the real business world managers expect
documents to be readable and reasonably concise.

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS monday 28th july 2014 AT 12:00 PM.


RECOMMENDED COURSE TEXT

Burns P (2011) Entrepreneurship & Small Business, Palgrave Macmillan
(ISBN: 978-0-230-24780-2).

The following is recommended as a supplementary text:
Hashemi B and Hashemi S (2002) Building Coffee Republic from our Kitchen Table
57 Real-Life Laws on Entrepreneurship Capstone Publishers (ISBN 1-84112-204-
1)

Additional books, which are likely to be a useful reference source, are:
Barringer B and Ireland R (2010) Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New
Ventures, Global (Third) Edition, Pearson. (ISBN 10: 0-13-815808-8)

Rae D (2007) Entrepreneurship: from opportunity to action. Palgrave Macmillan
(ISBN 13: 978-1-4039-4175-6)

Bolton and Thompson (2001) Entrepreneurs: Talent Temperament & Technique
Butterworth Heinmann (ISBN 0-7506-4623-3)

Bolton and Thompson (2001) The Entrepreneur Focus achieve your potential
Thomson (ISBN 1-86152-918-X

Hisrich, R.D. and Peters, M.P., (2002) Entrepreneurship, (Fifth Edition
International Edition), McGraw-Hill Higher Education, ISBN 0-070112351-2

Lowe R & Marriott S (2006) Enterprise: Entrepreneurship & Innovation Concepts,
Contexts and Commercialisation. Elsevier Ltd (ISBN 10: 0-7506-6920-7)

Carson, D. Cromie, S. McGowan, P. and Hill, J. (1995), Marketing and
Entrepreneurship in SMEs An Innovative Approach, Prentice Hall Europe, Pearson
Education Limited.

Harvard Business Review on Entrepreneurship (1999)
Harvard Business School Press (ISBN 0-87584-910-5)

It is NOT recommended that you purchase these supplementary texts.


RECOMMENDED JOURNALS

Journal of Business Venturing
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
Harvard Business Review
McKinsey Quarterly
Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal
Journal of Small Business & Enterprise Development


USEFUL WEB SITES

www.gemconsortium.org/
International research and statistics,
carried out by LBS.
www.starttalkingideas.com
Site dedicated to raising awareness of
enterprise and developing your ideas.
Links to many other useful sites.
www.ideasfactory.com/index.htm
Useful resource for the creative
industries.
www.entrepreneur.com
Probably the top US site with every
topic you can imagine. Well worth a
visit.
www.entrepreneur-america.com Another resource packed US site.
www.lemonadestories.com
Stories and video clips from this new
film about famous entrepreneurs and
their relationships with their mothers.
www.awib.org Asian Women in Business
www.zeromillion.com Interesting articles and stories
www.powerhomebiz.com Ideas, articles and stories
www.benlore.com/index2.html
Useful websites with stories of
entrepreneurs and the Entrepreneurial
Mind.
www.successmanifesto.com
You can download free of charge the
first chapter of this book entitled the
Student Success Manifesto
www.entrepreneurialprocess.com/entre
book.htm
Free online book on entrepreneurship.
www.dyson.com
www.richersounds.co.uk
www.pret.com
www.easyjet.co.uk
Websites of successful entrepreneurs
and their businesses.



Plagiarism and Referencing

(a) Copying chunks of text from books, dissertations, journals or the web without
acknowledgement. (It is permissible, even desirable, to quote extensively from the work of
other writers on your subject, but all quotations should be fully referenced).

(b) Paraphrasing ideas from texts without stating their origin. (Instead, use phrases
such as According to Jobber (1995). or Wright & Taylor (1994) propose that .. or
similar acknowledgement).

(c) Colluding with other faculty and submitting identical or near identical work.

(d) Copying the work of another faculty