MSc Entrepreneurship & Innovation Timetable and Modules
Note: Modules offered each academic year are subject to change. Listed below are the modules and timetables for 2024/25.
Michaelmas Term |
Hilary Term |
Trinity Term |
Electives |
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Michaelmas Term (September to December)
- Business Model Innovation
- Digital Entrepreneurship & Scaling
- Design Thinking & Agile Development
- Entrepreneurial Mindset & Well-Being
- New Venture Creation
- Strategic Entrepreneurship
Hilary Term (January to April)
- Financing Entrepreneurship
- International Entrepreneurship
- New Venture Creation
- Social & Sustainable Entrepreneurship
- Corporate innovation
Trinity Term (May to August)
- Business Development, Dissertation or Company Projects (Individual and group opportunities available)
Electives
Supporting Activities
- Clinics for Entrepreneurs
- Pitch Training
- Guest Speakers
- Ecosystem Visits
Module Descriptions
Business Model Innovation (5 ECTS)
The aim of this module is to provide students with an understanding of Business Model Innovation (BMI). BMI is the process by which today’s businesses create superior value for customers by meeting their needs and providing value more effectively and efficiently than competitors. Through this process, entrepreneurial ventures capture greater value from their customers. The business model innovation (BMI) process is central to an entrepreneurial process. Over an intensive week, students will learn and apply the BMI process. Students will participate in classroom learning, grounded in relevant theory and practical tools. Students will be organised into diverse teams to empathise with customers, and design value propositions and business models accordingly. Teams and subgroups (e.g., pairs) will work extensively outside of formal sessions, engage potential customers, collaborators, and each other.
Digital Entrepreneurship & Scaling (10 ECTs)
This module equips students with a deep understanding of digital entrepreneurship and demand-side scaling. It explores the dynamic landscape of digital technologies and their transformative role in venture creation and growth. Students will critically examine how emerging technologies—such as generative AI for business ideation, digital platforms for market intelligence, and cloud computing for scalable infrastructure—are reshaping entrepreneurial strategies. The course combines theoretical insights with practical applications, enabling students to harness digital tools to create, sustain, and scale ventures in an increasingly digitalized economy.
Strategic Entrepreneurship (5 ECTS)
This module explores the role of strategic entrepreneurship in spurring the growth of any enterprise. Strategic entrepreneurship refers to the integration of strategic management and entrepreneurial action to enhance an organisation's competitive advantage and growth. It involves the simultaneous pursuit of opportunity-seeking (entrepreneurial) and advantage-seeking (strategic) behaviours to ensure long-term success. Hence, this course introduces techniques of strategic analysis and exposes students to the methods of analysing, crafting, and implementing strategy. This will enable students to develop a practical knowledge of strategic management. The course develops an appreciation of the broader business enterprise, its internal and external contexts, and the activities and processes on which it is built. Students who complete the course will be able to better understand and analyse the strategic decisions they are exposed to in their careers. In addition, they will also be better equipped to actively participate in the strategic management process.
Design Thinking & Agile Development (5 ECTS)
Design Thinking (DT) is a human-centered, iterative approach to problem-solving that enables individuals and teams to create innovative solutions for real-world challenges. Agile Management (AM) is an adaptive, iterative approach that enables dedicated teams to efficiently develop, test, and refine solutions in response to evolving goals and market conditions. Together, these two frameworks empower entrepreneurs to navigate uncertainty, turn ideas into tangible outcomes, and drive continuous innovation.
In this module, students will integrate co-creation, theoretical frameworks, and hands-on prototyping to design, develop and test innovative solutions.
Entrepreneurial Mindset and Well-being (5 ECTS)
This entrepreneurship course explores the key formulas for business and personal success, focussing on performance mindset and well-being. An entrepreneurial mindset identifies opportunities where others see risk, generates solutions to everyday challenges, and is resourceful, adaptable, and resilient under complex and uncertain conditions. Well-being is not only a vital part of everyone’s life but it is also a crucial entrepreneurial skill that enhances personal performance and fuels business development. Entrepreneurial well-being is a multidimensional concept that encompasses a variety of human experiences and contexts (e.g. work-life integration, meaning and purpose, optimism and positive affect, self-regulation, metacognition, decision-making, leadership, influence and positive engagement). The aim of this module is to provide students with an understanding of the objective and subjective aspects of mindsets that lead to entrepreneurial success and sustainable performance. It examines the risks of allowing short-term decisions to override what’s best for our long-term performance and well-being, ultimately acting against the entrepreneur’s own best interest. It is different from other business courses because the subject is one’s own development in relation to life as an entrepreneur. It treats the Self as the primary instrument and resource of entrepreneurship. This module will help students gain insight and understanding of scientific ideas that underscore performance, appreciate practical implications, and learn to apply skills and tools in their own lives, personally and in organisational settings.
New Venture Creation (10 ECTS)
This module consists of workshops on key entrepreneurship topics not covered in detail by core or elective modules. Each workshop will be delivered by experienced entrepreneurs, consultants, and international professors and will place specific emphasis on real business dynamics. Departing from and building on the topics discussed through the workshops, students will be asked to work in groups in class and after class.
Financing Entrepreneurship (5 ECTS)
This module is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the financial complexities associated with launching, managing, and financing innovative ventures. In entrepreneurship, financial decisions are crucial to the success and sustainability of startups and innovative projects. The module will cover a range of topics, from venture valuation and funding strategies to risk management, including an analysis of funding strategies and financial modelling with strategic financial decision making. Delivered through case analysis, lectures, and insights from leading industry speakers, this module equips students a strong grasp of the major financial issues in the entrepreneurship and innovation space.
International Entrepreneurship (5 ECTS)
This module provides students with both theoretical and practical insights into the internationalisation of young entrepreneurial firms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It focusses on how culture, technology, and related forces interact with an entrepreneurial mindset to drive cross-border entrepreneurship. Through a combination of theoretical perspectives and case studies, the module explores how small and recently established firms compete and create value in the global economy. The module pays special attention to market entry strategies, platform-enabled digital ventures, and born global companies. In-class discussions will be enriched by guest lectures from entrepreneurs operating across national borders. The most successful companies today have scaled across multiple geographical regions.
Corporate Innovation (10 ECTS)
This module focusses on the strategies and dynamics that underpin innovation development in scaleup companies. Scaleup companies are defined as startups that have expanded their business in the first five years of operations and have added at least ten employees. This module blends a theoretical and practical approach, introducing relevant theories on innovation development and growth in startups, and focussing on practical learning. The course is divided into two blocks: the first focusses on key theoretical contributions in corporate innovation and strategies for startup and scaleup growth; the second will concentrate on experiential learning through the analysis of real cases of scaleup companies.
Social & Sustainable Entrepreneurship (5 ECTS)
This module develops a critical awareness of social entrepreneurship, exploring its major approaches, opportunities, and challenges, particularly in an international context. Social entrepreneurship is an impact-driven form of entrepreneurship that addresses societal challenges, often aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This module explores the theoretical foundations and practical aspects of social entrepreneurship, analysing patterns of social entrepreneurial behaviour on both local and global levels. Social enterprises, which seek to create significant social impact, operate across non-profit, private and public sectors, and within a variety of organisational settings.
Corporate innovation (10 ECTS)
This module focusses on the strategies and dynamics that underpin innovation development in scaleup companies. Scaleup companies are defined as startups that have expanded their business in the first five years of operations and have added at least ten employees. This module blends a theoretical and practical approach, introducing relevant theories on innovation development and growth in startups, and focussing on practical learning. The course is divided into two blocks: the first focusses on key theoretical contributions in corporate innovation and strategies for startup and scaleup growth; the second will concentrate on experiential learning through the analysis of real cases of scaleup companies.
This module will develop skills in conducting research at postgraduate level. Students will learn qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting and analysing data and develop competencies in critiquing existing literature.
Dissertation/Company Project/ Business Development (30 ECTS)
This programme uniquely offers three broad types of capstone projects to assess a student’s capacity for independent learning. These project options reflect the diversity of interests and purposes students typically bring to the programme. The three possibilities are as follows:
- Business Development:Students incrementally develop, document, and reflect on the process of actualising an early-stage venture, ending in a business plan and a deep critical reflective piece as deliverables.
- Company Project:Students select a company, identify a unique intrapreneurial/strategy challenge, and work on it. They submit a report that develops and defines theory-informed strategies to resolve the difficulties identified. A critical reflective piece is included in the report.
- Theoretical dissertation: Students focus on a research question and conduct theoretical and field research to answer it. A critical reflection on the learning journey is included at the end of the dissertation. Under this category, there is a unique option for an action design research (ADR) dissertation project. ADR combines the merits of a business development project and a theoretical dissertation. Unlike traditional research, where a researcher typically investigates a question by observing and asking questions of participants, researchers are active participants in their ADR studies. In other words, the researcher is not a detached observer but an engaged participant in their own study.