Foundations and forms of entrepreneurship
Summary 2024/2025
Table of contents
Week 1 2
Introduction (Lecture 1) 2
What is entrepreneurship and who are entrepreneurs? 2
Sources of novel opportunities 2
The individual environment relationship 3
Article 1: The discipline of innovation (Drucker, 1985) 3
Abstract 3
Sources of innovation 4
Principles of innovation 5
Article 2 : Founders, apply the scientific method to your start-up (Spina, Camuffo &
Gambardella, 2020) 6
Article 3: A scientific approach to decision-making: Key tools and design principles
(Spina, Coali, et. al, 2024) 7
Abstract 7
Scientific approach to decision-making 7
Scientific approach and Lean startup approach 8
Week 3 10
Business models (Lecture 2) 10
Main contents 10
What is a business plan 10
Business models 11
Lean business model canvas 12
Article 4: What is a Business Model? (Ovans, 2015) 15
Article 5: How to design a winning business model (Casadesus & Ricart, 2011) 15
Introduction 15
What is a business model? 16
Three Characteristics of a Good Business Model 17
How Business Models Generate Virtuous Cycles 17
Competing with Business Models 18
Business Models vs. Strategy vs. Tactics 20
Entrepreneurial teams and leadership (Lecture 3) 20
Entrepreneurial Teams Formation Strategies 20
Why is having a team important? 21
Entrepreneurial team formation 21
Key aspects to manage in entrepreneurial teams: The three ‘R’s 23
The MIT Sloan 4 Capabilities Leadership Framework: 25
Article 6: Talking past each other: construal level, utilitarian motives, and
entrepreneurial team formation (Gray, Howell, & Sackett, 2024) 26
, Abstract 26
Research overview 26
Conclusion 27
Article 7: Entrepreneurial team formation: An exploration of new member addition
(Forbes et.al, 2006) 27
Abstract 27
New member addition 27
Week 4 30
Strategies for attracting resources (Lecture 4) 30
Resource acquisition and legitimation strategies 30
Legitimacy 30
The Entrepreneurial Newness Framework 31
Sources of Financing 32
Selecting funding sources: a framework 32
Working out your financials 33
Projecting Financials 33
Article 8: How to write a great business plan (Sahlman, 1997) 35
Article 9: Legitimate to whom? The challenge of audience diversity and new venture
legitimacy. (Fisher, et. al. 2017) 36
Crowdfunding 36
Grant administrators 37
Angel investors 38
Venture capitalists 38
Corporate venture capitalists 39
Week 5 40
Effective management of growth and corporate entrepreneurship (Lecture 5) 40
What is business growth? 40
Greiner growth models 40
When should a business scale, is growth always a good thing? 41
What is Corporate Entrepreneurship? 44
Corporate Entrepreneurship Modes 44
Article 10: Start-ups that last (Gulati & DeSantola, 2016) 47
Defining Specialized Roles 47
Adding Management Structure 48
Planning and Forecasting with Discipline 48
Sustaining the Culture 48
Article 11: Evolution and revolution as organizations grow (Greiner, L. 1972) 49
Phases of Growth in Greiner’s Growth Model 49
Phases of crisis 49
Guest lectures 51
Guest lecture Marina Tognetti (Lecture 1) 51
Guest lecture Koen van der Waart (Lecture 2) 51
Guest lecture Marian Spier (lecture 3) 53
Guest lecture Estelle Roux-Stevens (lecture 4) 54
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,Week 1
Introduction (Lecture 1)
This lecture talks mainly about Article 1: The discipline of innovation (Drucker, 1985)
What is entrepreneurship and who are entrepreneurs?
Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled (stevenson and
jarillo, 1989; Dubini & Aldrich, 1991) ((Relentless focus, novel offering))
- applies to many different contexts ( startups, corporates, non profits)
- Emphasis on a set of behaviors rather than who is the entrepreneurial actor.
Different perspectives of entrepreneurship
- Occupational: Self-employed individuals
- Structural: small/young organizations
- Functional: Alertness towards profit opportunities, Judgement under uncertainty
(make strategic decisions in an uncertain environment)
Sources of novel opportunities
Within organizations and industries:
- unexpected occurrences → Unexpected successes, failures, and external events that
should not have happened but open the door for asking can i make something out of
this?
- Incongruencies → Differences between what ought to be between what is and what
everybody assumes it to be; likely to emerge qualitatively form observation
- process needs → A job to be done on a process to create, redesign, improve or perfect
it; usually targets problems and tasks widely recognized as problematic
- industry and market changes → Changes in consumer habits/preferences/desires, in
the way things work within a given sector, or in the structure of an industry (e.g.,
incumbents vs new entrants)
Outside organizations and industries:
- Demographic changes → Changes in population, its size, age structure, composition,
employment, educational status and income
- Changes in perception → Changes in the meaning of people ascribe to a fact or set of
facts, which affects the way they see themselves and or the environment; important to
seize and leverage momentum
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, - New knowledge → New scientific, technical or social knowledge becoming available
that can be distilled into usable technology and commercialized as product, process
or service.
The individual environment relationship
Starting a new business is a highly personal decision that depends on and reflects:
- Individuals drive, competence and motivation
- Perceptions of local business opportunities and the ease of starting a business
- Awareness of one's own skills and abilities
New entrepreneurs create business within a context including:
- Social values and frameworks that may promote or hinder entrepreneurial mindset.
- Ecosystem that may provide or restrict access to resources, including finance and
expertise,
There is always a relationship between why people decide to start a business and the
environment they are embedded in.
Startups failure
Very difficult to find accurate failure data worldwide (survival bias), but some well-known
statistics report that:
- 9 out of 10 startups eventually fail (startup Genome)
- 2 out of 3 startups never deliver positive return to investors (Harvard Business Review)
Article 1: The discipline of innovation (Drucker, 1985)
Abstract
The recent empirical studies have shown the positive impact of a scientific approach to
decision-making on entrepreneurial performance. Building on this evidence, this article offers
a description of the scientific approach that is oriented toward its practical implementation
by entrepreneurs. Focusing on the approach's two main pillars – the processes of theory
building and evidence gathering – we outline a set of tools developed to facilitate the
application of the scientific approach in practical decision-making activities. Ultimately, we
derive a set of design principles that researchers can adopt to develop novel tools and
methodologies to aid entrepreneurial actions based on the prescriptive aspects of the
scientific approach.
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