Entrepreneurship
MANA 5339
Professor: Dr. Susanna KhavulPhone:817-272-3868
Office: COBA Room 231E-Mail: (Prefer and faster)
Office Hours: T/TH 11:00-12:00 and by appointment
Course Time: T: 7:00-9:50
Course Materials:
Required Text:Effective Small Business Management (10th Edition)
Norman M. Scarborough
Required Cases: To be downloaded directly from HarvardBusinessSchool Publishing as a packet
URL:
Tech support: 1-800-545-7685
*R&R
*Nortel Networks (2-parts)
*Cityspace
*Raiser Organization
*Zip Cars
Course Objectives:
Entrepreneurship (än-tr-pr-nûr-ship) n. the process of organizing, managing, and assuming the risks of a business or enterprise (Webster’s Dictionary, 2003). Entrepreneurship (MANA 5339)is designed to help you understand how to identify and assess new venture opportunities in either a start-up or a corporate environment. You will consider the attributes of entrepreneurs and the role of entrepreneurship in the economy. At the end of this course, you will understand: how to assess the market and financial feasibility of the new venture; how to select between ownership choices; how to use debt and equity financing; how to drive market adoption, and how to lead a growing company. The cornerstone of the course will be a feasibility report that may lead to a business plan for a new venture of your choice. You may explore either an original new venture idea, an interest in understanding how to make an already existing venture succeed, or a new business opportunity in need of assessment for your current employer.
Course Methods:
In this class, you will learn through multiple methods.
- First, the required text, Effective Small Business Management (10th Edition) byNorman M. Scarborough has the sorts of facts and tools with which any potential entrepreneur should be familiar. It is easy to read, has lots of company examples, and I consider it crucial to read before coming to class.
- Second, the case studies, both text and video, are the core of a number of our sessions. Case preparation requires close reading and analysis in advance of class for the in-class discussion to be meaningful.
- Third, the feasibility assessment project, an individual assignment is designed to help you apply what you learn to determine whether a potential venture in which you are interested is actually worth pursuing.
Finally, in addition to the text, cases, and project, I will be integrating important material through lectures and discussions.
Course Requirements:
Students will be required to actively participate in class, complete two examinations, and prepare a business feasibility report. The final grade will be distributed as follows:
1. Class Participation30%
2. Live Case Study10%
3. Exam30%
4. Feasibility Report30%
1. Class Preparation and Participation:
Active participation in class is the key to learning. Every student is expected to come to class prepared and ready to participate in class discussion.
The most successful class contributions take the form of asking and answering questions that are relevant to the discussion at hand and that advance the group’s understanding of the material.
In addition to the assigned material, each of you comes to class with a wealth of previous experience and knowledge. Sharing your experience with the class will help others learn from you and will help you to integrate what you know with what you are learning.
I evaluate class participation at the end of each session and value its quality above quantity. I routinely cold-call on students whose hands are not raised. Please let me know before the class starts if an emergency has made it impossible for you to prepare for the session. If specific issues that make it difficult for you to actively and consistently participate in class, please discuss these with me in private at the start of the semester.
Class participation is a substantial portion of the final grade.To get an A in this course,you have to show consistent and high value participation in the class. Merely showing up to class and sitting without any participation gets you no more than a C for class participation.
2. Live Case Study: Entrepreneur Interview
Every semester, entrepreneurship students go out in the field to meet business owners and come back with fascinating and meaningful accounts of their experience.
You need to find an entrepreneur in the community, interview them, and write up the interview in a short three page paper. This is an individual assignment which gets you out into the field and in touch with area businesses. We will discuss the sort of questions you may want to ask in your interview.
3. Exam:
There will be an exam containing a combination of multiple choice, short answer questions, and case analysis. The exam will serve as a milestone to assess your interim knowledge in the class. I will review the material with you before the exam in order to make clear what I think is important.
Under normal circumstances, there are no make-up exam and no late acceptances of project reports. If you have problems, contact me before the exams and the due dates and not after.
All grades will be calculated as follows: 100-90 A; 80-89 B; 70-79 C; 60-69 D; 0-59 F. If you want to discuss your grade with me, please come to office hours or make an appointment. I do not discuss grades over e-mail or telephone.
4. Feasibility Report:
You are required to develop a comprehensive feasibility prospectus for either a potential new venture, an existing venture model (such a specific franchising opportunity), or a new business opportunity in need of assessment for your current employer.
The goal of the project is to assess the market and financial feasibility of the venture before you commit significant resources to pursuing it.
To this end, you are not required to produce a full business plan; rather, your task is to produce a feasibility study. In fact, you may decide (as a result of market research or financial analysis) that the opportunity you had thought was feasible is not. Whether or not you recommend going forward with the venture, you will need to provide evidence to support your position. I will be evaluating your projects largely based on the quality of the evidence you provide and the logic of the arguments you present. Please note, if you argue that the venture should be pursued but your evidence suggests otherwise, this could be hazardous. If you end up recommending that the venture should not be pursued, then you will also need to describe what needs to change for the venture to become viable.
This project is not desk research. You will need to present primary data to support your decision.
Feasibility project is either an individual assignment or a group assignment. If you elect to form a group, you can do that with only one other person. Teams of two are maximum.
Feasibility Report Milestones:
There are several milestones to help you pace your work and to receive feedback from me and your colleagues in class. The milestones are not onerous; they help keep you on track.
The E-mail: (September 6thby noon): Please e-mail to me at a 100 word description of the new venture opportunity you will be assessing. I will provide you with feedback.
The First Briefing: (September 20thin class): Prepare a 350 word analysis of the venture opportunity you have selected for your project. Please bring a hard copy of the written assignment to class to give to me. You will give a 60 second description of your project to the class.
You should answer the following questions:
- What is the new venture opportunity?
- Why is it attractive to pursue?
- What are the key issues which you believe need to be addressed in order to make it work?
The purpose of this write up is to help you organize your thoughts and develop a plan for getting the project finished.
The Data Collection Plan (September 27 due in class): Please prepare a 2 page summary of:
How, from where, and from whom you plan to collect primary and secondary data for this project. Please be specific as to the sources (list all of them, give citations and/or links for the secondary data) and profile the individuals you will be targeting for primary data collection.
The Interim Briefing: (October 25in class):Please come to class prepared to give a short report on the progress of your project. One page handout on paper and three minutes of time to present.
The Feasibility Project Week: (November 22): This is your week to finish the project and make sure that it represents a professional and polished effort.
The Final Oral Presentation: (either November 29th or December 6in class). You will have to present the results of your feasibility study to the class. You will have:
10 minutes to present
5 minutes to answer questions
5 PowerPoint slides totalincluding the cover page
Depending on the size of the class, we will need to split the presentations across class sessions. To make the process allocating students to sessions fair, I will first ask for volunteers to present in the earlier week. If there are not enough volunteers, I will use a random assignment method for allocation. All Power point presentations are due on this day irrespective if you are presenting this week or next.
The Final Written Report (Dec 6th. in class): I expect that the feasibility report will be:
Team 15 pages of double spaced text in TimesNewRoman 12point with 1inch margins
Individual 10 pages of double spaced text in Times New Roman 12point with 1inch margins
MANA 5339
SCHEDULE FALL 2011
Date
/Topics
/Cases
/Text
/Deadlines
1
/ Aug 30 /Entrepreneurship
/Ch 1
2
/Sep 6
/ Entrepreneurial Opportunities /R&R
/Ch 2
/@Feasibility Project: The Email: Due by noon
3
/Sep 13
/ Start-up Life-cycle /Case in Class
/Live Case Study Due
4
/Sept 20
/ Researching Entrepreneurial Opportunities /Ch 6
/@Feasibility Project:
@Oral and Written Briefing Due in Class
5 /Sep 27
/ Business OwnershipUnderstanding Franchising / Ch 3
Ch 4 /
@Feasibility Project: Data Collection Plan
6 /Oct 4
/ Debt and Equity Financing /Cityspace
/Ch 14
Ch 157 /
Oct 11
/ Exam /In class
8 /Oct 18
/ Corporate Entrepreneurship /Nortel/Net Active
9
/Oct 25
/ Plan B /Handout
/Ch 10
Ch 19 /@Feasibility Project: Interim Report
10
/Nov 1
/ Growing a Business /Handout
11
/Nov 8
/ Managing the Family Business /Raiser Org
/Ch 20
12
/Nov 15
/ Business Week /Guest
13
/Nov 22
/ @Feasibility ProjectResearch Week /
Meetings
14
/Nov 29
/ @Project Presentations /in class
/@ Feasibility Oral Presentations
@All Presentation Power Points Due
15
/Dec 6
/ @Project PresentationsEntrepreneurship in the Community /
in class
/@Feasibility Oral Presentations
@All Written Reports Due
Please be mindful that this schedule is tentative. As time unfolds and opportunities come up that I believe are pedagogically valuable, I will make adjustments to this schedule and notify the class.About the Instructor:
Dr. Susanna Khavul is an assistant professor in the Department of Management at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her teaching and research.
Dr. Khavul received the 2011 Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Business at UT Arlington and the 2003 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching Award from the Foundation of Entrepreneurial Management.
Dr. Khavul has published in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of International Marketing, Human Resource Management, Academy of Management Perspectives, Journal of Small Business Management, as well as numerous books. Her research has been recognized by the Academy of Management, Strategic Management Society, Taylor Francis Publishers among others.
Dr. Khavul has appeared as a commentator on CNBC and her workhas been discussed in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and Bloomberg. She is a former senior member of a venture capital and investment banking firm.
In the early 1990s, she was the director of a seventeen country economic and business development program. For the last twenty years, she has been a director in a residential real estate and land development corporation. She frequently consults for both industry and government on innovation, technology commercialization, and start-up finance.
University Administrative:
Academic Dishonesty Policy
It is the philosophy of The University of Texas at Arlington that academic dishonesty is a completely unacceptable mode of conduct and will not be tolerated in any form. All persons involved in academic dishonesty will be disciplined in accordance with University regulations and procedures. Discipline may include suspension or expulsion from the University.
Students on Academic Probation
If you are currently on academic probation or in danger or slipping into probation, it is your responsibility to do well in the class. I will not entertain any requests at any point in the semester or after the semester for extra credit, grade adjustments, or other reconsiderations. The final grade given will stand.
Disability Policy
If a student requires an accommodation based on disability, the student should meet with the me during the first week of the semester and provide the relevant documentation from the University disability office.
Drop Policies
It is the student's responsibility to complete the course or withdraw from the course in accordance with University Regulations. Students are strongly encouraged to verify their grade status before dropping a course after the first withdrawal date. A student who drops a course after the first withdrawal date may receive an “F” in the course if the student is failing at the time the course is dropped.
Census Date:
If a student is not on my class role by the University census date, the student is not in the class and cannot attend class.
Bomb Threat Policy
Effective April 8, 1996, the College of Business Administration has adopted a policy to deal with the classroom disruption caused by bomb threats in the building. Section 22.07 of the Texas Criminal Law Statutes governs terrorist threats and classifies bomb threats as Class A misdemeanors. Section 12.21 of the Texas Criminal Law Statutes states that a Class A misdemeanor is punishable by a fine not to exceed $4,000, a jail term of not more than one year, OR, both such a fine and confinement. If anyone is tempted to call in a bomb threat, be aware that UTA will soon have technology to trace phone calls. Every effort will be made to avoid cancellation of presentation/’tests caused by bomb threats to the Business Building. Unannounced alternate sites will be available for these classes. If a student who has a class with a scheduled test or presentation arrives and the building has been closed due to a bomb threat, the student should immediately check for the alternate class site notice which will be posted on/near the main doors on the south side of the Business Building. If the bomb threat is received while class is in session, your instructor will ask you to leave the building and reconvene at another location. Students who provide information leading to the successful prosecution of anyone making a bomb threat will receive one semester's free parking in the Maverick Garage across from the Business Building. UTA's Crimestoppers will provide a reward to anyone providing information leading to an arrest. To make an anonymous report, call 1-817-272-3381.