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Unit outline_

IBUS2104: Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Semester 1, 2020 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

In order to be a successful entrepreneur, it is necessary to have knowledge of several fundamental business processes. The most effective way to master the critical skills and concepts of entrepreneurship is by developing a pitch and a business plan which simulates, as much as possible, the real world processes of starting a business. In this unit, students learn how to investigate customer needs and markets to generate an innovative idea for a start-up. Students also participate in the realistic simulation of the creation of a start-up from the best student-submitted ideas and develop these ideas into a business model. All students join a team that remains together for the duration of the unit, creating and pitching sections of a business plan as well as drafting the final version. This unit brings together skills acquired across other disciplines of study and requires active participation.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit International Business
Credit points 6
Prerequisites
? 
completion of at least 48 credit points
Corequisites
? 
None
Prohibitions
? 
None
Assumed knowledge
? 

None

Available to study abroad and exchange students

Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator Carlos Vazquez Hernandez, carlos.vazquezhernandez@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s) Carlos Vazquez Hernandez, carlos.vazquezhernandez@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s) Lea Verge, lea.verge@sydney.edu.au
Type Description Weight Due Length
In-semester test Mid-semester exam
MCQ
25% Mid-semester exam period 1 hour
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO7 LO6 LO5 LO4 LO3 LO2
Assignment Take home assessment
Essay
25% Week 04 1200 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7
Assignment Individual report
Report
20% Week 07 1000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7
Presentation group assignment Presentation
Presentation
15% Week 13 10 minutes
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7
Assignment group assignment Business plan
Business plan
15% Week 13 3000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7
group assignment = group assignment ?

Assessment summary

  • Take home assessment: Pick a consumer trend or a technology of your choice (e.g. age agnostic consumers, back to basic, digitally together consumers, blockchain, AI, robotics) and discuss its broad implications for one industry of your choice. Then, make predictions on one business model that will prevail in such industry in 5 years from now.
  • Individual report: This assessment is a journey/experience mapping task: pick a user (a real one) that you can observe and interview while performing a task. Represent and discuss the task with the methodology discussed in class and identify one solution concept.
  • Mid-semester exam: This exam will test students on their understanding of the objective content of the unit and provides feedback on their progress.
  • Presentation: Each team will give an oral presentation (the pitch) and present their prototype developed during the course of the semester and the evidence of user interest in their prototype (validation).
  • Business plan: In the business plan you will summarise the work done by your Team during the course of the semester. You should include the persona's needs, how your proposed solution is going to address the needs, competitors and how your solution is going to be different from their solution, the validation of your solution and importantly, a test you are suggesting to perform next in order to further validate your solution.

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a high distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name

Mark range

Description

High distinction

85 - 100

Awarded when you demonstrate the learning outcomes for the unit at an exceptional standard, as defined by grade descriptors or exemplars outlined by your faculty or school. 

Distinction

75 - 84

Awarded when you demonstrate the learning outcomes for the unit at a very high standard, as defined by grade descriptors or exemplars outlined by your faculty or school.

Credit

65 - 74

Awarded when you demonstrate the learning outcomes for the unit at a good standard, as defined by grade descriptors or exemplars outlined by your faculty or school.

Pass

50 - 64

Awarded when you demonstrate the learning outcomes for the unit at an acceptable standard, as defined by grade descriptors or exemplars outlined by your faculty or school. 

Fail

0 - 49

When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

  • Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
  • After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

WK Topic Learning activity Learning outcomes
Week 01 1. Introduction to the unit of study; 2. What is entrepreneurship and innovation, really? Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 02 Entrepreneurship and innovation: cognition, behaviors, and management Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 03 Understanding user experiences (i.e. user experience mapping) Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 04 Ideation - what is meaningful for your user? Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 05 Develop your ideas - what can you do for your user? Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 06 Fitting your idea(s) into a business model - how can you monetise your idea(s)? Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 07 What is the market for your idea? Concepts and techniques Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 08 Competitive positioning - how can you map your competition? Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 09 Build your prototype - concepts and tools Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 10 Validate your prototype - techniques Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 11 Pilot your prototype & approaches to customer acquisition Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 12 The pitch - what makes a great pitch? Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  
Week 13 1. What's next for entrepreneurs?; 2. Final wrap-up of the unit of study Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)  

Attendance and class requirements

Lecture recordings: This is a class is based on experiential learning pedagogy. Given the highly interactive nature of each class, class recording can't be a close substitute for the classes and as such there will be no recording. In class, you will be often asked to read through material handed in at the beginning of the class, solve a problem and argue your proposed solution to the rest of the class. You will be asked to interviews potential customers as well as experts in an industry. The lecture and tutorials are both very important. In the former, you will learn the concepts that you will workshop in the latter.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Please review the readings listed on eReserve and under the content for the week.

 

 

 

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. identify trends and opportunities in the marketplace, including understanding users and formulating new ventures ideas that have not been explored before
  • LO2. construct a market analysis and assess feasibility of a new venture, and design a new business model
  • LO3. prepare a pitch and business plan for a new venture
  • LO4. discuss what an empathic understanding of users and stakeholder is and apply it to their problem in order to identify new value propositions to satisfy users needs and wants
  • LO5. discuss and apply cognitive strategies that define the mindset of innovators and entrepreneurs
  • LO6. be proactive in talking with potential users for understanding their needs and then testing your proposed solution
  • LO7. build a (dummy) prototype for a new product or service.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 Depth of disciplinary expertise

Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.

GQ2 Critical thinking and problem solving

Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.

GQ3 Oral and written communication

Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.

GQ4 Information and digital literacy

Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.

GQ5 Inventiveness

Generating novel ideas and solutions.

GQ6 Cultural competence

Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.

GQ7 Interdisciplinary effectiveness

Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.

GQ8 Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity

An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.

GQ9 Influence

Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes Graduate qualities
GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 GQ4 GQ5 GQ6 GQ7 GQ8 GQ9

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

No changes have been made since this unit was last offered.

Important notes:

  1. The classes are two-hours long. The tutorials are 1-hour long. Please be mindful of this when you are planning your schedule and timetables.
  2. Communication will be done through the Canvas site.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.