Entrepreneurship and Innovation

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Professor Helen Lawton Smith
• Tutors: Professor Helen Lawton Smith, Professor Daniele Archibugi 
• Assessment: a 3000-word essay (100%)

Entrepreneurship is at the heart of any economy. Since the 1980s successive British governments have sought to promote entrepreneurship, both as a way of tackling economic problems and capitalising on the private and public knowledge-base.

This module brings together theory and practice through a visiting speaker programme, which includes entrepreneurs and policy makers. It aims to provide a thorough understanding of the entrepreneurial process and business practice, familiarise you with key debates addressing theories of entrepreneurship and innovation, provide evidence on the applications of these theories to studies of new business creation and growth, highlight how some contexts are more conducive to entrepreneurship and innovation than others, and demonstrate patterns of entrepreneurship and innovation in the UK in comparison with other countries, particularly the US.

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• analyse information on entrepreneurship and innovation and synthesise it to evaluate decision alternatives
• appreciate and understand the nature and processes of entrepreneurship and innovation by applying various concepts to an understanding of the management of new business creation and growth
• understand and critically assess issues of entrepreneurial behaviour and innovation and firm performance
• develop the capability for evaluating enterprise policies in different national and regional contexts.