Technological Entrepreneurship

2025/2026

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

4

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент бизнес-информатики

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

3-й курс, 1 модуль

Преподаватель

Текич Желько

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Technological change is reshaping how entrepreneurial opportunities are identified, developed, and scaled. Advances in artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, digital platforms, and other emerging technologies enable new products, services, infrastructures, and business models while reducing the cost and time required for experimentation. At the same time, technological entrepreneurship remains highly uncertain: promising technologies do not automatically become viable businesses, and entrepreneurs must make decisions about customer needs, value creation, business models, resources, partnerships, and scaling before outcomes are known. This practice-oriented course introduces students to the key concepts, tools, and decisions involved in transforming technology-enabled opportunities into viable entrepreneurial initiatives. Particular attention is given to opportunity identification and validation, experimentation, business-model development, value creation and capture, resource mobilization, and the challenges of moving from an initial concept toward implementation and growth. A central element of the course is an intensive week long Innovation Sprint, in which students work in teams on an authentic, context-rich challenge under significant time constraints. Rather than beginning with a predefined solution, teams first investigate and define a meaningful problem and then develop, test, and refine a proposed solution. Large language models (LLMs) and other digital tools may be used to support search, analysis, ideation, experimentation, and evaluation, while students remain responsible for validating assumptions and exercising entrepreneurial judgment. The Sprint provides an immersive environment in which students apply course concepts while working with ambiguity, limited time, incomplete information, and competing alternatives. Through this combination of conceptual learning and intensive practice, the course develops the analytical, entrepreneurial, collaborative, and decision-making capabilities needed not only by startup founders, but also by intrapreneurs, analysts, and innovation professionals working across different organizational and industry contexts.

Learning Objectives

• The course is designed to help students develop the ability to recognize, evaluate, and shape technology-driven opportunities into viable business propositions. While grounded in research and theory, the course is practice-oriented and structured around a week-long innovation sprint. This format enables students to apply entrepreneurial frameworks in a high-pressure, time-bounded environment that mirrors real-world constraints. The sprint setting allows students to move rapidly from problem framing to ideation, prototyping, testing, and pitching, with technology serving as the pivotal enabler of new solutions. In doing so, the course develops the skills necessary to connect technology and business impact, preparing students not only to think like entrepreneurs but also to act as intrapreneurs, analysts, and innovators across diverse industries.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Upon completion of this course, a student should be able to: • Understand entrepreneurship and the essential characteristics of tech-based ventures • Understand and apply innovation theories and concepts to the rigorous identification and development of new opportunities for societal and commercial impact. • Develop problem statement and communicate problem that has to be solved • Actively use customer development methodology
• • Analyze viable business models, develop an initial business model and test its feasibility • Co-create a minimum viable product (MVP) in a group • Shape technology-based ideas into workable business concepts and learn how to test them in the marketplace. • Differentiate and distinguish the different process activities associated with new product/process/service development, inside or outside an established firm.
• • Reconcile tools and methods learned in the context of business informatics education with the need to assess and design an opportunity that will bring them to use. • Critically assess and evaluate the resource assembly junctures in the development of new ventures (whether they be within established corporations or startups). • Effectively communicate entrepreneurial initiatives in oral and in written form • Productively work in groups

Course Contents

• Tech Entrepreneurship: Intro to the course and the topic
• Entrepreneurial Ideas and Opportunities
• AI and Entrepreneurship
• How to Talk to Customers
• Problem Statement Canvas
• Business Model
• MVP and Hypothesis testing
• Intellectual Property (IP) Rights
• Money for startups
• Entrepreneurs and Negotiation

Assessment Elements

• New Product Development Hackathon
  The hackathon is an intensive problem-solving environment in which students work in teams to address authentic challenges provided by companies. Unlike traditional project work, the hackathon places students under tight time constraints, resource limitations, and real-world complexity, requiring them to make decisions quickly, prioritize effectively, and deliver tangible outcomes. By working under these conditions, students develop a range of transferable skills, including: Analytical problem-solving – breaking down complex, ambiguous challenges into solvable components. Creativity and innovation – generating and testing ideas rapidly, often in the form of prototypes or MVPs. Collaboration and teamwork – coordinating roles, managing conflict, and building on diverse perspectives. Communication and pitching – presenting solutions clearly, persuasively, and under pressure. Resilience and adaptability – learning to respond to feedback, setbacks, and changing constraints. The hackathon thus acts as both a trigger for action and a learning accelerator, providing students with a unique opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in practice while developing the entrepreneurial, analytical, and interpersonal skills required in professional environments.
• In-Class Discussion & Engagement
  In-Class Discussion & Engagement This is not simply lecture attendance, it is ENGAGEMENT and PARTICIPATION in the lectures, with timely and relevant comments and discussion, comments linked to the previous lectures, assigned readings (including videos), personal experience, or other courses; opinion based on evidence, thinking, responding to the lecturer’s questions. On each lecture day, a student can get engagement points based on its engagement and participation in-class activities. Assessment is done by the course instructor during and immediately after each class. To get these points, the following must be done: • Attend a lecture, AND • Active and voluntary participation in class discussions (by talking or typing in chat – if online) • Being able to address the readings critically during class, thus displaying a good understanding of the subject matter • Being analytical and concise in oral interventions, i.e., backing up arguments by facts and references rather than “feeling this or that” • Monopolising the floor with fluffy, unstructured and redundant monologues will NOT be seen as a positive contribution.
• Exam
  Exam - An individual assessment combining multiple-choice questions (to test conceptual understanding) and long-answer questions (to assess application and critical thinking). The exam covers theories, frameworks, and case-based problem solving in technology entrepreneurship.

Interim Assessment

• 2025/2026 1st module
  0.4 * Exam + 0.5 * New Product Development Hackathon + 0.1 * In-Class Discussion & Engagement

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Osterwalder, A., Clark, T., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation : A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=335366
• Osterwalder, A., Smith, A., Bernarda, G., & Pigneur, Y. (2014). Value Proposition Design : How to Create Products and Services Customers Want. Hoboken: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=945730
• Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup : How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York: Currency. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=733896

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Sahlman, W. A., Hoffman, R., Andreessen, M., & Blank, S. G. (2018). HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Entrepreneurship and Startups (featuring Bonus Article “Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything” by Steve Blank). Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1798805

Authors

• Tekich Zhelko