Unit rationale, description and aim
Within the Catholic intellectual tradition and acting in Truth and Love, Australian Catholic University is committed to the pursuit of knowledge, the dignity of the human person and the common good.
Nowadays success in new businesses is progressively reliant on entrepreneur’s ingenuity; a risk-taker, independent, ethical, future-oriented and tenacious proactive mindset. Such a mentality along with effective collaboration and communication skills with business actors/partners and community has been identified as one of the key antecedents to new venture’s financial and social success. Even in large-scale and on-going organisations most of the employers are increasingly demanding these skills from the job market.
This unit arms students (as future entrepreneurial leaders) with the knowledge and skills to future-proof themselves, adopting mental models that allow for a solid start to and succeeding in their preferred occupation (especially as self-employed entrepreneurs). In this unit, students focus on taking on a systematic approach to identifying start-up problems and figuring out solutions, arming themselves with the knowledge and skills (at the individual level) to succeed in the future of their profession.
The major aim of this unit is to enhance students’ understanding and knowledge of the benefits of an entrepreneurial mindset in any type of entity and enable them to identify the key contingency requirements for the cultivation of an entrepreneurial mindset.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Explain the fundamental theories ethical framework...
Learning Outcome 01
Identify core concepts underpinning entrepreneuria...
Learning Outcome 02
Apply ethical frameworks, models, and concepts to ...
Learning Outcome 03
Content
Topics will include:
- Entrepreneur: definition, evolution and impact
- Different dimensions of entrepreneurial mindset
- Analysing how entrepreneurial mindset is different from other types of mindsets
- Social entrepreneurs, legal entrepreneurs, and criminal entrepreneurs
- Theories associated with entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours at the individual level
- Common characteristics of real entrepreneurs
- Entrepreneurial mindset and its impact on creativity and problem-solving
- Managing relationships with stakeholders at the start-up stage
- Entrepreneurial leadership and working with internal stakeholders
- Entrepreneurial mindset and personal empowerment
- Professional and business style presentation in entrepreneurship
Assessment strategy and rationale
To pass this unit, students must demonstrate competence in all learning outcomes and achieve an aggregate mark of at least 50%. Students are required to complete and submit three graded assessment tasks and achieve an aggregate mark of at least 50%.
The assessment strategy for this unit helps students develop their knowledge of entrepreneurial mindsets and their characteristics to the point where students can probe and evaluate an entrepreneur’s traits and identify his/her personal traits that might have affected the start-up business outcomes.
Students will progressively be submitting assessment tasks during the study period, while receiving feedback from each to feed forward into their next task.
Assessment 1 is designed to determine the extent to which students understand and appreciate the rudiments of entrepreneurship through a combination of activities, including but not limited to discussion board questions, quizzes etc.
In Assessment 2, students will present their knowledge of theories associated with entrepreneurial mental models and attitudes in an essay that introduces and analyses three successful entrepreneurs in the 21st century.
As a follow-up in Assessment 3, students further identify and interview an entrepreneur from the community (identified in Assessment 2) and write a report about his/her entrepreneurial strengths.
Strategies aligned with transition pedagogies will be utilised to facilitate the successful completion of the unit assessment tasks. For each assessment, there will be the incorporation of developmentally staged tasks with a focus on a progressive approach to learning. This will be achieved through activities, including regular feedback, particularly early in the unit of study to support their learning; strategies to develop and understand discipline-specific concepts and terminology; in-class practice tasks with integrated feedback; and greater peer-to-peer collaboration.
Overview of assessments
Assessment 1: Portfolio of engagement Students wi...
Assessment 1: Portfolio of engagement
Students will be evaluated on a combination of engagement in the unit via discussion board questions, responses to postings, or evidence of successful engagement in selected weeks.This assessment is intended to develop students’ ability to pursue independent work, develop a sense of online community and encourage participation.
Submission Type: Individual
Assessment Method: online engagement
Artefact: Portfolio evidencing
30%
Assessment 2: Analytical report This assessment t...
Assessment 2: Analytical report
This assessment task consists of a written report. This task requires students to demonstrate their knowledge of theories and concepts underpinning entrepreneurial mindsets.
Submission Type: Individual
Assessment Method: Analytical report
Artefact: Written paper
30%
Assessment 3: Case analysis This assessment will ...
Assessment 3: Case analysis
This assessment will require students to research and analyse a successful entrepreneurial venture based on a given real-life case. Students should analyse the founder’s mindset and explain how values, attitudes, traits, and behaviours contribute to a business's success.
Submission Type: Individual
Assessment Method: Case analysis
Artefact: Written Case analysis
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit adopts active, interactive problem-based and experiential (expert keynote speakers) learning approaches simultaneously to help students in acquiring and integration of knowledge and skills related to evaluating the mental models and key characteristics of individual entrepreneurs. Students will be able to learn the application of theories and concepts underpinning entrepreneurial traits and mindsets in a series of workshops along with the materials (Videos, texts, exercises, and cases) provided through the online learning platform.
The learning and teaching strategy is based on student engagement in the learning process by participation in workshops or equivalent and practical activities designed to reinforce learning. Workshops and equivalent support students to actively participate in the construction and synthesis of knowledge both individually and in small groups. The learning strategy adopted in this unit can be described as constructivist or student-centred. Thus, students are expected to be active participants in their learning to enhance life-long learning experience. In this student-centred learning environment, the instructor’s role is to create the enabling learning environment and conditions to facilitate learning by guiding the student along with relevant learning tasks and a valid assessment regime.
Further to this, to ensure students are ready to transition from the Diploma and articulate into the second year of undergraduate study, transition pedagogies will be incorporated into the unit as the key point of differentiation from the standard unit. This focuses on an active and engaging approach to learning and teaching practices, and a scaffolded approach to the delivery of curriculum to enhance student learning in a supportive environment. This will ensure that students develop foundation level discipline-based knowledge, skills and attributes, and simultaneously the academic competencies required of students to succeed in this unit.
Mode of delivery: This unit is offered in multimode to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants and maximise effective participation for isolated and/or marginalised groups.
Representative texts and references
Daspit, J. J., Fox, C. J., & Findley, S. K. (2023). Entrepreneurial mindset: An integrated definition, a review of current insights, and directions for future research. Journal of Small Business Management, 61(1), 12-44.
Kuratko, D. F., Fisher, G., & Audretsch, D. B. (2021). Unravelling the entrepreneurial mindset. Small Business Economics, 57(4), 1681-1691.
Naumann, C. (2017). Entrepreneurial mindset: A synthetic literature review. Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, 5(3), 149-172.
Priestley, D., 2021. Entrepreneur revolution: How to develop your entrepreneurial mindset and start a business that works. 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons.
Originally approved at Faculty of Law and Business Board on 00/00/2021