Unit rationale, description and aim
Innovation plays an essential role in entrepreneurial activities and in an ever increasingly complex and demanding business environment. Innovation is critically linked with for the development and sustainable growth of organisations, regions, and economies. Entrepreneurship involves identifying an opportunity and carry out innovations by making internal organisational changes, developing new technologies, discovering new sustainable products and developing new international markets that lead to prosperous businesses and create social value.Traditionally associated with new ventures and start-ups, entrepreneurial activities apply equally to the social sector organisations, government entities and large organisations. Specifically, entrepreneurship represents a strategic process that starts with individual development of concepts evolving from micro businesses to macro level innovation in corporations.
This unit will advance the theories and concepts learned in foundational management and entrepreneurship units and will apply them to the design and management of innovative new ventures and start-ups. The unit will explore the dimensions of new venture and start-up creation and growth to foster innovation. Moreover, it will examine both shareholder value approaches and the central social purpose of creating sustainable innovations that lead to social and economic conditions for shared value and greater overall societal.
This unit focuses on developing student's knowledge of innovation and entrepreneurial processes in different organisational and industry settings. The objective of this unit is to advance students' knowledge of managing the complex process of commercialising a new venture or start-up in different industries and how to address complex entrepreneurial problems.
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.
Identify the dynamics and analyse models of innova...
Learning Outcome 01
Elaborate on the core concepts underpinning entrep...
Learning Outcome 02
Evaluate the innovation cycle in entrepreneurship ...
Learning Outcome 03
Apply entrepreneurial responsibility to the common...
Learning Outcome 04
Assess a range of the most applicable entrepreneur...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics will include:
- The entrepreneurial ecosystem and its components
- Creating social innovation and sustainable value
- Entrepreneurial leadership in innovative organisations
- The innovation cycle
- Entrepreneurial creativity and business planning
- Local and global entrepreneurship and implications for the common good and society
- Public sector and policy frameworks supporting entrepreneurship and innovation
- Micro business, family business and entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship in the social sector
- Team building and communication
- Building resilient Business Models in start-ups
Assessment strategy and rationale
In order to pass this unit, students are required to demonstrate mastery of all learning outcomes and achieve an aggregate mark of at least 50%. Marking will be in accordance with a rubric specifically developed to measure student levels of achievement of the learning outcomes for each item of assessment. Students will also be awarded a final grade which signifies their overall achievement in the unit.
The assessment strategy for this unit helps students develop their knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship and innovation to the point where they can present and defend a novel idea in the form of start-up/business proposal.
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 – Portfolio of Engagement. Students will present their knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation theories through online activities.
Assessment 2 – New venture pitch/presentation. Using knowledge acquired from assessment 1, students will further develop their understanding of the managerial aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation, theories and practice by analysing the external micro and macro business environments, develop an opportunity and utilising media, offer a new venture pitch that can capitalise the opportunity. Students will need to record an audio-visual presentation of their idea.
Assessment 3 – New venture proposal in the format of a report. Write a detailed business proposal utilising the data, and facts and defend the viability the new venture proposal.
Strategies aligned with transition pedagogies will be utilised to facilitate 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 From ...
Assessment 1: Portfolio of Engagement
From Modules 2-11, students will actively participate in online discussion forums and online activities. Assessment 1 will cover materials in the first 6 weeks and students’ active participation in the forums and online activities. Students will be evaluated on a combination of engagement in the unit via discussion board questions, responses to postings and evidence of successful engagement in online asynchronous activities.
Submission Type: Individual
Assessment Method: online engagement and completion of regular learning tasks
Artefact: Portfolio evidencing
30%
Assessment 2: New venture pitch/presentation ...
Assessment 2: New venture pitch/presentation
This assessment task requires students to prepare a short recorded audio-visual presentation of their new venture idea with minimal PPT slides. This individual task requires students to examine the 5-step process for determining the critical success factors in turning their innovative idea into a viable entrepreneurial business. This task requires students to confidently and successfully communicate their new venture ideas and defend them verbally and through visual aids.
Submission Type: Individual
Assessment Method: Oral Presentation
Artefact: Video of presentation/presentation slides
30%
Assessment 3: New venture proposal report This as...
Assessment 3: New venture proposal report
This assessment task requires students to write an individual report examining and applying concepts and practices relating to entrepreneurship and innovation and management of a new venture to real-world business situations, taking into account ethical perspectives and entrepreneurial responsibility to the common good.
Submission Type: Individual
Assessment Method: Written Proposal Report
Artefact: Written proposal
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
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.
This unit adopts active, case study, problem-based and experiential learning approaches simultaneously to help students in acquiring and integration of knowledge and skills related to identifying and solving complicated entrepreneurial problems. Students will be able to learn the application of theories and concepts underpinning innovation and entrepreneurial processes in a series of workshops or equivalent along with the materials (videos, texts, exercises, and cases) provided through the online learning platform. Each workshop or equivalent includes mini-seminars focusing on the core theories and followed by practical exercises. Guest entrepreneurial experts might be invited as keynote speakers throughout the teaching period to share their practical experiences with students.
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
Bessant, JR & Tidd, J 2018, Entrepreneurship, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Kennard, M, 2021, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, United Kingdom.
Bessant, J & Tidd, J 2015, Innovation and entrepreneurship, 3rd edn, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Matthews, CH & Brueggeman, R 2015, Innovation and entrepreneurship: a competency framework, Routledge USA, New York.
McAdam, M 2014, Female entrepreneurship, Routledge USA, New York.
Scarborough, N 2013, Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management, Global Edition, Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Terziovski, M (ed) 2009, Energizing management through global innovation and entrepreneurship research and practice, Routledge Taylor & Francis, New York.
Originally approved at Faculty of Law and Business Board on 00/00/2021