New Venture Creation

New Venture Creation in the Amsterdam Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

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This international summer school is the right opportunity to study new venture creation and entrepreneurship.

Course description

The creation of new ventures is one of the most important economic issues of this time, all over the world. It is not limited to start-ups only, but also applies to the development of new activities by existing firms (among them corporates) and spin-offs by universities, company expansions, take-overs, and scale-ups, and much more.

Amsterdam offers a broad and interesting palette of entrepreneurs, firms and entrepreneurial organizations, this is called the Amsterdam entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Center for Entrepreneurship of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (go to website here) plays an important role in the Amsterdam entrepreneurial ecosystem. Therefore, this international summer school is the right opportunity to study new venture creation and entrepreneurship.

This course follows a double approach. The first approach is the sustainable entrepreneurship approach, dealing with the economic, social, and ecological aspects of new ventures. The second approach is the life cycle of the firm approach, dealing with the changes of the firm and the entrepreneur during the life cycle of the firm.

Next to above-mentioned approaches, an important part of the content of this course is determined by the students themselves, who are expected to come up with their own business ideas and contributions, guided by the course lecturers.

After morning lectures which discuss topics as the Business Model Canvas for Start-ups and Scale-ups and the Amsterdam entrepreneurial ecosystem, in the afternoons the students work on practical assignments, with additional support from outside experts.

The course ends with the online elevator pitches of the team assignments, in a Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank setting.

Continue reading below for more information.

Summer courses

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Fees, discounts and scholarships

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Application and admissions

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Course level

Advanced

Course coordinator

Professor Dr. Enno Masurel

Credits

3 ECTS

Contact hours

Language

English

Tuition fee

€735 - €1310

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, students will:
1) Have developed an innovative outlook on entrepreneurship.
2) Have developed an awareness that value-adding opportunities not only contain financial aspects but also social and environmental aspects (sustainable entrepreneurship).
3) Have developed insight into, and actually developed, their own enterprising competencies.
4) Have learned about the processes involved in the recognition and exploitation of opportunities, about creating societal value, and about the nature and role of networks.
5) Have gained the ability to write a feasibility plan on how to bring an innovation to the market.
Forms of tuition and assessment

Forms of tuition
Morning lectures will discuss topics such as the Business Model Canvas for Start-ups and Scale-ups and the Amsterdam entrepreneurial ecosystem.
In the afternoon, students will work on practical assignments, with additional support from outside experts.
The course ends with the elevator pitches of the team assignments, in a Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank setting.
There will be 38 contact hours in total, with about 5 contact hours per day, except for days when other activities are planned for students (such as social programme activities), then there will be 2 hours of contact.
Assessment
The assessment takes place along three lines:
1) Team assignment Business Model Canvas (Innovativeness (25%); Technological feasibility (25%); Commercial feasibility (25%); Pitch & Discussion (25%); Completeness of the report (points deduction); Readability of the report, points deduction). This line represents 50% of the final grade.
2) Essay (This will be assessed on the basis of persuasiveness. Ambiguity of the proposition and poor readability of the essay may lead to deduction of points). This line also represents 50% of the final grade.
3) Four small assignments (they will be assessed on the basis of Pass/Improve/Fail).
Preliminary syllabus

You can download the preliminary course syllabus for 2024 here.
_{Please note that it is a preliminary syllabus and that it can be subject to change.}