Newcastle University

Aims

The overall aim of this module will be to educate IBM students on the theoretical and practical aspects of developing and growing a small business internationally and advance cross-national comparisons of entrepreneurial activity. Students will develop insights, tools, concepts, and skills necessary to understand the challenges and opportunities of International entrepreneurship.

Original Summary:
The module will develop students’ understanding of entrepreneurship in an international context through considering a range of key issues and topics. The module adopts a critical and broad-ranging social science approach to the subject and aims to provide students with the ability to analyse entrepreneurship from an international perspective within the context of a wide range of management, organisation studies and social science debates. The module focuses on both the conceptual aspects of international entrepreneurship as well as some practical elements in order equip the student with a valid grounding of both theory and practice.

Outline Of Syllabus

One hour lecture per week and one hour seminar every other week:

•       International evidence on Entrepreneurship and Small Business
•       A macro examination of enterprising nations and impact of cultures
•       Small Firm Internationalisation strategies: stages theory, network perspective and born global phenomenon
•       The importance E-Commerce for facilitating international growth strategies in SMEs
•       Research on IE: findings from GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)
•       Entrepreneurship in context: A European Perspective and Impact of EU membership
•       Entrepreneurship in context: A Pacific Rim Perspective and Indigenous Entrepreneurs
•       Entrepreneurship in context: An Asian Perspective and Family Business Entrepreneurship
•       Entrepreneurship in context: A North American Perspective and the role of the VC industry

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

One 2,000 word assignment, consisting of 2 parts (1,000 words each)

Students will choose a geographic region for the context of their study.

Part A
•       Produce a literature review of the academic research that has been conducted on the region in an area of international entrepreneurship.
Part B
•       Identify an international company (start-up or growth SME) from their chosen region and develop an entrepreneurial SWOT analysis of their potential international growth and development.

Mindful of both practical and theoretical learning outcomes of this module, students are required to develop their understanding of international entrepreneurship from both perspectives. The literature review will be developed to demonstrate the students understanding of the core themes and issues in IE and their academic ability to focus on a particular area. The chosen area will be facilitated by the lecture content, which will focus on relevant IE topics, employing research evidence from a number of international contexts. Secondly, the Case study SWOT will focus student’s understanding of the practical relevance of IE and enable them to employ a degree of secondary research analysis. The nature of this activity will develop practical entrepreneurial skills and perspectives of creative problem solving, diagnostic skills and written communication, all of which are needed to grow a small business internationally.