Principles of Business Creation Research
General Information
Estimated learning time
Competences / Learning outcomes
Learning objectives
Teaching blocks
Teaching methods and general organization
Official assessment of learning outcomes
Reading and study resources
General Information
| Course unit name | Principles of Business Creation Research |
| Course unit code | 568302 |
| Academic year | 2024/2025 |
| Coordinator | Maria Esther Hormiga Perez |
| Department | Department of Business |
| Credits | 2.5 |
| Single program | S |
Estimated learning time
| Activities | Type of training | Hours | Observations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face-to-face and/or online activities | 25 | ||
| - Lecture with practical component | Face-to-face | 24 | |
| - Group tutorial | Face-to-face | 1 | |
| Supervised project | 17.5 | ||
| Independent learning | 20 |
Competences / Learning outcomes to be gained during study
- Basic competences
- Capacity to possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity to be original while developing and applying ideas, often in a research context.
- Capacity to use the knowledge acquired to solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader or multidisciplinary contexts related to the field of study.
- Capacity to communicate reasoned conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.
Specific competences
- Capacity to identify topics of academic research in the area of entrepreneurship and pursue the research from functional, organizational and management perspectives.
- Capacity to use the analysis of the new schools of thought and key paradigms and trends discussed in the literature on entrepreneurship to tackle specific problems in business research.
- Capacity to retrieve, select, analyse and use qualitative and quantitative data for the purposes of research into business problems.
- Capacity to master the initial design of business research activities by selecting a new topic of interest, writing a question to address a particular problem and choosing a theoretical framework to support it.
Teaching blocks
1 Introduction to the entrepreneurship research field
2 Theoretical foundations of entrepreneurship research
3 Uncovering entrepreneurial opportunities
4 Understanding entrepreneurial behaviour
5 Network theory and entrepreneurship: exploring social capital and support systems
6 Institutional perspective on entrepreneurship
7 Social and sustainable entrepreneurship: creating impactful businesses
8 Diversity and entrepreneurial activity
Teaching methods and general organization
The course is taught in English. Students must be able to read, write and express themselves in English.
The course’s methodology combines theoretical material with the completion of several practical activities and exercises. In order to do this, landmark and influential papers in the filed are analysed, and students practice the development of research questions through various exercises.
All the material relevant to the subject is published on the Virtual Campus, which serves as a communication tool between students and lecturers (assessment rules, deadlines, etc.).
The learning process, which is based on both individual work and participation in class, depends on attendees at the various sessions. The students enrolled agree to come to class having read and prepared the cases and readings set for each day in the work plan.
Official assessment of learning outcomes
Continuous assessment involves monitoring the subject and consists of carrying out different activities throughout the semester, in which students obtain different marks according to evidence-based assessment.
At the beginning of the course, students find all the information about the different assessed activities on the Virtual Campus.
The number of assignments, their weight in the final grade and the main objective of each of them are the following:
- Assignment 1 (40%). The objective of the first assignment is to engage in a comprehensive analysis of an assigned article in the field of entrepreneurship. Students establish meaningful connections between different academic articles, and gain a deeper understanding of the theoretical significance and practical implications.
- Assignment 2 (60%). The objective of the second practical assignment is to improve the ability to create and deliver a research proposal in the field of entrepreneurship. Students must choose a research topic within the field of entrepreneurship and create a proposal, describing the objectives, methods and anticipated results.
Students who opt for single assessment take an exam that accounts for 100% of the final grade for the course. The final exam may consist of multiple-choice questions, open-answer questions or practical exercises.