Themen der Lehrveranstaltung
It is a capstone course for competence development, in which the knowledge and skills acquired in the various courses are pooled using problem solving based learning to analyse real situations and develop an action plan for starting a new venture including a business plan, the application for an accelerator program and/or a pitch deck for investors. List of topics covered: • Opportunity Evaluation and Selection. Students learn to identify and assess market opportunities based on evidence, feasibility, and strategic fit. What distinguishes a promising idea from a passing trend? • Customer Validation and Pricing. Participants. engage in real-world testing to validate customer needs and define pricing strategies that reflect value perception. Have you listened closely enough to build what people truly need—and will pay for? • Marketing Plan. The module covers lean marketing approaches for early-stage ventures, focusing on positioning, messaging, and channel selection. Can your message cut through the noise—and reach the right audience? • Finance Plan. Students design a basic financial model to estimate costs, revenues, and key performance indicators. Do your numbers tell a story that investors will believe in? • Business Model. This unit explores business model design tools (e.g., Business Model Canvas) to define how ventures create, deliver, and capture value. Who benefits from your solution—and why now? • Business Plan. Students learn how to synthesize their concept into a coherent, compelling business plan aimed at partners or funding institutions. Can you turn your vision into a convincing narrative? • Applying for an investment or to an Accelerator Programme. Participants gain insight into investment/application processes and how to communicate traction, potential, and team strength effectively. What makes your venture stand out from the crowd?

Unterrichtsform
Frontal lectures, lab & projects

Bildungsziele
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILO) ILO 1: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ILO 1.a The student acquires advanced knowledge and understanding of the models and tools of economic-business analysis for starting a new company, with particular focus on identifying new market opportunities, accessing and obtaining economic-financial resources, as well as technological and organizational skills for the development of the company; ILO 1.b The student acquires advanced knowledge and understanding of the models and tools of economic-business analysis for the management of a new enterprise, from the financial and organisational point of view and with respect to the dynamics of growth and development; ILO 1.c The student acquires advanced knowledge and understanding of the theories and tools for the economic analysis of business decisions; ILO 1.d The student acquires knowledge and understanding of theories and tools for the economic analysis of the market, at the level of the individual enterprise and the supply system; ILO 1.e The student acquires knowledge of the legal forms required for setting up a company and for the legal protection of intellectual property rights; ILO 2: ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ILO 2.a Ability to acquire and select information that may be relevant from an entrepreneurial point of view, also in economic-productive contexts different from those studied; ILO 2.b Ability to analyse the combination of market opportunities and resources of the enterprise and to identify entrepreneurial formulas, also with the elaboration of original, compatible and sustainable solutions and combinations; ILO 2.c Ability to select business economics models, suitable for the appropriate analysis of a specific economic-social and productive context ILO 2.d Ability to select the tools for the strategy and management of the enterprise, consistent with the enterprise economy models considered appropriate; ILO 2.e Ability to assess the potential and sustainability of new business projects (business plan), from a multidisciplinary (economic, business and legal) perspective; ILO 2.f Ability to evaluate the entrepreneurial potential associated with the development of an innovation by a company (learning area 2); ILO 2.g Ability to propose and implement strategic and operational courses of action conducive to the creation of a new enterprise; ILO 2.h Ability to acquire and select relevant information to frame cases of innovation (product, service, social, managerial organisational), also different from the studied contexts; ILO 2.i Ability to select product development models, suitable to appropriately analyse a specific economic-productive context; ILO 2.l Ability to classify, analyse specific innovations and assess their potential; ILO 2.m Ability to propose and implement strategic and operational courses of action to foster the development of innovations by a company; LO 2.n Ability to assess the potential of an innovation within existing companies compared to the creation of a new company (e.g., intrapreneurship, open innovation, etc.). ILO 3: AUTONOMY OF JUDGEMENT ILO 3.a Acquire the ability to analyse complex entrepreneurial problems, such as the elaboration and evaluation of an entrepreneurial project (business plan) or the development of a new product; ILO 3.b Acquire the ability to make predictions, such as analysing the future consequences of entrepreneurial, managerial and operational choice; ILO 3.c Project-based training is particularly suitable for developing autonomy of judgement with respect to situations and problems typical of innovation management and the creation of new businesses; ILO 3.d Autonomy of judgement is developed in the training activities carried out for the preparation of the thesis, as well as in the exercises that accompany the lectures and that involve group discussions and the comparison of individual analyses carried out by students in preparation for the lecture. ILO 4: COMMUNICATION SKILLS ILO 4.a Acquire the ability to describe and communicate in an intercultural context, in a clear and precise manner, problematic situations typical of the management of a new enterprise and the development of innovation, such as, for example, the conditions for the validation of a problem or solution, the prospects and risks associated with a business model or an innovation project. The development of communication competences assumes heterogeneous situations such as, for example, the presence of internal stakeholders (e.g. colleagues, managers, owners), or external stakeholders (e.g. potential investors, suppliers and other business partners) and the ability to sustain an adversarial process; ILO 4.b The achievement of these objectives is assessed in the course of the training activities already mentioned, as well as in the discussion of the final thesis. ILO 5: LEARNING SKILLS ILO 5.a Acquire the ability to study independently, to prepare summaries; ILO 5.b Acquire the ability to identify thematic connections and to establish relationships between different cases and contexts of analysis; ILO 5.c Acquire the ability to frame a new problem systematically and to generate appropriate taxonomie; ILO 5.d Acquire the ability to develop general models from the phenomena studied.

Art der Prüfung
• Intermediate presentations (30%) - validating assumptions (ILOs: 1a-e, 2a-f, 2l, 3a-d, 4a-b, 5a-c) • Final powerpoint-based presentation of the project work (30%) - testing the attractiveness of the idea and the plan (ILOs: 1a-e, 2a-n, 3a-d, 4a-b, 5a-c) • Project work (written): written project report done in groups (40%) - generating an action plan for starting a new venture (ILOs: 1a-e, 2a-n, 3a-d, 4a-b, 5a-c) The presence and participation at the lectures is obligatory; there is no assessment for non-attending students. Students attending less than 75% of the lectures will automatically fail the course.

Bewertungskriterien
Relevant for intermediate presentations: • progress in integrating new content • mastery of language • ability to evaluate the state of the project • application of project to real world problems Relevant for powerpoint-based presentation of the project work: • clarity of expression • mastery of language • logic and coherence (in terms of structure and arguments) • conveying key messages in a reduced format • attention getting • mastery of key concepts Relevant for written project work: • clarity of expression • mastery of language • logic and coherence (in terms of structure and arguments) • integration of the various topics • establish logical relationships between sub-topics • maturity of project and funding probability