Teaching Methods

A large autonomy is given to the students to organise and achieve their goals.

Students will work in small teams, with each team assigned to a challenge.

Teams will identify and address a challenge/question in the context of their assigned case, such as considering alternate business models or analysing go-to-market scenarios. Students need to ground their reflections by exploring some specific areas: business environment, competition, suppliers, partners, environmental and sustainability issues, etc, both deductively (i.e., through desk research) and inductively (i.e., through field work) as appropriate.

To address their challenge/question, the students will cover the 4 generic steps of an explorative business analysis:

• Identification of the relevant challenge/question,

• Acquisition of applicable concepts/methods/tools,

• Observations (data collection) on a selected part of the case,

• Analysis and interpretation.

Students’ supervision comprises:

• A few group sessions to introduce and detail the assignments, and help students identify the challenges/questions,

• 1-to-many mentoring sessions, where teams will be coached in completing their case study, and progress will be monitored,

• A final oral defence.

Each student will be in charge of a part of the group’s delivery, with specific “roles” defined during the mentoring sessions.

The companies responsible for the case will contribute to supervision, provide data/contacts, participate in the oral defence and/or offer other meeting occasions to ensure rooting of the business assignment in real life.

While the course foresees several (4-5) plenary lectures covering topics that are of general use to all students, most of the time will be dedicated to group mentoring.

Course Goals and Learning Objectives

After completion of the I&E Studies course, students should…

• … have the ability to apply, synthesise, and evaluate prior I&E learning within a specific innovation or entrepreneurial project setting and a specific innovation area.

• … have the ability to conduct a business analysis, make decisions and formulate recommendations or justify actions in a real environment.

• … have the ability to choose and apply relevant concepts/methods and/or tools and collect relevant data for conducting a business analysis and making decisions in a real environment.

• … have the ability to produce a professional writing on a business analysis topic.

• … have the ability to apply concepts, methods and tools pertaining to identifying and assessing the impact/value of a technology in an industry, market and/or organisation and the innovation / business opportunities it creates.

• … have the ability to reflect critically on issues related to the development of ICT solutions, and their potential pitfalls due to market and/or social reasons.

• … have developed a sense of "out of the box thinking" and creative approaches to problem solving, even in contexts that would otherwise suggest a technical solution.

• … have the ability to make value and ethical judgements about the development of technological and business solutions.

• … have the ability to work as a team with other students to complement each other's competences and perspectives.