152.230: Entrepreneurship
Assignment One – Opportunities and Entrepreneurship
Length: 2000 words maximum
Value: 20% of final mark
Due Date: 11.55pm Sunday 23rd March 2014 (submit via Stream only)
Purpose: To understand opportunities and entrepreneurs as key elements of entrepreneurship, and how entrepreneurship relates to creativity and innovation. Also too practice your entrepreneurial skills through demonstrating alertness to opportunities and the process of ideas generation.
The Brief:
Your task is to think of an idea for a business opportunity! It can be in any industry, market, or market segment – “not-for-profit” or commercially driven. Briefly outline the importance of opportunities and entrepreneurs as two key elements of the entrepreneurial process. Think about how creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship are linked. Apply this knowledge to the generation and screening of your idea. Don’t regurgitate the textbook but instead always relate the theory (including the textbook and wider literature) back to your idea as much as possible. Focus on, and research such things as (not necessarily in this order):
what your product or service entails
what value is created and for whom
are there emerging trends that sparked your idea or impact on it?
existing competition, and any other relevant aspects of your idea.
what process and/or techniques did you go through to create your idea
What type of innovation does your idea represent?
How would you evaluate this idea?
The more specific you describe your opportunity and the underlying information, the better. Your sources can be academic but for future-focused assignments such as these, ‘current’ sources like newspaper articles, magazines, trade magazines and websites are also important. They do need to be formally referenced.
The length of your submission should be up to 2000 words excluding references.
Use the following structure: introduction – discussion (description of the...