A14909 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

The metaphor of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem has been enthusiastically embraced by policy makers, entrepreneurs, economic development agencies and researchers in the last few years.

The course aims to give students an holistic overview of what an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is, its key players and how it evolves over time. The course explores and analyse the underlying mechanisms of an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in order to understand and fully exploit its potential for local growth and innovation.

1. How important is for a company to be part of an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
2. To explore the most important and growing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in the world, such as Silicon Valley, Israel and Singapore
3. The peculiar startup business model of these ecosystems
4. The peculiar way of doing business in the most succesful Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and their ability to create a cohesive social and economic system that supports the creation and growth of new ventures.

The course will be taught using the case method developed at Harvard Business School, together with readings, lectures, videos and Visiting Professor.

Attending students

Active class participation (30%) + individual assignment (70%).

Individual assignment requires students to analyze and describe the entrepreneurial ecosystem of one Italian province to assess:

• how much the city is growing based on business creation
• what the opportunities are in the city based on its rate of entrepreneurship growth and the dynamism of its startup scene
• how innovative the city is based on for example high-growth company density

Students will be given a specific framework of analysis to design and deliver the assignment. Italian province to be analyzed will be chosen together with the professor.

Not attending students

Individual assignment (100%)

Individual assignment requires students to analyze and describe the entrepreneurial ecosystem of three Italian provinces (same instruction as for attending students). The provinces must be chosen together with the professor who will provide students with the specific framework of analysis (for more information, please send an email to fbelfanti@liuc.it)