1. Course Title: Creativity and Innovation Management

1. Course title: Creativity and Innovation Management

Course Aims:

In this course we will examine the role of creativity and innovation in business with a particular focus on the management of the innovation process. Students will explore personal creativity, management practices that enhance or suppress creativity, the relationship between creativity and innovation, and the process of innovation in a business setting.

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Define the relationship between creativity and innovation.
• Describe the role of creativity and innovation in adding value to businesses, as a source of competitive advantage, and as a strategic choice.
• Assess the impact of management practices on creativity and innovation in organizations.
• Recommend appropriate management practices to support creative and innovative behavior in organizations.
• Assess personal creativity and engage in activities to enhance it.
• Assess team creativity and engage in activities to enhance it.
• Manage a creative team project.

Course curriculum:

1. Course Introduction
2. Change as a driver of innovation
3. Design thinking
4. Business decisions
5. Role of managers
6. Rational and creative thinking
7. Creativity skills
8. Creative work environments
9. Obstacles to creativity
10. Innovation
11. Support networks
12. Applied innovation
13. Culture and climate
14. Technology

Compulsory literature:

• Goodman, M & Dingli, S.: Creativity and Strategic Innovation Management. Edition: 1. Publisher: Routledge. 2013. [ISBN: 9780415663557].
• Articles and case studies published on Neptun MeetStreet.

2. Course title: Introduction to Entrepreneurship

Course Aims:

Entrepreneurship was first used as a term in the eighteenth century but it was not until the second half of the twentieth that the term achieved widespread usage and became a focus of concentrated academic research. The study of entrepreneurship has evolved in conjunction with a growing interest in the economic and social benefits of entrepreneurial activity. Clearly, all businesses have, at some time, been ‘small’. Equally clearly, not all grow to provide employment, profitability and exports; a considerable number do not survive beyond their first year. It is now widely appreciated that entrepreneurial activity is an important driver of innovation, business growth and economic change.

There is an important underlying human story when starting a new venture and this provides a focus for the course. Although many people at some time express a desire to ‘work for themselves’ or to ‘be their own boss’ only a minority do so. Moreover, of those that do, not everyone finds it an enjoyable experience or indeed makes a success of it. On the course we examine the human story behind entrepreneurial endeavour and introduce the student to some basic principles, concepts and language associated with entrepreneurship. The course also focuses on ‘entrepreneurial processes’ – the activities and issues involved in the creation of new ventures, their growth and/or closure. We will also examine entrepreneurial behaviour in a broader context than the small or growing business.

Frequent use will be made of illustrative case histories. Class seminars will focus on activities that will increase students’ entrepreneurial skills and insights into the practice of entrepreneurship.

Course curriculum:

1. Introduction to course
2. Introduction to the business model canvas
3. Screening, developing and evaluating venture ideas
4. Business start-up and routes into entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial case studies
5. Uniqueness of value proposition
6. Customers’ point of view
7. Channels to market, customer relationships, developing entrepreneurial marketing
8. Key resources, activities and partners
9. Revenue model, cost structure
10. Investment and finance panel

Compulsory literature:

• Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010), Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, Wiley.
• Carter, S. and Jones-Evans, D (eds.) (2012): Enterprise and Small Business (3rd edn.), FT/Prentice Hall.
• Timmons, J. and Spinelli, S. (2006): New Venture Creation (7th edn.), McGraw-Hill.
• Articles and case studies published on Neptun MeetStreet.

3. Course title: Entrepreneurial Business Consulting

Course Aims:

SMEs gives relevant part of the employment and GDP in national economies. Their effectiveness however is lagging behind the MNCs figures. This organizational group differs in several way from their bigger counterparts.

Management consulting is a professional business service that gives an objective and independent support for clients solving their problems and fining opportunities. Business consulting supports and fosters the growth and the efficiency of client organizations.

SMEs use consultantsseldom. Onthe other hand this group of organizations would the professional support at least as much as the MNCs require it. The aim of the course is to prepare the consultants of the future, to be able to cooperate with SMEs, to understand their specificities, and to help the next SME manager generation to use properly these type of services.

Course curriculum:

1. Introduction, involvement. What do we expect from each other and from the course? A Brief Introduction to Management Consulting.
2. Typical role of consultants. Client industries and product. The process of management consulting.
3. The methods of management consulting in the entry and invention phase and in the diagnosis phase.
4. Most relevant documents in consulting.
5. General attributes of SMEs. Differentiating SMEs based on size, growing potential, strategic view and leadership styles.
6. Typical consulting services for SMEs.
7. How does the personality of the client influence the success of the consulting projects? Coaching tools for the effective cooperation and for the success of the projects,
8. Working with consultants as an SME. How do advisors create added value for my organization.

Compulsory literature:

• Baarspul H. C., Wilderom C. P. M.- 2011: Do individuals behave differently across sectors? in: Public Management Review. 2011. 13 évf./7 pp. 967–1002
• Biswas, Sugata – Twitchell, Daryl: Management Consulting, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons. Inc., New York, 1999, 2002 pp. 5-28; 69-73; 101-126; 209-237.
• Economist, 2011: Advice for consultants. In The Economist. 6/4/2011,
• European Comission, 2014: 2014 -SBA Faact Sheet on Hungary. internetes hivatkozás: letöltés ideje: 2015-09-09
• Fodor P. – Weiner J. (2011): Retaining and Motivating Knowledge Workers in Crisis Time – the Case of the Management Consultancy Market. in: Marketing & Management 2011/3. 68-78. oldal
• Kubr M, 2002 : Management Consulting – A guide to the profession. International Labour Orrice Geneva. 3-85, 153-261, 547-575 pp.
• Markham, Calvert: Developing Consulting Skills = Consulting to Management - C2M, 2005, Vol. 16. Issue 4, pp. 33-37.
• Nadler A.,D., 2005: Confession of a trusted consultant. In: HBR, 2005/sept. 68-77 pp.
• RASIEL ETHAN M., FRIGA PAUL N.: The McKinsey Mind. McGraw-Hill. 2002. 1-103 pp.
• Sadler, Philip (ed.): Management Consultancy, Kogan page, London 2001. pp. 293-321.
• Szerb L. – Ulbert J. (2008): Növekedés és stratégiai konfigurációk a magyar kis- és középvállalati szektorban. In: MTA IVB: A gazdasági környezet és a vállalati stratégiák. Szeged.

4. Course title: Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship

Course Aims:

Designed for students who want to start, join, or invest in a start-up or new business at any time during their career.This course will help to understand the legal aspects and frame of these decisions. It’s also the aim of the course to make students to be able to distinguish between the types of entrepreneurships with special regards to the sole propreatorship and the business associations such as limited partnership, limited liability company and the company limited by shares.

The course also includes the basic principles and rules of contracts important during companies’ lives. During the contract analysis, the delimitation of working contracts(such as the dependent and independent working will) be highly emphasized. It’s also an important part of the course to discuss how intellectual property can be used as part of a company’s overall strategy to create or protect a market for products and services.

Course curriculum:

1. The basic principles of civil law,
2. The natural person and the legal entity
3. The sole proprietorship and the business associations
4. The main types of contracts are used in businesslife such as agency contract and contract agreement
5. The main rules of copyrights – with special regard to know-how

Compulsory literature:

• Dr. Frézer Tamás, Dr. Károlyi Géza, Dr. Petkó Mihály, Dr. Törő Emese: Jogi személyek a gazdasági forgalomban (menedzser Praxis Szakkiadó 2014.
• Dr. Andor Ágnes, Dr. Lakatos László Péter: Kiskönyv az új Polgári Törvénykönyről Gazdasági szakembereknek
• Lenkovics Barnabás Székely László: Magyar Polgári jog

5. Course title: Entrepreneurial Finance

Course Aims:

This course examines the range of financing options that a company has at the startup phase of its life cycle. In this difficult financing environment, ventures need to look to any and all sources of capital that will allow them to create value inflection points, reduce risk and position themselves for additional investment. This course will cover a range of funding sources including grants, angels, seed and venture capital and non-traditional sources such as foundations and crowdfunding.Two perspectives, that of the entrepreneur and that of the investor, will be taken. Some of the takeaways will be navigating the investment world, determining appropriate capital sources for your venture, the investment criteria typical of a source, the inside story on venture capital, and non-dilutive funding such as grants.

Apply basic financial management techniques to small business environment (100 or fewer employees). Find problems faced by persons who start small businesses and recommend alternative solutions to most commonly discovered problems.

Course curriculum:

1. Introduction
2. Financial decisions in general
3. Financial sources, financial decision
4. Traditional financial sources
5. Non-traditional financial sources
6. Crowdfunding
7. Financial mix
8. Financial/financing risks
9. Financing and value creation
10. Dividend policy
11. Externalies related to financing
12. Finacing and capital budgeting

Compulsory literature:

• Adelman, P. - Alan M. Marks. (2010): Entrepreneurial Finance: Finance for Small Business. Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
• C. Barry, C. Muscarella, J. Peavy, M. Vetsuypens, (1990): The Role of Venture Capital in the Creation of Public Companies: Evidence From the Going Public Process,” Journal of Financial Economics 27 (1990): 447-472.
• Stevenson,H., Spence, S. (2011): Getting to Giving: Fundraising the Entrepreneurial way by a billion dollar fundraiser! (Timberline LLC, 2011)

6. Course title: Entrepreneurial Leadership

Course Aims:

Entrepreneurial Leadership is about seeing, mobilizing and focusing efforts for pursuing opportunities under circumstances perceived as „highly uncertain” and „highly risky”. Important areas addressed by the module are related to cultivating entrepreneurial capability in leadership roles and leadership capability in entrepreneurial contexts Entrepreneurial leadership aims at providing students with a Universal and Geo-Centric mind-set that encourages and teaches them to lead in an entrepreneurial way shifting their focus towards pursuing opportunity rather than getting stuck in resolving conflicts brought by resource constraints. There is increasing evidence, that all organizations and individuals are facing a more risky, uncertain and ambiguous world regardless of their life cycle stage or geographical situation. The module focuses on capacity building for enhanced abilities to combine, exploit, and maintain the particular capabilities of entrepreneurial teams, especially balancing creativity, influence, a particular attitude to risk, and an ability to expand access and optimize scarce resources strategically. The entrepreneurial learning environment is designed in a manner to support socially interactive, reflective, experiential and appreciative ways. Students are fostered towards proficiency in exploiting opportunity, maintaining their teams’ core competencies for pursuing innovation, and gaining competitive advantage for their organization especially at the start-up stages.

Course curriculum:

1)Post-conventional learning modes for innovation leaders

2)Overcoming entrepreneurial stress through self-reflection and appreciative inquiry

3)Leadership roles in an entrepreneurial context

4)Igniting entrepreneurial action through a joint learning environment

5)Establishing entrepreneurial modes of control

6)Understanding the psychological process of entrepreneurial motivation

7)Formulating entrepreneurial strategy at the individual and team level

8)Dealing with perceived entrepreneurial failure at personal and team level

9)Creating entrepreneurial environments across the formal and informal value networks- an inclusive and caring community approach

10)Demonstrating leadership and geo-centric vision in the age of social entrepreneurship

Compulsory literature:

• Kuratko and Morris (2013). Entrepreneurship and Leadership, ISBN: 978 1 78100 231 5
• Alvarez, S. A. and Barney, J. R. (2002), “Resource-based theory and the entrepreneurial firm” in M. A. Hitt, R. D. Ireland, S. M. Camp and D. L. Sexton (eds),Strategic Entrepreneurship: Creating a New Mindset, Oxford: Blackwell.
• Antonakis, J. and Autio, E. (2007), “"Entrepreneurship and Leadership"” in J. R. Baum, M. Frese and R. Baron (eds), The Psychology of Entrepreneurship, London: Routledge.
• Bagheri, A. and Pihie, Z. (2010), “Entrepreneurial Leadership Learning: In Search fo Missing Links”, Procedia, 7(c): 470-479.
• McMullen and Shepherd (2006), ‘Entrepreneurial Action and the Role of Uncertainty in the Theory of the Entrepreneur’
• Clarke, J., Thorpe, R., Anderson, L. and Gold, J. (2006), “It's all action, it's all learning: action learning in SMEs”, Journal of European Industrial Training, 30(6): 441-455.
• Cogliser, C. and Brigham, K. (2004), “The intersection of leadership and entrepreneurship: Mutual lessons to be learned”, The Leadership Quarterly, 15(6): 771-799.
• Cohen, A. (2004), “Building a Company of Leaders”, Leader to Leader Conrad, E. and Maul, T. (1981), Introduction to Experimental Psychology, New York, NY: John WIley & Sons, Inc. Cooper, S., Bottomley, C. and Gordon, J. (2004), “Stepping out of the classroom and up the ladder of learning: An experiential learning approach to entrepreneurship education ”, Industry and Higher Education, 18(1): 11-22. Covin, J. G. and Slevin, D. P. (Eds.). (2002). The Entrepreneurial Imperatives of Strategic Leadership. Oxford: Blackwell
• Bass, B. M. (1985), Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations, New York: Free Press
• Smilor and Sexton (1996) Leadership and Entrepreneurship: Personal and Organizational Development in Entrepreneurial Ventures (Entrepreneurship, Principles & Practices), Praeger (March 20, 1996)

7. Course title: International Market Assessment and Entry

Course Aims:

Formulating a market entry strategy means that management must decide which option or options to use in pursuing opportunities outside the home country. The particular market entry strategy company executives choose will depend on their vision, attitude toward risk, how much investment capital is available, and how much control is sought.

Companies that wish to move beyond exporting and importing can avail themselves of a wide range of alternative market entry strategies. Each alternative has distinct advantages and disadvantages associated with it; the alternatives can be ranked on a continuum representing increasing levels of investment, commitment, and risk.

During the course students will examine concepts, frameworks and tools for assessing international market opportunities and for selecting and implementing appropriate means of international market entry.

Course curriculum:

1. Understand the challenges confronting the international marketing management of companies.
2. Know and develop a critical evaluation of external factors influencing the decision making activities of international marketing managers.
3. Analyze an international marketing decision, taking into account ways of accessing foreign markets, the degree of centralization or decentralization of decision making and the degree of appropriate standardization or adaptation of marketing decisions.
4. Know where to find secondary data relevant for international marketing.
5. Plan the gathering of primary data collection in an international context.
6. Market assessment opportunities.
7. International market entry strategies their advantages and disadvantages.
8. Strategy applicability.

Compulsory literature:

• Hollensen S. (2011) Global Marketing, International Edition, Prentice Hall

8. Course title: Technology Commercialization

Course Aims:

This course aims at teaching students to be able to assess the commercial prospects of early-stage as well as mature stage technologies’ value for a business strategy aiming at a sustainable posture within the market dynamics of the 21st century. The will practice writing an actual technology commercialization plan for a real invention or discovery with further regional and / or global growth within the vertical and horizontal value chains . The commercialization plan is written before deciding whether the licensing, venturing (or abandonment) options are pursued. The exercise will cover legal and licensing aspects of opportunity assessment. The course will pay attention to the differences and similarities of the process of technology commercialization within industrial and government settings. The module focuses on methods of identifying, evaluating and packaging science-based R&D for commercial exploitation coming from the universities, industry (private-public) and non-profit institutions. The module will address techniques on interviewing scientists, as part of the initial consultative process; students will be trained to start making critical decisions on the true commercial prospects of technology, independently of the inventors’ own view . Furthermore techniques of technology assessment, patentability assessment, competitive research, market research, technology partitioning, and investment advice for licensing or spin-out companies. The course will consist of lectures, discussions of difficult readings, and industry guest speakers as well as experts working at IPO and tech development offices. At the end of the course, the students are expected to present their final commercialization plan to an independent review panel of experts and outside venture capitalists.

Course curriculum:

1. What is Technology Commercialization ? Career structuctures in Technology Commercialization

1. 2.A look into the Technology Assessment Project-Distinguishing between a Business Plan and a Commercialization Plan . Why is pledging confidentiality?
2. The example of a Venture Assessment Project-Entrepreneurial resources
3. The example of a Patentibility Assessment Project- Common mistakes of the start up companies
4. Sources for Technology(1) –Getting into the mind of the inventor t’s mind hrough Action Research Methods
5. Sources for Technology(2)- The Industrial and Government settings
6. 7.Strategizing Technology (1)–Technology brokering and negotiation strategies
7. Stategizing Technology (2)- The importance of Universities; Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for sustainable regional technology commercialization
8. A reflection on technology partitioning and tailor-made investment decisions
9. Spin-Out and Spin-Off scuccess from an IPO office perspective
10. Commercialization Plan presentation

Compulsory literature:

• Touhill C.J. , Touhill G.J. and Oriordan (2008) Commercialization of Innovative Technologies: Bringing Good Ideas to the Marketplace, Wiley Al-Che, ISBN-13: 978-0470230077, ISBN-10: 047023007X
• Costa, S. (2013). Business model change and performance of early-stage entrepreneurial firms. Babson college entrepreneurial research conference, Lyon, June.
• Allen, Launching New Ventures, fourth Edition; (Barnes and Noble)
• Case Studies: “startup.com”,Vermeer Technologies,
• Harris, J. (2013). Spinouts UK 2013. Glasgow: Young Company Finance.
• Pittaway, L., & Hannon, P. (2008). Institutional strategies for developing enterprise education: A review of some concepts and models. Journal

of Small Business and Enterprise Development,15(1), 202–226