5232 - ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS AND ENTERPRENEURSHIP

The course is based on core, cutting-edge research, applied to the design and governance of entrepreneurial activities, through the founding of new firms, the growth through interfirm networks and the promotion of entrepreneurship within existing firms (corporate entrepreneurship). Structures and strategies based on networks are central in firms' practices on all those grounds. The course format is based on presentations of analytical models and case studies for applications and class discussions.

• Nature and forms of entrepreneurship. The role of networks for all of them.
• The foundation and development of new firms. Opportunity recognition, the entrepreneurial team, forms of financing and types of investors, governance and organizational structure of the new firm.
• Interfirm networks and alliances: social (e.g. industrial districts), contractual (e.g franchising, consortia) and proprietary (e.g. joint ventures).
• Corporate entrepreneurship and strategic innovation. The large firm as a bundle of strategic initiatives. Entrepreneurial behavior and strategic discipline.
• Network organization within large firms (Network forms, Internal corporate ventures, spin-offs, M&A).

Attending students
Student evaluation: class participation and written case analyses.

Non-attending students
Written exam. Problems to be analyzed on the basis of readings.