Introduction

The focus of the course The Entrepreneurial Individual was to learn more about the traits, character, and behaviour of entrepreneurs. Also, in this course we examined how, why, and when, entrepreneurs discover and exploit opportunities. To learn more about these topics each student had to make the following assignments to pass the course:

• An individual assignment. For the individual assignment, one had to choose a topic that was related to the entrepreneurial individual. Then, one had to come up with a research question and conduct literature research to answer the question.
• A group assignment. In groups of two, one had to apply theories from academic literature to a real-life case. So, we had to interview an entrepreneur and obtain the right information to write a paper.  
• QAQCs. Every week one had to write a paper about an academic article, that included the most important Quote of the article, Argument about the article, Question the article and Connect the article to other academic literature.
  
  

Summary of the projects

• For the individual assignment, I wrote a paper about the similarities and the differences between fear of failure in top sport and entrepreneurship. I started by researching what fear of failure is and how it is defined in academic literature. Then, I conducted research about the fear of failure in top athletic sports and research about fear of failure in entrepreneurship. Once this was finished, I compared the two with each other and defined the similarities and the differences.
  
  
• In the group assignment, we applied the theories and constructs of academic literature to CEO Mr. Donk that owns a SAAS company that facilitates clinical research. The constructs applied to this real-life case where about the psychological price of entrepreneurship, tactics a leader can use to influence others to get things done, and about how constraints influence innovation and creativity. By using interviews, we learned more about the entrepreneur and his company. The application of the constructs to this case, resulted in a paper that gave an insight in the entrepreneurial behavior of Donk and the leadership styles he subconsciously uses.
  
  

Lessons

The Entrepreneurial Individual course helped me to gain a better understanding about the importance of the entrepreneur his- or himself on firm performance. Furthermore, I learned a lot about different entrepreneurial individual constructs like fear of failure, leadership styles, cognitive biases, and inspirational leadership. The most important lesson was that I learned how to bring theory into practice by applying academic theories to a real-life case.

Also, I improved my academic writing skills and learned how to gain the most relevant information from an academic article in a quick way. Besides, I Improved my skills on how to conduct an interview and ask the right interview questions.

Introduction

The goal of The Entrepreneurial Venture was to learn more about the creation of a firm and the further development of it. Important topics include the life cycle of a firm, exit strategies, funding, and founder’s dilemma. The following assessment methods were used to test students’ their knowledge:

• Written exam. The written exam tests students’ their knowledge by asking mostly open question about the theory from the lectures, theory from the book, and theory from academic articles.
• Team assignment. For the team assignment, we worked in groups of four. With the team we had to choose a start-up/scale-up with a strong growth mindset and identify the obstacles that prevent/slow them from growing further. Then, we had to come up with solutions to get rid of these obstacles.
• Weekly small assignments. For the weekly assignments, one had to read an academic article provided by the lecturer and answer some open question in a short essay.

Summary of the Team Assignment

For the team assignment, we consulted for an Amsterdam based company called BIYU to gain insight in the obstacles they are facing and provided several solutions. Our contact person was the founder Mr. Tjho, who founded a few businesses in the past. By conducting two interviews, doing market research, and brainstorming with the team, we identified four main obstacles (not mentioned due to privacy concerns). After we identified the problems, we started looking into academic literature and the internet to come up with possible solutions. Finally, we formulated these obstacles and possible solutions and compiled them into a consultancy report.    

Lessons

The most important lesson from the Entrepreneurial Venture, was that I learned how to work as a consultant. I learned the importance of listening carefully to your client and asking the right questions. Besides, I became better in working in a team. Before this project I taught that I always get the best results when I do everything myself, but I realized that working in a group can increase your creativity and helps you to test ideas.

Additionally, I got more theoretical knowledge about venture creation and development from academic articles and the lectures.

Introduction

For the startup project, one had to work in a group of four to develop and validate a business idea. During the project we were guided by the lecturer to improve the idea.

Summary of the project

The Startup Project started through a series of brainstorming sessions aimed at generating a viable business idea. Despite encountering challenges in developing a concept that satisfied everyone, we persisted and ultimately decided to pursue an idea proposed by one of our team members who intended to pursue the idea beyond the project.

Next, we developed and refined the idea’s business model, conducted a competitor analysis, carried out extensive market research, created a marketing plan, and developed a funding strategy. With these aspects addressed, we created a website and embarked on validating the idea using various approaches, including running ads, conducting surveys, analyzing keywords, and engaging in customer interviews.

Finally, we combined our findings into a slide deck, which consolidated all the insights gathered from our research, providing an overview of the startup’s potential.

Lessons

Validating a business idea is key. As an entrepreneur you can learn a lot from the validation process, and it can save a lot of time and money doing it. Another lesson I learned is that I find it hard to work on a project I have zero affinity with. Finally, during the project I started to realize how important a leader is in a group. During the project we tried to be all equal, but it just didn’t work out.

Introduction

In this course we learned about the process of how scientific and technical knowledge can be commercialized and hit the marketplace. This was done by drawing on real cases of startups across tech industries to highlight innovation-driven entrepreneurship based on real science. To finish the course, I had to write a paper about a fictive firm that used a new technology to solve an existing problem. Besides, I had to write weekly QAQCs of academic articles.

Summary of the project

The technology I wrote about in my paper was CRISPR-Cas9, a biomolecular genome editing technology. The fictional company I came up with was called Prevfix. The goal of the firm was to fix mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, to prevent individuals from getting breast or ovarian cancer with the use of CRISPR-Cas9. In the sections that followed I discussed how the firm could create- and capture value, the necessary assets, and how the firm differentiates itself from competitors.

Lessons

For me it was interesting to learn how I could combine my background in Pharmaceutical Sciences with Entrepreneurship. By reading academic literature in the field of science and technology entrepreneurship, I learned more about how these can be commercialized. With the paper I wrote, I granted a bit of experience in how a technology can be commercialized.

Introduction/overview

The International Entrepreneurship course offered a framework for understanding global venture creation and growth. One learned about the opportunities and challenges in different global contexts, such as the components of institutions or an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Besides, one learned more about internationalization of a real firm. The final grade of the course consisted of:

• Weekly assignments. For the weekly assignments, one had to read two academic articles and explain what was interesting about it and question it.
• Team assignment. For the team assignment, every group had to act as international expansion consultants. Every group gets a challenge of an existing firm that is related to internationalization. The goal of the project is to bring theory into practice and come up with a solution.
• Individual assignment. For this assignment, one had to come up with a hypothetical firm and two countries (the home country and a potential host country). Then, we had to identify and explain the institutional components relevant to the selected firm’s performance and survival. Then, conduct a comparative analysis of the two countries’ institutional environment using the identified elements. Finally, one had to discuss the implications of the analysis for the firm internationalizing from the first country to the second country.

Summary of the project

For the group assignment, we worked with a group of five on the challenge of the educational IT firm Cloudwise. Their challenge was to Explore Italy and Spain as new markets for Cloudwise’s module COOL Check. Our project started by finding the right framework to use to measure whether Spain or Italy were interesting markets to enter with COOL Check. We decided on using a CAGET distance framework because it provides a complete overview of distance between countries. With the team we elaborated on the goals and hypotheses of the project. Subsequent, we gathered data via market research and interviews with Italian/Spanish students/teachers. Finally, we conducted a competitor and partner analysis for both Italy and Spain. All this information including recommendations and conclusions were provided in a slide deck, consultancy report, and presented to Cloudwise

In my paper, I researched the regulatory institutional distance for the hypothetical firm Hempy. The firm wanted to use and distribute Hemp fibers to create clothing and become a major competitor of cotton. Hempy potentially wanted to expand its business from its home country the Netherlands to the host country India. To find out whether this is a good idea or not, the Economic Freedom Index (EFI) from the Heritage Foundation was being used, which includes twelve measures to determine the economic freedom within a country. All these measures were defined in the paper and were supplemented with information from academic literature. Next, the EFI scores of the Netherlands and India were compared with each other and discussed. The paper ends with the advice not to internationalize to India based on regulatory distance.

Lessons

Throughout the International Entrepreneurship course, I learned a lot of new things because I was not familiar with the topic. I learned about various international entrepreneurship models, like EFI, and how to apply these to real life cases. Furthermore, I learned how you can work as a consultant for a firm without being an expert in the field of the challenge they are facing. Besides, I could improve my academic writing skills and my presentation skills.

Introduction

For the venture challenge, one worked in a group of four to solve a real-life entrepreneurial challenge for a startup. We had to work as consultants to come up with recommendations that were supported by knowledge gathered via other courses or academic literature.

Summary of the project

We were assigned to the company KeyWI, which is a SAAS firm that helps other businesses with their content creation and SEO. KeyWI wanted to shift their business model and target audience, so our aim was to get a better understanding of the pain points SMEs experience with regards to SEO and SEA. We conducted market research and came up with five main hypotheses, which were divided into sub hypotheses. Next, we created a survey and tested our hypotheses with the results. Finally, we used all the information to provide the firm insights that were useful to solve the problem and gave them recommendations for future steps.

Lessons

Through this project for KeyWI, I gained more experience in conducting market research, identifying pain points via quantitative research, testing hypotheses, and providing actionable recommendations. Furthermore, I became better in working in a group and how to consult for a firm.

Introduction

For the Entrepreneurial Internship one had to conduct a research project for an organization that should be related to entrepreneurship. At the end of the report, the student had to deliver an advisory report.

Summary of the project

For my internship I worked at Dienstencentrum, a consultancy firm for the graphic media industry. Because the graphic media industry is shrinking, Dienstencentrum wanted to expand their services to new markets. To do this successfully, they wanted to learn more about their current corporate identity. Additionally, they wanted an advice which markets could be interesting to enter in the future and how the corporate identity can be improved. To provide Dienstencentrum with the right insights I used an Ist-Soll Gap Analysis method.

First, I started with defining what a corporate identity is and how this can be characterized. To describe the whole corporate identity of Dienstencentrum I used a corporate identity taxonomy of an article from Melewar (2003). By looking into Dienstencentrum’s files, conducting interviews, attending meetings, and be present in the office, I formulated the current corporate identity of Dienstencentrum. The same methods and market research were used, combined with my own knowledge to formulate a renewed corporate identity. Furthermore, research was performed to identity interesting target markets. Besides, I advised Dienstencentrum how the corporate identity could be realized and how the firm should renew itself in the future. Additionally, I created a new brand identity.

All the information was compiled in a consultancy report and presented to all Dienstencentrum’s staff members.

Lessons

Through my internship at Dienstencentrum, I gained hands-on experience in conducting corporate identity analysis, market research, and consulting. I learned the importance of utilizing a systematic approach to problem-solving, as well as the value of effective communication and presenting findings in a clear and concise manner. It also demonstrated the importance of being adaptable in the face of changing industry trends and the need for companies to continually innovate and renew themselves to remain competitive. Finally, I learned more about the graphic media industry.

Introduction

For my master thesis I was assigned to my supervisor that had an expertise in blockchain technology. The main requirements for the thesis were that it was written about a subject related to entrepreneurship, contribute something new to existing knowledge in the field of blockchain technology, and one must use qualitative- or quantitative research methods. The student only had to hand in a written academic article and a slide deck.

Summary of the project

To start with, I conducted literature research to identity knowledge gaps in existing academic literature. When these gaps were identified, I chose to write my master thesis about The Influence of Non-Fungible Tokens on the Existing Business Models in the Recorded Music Industry. For this paper, I started by creating a theoretical framework that elaborated on all important subjects related to blockchain technology, the recorded music industry, and relevant entrepreneurial theories.

Then, I started my qualitative research by interviewing industry experts in both blockchain technology and the music industry. This data was analyzed with the help of the computer aided qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti. Subsequent, the data was interpreted and converted into my results section. Finally, the results were used to build a theory about how NFTs do and can influence the recorded music industry.

Lessons

First, I learned a lot about blockchain technology and the recorded music industry. Furthermore, before my master thesis I had no experience with doing qualitative research. I learned how to setup qualitative research and analyze the data with the help of qualitative data analysis software. I also learned how to combine information from academic literature, with my own findings to answer my research questions. I also improved my interviewing and academic writing skills.

The most important thing I learned from my master thesis, is how to do my own scientific research from start to finish. For this research, I did everything myself and learned all the necessary skills myself. This is super useful for future project because it provides me the skills to research whatever I want and convert the findings in an academic article.