Mannheim, Germany

Digital Entrepreneuship

when 8 July 2018 - 17 July 2018
language English
duration 2 weeks
credits 4 EC
fee EUR 1200

Today’s economic landscape is dominated by new, fast - growing and innovative ventures, typically enabled by Information Technology (IT) and the Internet. They are driven by two major groups of players: Young entrepreneurial start - ups such as Facebook on the one hand and firms such as IBM but also Google with their intrapreneurial activities and innovation management on the other hand. Hence, these entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills combined with state of the art in IT and E - Business knowledge are seen as key competencies of founders but also top level executives in today’s fast moving networked business world. The focus of this course is to supply students with a deep understanding of the foundations of IT - associated entrepreneurship and tools to create ideas and start their own business. Light is shed on strategic dimensions of recent developments in IT such as E - Business, Web 2.0, Social Media and Cloud Computing and their use for new ventures and business models. Based on these insights , the managerial implications for competitive advantage, innovation, electronic marketing and pricing will be acquired. Additionally, students will have to chance to understand and train these tools and topics while developing and presenting their own business idea in a team . Company visits to various start - ups complement the lectures.

Course leader

Dennis Steininger

Target group

This course is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate business students. A basic understanding of business and IT foundations is helpful.

Course aim

The learned skills allow entrepreneurs to successfully enter the market but also support executives of existing firms in developing IT - based intrapreneurial innovation strategies helping them to stay ahead of competition. This module enables participants to strategically employ IT and E - Business driven concepts for developing innovations, successfully entering markets and gaining competitive advantage. It is suitable for executives thriving to put forward innovative intrapreneurial thinking within existing companies and for participants interested in setting up their own entrepreneurial venture.

Students will:
• Understand the fundamentals of IT - associated entrepreneurship
• Comprehend implications of E-Business and electronic markets on the business world
• Learn tools to find and develop business ideas • Be able to Design and evaluate electronic business models from the ideas and understand associated decisions with their impacts
• Have a deep understanding on how to leverage IT - driven resources for new ventures (e.g. Web 2.0, Crowdsourcing and Cloud Computing)
• Gain practical experience in running a business through a business simulation

Credits info

4 EC
Form of assessment: Presentation of business idea (30%), Written exam 60 min. (70%)

Fee info

EUR 1200: Program fee includes tuition, lecture material, company visits, cultural activities on week-days, accommodation in a centrally located comfort-class hotel including breakfast, lunch on week-days, welcome and farewell dinners, transportation during the program, weekly ticket for public transportation in the region, Wi-Fi access on campus, information package, certificate of attendance, transcript of records, support by the Summer School team throughout the program.