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BUSI4X215: Thinking Entrepreneurially

Type Tied
Level 4
Credits 15
Availability Available in 2025/2026
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Management and Marketing

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • The module aims to:
  • Introduce a psychological approach to entrepreneurship
  • Help students to understand how they can cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, which can be applied in an entrepreneurial or organizational context as well as how to develop an entrepreneurial culture as a leader
  • Improve students confidence in decision-making in dynamic and uncertain environments, using entrepreneurship as a relevant context
  • Empower students to practice self-empathy and empathy when they engage in, or manage entrepreneurial actions.

Content

  • Introduction: The entrepreneurial mindset
  • Entrepreneurial ideas into action
  • Entrepreneurial decision-making under uncertainty
  • Impulsive entrepreneurial action
  • A psychological perspective to raising capital
  • Emotions and entrepreneurial wellbeing.
  • Adapting, persisting, and failing entrepreneurially
  • Leading entrepreneurially
  • Cultivating an entrepreneurial culture

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Improve their capacity to think entrepreneurially in different organizational contexts.
  • Understand how individuals cognition, including their emotions and neurodiverse traits, influence entrepreneurial action.
  • Demonstrate a broad understanding of the main theories of entrepreneurial action.
  • Understand the importance of developing an entrepreneurial culture within the organization.
  • Understand that generative AI can complement but not substitute entrepreneurial decision-making and action

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Students will be able to:
  • Develop cognitive skills such as the ability to think critically about entrepreneurial processes within new or established firms.
  • Develop team-based ideation skills, by learning techniques that will help them to generate ideas solve problems as a team.
  • Develop empathy which can improve relations and communication with future stakeholders such as customers, employees, and investors.

Key Skills:

  • Planning, organizing and time management
  • Decision-making
  • Presentation skills
  • Teamwork
  • Critical evaluation skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Learning outcomes will be met through workshops where students will exchange feedback, and engagement with the modules summative assessment.
  • The workshops will introduce students to a psychological approach in entrepreneurship and also entail participation in games and exercises that will help them to immerse in entrepreneurial ideation and decision-making under uncertainty.
  • The summative assessment will involve a written discussion that will test students ability to integrate theory and practice.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Workshops10weekly3 hours30Yes
Preparation and reading120 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: Individual EssayComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Essay2500 words100

Formative Assessment

Students will receive feedback on their seminar contributions and a group presentation, where students will also exchange feedback.

More information

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