Entrepreneurship and Innovation – (M.Sc.)

Innovation and entrepreneurship are key drivers for the economic growth of countries, industries, companies and new firms. Future managers need to deal with the challenges of innovation, entrepreneurship in the intersection of management, organisation and markets. This program aims to bring theoretical understanding as well as practical skills to handle different problems and opportunities related to business-driven innovation and entrepreneurship. The program is a two-year master program with four main parts. Thus, each semester is devoted a special theme. They are, in order of appearance: Entrepreneurship; Context of entrepreneurship and innovation; Innovation; and Master’s thesis/project.

The first semester of the first year is devoted to entrepreneurship, in particular understanding and analyzing how entrepreneurs, in a small company perspective, recognize opportunities, get engaged in businesses and how these and related processes could be managed. It will also emphasize the understanding of creativity for individuals and teams, including idea generation and development tools, as well as relevant research methods.

During the second semester of the first year, students will be introduced to topics that apply both to entrepreneurship and to innovation, such as Sustainability; Project management; ICT (Information and Communication Technologies); Analysis of innovative regions; and Research methods. These topics relate both to the subjects of entrepreneurship and of innovation, and will also bridge the two main subjects and connect the two fall semesters, year one and year two.

In second year, first semester, focus is on matters of innovation; how companies innovate as well as why. This part will cover issues such as innovation management, open innovation, user innovation, and business innovation; yet will also handle topics such as strategy and marketing.

For the last semester of the program, students make a choice between two different tracks. The first track takes on entrepreneurship and business creation working closely with BTH’s incubator system. Here, focus is on issues concerning the creation and management of new businesses and work is concentrated to the development of business plans and a ‘live’ case of creating a new business. For the second track, focus is on analytical and research skills concerning either entrepreneurship or innovation. Here, studies will for instance go deeper into issues concerning innovation processes both within the organization and the eco-systems or the innovation system they are a part of. The two tracks finish the program, with a thesis either in the form of a comprehensive business plan (track 1) or as a piece of academic research (track 2).

Learning outcomes
In addition to the aims regulated nationally, to be found in section 8, the following aims have been set for the program.
On completion of the program the student will:

* be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of the fundamental concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation
* be able to analyze entrepreneurial and innovation challenges of smaller-, medium-, and larger-sized organizations
* be able to incorporate different strategic and managerial perspectives of issues of innovation into business development processes, including open innovation, user innovation and business innovation
* be able to master tools for creativity, business creation and innovation
* make independent analyses and judgments of complex situations in a business context
* be able to evaluate and undertake research or in-depth studies into matters of entrepreneurship and innovation
* be able to understand and analyze issues of entrepreneurship and innovation from a regional and national economics perspective
* be able to demonstrate an understanding of the need to involve or consider issues of: sustainability, project management and ICT in relation to entrepreneurship and innovation
* be able to effectively search, collect and analyse data and information from different sources

Job Profiles
Would you like to make a difference? Are you prepared to take the next step towards gaining the knowledge you need to make this happen and for your career? Then this 2 year Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovations is for you!

This two-year Master gives you an in-depth yet comprehensive understanding of the activities and processes in entrepreneurship and innovation, such as: creativity, strategy, management, commercialization, and more. The aim is to set you up for a future career in an international arena, be it in your own start-up business or a global enterprise.

We don’t try and hide the fact that the program will place heavy demands on your abilities. Firstly, we will keep a high pace of learning in order to make the most of the time you invest in the program. Secondly, we are not afraid to challenge you, on the contrary, we affirm the real complexity by constantly initiating and developing dialogues with both researchers and companies. This, we believe, will prepare you for the reality in the challenging role as top managers, experts in your own business or highly specialized researchers.

On the other hand, we will take good care of you. In this program we take only a limited number of students, so as to be able to provide individual attention to you throughout the program. This includes having access to businesses, mentorship, study and living environment priority. The teachers in the program are all active as researchers or practitioners, ensuring not only a solid knowledge background but an informed understanding. In addition, many projects in the program are in direct collaboration with ongoing research and/or projects in companies.

Those of you who are lucky enough to be accepted will also be welcomed by a fantastic learning environment. The BTH campus is a newly built campus beautifully situated on the Baltic sea. BTH is also home to several world leading researchers creating an international environment that stimulates knowledge and encourages success.