Global Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Catalog description

This course is a 2-week immersive summer program (typically during the second half of May) that examines global entrepreneurial ecosystems. The program will foster an exploration of concepts related to entrepreneurial ecosystems, social innovation, sustainability, and global entrepreneurial business. Students will learn from international business school networks, entrepreneurial support organizations, venture capital firms, and social impact investing firms, while visiting several businesses that have developed out of support from these networks. Through it all, students will explore the role of global entrepreneurial ecosystems in building opportunity structures for innovation, while addressing key development milestones and sustainability goals. The program typically splits time between two locations. The first half of the experience begins with an introduction to various key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem within a chosen country and/or region. Students will learn directly from entrepreneurial support organizations and funding support organizations that are at the forefront of catalyzing business innovation. The second stage of the program will have students visit business projects that have been incubated by a collaborative network of global ecosystem partners, with a focus on the connection between entrepreneurial networks in the region as a case example. Students will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the unique cultures and customs of the country through visits to markets and sites of interest. This course includes service-learning and counts towards the NTC service-learning requirement. Students should contact the professor of record for more details on the specific countries that will be visited before registering for the course.