The purpose of this course is to introduce PhD-students to key theories and empirical findings regarding performance differences from entrepreneurship. It is located at the intersection of the entrepreneurship- and strategy literatures, where the strategy literature offers a general understanding of performance differences across firms, while the entrepreneurship literature contributes specifics for entrepreneurial firms and the entrepreneurial setting.
The course will start with general theories of competitiveness and performance differences. We will then examine the role of fundamental inputs such as the role of human capital and finance in the entrepreneurial firm, before we move on to address entrepreneurship and newer business models such as networks, platforms and ecosystems. The topic of platforms and ecosystems is to a considerable extent about relationships to outside the firm and forms a natural bridge to discuss sources of performance differences associated with a firm’s external environment. We’ll here expand our focus to both the close environment such as incubators and accelerators, but also the impact of the larger institutional environment the firm is borne into . In addition to all of this, we will also address entrepreneurship in established firms, and how this is both similar and different from entrepreneurship in new firms.