Assignment:
In this course, we have reviewed many different theories and case examples of innovation and/or entrepreneurship. The final exam is intended to highlight and integrate themes for both subjects.
1. Innovation. In his book on Mapping Innovation, Greg Satell analyzed four different types of innovation, from incremental sustainable or disruptive to breakthrough problem solving. But the future poses undefined problems and solutions. Fannin reviews the innovations by Asian startups in a variety of media, energy, and material sectors. Goldsberry describes the growth of medicinal and/or recreational marijuana to legally offer new ingredient solutions.
Your question is to identify and briefly analyze one type of innovation that will change the future development of societies. What do you think will be the most significant innovation in the next 5 years? How can this type of innovation be encouraged and pursued at a big scale?
2. Entrepreneurship. The iterative process of entrepreneurship involves creating a brand new venture and learning to combine new resources to pursue opportunities. Although many new ventures will likely fail in their early stages, the creative process can still mobilize more resources and provide learning opportunities from those experiences. There are conflicting models for entrepreneurs to either fail fast by "lean" entrepreneurship, or else to be more incremental with formal business plans to slowly build new build ventures for customers. Meyer and Crane propose a more gradual approach to strategically plan a new business that is sustainable, with sufficient financial resources and cash-flows to grow and survive.
Your assignment is to briefly analyze which approach to entrepreneurship is better to create more new ventures. Use your own business plan, or another current example, to explain which model of entrepreneurship will be more successful. What public policies (e.g. funding, incubators) would you recommend to foster more new ventures by entrepreneurs?
Your essay question answers should be two (2) pages long, typed, and due by May 3rd in my campus mail box (Turner 204), or by email through campus mail.