Entrepreneurship Courses

Market Structure and Economic Performance

CAS EC 332 (4 credits)

Structure of the American economy. The theory of imperfect competition. Topics include firm concentration and conglomeration, consumer ignorance and market failure, and advertising and technological change as part of market performance. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.

2023FALLCASEC332 A1, Sep 6th to Dec 11th 2023

2024SPRGCASEC332 A1, Jan 22nd to May 1st 2024

Economics of Corporate Organization

CAS EC 436 (4 credits)

Economic analysis of the architecture of firms and other organizations. Topics include firm boundaries, the allocation of ownership and control, integration and outsourcing, corporate governance, performance evaluation, and compensation.

Media Business Entrepreneurship

COM FT 591 (4 credits)

We are living in the golden age of entrepreneurship. With the never-ending march of new technology and a global media marketplace constantly at our fingertips, there has never been a better time for media business entrepreneurship. Media Business Entrepreneurship (FT591) provides students with an inside look at how the world's leading media innovators are changing the way the world connects, shares information, and conducts business. Students will learn the skills and strategies needed to heed the call of entrepreneurship and take an idea from seed to fruition. Please join us if you are interested in learning about emerging distribution platforms, want to create new ways to inform and entertain, and maybe even have an idea you are interested in validating and bringing to market. Come create media's - and your own - future!

2023FALLCOMFT591 A1, Sep 8th to Dec 8th 2023

2024SPRGCOMFT591 A1, Jan 19th to Apr 26th 2024

Invention: Technology Creation, Protection, and Commercialization

ENG ME 502 (4 credits)

This course provides students with the knowledge and tools necessary to create, protect, and commercialize engineering and scientific intellectual assets. Students will first make use of creativity tools to attack posed engineering problems, then turn to means for protecting their solutions. Rapidly growing areas that are affecting nearly all businesses (e.g., software and the internet) as well as "high-tech" areas including microelectronics, communications, and bioengineering will be emphasized. Extensive patent searches and analysis will be carried out to develop skills for quickly ascertaining the protected technical content of patents, and for recognizing what intellectual property (IP) should be and can be protected. Legal aspects for protecting creative ideas will be studied at a level appropriate for engineers to interact easily and smoothly during their technical careers with IP lawyers. Various business models for the commercialization of intellectual assets will be analyzed. Extensive class exercises and projects will explore in depth all three of these important areas of IP, with emphasis on key contributions during engineering and scientific research and development activities.

2023FALLENGME502 A1, Sep 5th to Dec 12th 2023

2023FALLENGME502 DL, Sep 5th to Dec 12th 2023

Financing New Ventures

QST FE 455 (4 credits)

Students will be expected to have mastered key finance concepts including financial statement analysis, NPV, IRR and basic option pricing theory prior to entering the course. Introduction to financing sources for start-up firms, including angel funding, venture capital financing, boot-strapping, debt and other sources. Focus on capital structure analysis, capitalization tables, payoff diagrams, term sheets, equity incentives, cash flow projections and negotiating with investors. Students are expected to prepare case studies for class discussion and become familiar with current events in the financial news about start-up company financings.

2023FALLQSTFE455 A1, Sep 5th to Dec 12th 2023

2023FALLQSTFE455 B1, Sep 5th to Dec 12th 2023

2024SPRGQSTFE455 A1, Jan 18th to Apr 30th 2024

Leadership and Management of Social Enterprises

QST MO 356 (4 credits)

A well-managed social enterprise can translate idealism into action. It can help create a world that is more sustainable, more compassionate, and more just. This course will explore the distinctive aspects of launching, leading, and growing an enterprise -- nonprofit or for-profit -- whose primary goal is social impact. We will study mission, strategy, marketing, ethics, entrepreneurship, and scaling. We will learn that success for social enterprise is driven less by a compelling story or a charismatic advocate than by diligent management and insightful, ethical leadership. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Ethical Reasoning.

2023FALLQSTMO356 A1, Sep 6th to Dec 11th 2023

Family Business Management

QST SI 340 (4 credits)

This course explores the dynamic and complex world of family businesses across the globe. The course is primarily intended for students who have experience of a family business as well as students who are considering joining a family-owned enterprise or starting one. It counts toward the Innovation and Entrepreneurship minor and the Questrom Business minor. Family business historically represents a significant part of the U.S. economy and an even larger proportion of the global economy. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.

2023FALLQSTSI340 A1, Sep 5th to Dec 12th 2023

2023FALLQSTSI340 B1, Sep 5th to Dec 12th 2023

2024SPRGQSTSI340 A1, Jan 18th to Apr 30th 2024

Entrepreneurship: Solving Problems in a Dynamic World

QST SI 344 (4 credits)

This course addresses the principles, processes, and frameworks that are the underpinnings of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit. This is a hands-on, experiential learning course that integrates previous coursework into a coherent picture and gives the student an understanding of the way that entrepreneurship can drive change, achievement, and value creation in commercial, societal, and philanthropic domains. Students will also be able to understand how the entrepreneurial mindset can spur achievement and strengthen performance in a wide variety of careers and pursuits. Students have the opportunity to form an idea and drive it through the entrepreneurial process, gaining both practical and theoretical experience in the art and science of entrepreneurship. 4 cr.

2023FALLQSTSI344 A1, Sep 6th to Dec 11th 2023

2024SPRGQSTSI344 A1, Jan 18th to Apr 30th 2024

2024SPRGQSTSI344 B1, Jan 18th to Apr 25th 2024

Managing a Growing Enterprise

QST SI 445 (4 credits)

Designed to help students understand the intricacies of running a small company. The course addresses the major challenges in small companies, including valuation, negotiation, deal structure, personnel and compensation, and marketing and financing. Exposes students to a wide range of business activities, emphasizing significant differences between large and small enterprises. The course uses a competitive computer simulation to provide students with the opportunity to "run" their own business. Please click here to watch a 1 minute video overview of the course.

2024SPRGQSTSI445 A1, Jan 22nd to May 1st 2024

Intellectual Property Strategies

QST SI 464 (4 credits)

This course looks at how companies can best use intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets) to protect their proprietary ideas and investments in knowledge assets, shape competition, and realize value from innovation.

2023FALLQSTSI464 A1, Sep 6th to Dec 11th 2023

International Entrepreneurship

QST SI 471 (4 credits)

Designed for students who may at some point be interested in pursuing managerial careers in the international entrepreneurial sector, and covers the development of skills to identify, evaluate, start, and manage ventures that are international in scope. Over the course of the semester, the class "travels" to more than fifteen countries on five continents, and analyze operations at each stage of the entrepreneurial process. The course covers market entry, forming alliances, negotiations, managing growth, and cross-border financing. Support from local governments, and the cultural, ethical, legal, and human resource issues facing the entrepreneur is also covered. Please click here to watch a 1 minute video overview of the course.

2024SPRGQSTSI471 A1, Jan 22nd to May 1st 2024

The Business of Technology Innovation

QST SI 480 (4 credits)

Provides an introduction to entrepreneurship and business for the engineer. Topics include finding business ideas; recognizing good from bad; understanding the importance of business model; turning technology into a business, including what to sell and how to sell it; the role of engineering within a business; business financial statements; and startups and venture capital, including starting a company or joining a startup. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.

2023FALLQSTSI480 A1, Sep 11th to Dec 11th 2023

2023FALLQSTSI480 B1, Sep 8th to Dec 8th 2023

2023FALLQSTSI480 C1, Sep 8th to Dec 8th 2023

2024SPRGQSTSI480 A1, Jan 22nd to Apr 29th 2024

2024SPRGQSTSI480 B1, Jan 19th to Apr 26th 2024

2024SPRGQSTSI480 C1, Jan 24th to May 1st 2024

2024SPRGQSTSI480 D1, Jan 22nd to Apr 29th 2024

Strategy for Technology-Based Firms

QST SI 482 (4 credits)

Serves Questrom students concentrating in entrepreneurship or who are interested in high-technology sectors, and ENG students who have taken SI480. This interdisciplinary course covers technology life-cycles, the co-evolution of industries and technologies, strategies for commercialization of new technologies (appropriability, acquiring complementary assets and capabilities, managing technical teams, and impact of regulatory and other environmental factors on commercialization). Special emphasis is placed on joint learning and interdisciplinary teamwork by students across Engineering and Questrom.

2023FALLQSTSI482 A1, Sep 11th to Dec 11th 2023

2023FALLQSTSI482 C1, Sep 5th to Dec 12th 2023

2024SPRGQSTSI482 A1, Jan 22nd to Apr 29th 2024

2024SPRGQSTSI482 B1, Jan 23rd to Apr 30th 2024

Hospitality Entrepreneurship

SHA HF 307 (4 credits)

This course is intended to be a capstone experience for students seeking to understand hospitality entrepreneurship and innovation as a professional business system. Student teams will create, develop and design a concise Pro Forma Business Plan for a start-up non-profit or profit-driven hospitality enterprise. At the end of the semester teams will make a competitive presentation integrating the principles and skills mastered in previous coursework to a panel of successful hospitality entrepreneurs. 4cr. Offered Fall.

2023FALLSHAHF307 A1, Sep 6th to Dec 11th 2023