EC 265 Syllabus

The Economics of Entrepreneurship

Fall, 2022

Dr. Kevin Klein

Office Phone: 245-3474 Text Messaging: 217-673-5241 E-mail: kklein@mail.ic.edu

web page: http://www.ic.edu/klein

Office: Kirby 238

Physical Office Hours: 11-12 MWF and by appointment. Stop by the office, if I'm there, I'm available.

Virtual Office Hours: 24-hours a day via e-mail.

Course Description

This course will apply insights from economic theory to the practice of starting a new business or expanding a current business. The course will combine elements of strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurial finance courses as typically faced by all businesses. The course begins by examining general issues regarding entrepreneurship, such as product inception and the search for markets that can support entrepreneurial profits. The next section turns to specific strategic decisions that entrepreneurs make: pricing, advertising, product location, deterring entry by competitors, etc. The last section examines practical issues in entrepreneurship, e.g. finding capital, business plans, patent protection, negotiation, and employee compensation. A series of entrepreneurs will provide guest lectures on their entrepreneurial experiences and advice. Open to all majors. Will count as an elective in the economics major.

Course Objectives

As you continue after graduation from Illinois College you will enter a world where you are creating new products, new methods of production, and new combinations of existing goods and services. You will make a difference in the world in ways that you are yet to discover. The primary objective of this course is to explore together the thought process every successful entrepreneur must traverse to develop and market a product or service. This could mean starting your own company or it could mean developing entrepreneurship within existing companies. Each situation will be unique but also have similarities. In this course, we will explore the common process that you can use to be successful in any entrepreneurial situation.

BluePrint

This course has been approved to qualify for both the WEE and SEE categories in the Illinois College BluePrint program.

Assigned Readings

• TITLE:Entrepreneurship

• AUTHOR: Robert D. Hisrich, Michael P. Peters, Dean A. Shepherd

• EDITION:10th

• COPYRIGHT YEAR:2017

• PUBLISHER:McGraw-Hill Contemporary Learning Series

• ISBN: 9780078112843

Performance Assessment in this Class

Approximately 90% of your course grade will be based on written assessment.

2. Speaker evaluations. (10 points each) Students are required to write a few paragraphs evaluating the guest speakers in the class. The number of speakers varies each semester but usually ranges between 8 and 12 speakers per semester. Evaluations received after two days of availability are valued at zero points.

3. Business Plan and Presentation - (400 points, 350 points for the plan, 50 points for the presentation and an additional 20 points for completing peer evaluations). You will pair up with at least one other person in the class, but no more than 4 students within a group, to develop a product and business plan. See this set of sample business plans for examples. You will be evaluated on this project on several basis.

• The written business plan. This business plan will be a group writing project and will be peer reviewed no less than three times and once by Dr. Klein, during the semester. Each review offers the group the opportunity to revise their document at different stages in the writing process. Click here for the grading rubric that will be used to assess your written business plan.

• A presentation of this plan. Each group's presentation should take approximately 20 - 25 minutes with an additional question and answer time period. The total presentation, including questions and answers, will last no more than 30 minutes. All members of the group are expected to share equally in the presentation time although specific components of the presentation should be assigned to specific members of the group. Click here for the presentation rubric that will be used to evaluate your presentation.

• A confidential evaluation of your business partner(s) (20 percent of each component is determined by your partners confidential evaluation). An additional 20 points is awarded for completing the evaluation.

• The class will provide peer reviews of your written work frequently throughout the writing process. You are also required, as a group, to visit the speech center to practice your business plan presentations prior to presenting to the entire class. Doing so constitutes 10% of the grade for the presentation. In addition, the class will vote to determine who will win the 'Entrepreneurship' prize at the semesters end.

The remaining 10% of your grade is based on oral presentations.

Students in this course will have two activities that result in meeting the SEE BluePrint requirements.

Article Presentations: (20 points) You will be assigned articles (that everyone summarizes) to present to the class. In this presentation you will be tasked with presenting the article to the class and then helping to lead the class discussion. Each presentation must last at least 10 minutes. Because of the large number of students in class, and the limited number of articles, you are required to make only one article presentation.

In addition, each student participates in the group presentation of the business plan. See business plan and presentation above.

Grades will be based upon this grading system:

A 93%+

A- 90%+

B+ 87%+

B 83%+

B- 80%+

C+ 77%+

C 73%+

C- 70%+

D+ 67%+

D 63%+

D- 60%+

F 0+

The policies of the Illinois College Student Honor Code will be enforced in this course. It is the student’s responsibility to understand the details of this honor code and the consequences of violating the code. Click here for more information on the Illinois College Student Honor Code.

Professional Dispositions

Professional behavior is expected of all in the classroom. Professional conduct means the kind of behavior that would be expected from a professional employee attending a workplace meeting. This includes preparing beforehand, arriving on time with all materials and actively participating during the session. Some examples of unprofessional conduct in class include working on other classes’ work, sleeping, arriving late, leaving the room during class, texting or checking messages, or engaging in side conversations. You are expected to be courteous and thoughtful of classmates, visitors, and faculty. Success in life is, in part, a result of approaching situations professionally. The Economics, Accounting, and Finance department wants to begin you on your professional path by establishing professional expectations. Most of these policies can be summarized in a short phrase. Treat others with respect. Students demonstrating a failure to follow the good professional practices listed here will, without notice, have attendance points for that day removed.

Policy for Missed Assignments

The specific due dates of exams, article summaries, and business plans are listed on the on-line calendar. Make-up assignments are not possible in this class. Your written work in this class will be submitted both electronically along with printed copies in class. The official submission stamp is the time stamp on the e-mail in which you submitted the work electronically. That stamp must read a time before the beginning of class on the day the work is due. A penalty of 10% per 24 hour time period is assessed for all late work.

Attendance and Class Participation

Two (2) attendance points are given for each day attendance is taken in class. Those points are awarded to individuals based upon the professional disposition listed above. More importantly there is generally a direct relationship between attendance and final course grades. With this in mind, regular attendance is encouraged.

Center for Academic Excellence

The Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) is located on the 3rd floor of Schewe Library. The Center is your academic partner on campus and provides services to help you meet your academic goals. Services include 1-on-1 coaching and advising, tutoring, and study skills development. Services are free of charge and open to all students. To make an appointment call 217-245-3575 or stop by the Center 8am-5pm Monday through Friday.

Transfer students

If you are a recent transfer student and are unfamiliar with any language or policies in this syllabus that are unique to Illinois College, or otherwise have questions or concerns that are unclear in your transition to the institution, please don't hesitate to approach me after class or during office hours.

Cell Phone and Computer Usage

See professional disposition above.

Coping with College and Life Stress

Emotional Stress:

During the semester, if you find that life stressors are interfering with your academic or personal success, consider contacting Templeton Counseling Center. All services are free and confidential. Templeton Counseling Center is located on the 3rd Floor of the Bruner Fitness and Recreation Center and can be contacted by phone (x3073) or email renee.overton@mail.ic.edu.

A Friend in Distress:

Contact Templeton Counseling Center or The Student of Concern Committee case manager (Alicia Gatti: alicia.gatti@mail.ic.edu; x3774). All contacts are confidential. Referrals can also be made anonymously via a Behavioral Incident Referral form on line at www.ic.edu/studentofconcerncommittee

Student Disability Services

It is the policy and practice of Illinois College to make reasonable accommodations for students with properly documented disabilities. In order to receive disability-based academic accommodations, a student must self-identify and register in person with the Illinois College Office of Disability Services. Late notification may cause the requested accommodations to be unavailable. All accommodations must be approved through the Office of Disability Services located on the third floor of Bruner Fitness and Recreation Center. Phone: (217) 245-3774.

Please do this as early as possible. Getting an academic accommodation after midterms may help for the second half of the semester, but you won’t be able to re-do all assignments and tests from the first half of the semester!

See on-line calendar for specific dates and assignments.