Case Study Seminar in Managing business models, growth, and disruption

How, when, and why do firms grow and innovate? Why do they use certain revenue models but not others? What are the implications of focusing on only certain revenue streams? How do firms innovate their businesses without coming up with technlogical innovations? And how shall we expect that to change in the future? Is there anything we can learn about firms of the past— irrespective if they are real or fictional—that will help us design better business models to solve the problems of today, or leverage future opportunities such as the Internet of Things, Blockchain, robotics, artificial intelligence, and so on? This lecture introduces students to theories of business model, firm growth, and disruptive innovation as well as their relevance to practice. Based on key readings in strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation, newspaper and magazine articles, and case studies, students will learn about why and how business model innovations happen and how firms grow, use that knowledge to analyze firms and industries and showcase their versatility in dissecting firms in a poster competition. As a consequence, this lecture will equip students with a thorough understanding of why firms innovate and grow, are run the way they are run, and how they may change – or not – in the future. Hence, students will be able to comment and analyze on existing business models and ideally capable of becoming innovative business model designers. Hence, topics include, but are not limited to: - What is (not) a business model (innovation)? - What do we mean by value creation and value capture? - The role of industry, strategy, and organization structure for firm growth - Theoretical approaches that explain business model innovation and firm growth - When and why is disruptive disruptive? - Innovation and growth management as search - Imprinting and path dependency - Disruption by/for start-ups vs. established firms - Growing organizations and their challenges - Open business models

Knowledge-related outcomes Upon completion of this module, students will be able to: - Define, explain, and apply in practice key theories related to business models, growth, and disruptive innovation - Interpret, classify, and assess the conduct and performance of any entrepreneurial firm - Describe, compare, and appraise different existing business model solutions for a given situation - Distinguish the newly learned theories of business models, firm growth, and disruption from previously learned perspectives - Evaluate how environmental change may affect existing business models and theories - Compose new business models Skill-related outcomes - Improve diagnostic and analytical skills (i.e., structured problem-solving) - Build up critical thinking and interpretation skills - Enhance verbal and argumentation skills via presentations and group discussions

This module is examined via exercises (“Übungsleistung”), using four elements to assess the different learning goals of this course. - Oral, individual: 50%. For each session of class, you will be given in advance a set of question to prepare. We will assess your contributions to solving these question in class to see whether you can define, explain, and apply key elements of the subject matter (discussion of readings); describe, compare, and appraise business model innovations and firm growth for a given situation (teaching case study discussions); and design new business models and/or develop a growth strategy (exercises). Students do not have to be active or even present in every session to achieve full marks; given to be defined circumstances and instructor permission, students may also submit written solutions prior to class as a basis of grading - Written, individual: 10%. At the end of the course, you will submit an individual reflection paper, highlighting one key learning in this course, so as to show that you can distinguish the newly learned theories of organizations from previously learned perspectives - Written, collective: 20%. As a group, you assess a firm to showcase that you can interpret, classify, and assess the conduct and performance of any firm - Oral, collective: 20%: Drawing on the same firm as for the group paper, you will create a poster presentation to highlight the viability of that business model design for the future, to show that you can evaluate how environmental change may affect existing business model designs and theories

English. Given the highly interactive nature of the module (entirely in English), students should feel comfortable expressing their opinion and interacting in English. Therefore very good written and spoken English language skills are required. While there are no formal perquisites to attend this course, we very strongly recommend that you have previously attended an introductory course on entrepreneurship (such as "Introduction to Entrepreneurship") and/or strategy/innovation (such as "Introduction to Strategic and/or Innovation Management”). These introductory courses should have given you some first insights into what business models are, how firms grow, and why innovation is so important. Understanding of the start-up scene, its terminology, and the strategic meaning of entrepreneurship to the economy, will be similarly helpful; courses on HR, marketing, or finance most likely not. While we will not block you from joining the course per se, we want to clearly point out that we will not go back to re- explain some of the first principles taught in such courses, but we will assume that you know them, or freshen up on them on your own time.

The largest share of this course will be co-developed by the course participants and the instructor(s) through discussions of course materials and newspaper articles, as well as short presentation. In such sessions, the lecturer(s) will help facilitate and guide the course discussion by taking notes on whiteboards. Students are strongly encouraged to take notes, to facilitate cumulative learning across sessions of class, which will also be faciliated by the instructure. Specific topics and definitions may be presented using PowerPoint slides. We will frequently use the hall in the Entrepreneurship Center for exercises, in which students will apply and inductively further develop content. Finally, a large share of learning will occur through students preparing individually and in groups for the in-class session. Techniques to do so will be introduced in the first session of class. Information on what materials to prepare will be provided for each course session.