Second Major in Entrepreneurship

The Second Major in Entrepreneurship equips students with the fundamental entrepreneurship competency and enrich them with an entrepreneurial mindset to seize the opportunities from new technologies.

Students will be provided hands-on experience in technopreneurship through experiential learning approach and 20-week overseas or local internship. 

The Second Major will enable students to:

  • be equipped with the fundamental entrepreneurship competency and broaden their understanding in enterprise and innovation
  • be enriched with an entrepreneurial mindset to deal with uncertainties in VUCA world and be the drivers of technology innovation
  • gain hands-on experience in technopreneurship through experiential learning approach and 20-week local/overseas internship with startups, venture capital firms, and other entrepreneurship related organisations,
  • expand their network and be part of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and
  • seize the opportunities from new technologies and place special emphasis on technopreneurship

School of Humanities students with CGPA score of 4.0 and above are eligible for admission to the 2nd Major in Entrepreneurship (SMiE) at the end of their 1st Year of Study.


Academic Structure

Students need to complete 35 AUs from the selection below to graduate with a 2nd Major in Entrepreneurship

Compulsory Courses (12 AUs)

  • ET5211 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology Innovation (3 AUs) 
  • ET5212 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (3 AUs)
  • ET5213 Managing New Ventures (3 AUs) 
  • ET5214 Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures (3 AUs)

 

Elective Courses (At least 13 AUs)

  • ET5134 Enterprise Strategy (3 AUs)
  • ET5122 E-Startups & Social Media Strategies (3 AUs) 
  • BU5503 Innovation Marketing (3 AUs)
  • BU5302 Law of Intellectual Property & New Media (3 AUs)
  • ET5135 Business Venture Implementation (3 AUs)
  • ET5215 Entrepreneurial Business Development (3 AUs)
  • ET5216 Venture Capital Investment and Practices (4 AUs) 
  • ET5217 Design and Systems Thinking for Entrepreneurs (4 AUs)  
  • ET5218 Innovation and Commercialization of Technologies (3 AUs) 
  • AB0603 Social Entrepreneurship (3 AUs)

 

Compulsory Experiential Programme (10 AUs)

20 week internship with organisations, including startups, venture capital firms, entrepreneurship support organisations, and innovation setups in corporations.

  • **HB4089 Overseas Entrepreneurship Programme (OEP) (10 AUs)
  • **HB4059 Professional Internship (10 AUs)
  • *HB2089 Professional Attachment (5 AUs)
  • *HB5069 Professional Attachment (5 AUs)

**20 weeks internship - OEP (HB4089)/Professional Internship (HB4059) is 10AUs of which 5AU will be earned under Foundational Core and 5AU under BDE

*10 weeks internship - For students doing two 10 weeks internship, 5AU will be earned under HB2089 Professional Attachment (Foundational Core) and 5AU under HB5069 Professional Attachment (BDE)

 

ET5211 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology Innovation
3 AU | Pre-requisite: Nil

This course will provide the fundamental knowledge in entrepreneurship and innovation, with the special focus in training the students to develop the entrepreneurial mindset and exposing them to various technology innovation. Specific technology expertise will be brought to the classes to share their knowledge, real life experience, and industry insights.

Students will be trained to ask: what are the applications of the new technology, how to use it, who will find it useful, where are the main users, who will pay for it, how to commercialize it?

ET5212 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (3 AU)
3 AU | Pre-requisite: Nil

This course provides students with an understanding of the concepts, practices and tools of the entrepreneurial world through experiential projects, experiential activities, readings, and speakers. The most effective way to understand entrepreneurship is to talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and customers. This course takes a very experiential approach and students are expected to interact with the business community, potential customers, participate in class activities/discussion and be active participants in the learning process.

ET5213 Managing New Ventures (3 AU)
3 AU | Pre-requisite: Nil

This course aims to relate theoretical concepts of strategy and organization design with practical and execution issues in a growing enterprise context, and studies the key elements that propel scaling up as well as impede growth. Investors commonly look for sustainable and repeatable growth in an enterprise performance, and what differentiates a start-up from making it and falling by the way side.

ET5214 Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures
3 AU | Pre-requisite: ET9213

The course is not only relevant for would-be entrepreneurs, but also for those considering a career in commercial banks, investment banks, private equity firms, venture capital firms, as well as in corporate venture investments. This course differs from a typical corporate finance course in that it highlights the special and unique considerations when planning the financial needs of new ventures and young companies. Many typical avenues of funding (such as bank borrowing, issuing of bonds or issuing of liquid equities) for established or public listed companies are not accessible to small and young companies due to the lack of business track record. The analyses and requirements of investors who are considering providing finances to small and young companies may also be different from that of public equity investments. This course will provide students with the understanding of various aspects and processes in financial planning and financial management of new ventures or young companies, as well as investment analyses and considerations for investors providing funding to such companies.

ET5134 Enterprise Strategy
3 AUs | Co-requisite: ET9124

This is an immersive experiential learning module and a platform to let students experience the process of managing a business. Students are exposed to some of the major business decisions that entrepreneurs face when growing their ventures and competing with other companies in the same industry.

Students are grouped into teams to compete with one another. As students work through the organization's life cycle in the simulation, external forces and managerial dilemmas are added. Students will apply the various tools, case-studies and theories from previous modules as the new venture expands its operations and subsequently tackle new tasks, take on additional responsibilities and make difficult decisions.

ET5122 E-Startups & Social Media Strategies 
3 AUs | Pre-requisite: ET9124

This module aims to provide you with the essential knowledge on social media marketing, especially for start-ups. For this purpose, various social media tools that start-ups may explore will be introduced. The concept of social commerce will be covered. You will learn how to carry out strategic planning with social media. Topics such as social media metrics and social models and monetization will be covered to give a holistic understanding of social media marketing.

BU8503 Innovation Marketing 
3 AUs | Pre-requisite: Nil

In a rapidly changing, dynamic, uncertain and engaging world, which quite quickly renders various products and services obsolete or irrelevant and new opportunities and challenges arise, organizations need to continuously innovate and come out with new solutions. This is all the more pertinent and urgently needed in an increasingly connected world, where rapid technological innovations continue to proliferate our world and the digital revolution is fast impacting values demanded by customers, offerings by competitors and the way businesses are carried out and product/services are marketed.

The aim of this course is to enable students to learn practical skills and intellectual knowledge of how to market innovations, for sustainable success. This subject complements the suite of existing marketing and other business subjects that are offered by NBS. It provides yet another avenue for students interested to pursue their career with organisations engaged in innovations or who may wish to have their own start-ups.

BU5302 Law of Intellectual Property & New Media 
3 AUs | Pre-requisite: Nil

The knowledge-based economy is underpinned by laws which protect information assets, shapes transactions and provides security for the various interests of parties to electronic transactions. Topics covered include protection and management of intellectual property, validation and protection of electronic agreements, data security and privacy, cyber-crime and the laws that apply to virtual worlds. This course is designed to give an appreciation of the relationship between law and intellectual capital and new forms of media as well as how businesses work within the rules affecting the knowledge-based economy. The approaches to the subject will be both practical and critical.

ET5135 Business Venture Implementation
3 AUs | Pre-requisite: Nil

PART A: This module allows students to experience the critical role of opportunity creation & recognition, and to practice the method of evaluating new venture concepts. Essentially this course integrates what students have learned in earlier parts of the Entrepreneurship Minor. Throughout this module, students will be exposed to the many 'ups and downs' that starting and operating a new business venture and / or an under-performing or ‘turn-around company’ entails.

PART B: The objectives of the course are to cultivate the proactive mindset of the students to tap into the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore, to meet & mingle with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, business angels, government officers, and intellectual property lawyers. This will facilitate students to explore potential business ideas in forums where likeminded people meet. In addition, students will get to experience the importance of networking & professionalism.

ET5215 Entrepreneurial Business Development 
3 AUs | Pre-requisite: Nil

This course aims to introduce students to an overall framework of business development strategy, equip students with theories and tools to develop specific business development strategies, engage students in implementing the theories and tools and apply the knowledge gained in class to real-life business cases. This course focuses on strategic decisions which will have a long term impact on the organization.

The course enables students to discover how adopting entrepreneurial marketing thinking will help them to:
1)  Gain an understanding of the functional role of marketing in the wider context of a business and entrepreneurship setting.
2) Answer the crucial “What am I selling, to whom and why, and how can I be a market leader” question

3) Appreciate marketing from both a conceptual and entrepreneurial real-world application basis.

ET5216 Venture Capital Investment & Practices 
4 AUs | Pre-requisite: ET9213

This course trains students to understand how to value a startup, a corporate venture or a project. Emphasis is placed on developing a systematic framework in VC concepts and related techniques pertaining to venture capital investment as a profession. More specifically, the course helps the participants to develop an advanced level of skills on valuing a venture. The course also guides students in going through venture capital investment term sheets systematically, which covers important facets of the financing: economic issues such as the valuation given to the company (the higher the valuation, the less dilution to the entrepreneur); control issues such as the makeup of the Board of Directors and what sorts of approval or “veto” rights the investors will enjoy; and post-closing rights of the investors, such as the right to participate in future financings and rights to get periodic financial information.

The course also examines a number of real-life venture capital and private equity investment deals. Students will identify the best practices and draw lessons from actual cases to deepen their knowledge and skills in VC investment.
ET5217 Design and Systems Thinking for Entrepreneurs 

4 AUs | Pre-requisite: Nil

From high-tech electronic products to low-tech children’s toys, human-centered design leads to the creation of great products or services through a deep understanding of human needs. The key to any startup success is the quick and accurate identification of its customer base and the value to its target market. Design behaviors – collaboration, empathy towards others, prototyping new ideas, and continuous improvement – are important when delving into any new experience.
On another note, entrepreneurs spend most of the time interacting with all kinds of systems, which are often complex mixes of technology, people, and issues. Even in a simple system there can be a number of subtle cause-and-effects that we have to deal with if we want to change or improve things. Learning about systems thinking means learning about these behavioral properties and characteristics.

This course consists of two parts:
- Part A discusses the roles that innovation and design play in entrepreneurship, and specially design thinking and its application to developing new products, services and the organization of businesses are introduced; and

- Part B focuses on systems thinking, which enables entrepreneurs to develop, and take advantage of, the potential to a more holistic way of managing and growing startup teams, ventures, and the businesses.

ET5218 Innovation and Commercialization of Technologies
3 AUs | Pre-requisite: Nil

An integral component of the course is the exploitation and commercialization of technologies. The course provides a platform to examine trends and key issues in commercializing inventions and technological innovations. Participants need to understand the latest technological research and development, and identify technology commercialization possibilities. This course places emphasis on the successful transfer of technologies from a research environment for commercialization as successful & sustainable products or services to the global market, via a knowledge-based entrepreneurial wealth-creation process. In addition, the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be surveyed and examined.

AB0603 Social Entrepreneurship
3 AUs | Pre-requisite: Nil

Social entrepreneurship is a rapidly developing area in which entrepreneurs help solve social and environmental challenges otherwise ignored or missed by businesses and addressed predominately with donor-driven models by the nonprofit sector. This field includes “social intrapreneurship,” where employees in existing companies similarly are developing new income opportunities for their firms by addressing social and environmental challenges in a profitable, scalable manner. In this evolving social entrepreneurship landscape, the traditional lines blur among nonprofits, government, and business. Through use of case and class discussions, lectures, guest speakers, and a field project, students will understand the opportunities and challenges in this landscape. Students will learn what a social enterprise is and how it is the same as well as different from other types of business, problem/opportunity assessment, and the trade-offs between social and financial returns on investment.