Course Description
Do you know what makes an idea a viable opportunity, one worth the investment of an entrepreneur's time and money? This course uses theory from psychology and marketing, along with knowledge on industries and markets, to help us understand what makes a concept attractive. The skills developed in this course precede those needed to write a business plan as they focus on understanding problems
- Instructor: David Forlani
- Sample Syllabus
- 3.0 Credit Hour Course (16 Weeks)
- Online Course Offering
- Offered Spring Semester
Overview
This course will help you assess the viability of new business concepts—those in the very early stages of development. Using theory from the social sciences and building on marketing concepts, the course provides ways of thinking about new business ideas and tools for understanding and evaluating markets and industries.
Concept viability is a function of market demand—what the new venture seeks to satisfy, and differential advantage—how the venture will perform in a competitive industry. We will explore in some detail the nature of concepts and consider them in terms of their value to users and adoptability by competitors. As markets and industries are often confused let me make this distinction now--markets are groups of users who consume an industry’s outputs. More specifically, industries are generally comprised of firms that provide products (goods, services and ideas) consumed by markets, while markets are comprised of consumers (like you and me), firms and/or government agencies.