Entrepreneurship (ESP)

ESP 101. Entrepreneurship Foundations. (1)

This sprint course will provide a hands-on approach to understanding entrepreneurship in start-up, social, and corporate settings. The course will analyze and investigate the current trends and opportunities in entrepreneurship. Students will meet with and learn from successful entrepreneurs about their lives and work as entrepreneurs. The course will focus on the skills and tactics necessary to succeed in various entrepreneurial settings, and discuss how students can apply these skills to their personal and professional passions and interests. By collaborating with like-minded peers and award winning faculty, students will learn what it takes to turn "possibilities" into "probabilities". Credit/no credit only.

ESP 102. Entrepreneurial Immersion: From Idea to Opportunity. (1; maximum 2)

This hands-on experience immerses students in the early stages of the entrepreneurial process. In a one weekend fast-paced environment, students develop ideas, build teams and discover insights. Over the course of the weekend, students pitch their concepts, ideas and solutions to real investors and practitioners who will provide mentorship, coaching and feedback. The course is designed to integrate creative thinking, critical thinking, problem solving and leadership skills in an environment similar to the business world. Students get a real world understanding of how to succeed in any venture.

ESP 103. Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking. (2)

This course prepares students to understand and address two pressing issues in business today: how to recognize and create new business opportunities and how to think more creatively within business environments. Students will be introduced to a number of tools, concepts and approaches including human-centered design, ideation techniques, the importance of embracing ambiguity, personal responsibility and the place of risk and fail in entrepreneurship, creativity and life. The class is highly interactive and experiential. EL.
Co-requisites: BUS 101, BUS 102, and BUS 104.

ESP 152. International Entrepreneurial Creativity & Innovation Bootcamp. (1)

This Prodesse Scholars Interdisciplinary Creativity & Innovation Experience explores creativity with an international twist. Miami University Entrepreneurship Department is the home of World Creativity & Innovation Week and World Creativity & Innovation Day. Students in this class will connect with creativity experts and students from around the world. This three-day immersive weekend workshop includes lots of hands-on work to practice the mindsets, toolsets, and skillsets that will improve student’s lives and careers. Students will develop ideas, build teams, discover insights, and create innovative solutions. Over the course of the weekend, students share their concepts, ideas, and solutions with international students, innovators, entrepreneurs, and practitioners who will provide mentorship, coaching, and feedback. Students get a real-world understanding of how to succeed in any venture. Students will work on teams to identify opportunities for improving one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Student’s final projects will be shared with WCIW’s international audience on multiple social media platforms.

ESP 177. Independent Studies. (0-6; maximum 10)

ESP 201. Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Business Models. (3)

Topics include requirements and challenges of successful entrepreneurship, characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, the life cycle stages of a business, careers and opportunities for entrepreneurship. Pre-/Co-requisite: ESP 101.

ESP 251. Entrepreneurial Value Creation and Capture. (3)

In this class, students will focus on the marketing and financial issues confronting entrepreneurial venture. This course looks at the challenges entrepreneurs face in attempting to start, grow and build ventures, specifically aspects related to customer acquisition, customer retention, and capital resources. Students are exposed to tools, concepts, and approaches related to marketing and financial operations of entrepreneurial ventures with emphasis on the application of this material using a series of real-world cases and examples. Class environment is highly interactive and experiential.
Prerequisite or Co-requisite: ESP 101.

ESP 252. Entrepreneurial Mindset: Creativity and Organization. (3)

In this class, students will learn concepts of leadership and creativity as it relates to the organization of entrepreneurial ventures. Students will learn the role of creative thinking and leadership models in the growth of entrepreneurial organizations. In both parts of the class, the environment is highly interactive and experiential.
Prerequisite or Co-requisite: ESP 101.

ESP 277. Independent Studies. (0-6; maximum 10)

ESP 321. Startup Entrepreneurship. (3)

This course is structured using an agile scrum project management approach favored by many high-tech startups in which tasks are completed in short "sprints.". In this course students will learn digital marketing and analytics strategies and techniques including landing page development, A/B testing and Google analytics. Be prepared to learn on the fly, test and iterate, and spend out-of-class time completing project sprints.
Prerequisite: ESP 201 or approval from academic advisor.

ESP 331. Social Entrepreneurship. (3)

This course introduces students to the opportunities and challenges associated with building and growing enterprises that are both self-sustaining and focused on a social mission. Students will engage in an experiential learning process with others to develop a better understanding of the domain of social entrepreneurship including the development, measurement and assessment of various social enterprises.

ESP 340. Internship. (0-20)

Available to Farmer School of Business (FSB) majors and minors. Available for 0 credit hour during spring, summer and fall terms. Available for 1 credit hour during summer terms only. For one hour of credit, student must secure a sponsoring FSB faculty member within his/her major or minor to supervise the internship and accompanying required internship reflection paper. ESP 340 is not available during winter term. Students are to work through their respective academic departments to enroll in the course. Credit/no credit only. Note: FSB students may earn a maximum 2 credit hours toward graduation for ACC/BLS/BUS/ECO/ESP/FIN/ISA/MGT/MKT 340.
Prerequisite: 55 earned hours and permission of department.

ESP 341. Corporate Entrepreneurship. (3)

This course focuses on the value and use of entrepreneurial thinking and behavior in large, corporate and/or public organizations. Students will examine both the benefits and challenges of acting like an entrepreneur when they may not be the owner or CEO of the organization, or be a part of a much larger, complex organization. These concepts are introduced through research, cases and conversations with successful intrapraneurs.

ESP 351. Creativity in Entrepreneurship. (3)

This course will explore the application of creative thinking in addressing business opportunities and problems, especially within an entrepreneurial context. The course takes a systematic approach to creating, evaluating, refining and selling breakthrough ideas. Students will be exposed to a number of techniques, concepts and methods useful in managing the creative process in individual and group contexts with emphasis on accountability for creative quality. Class is highly interactive and experiential. This is the first of three courses as part of the Creativity Track within the Entrepreneurship Curriculum.

ESP 377. Independent Studies. (0-6; maximum 10)

ESP 394. Applied Entrepreneurship: Workforce Preparation. (3)

This course immerses students in the mindsets and practices of workplace excellence. The class focuses on three entrepreneurial concepts: critical workplace soft skills, how to use the creative/innovative mindset as an entry level employee and important technical skills. The course is designed to improve decision making, critical thinking, problem solving and leadership skills in preparation for The Altman Internship Summer Experience.
Prerequisites: ESP 101, ESP 201, ESP 251, and ESP 252.
Prerequisite or Co-requisite: ESP 321, ESP 331, ESP 341, or ESP 351.

ESP 401/ESP 501. Entrepreneurship: New Ventures. (3)

This course examines the venture creation process within a startup ecosystem. ESP 401/ESP 501 explores a variety of issues surrounding new venture creation, including how to recognize and assess an opportunity, the process and steps in starting a new venture, the financials of the new business, determining and acquiring resource needs, marketing requirements, deal structure and exit strategy, technology issues, legal and ethical issues and creating a written business plan in support of the new venture. Small teams are formed to work on a new business venture, which is presented in an oral presentation and written business model. SC.

ESP 432. Leading the Integration of Faith and Entrepreneurship (L.I.F.E.). (3)

This course explores the growing movement of integrating faith into entrepreneurial ventures, including investors, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem participants. The course will provide students an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of integrating faith and entrepreneurship, regardless of their own views on the topic. The integration of faith and entrepreneurship builds on the emerging trends in society and highlights the importance of faith as a critical but underrepresented element of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

ESP 444/ESP 544. Entrepreneurship: Venture Capital Immersion. (3)

The Venture Capital Immersion course is designed to provide you with a realistic understanding of the methods and approaches used by institutional investors to evaluate new businesses (startups) and high growth companies and to develop and negotiate investment terms. The prospect of raising outside capital is a consideration for many new business ventures at some point in order to grow and scale the company. The Venture Capital Immersion course focuses specifically on one such sources of outside capital: institutional investment from venture capital firms (angel group, venture capital, or private equity). It simulates what venture investors experience as a member of an institutional investment firm.

ESP 461. Entrepreneurial Consulting. (3)

Student teams apply a problem-solving methodology by consulting with selected entrepreneurial organizations that have requested assistance. Each selected company will have a wide range of entrepreneurial challenges crossing the fields of finance, marketing, accounting, production, human resources, information systems, strategic and tactical planning, growth or down-sizing problems, procurement issues, inventory control, quality control and forecasting. Through this consulting experience, students learn to integrate and apply their business knowledge to "real-world" settings and to test their analytical skills by solving complex entrepreneurial business problems. SC.

ESP 477. Independent Studies. (0-6; maximum 10)

ESP 481. Technology, Products & Ventures. (3)

An interdisciplinary perspective on the interfaces between new product development, innovation, and technology. Examines product development capability as an essential element of successful business strategy and a key component of an "entrepreneurial mindset." Students develop a working prototype for a new product and a comprehensive new product plan.

ESP 490. Special Topics in Entrepreneurship. (1-3; maximum 6)

Issue oriented seminar for juniors or seniors focusing on a contemporary topic related to the rewards, requirements and challenges associated with entrepreneurship in different environments.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

ESP 651. Creativity, Innovation and the Entrepreneurial Mindset. (3)

Applied Entrepreneurial Mindset: Creativity & Innovation is designed to provide students with a practical understanding of the foundations of creativity in business. The ability to imagine something new, leading to the creation of new realities and possibilities that advance current practice in our classrooms, businesses, organizations and lives in new and innovative ways is an essential skill set needed in the 21st century. The course explores Design Thinking/Human Centered Design as the central focus of providing tools and techniques to solve problems. This course investigates creativity and innovation frameworks to identify and assess potentially valuable problem/solution opportunities/ideas, to evaluate the feasibility and attractiveness of those ideas. This course considers personal creative styles along with personal growth techniques. The goal is to help students apply creativity, innovation and the entrepreneurial mindset to meet the challenges of everyday life. Students finish the course with their own creativity framework and a personal creativity manifesto to propel their careers, lives and ventures.

ESP 652. Applied Entrepreneurial Mindset: Creativity & Innovation. (1.5)

Applied Entrepreneurial Mindset: Creativity & Innovation is designed to provide students with a practical understanding of the foundations of creativity in business. The ability to imagine something new, leading to the creation of new realities and possibilities that advance current practice in our classrooms, businesses, organizations and lives in new and innovative ways is an essential skill set needed in the 21st century.The course explores Design Thinking/Human Centered Design as the central focus of providing tools and techniques to solve problems. This course investigates creativity and innovation frameworks to identify and assess potentially valuable problem/solution opportunities/ideas, to evaluate the feasibility and attractiveness of those ideas. This course considers personal creative styles along with personal growth techniques. The goal is to help students apply creativity, innovation and the entrepreneurial mindset to meet the challenges of everyday life. Students finish the course with their own creativity framework and a personal creativity manifesto to propel their careers, lives and ventures.

ESP 670. Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Business Models. (3)

Introduction to Entrepreneurship will explore entrepreneurship, its importance to our society, and its role in bringing new ideas to the market both product-based ideas and service-based ideas.

ESP 677. Independent Studies. (0-6; maximum 10)