Course Schedule

Start > Leuphana Bachelor (B.A./B.Eng./B.Sc./LL.B.) -> Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship -> Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

Lehrveranstaltungen

Perspectives on Entrepreneurship (Vorlesung/Übung)

Dozent/in: Michael Gielnik, Elke Schüßler

Inhalt: The course covers theories and methods to understand the entrepreneurial process from psychological, organizational, and societal perspectives. Entrepreneurship is a process encompassing opportunity identification, development, and exploitation. The psychological perspective provides insights into individual entrepreneurial success factors. It covers psychological concepts like personal initiative, human capital (prior knowledge and creativity), bricolage, effectuation, action planning, and financial bootstrapping to understand successful action along the entrepreneurial process. The organizational perspective introduces organizational contexts relevant for entrepreneurship such as entrepreneurial ecosystems and networks, as well as various organized spaces and events that foster entrepreneurial activities. An organizational perspective allows discussing the social structures and practices that shape entrepreneurial activities. In addition, it elaborates on the role of intrapreneurship as a driver of change in established organizational settings. The societal perspective introduces different forms of entrepreneurship such as social, institutional or cultural entrepreneurship to shed light on how societal norms and values shape entrepreneurial activities, and how entrepreneurship in turn can address various social challenges. It hereby also sheds light on the political economy and geography of entrepreneurship, which varies across countries and regions.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Cultural Entrepreneurship (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Laura Fey

Inhalt: This is a bi-weekly undergraduate seminar that provides an overview of cultural entrepreneurship and introduces students to fundamental questions and approaches to the study of creating and legitimizing cultural organizations. Cultural entrepreneurship is a set of approaches for understanding entrepreneurial action that is based on similar cultural processes. Culture is at the foundation of entrepreneurship in two ways, a) entrepreneurs create and form organizations based on culture (culture as resource) and b) the legitimization and survival of organizations are based on the evaluation by audiences like society. Cultural entrepreneurship is an active and fast-developing area of research in the social sciences, with challenges and opportunities for organizations as well as society. This course is broad and aims to give students an overview of cultural entrepreneurship by encouraging them to apply theoretical and empirical ideas to their own lives. Each introduced idea should be examined with the following questions in mind: how do I understand the topic for myself? How does it matter for my own life and my friends? what is/are the overarching question(s) with which the idea is concerned? What are the key concepts? What are the assumptions about causal forces? How far is the empirical evidence convincing? A sub-theme that you should consider is why some ideas seem to convince you more than others. That is, pay attention to the crafting and composition of ideas from YouTube videos to academic papers. Lastly, this course is about reflecting on your experiences and to formulate your own research questions and perspectives.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Community Entrepreneurship - Group 1 (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Steffen Farny

Inhalt: This seminar explores the intersection of entrepreneurship and societal impact through community roles in entrepreneurial activities. The course is structured around the "Comprehensive Framework of Community Roles" by Bacq et al. (2022), examining how different types of community engagement influence entrepreneurship. The seminar employs a mix of academic literature and self-recorded podcasts with case examples to provide practical insights into community entrepreneurship. It encourages critical engagement and collaborative discussion. Students are expected to bring their insights, challenge ideas, and actively participate in shaping the learning experience. Course Materials • Required readings will be provided via the course portal. • Self-recorded podcasts and case studies will be available for each session. • Additional recommended readings and videos will be announced.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Community Entrepreneurship - Group 2 (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Steffen Farny

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Degrowth by Design: Rethinking Digital Innovation (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Sara Elsa Maj Dahlman

Termin:
14-täglich | Mittwoch | 14:15 - 17:45 | 06.04.2026 - 10.07.2026 | C 40.220 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Can entrepreneurship thrive without endless growth? This course challenges conventional assumptions about innovation, technology, and success in the digital age. As the limits of our planet increasingly collide with the imperatives of growth, we turn to degrowth, an emerging framework that prioritizes ecological sustainability, social justice, and human wellbeing over profit and optimization, and ask what it means to design digital technology from this starting point. Students will critically examine the environmental and social contradictions of digitalization, while exploring concrete alternatives: convivial technologies, platform cooperatives, digital commons, and social justice approaches to innovation. Through lectures, discussions, and hands-on workshops, we develop both the critical vocabulary and the practical tools to reimagine digital technologies that operate within ecological limits and create genuine social value. Alongside the theoretical work, students will move through a guided redesign process across the course. Working in small teams, you will select an existing digital technology, assess it against the values and frameworks introduced in the course, and produce a redesign proposal grounded in one of four design orientations: digital commons, platform cooperativism, digital degrowth, or design justice. The goal is not a market-ready product but a critically grounded proposal — one that asks what entrepreneurial success could look like when growth and profit is no longer the measure of it.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Digital and platform entrepreneurship (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Stefanie Habersang

Termin:
14-täglich | Montag | 08:15 - 11:45 | 13.04.2026 - 06.07.2026 | C 14.103 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The emergence of digital technologies, digital platforms and digital infrastructures has transformed innovation and entrepreneurship significantly. Beyond simply opening new opportunities for (corporate) entrepreneurs, digital technologies have broader implications for value creation and value capture. Studies have shown how digital technologies fuel new forms of entrepreneurial initiatives that cross traditional industry/sectoral boundaries, embrace networks, ecosystems, and communities, integrate digital and non-digital assets, and accelerate the inception, scaling and evolution of new ventures. Studies have also documented the ways by which established large companies engage in forms of corporate entrepreneurship to redefine themselves and radically restructure their innovation strategies and practices to respond to digitization. It is undeniable that new digital technologies transform the nature of uncertainty inherent in entrepreneurship thereby, encouraging a radical rethink of how individuals, organizations, and collectives pursue creative endeavors. Importantly, digitization of innovation and entrepreneurship holds implications at a broader regional/national and societal levels with the potential to inform policy making entities and other stakeholders. Studies have indicated how digitization can translate into innovation productivity gains, increased regional entrepreneurial activity, and broader economic and social gains. Similarly, digital infrastructures and platforms have allowed for the emergence of new work structures that redefine industry/sectoral boundaries and shape local and regional economic health. The following selected topics will be discussed and worked on in the seminar: (1) Digital business models (2) Scaling a digital business model (3) Openness in digital business models (4) Managing the digital ecosystem (5) Digitalization and corporate entrepreneurship (6) Guest lecture

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Doing Entrepreneurship Differently: Values-based Entrepreneurship, Difference, and Inequalities (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Boukje Cnossen

Inhalt: In this seminar, students will become acquainted with research on entrepreneurial phenomena that fall outside of mainstream or idealised views of entrepreneurship. On the one hand, this research includes studies on entrepreneurship in marginalised groups, such as minorities, migrants, and people of colour. On the other hand, this research includes research streams within entrepreneurship studies that conceptually highlight understudied and under-theorised aspects of entrepreneurship, such as the role of non-human actors in entrepreneurial processes, the role of the material and built environment, the role of affects, and the role of everyday social practices in the accomplishment of entrepreneurship.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Entrepreneurship in Refugee Contexts: Between Empowerment and Constraint - Seidemann (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Iris Seidemann

Inhalt: Mass displacement, refugee crises, and the establishment of refugee camps have become defining features of the contemporary global landscape. These contexts highlight pressing challenges of inequality, marginalization, and limited access to resources, while also serving as spaces of creativity, resilience, and entrepreneurial agency. Refugees and displaced communities engage in diverse forms of entrepreneurship, ranging from survival- and necessity-based ventures to transformative social and cultural initiatives. At the same time, refugee entrepreneurs navigate tensions between dependency and self-determination, exclusion and inclusion, and inequality and empowerment. This seminar explores these dynamics through the lens of entrepreneurship research. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship, we examine how entrepreneurial activities unfold under conditions of crisis and constraint, and how they reshape our understanding of agency, innovation, and value creation in fragile and crisis contexts.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Entrepreneurship in Times of Crisis (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Pauline Börries

Termin:
14-täglich | Montag | 10:15 - 13:45 | 06.04.2026 - 10.07.2026 | C 12.010 Seminarraum

Inhalt: This seminar critically reflects about the role of entrepreneurship in the context of grand challenges and crises. It deepens a critical understanding of the notion of entrepreneurialism as a social and cultural construct and discusses the various social and economic effects of entrepreneurship culture in different contexts and regarding different crisis phenomena, such as societal polarization or climate change.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: Entrepreneurship Training | STEP S (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Paul Jasper Herrmann

Termin:
wöchentlich | Montag | 10:15 - 13:45 | 06.04.2026 - 01.06.2026 | C 9.102 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion (STEP S) is an action-oriented entrepreneurship training with a focus on sustainability. Students learn about the entrepreneurial process in teams through a real startup project. Within STEP S, students acquire evidence-based, entrepreneurial action knowledge that they can apply directly to their own startup projects.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

PoE: New & Alternative Forms of Organizing (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Anna Stöber

Inhalt: This seminar explores new and alternative forms of organizing—including self-managing and democratic organizations, open-source communities, and hacker collectives—and their implications for entrepreneurship. We begin by establishing a foundational understanding of what an organization is and then examine the characteristics of dominant bureaucratic and hierarchical organizational structures. From this foundational understanding, the course will then proceed to examine novel theories and research that challenge established and prevailing organizational forms. We will explore how alternative organizing structures can create new opportunities for entrepreneurs by enabling more flexible, collaborative, and decentralized approaches. The course also emphasizes how digital technologies have enabled entirely new ways of organizing, providing potential for entrepreneurial innovation.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship - Perspectives on Entrepreneurship