SPONSORED by ENTERPRISE IRELAND
The Irish Academy of Management is delighted to announce a new Competition for Irish Case Studies in Entrepreneurship. The prizes for the competition are:
1 st prize €1,500,
2 nd prize €1,000,
3 rd prize €500.
In addition to the prize fund, the best cases will be selected for a book entitled ‘Irish Cases in Entrepreneurship' which will be edited by Thomas M. Cooney and will be published by Blackhall (Dublin). The case must be about an Irish firm and should detail a recent business situation (post 1/1/2003). The closing date for submission of entries is May 28 th 2004, and the winners will be announced at the IAM Conference in September 2004, together with the launch of the book. For further information on the competition and to submit your entry, please contact Dr Thomas Cooney at thomas.cooney@dit.ie .
The outline themes for the cases are as follows:
• Opportunity recognition – this case study will be concerned with the different methods for searching, generating, and recognising market opportunities. It will also deal with the question of how one evaluates an opportunity.
• Venture capital – how does an entrepreneur access venture capital and how does one assess the value of equity? What exit strategy should be developed?
• Building the team – an increasing body of research suggests that fast-growth firms are more likely to be founded by an entrepreneurial team. What is an entrepreneurial team, and how does it differ from a management team? What is meant by ‘team building', and how does the relationship change between the lead entrepreneur and the different teams as the enterprise develops?
• Marketing – a primary objective of the book is to get students to consider opportunities for starting a business. In targeting markets, what are the challenges that the entrepreneur will face? What are the different market entry strategies available to the entrepreneur, and what is the value of having partners?
• Financial management in changing economic environment – a key requirement of starting a business is understanding finance. What is meant by cash flow, balance sheets, and profit and loss accounts? What ratios should be included in the plan?
• Managing operations – operations management within a market can be challenging. How does one organise the supply of materials? What is the operations process from raw materials to the final product received by the customer?
• Ecommerce – while some case studies may integrate ecommerce, one case study will look at the performance of a dot.com enterprise that was established to target global markets. It will focus on the unique challenges of these types of firms and the different strategies that are employed in comparison to ‘tradition' firms.
• Managing growth for today's ‘Europreneurs' – given the expansion of the European Union and the greater access to foreign markets, how can growth be achieved consistently through taking advantage of opportunities across countries while remaining within one political and economic union?
• Innovation – Ireland has a relatively poor record of research and development and it would be very beneficial to have a case that examines the process of invention, innovation, new product development, or creativity in some way .
• Ethics in modern Ireland – ethics is an issue that is rarely dealt with by lecturers and yet is an important element of a student's education. It is important for people to recognise and understand different practices in different cultures, and a case study that brings these concerns to the fore is considered an important feature of the book. The case study will raise questions that can be discussed and argued within a classroom, allowing the student to draw their own lessons from the case.
These ten headings are not considered as ten distinct case studies, since there will be integration of these headings across some cases. The headings are viewed as the principal issues that the student will consider during the course of the book. The cases will also provide a balance on issues such as gender, age, and culture.