TIES

Description: Covers the process of identifying and quantifying market opportunities, then conceptualizing, planning, and starting a new, technology-based enterprise. Topics include opportunity assessment, the value proposition, the entrepreneur, legal issues, entrepreneurial ethics, the business plan, the founding team, seeking customers and raising funds. Students develop detailed business plans for a start-up. Intended for students who want to start their own business, further develop an existing business, be a member of a management team in a new enterprise, or better understand the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial process. Meets with 15.3901 when offered concurrently.

Professor(s) who recently taught this course:

• William Aulet
• Jacquelyn Pless

Syllabus

Description: Explores a wide range of strategic problems, focusing particularly on the sources of competitive advantage and the interaction between industry structure and organizational capabilities. Introduces a wide variety of modern strategy frameworks and methodologies. Builds upon and integrates material from core topics, such as economics and organizational processes. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Meets with 15.9001 when offered concurrently.

Professor(s) who recently taught this course:

• Donald Sull
• Pierre Azoulay
• Georg Rillinger

Syllabus

Description: Provides a deep understanding of the core strategic choices facing start-up innovators, as well as a synthetic framework for the development and implementation of entrepreneurial strategy in dynamic environments. Identifies the key choices entrepreneurs make to take advantage of opportunity and the logic of particular strategic commitments that allow entrepreneurs to establish competitive advantage.

Syllabus

Professor(s) who recently taught this course:

• Scott Stern
• Erin Scott

Description: This course challenges the students to answer the question “what does it mean for an organization to ‘manage’ innovation”? The course has four parts: (i) the sources of innovation (from the research lab, to local innovation ecosystems, to open innovation); (ii) motivating technical or and/creative professionals (incentives, structure, and culture); (iii) organizing the innovation process (from the study product development processes to R&D portfolios to building an experimental capacity). The final segment of the course emphasizes the connection between the management of innovation and competitive strategy.

Syllabus

Professor(s) who recently taught this course:

• Pierre Azoulay

Description: The aim of this course is to provide a solid foundation for students
interested in managing innovation in high-technology industries. The course
teaches you how to (1) ask the right questions about high-technology
markets and organizations, (b) analyze the structure of, and develop
strategies for, these markets, and (c) link analyses and strategy
development to technology and innovation management. Key frameworks are
developed through applications in a variety of industry and case settings,
with a particular focus on those that are most relevant in today’s
changing economic and social landscape.

Syllabus

Professor(s) who recently taught this course:

• Jacquelyn Pless

Description: Provides key organizational and strategic decisions in founding and building a new venture. It aims to inform students on the trade-offs and consequences of these early decisions on the founders, their team, and the venture’s performance and to equip them with tools to navigate these complex organizational challenges more effectively. Though the primary decision maker in the course will be a member of the founding team, the perspective of early-hires and investors will also be taken to understand the broader implications of the founder’s decisions on the venture.

Syllabus

Professor(s) who recently taught this course:

• Erin Scott

Description: Advanced subject in the economics of technological change. Covers the micro-foundations of the knowledge production function (including the role of creativity and the impact of Science), the impact of institutions and strategic interaction on the commercialization of new technology, and the diffusion and welfare impact of ideas and technology. Includes a mixture and explicit comparisons of both theoretical and empirical research. Students should have adequate preparation in microeconomic theory and econometrics. Primarily for PhD students.

Syllabus

Professor(s) who recently taught this course:

• Pierre Azoulay
• Scott Stern

For those with a strong commitment to entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurship & Innovation (E&I) Certificate brings like-minded students together very early in the MBA program to meet, integrate and learn about startup business concepts and to experience the unique entrepreneurial ecosystem at MIT.

Concepts that typically take the entire program to cover are condensed into the first and second semesters, maximizing students' ability to get started right away. The payoff for the extra work and the intense track requirements is that you will get a jump-start on building an entrepreneurial career.

The E&I Track focuses on launching and developing emerging technology companies. It leads to a certificate in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, in addition to the MBA degree.

The curriculum emphasizes team practice linked to real-world entrepreneurial projects, balances theoretical and practitioner education, and provides thorough exposure to the many building blocks of an entrepreneurial career. In addition, the track leaves sufficient freedom to select other courses.