Entrepreneurial Mindset and Innovation

SMO 530 - The Entrepreneurial Mindset and Innovation

Despite popular heroic accounts of creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation, it is often not clear how to engage with these activities in an organized manner. Entrepreneurial practice is often characterized by broad patterns instead of prescriptive methods. The entrepreneurial method can be learned, but it is based on developing an intellectual sensibility and applying it in practice. This is an interdisciplinary (i.e., cross-faculty) course for graduate students interested in understanding and cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset. By approaching entrepreneurial activity with the lens of innovation ecosystems, we will enhance the notion that creativity and innovation can be applied across many spheres of life - including in academic research, nonprofits, government, big companies, and small start-ups.

Why You Should Register

This course has a lot to offer. Through the course, you can:

  • Learn how to create and innovate by thinking and behaving like an entrepreneur
  • Learn what entrepreneurs know so you can be more creative and innovative
  • Add creativity and innovation to your graduate journey
  • Expand your network across the University
  • Satisfy your 8-hour professional development requirement

Who is this Course for

This is an interdisciplinary (i.e., cross-faculty) course for graduate students interested in understanding and cultivating such a mindset. Through approaching entrepreneurial activity with the lens of innovation ecosystems, we will enhance the notion that creativity and innovation can be applied across many spheres of life - including in academic research, nonprofits, government, big companies, and small start-ups.

The course is open to all graduate students at the University of Alberta, except for students registered in the MBA program.

Cost and Registration

Thesis-based students will not be assessed instructional fees for this course. Course-based students will be assessed standard graduate tuition. You are able to register for the course via BearTracks.

This course is made possible by a Government of Alberta Grant.

What Students are Saying

Here's what students who took this course last year have to say:

  • The diversity of students was great - there were student comments related to different fields, and the sharing of different points of view. All of this resulted in showing me that no matter what the field, everyone can be an entrepreneur.
  • The course opened my eyes to the movement of entrepreneurial activities at the U of A.
  • What I learned here can be applied to my academic life. Networking recommended for those who want to create value.
  • I am from the Faculty of Arts and there are not many innovations in my own area of study. Having this course with peers from engineering, medicine, and sciences really expanded my horizon of understanding, and implementing innovation. I would not have learned so much if I had studied with people in my own area of study.
Course Details

Term: Fall 2018
Class Number: 68378
Class Days: MW
Time: 3:30 PM - 4:50 PM
Location: BUS 3-06

Program Outline

Professional Development

UAlberta Professional Development

This course would satisfy the eight-hour professional development requirement for Graduate Students.