Entrepreneurship - How to create a legitimate business

Explore how to build the legitimacy of your project through the collaboration and co-creation of business values in order to seize new opportunities

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CIVIS focus area
Society, culture, heritage
Open to
  • Bachelor's
  • Master's
  • PhD
Field of studies
  • Business and Management
Type
  • Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP)
Course dates
1 June - 14 July 2023

The recent boom of entrepreneurship in economies driven by innovation leads many students to launch their own business. In today's upheaval environment, young businesses without necessary backgrounds suffer from a lack of legitimacy that prevents them from accessing resources necessary for the growth of their activity. This course is designed to empower students who are leading an entrepreneurial project to develop strategies to construct, maintain, and repair the legitimacy of their business by cooperating of their stakeholders. Using the content of this course and their own experience, students will learn original ways to conduct their business and lead their operations in a complex environment.

We invite all students who lead an entrepreneurial project to work on the legitimacy of their own projects. Thus, students not only learn from theory, but also apply it to practice. Throughout this process, students will come up with strategies to manage the legitimacy of their projects.

Main topics addressed

  • Legitimacy: Develop your strategy
  • Turn your academic research into a viable value
  • Collaboration and develop your network
  • Co-creation and open innovation

Learning outcomes

The principal learning outcome is to reach a comprehensive understanding of the legitimacy of a business and its outcomes. Students will learn to establish a coherent strategy for gaining acceptance in their environment using an innovative framework.

This course's second outcome is assessing the legitimacy level and developing appropriate strategies to construct, maintain, or repair legitimacy.

The third outcome of this course is to help students develop their entrepreneurial projects.

At the end of this course, all the students should be able:

  • To understand their regulative environment and intellectual property
  • To exercise skills related to networking and co-working
  • To implement an open innovation strategy
  • To assess the legitimacy of a business
  • To develop strategies for legitimacy construction
Dates: 1 June - 14 July 2023 Total workload: 90 hours
Format: Blended ECTS: 3
Location: Aix-en-Provence, France Language: English (B2) 
Contact: ali.ghods@iae-aix.com  

Recognition of ECTS depends on your home university. 

Physical mobility

The physical mobility part will be running from 10 to 14 July 2023 in Aix-en-Provence, France, at Aix-Marseille Université. 

The physical part will be structured as follows:

  • Lectures: Lectures on collaboration, co-creation, and open innovation will continue.
  • Self-working time: Students are supposed to work on their projects as part of their class work and evaluation.
  • Social events: Social events will be organised, with the presence of entrepreneurs and actors in the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Students will have the opportunity to develop their network and find opportunities for collaboration.
  • Evaluation: Students will be asked to develop strategies based on the course elements and present them in front of the students and teaching staff.

Virtual part

The virtual part will be running from 1 to 29 June 2023.

The virtual part is organised into 3 sessions. We will start with an introduction to the course, the presentation of the instructors, and the complete outline of the course. Then, an introduction to legitimacy and to Canvas of legitimacy is presented to the students. The virtual lectures continue with the strategies that entrepreneurs can develop to construct their legitimacy, notably by transferring academic research to a usable technology.

The objective of virtual sessions is to prepare students for the physical part and to provide them with extensive reading and reflexive works to encourage their critical thinking. Students will then be provided with written material composed expressly for this course so that they can study all the subjects presented in the lectures independently.

Requirements

This course is open to all students at CIVIS member universities, from all domains of science. 

NB: Visiting Students - Erasmus Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for your selected CIVIS programme, you must be a fully enrolled student at your CIVIS home university at the time you will be undertaking the programme. Click here to learn more about the eligibility criteria.

Application process

Interested students should apply by filling in the online application form by 28 February 2023.

Applications will be evaluated based on the CV and motivation letter. Students should have an entrepreneurial project in hand (however, the development level of the project is not an evaluation criterion).

Apply here

Assessment

Based on the elements presented in the course, students will be asked to work on the strategy of their own businesses.

The result would be a written document representing the project's current situation and a roadmap to achieve the objectives and a higher legitimacy (50% of the assessment).

In parallel, students will present their work in front of a jury (50% of the assessment).

Blended Intensive Programme

This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe. Click here to learn more about CIVIS BIPs.

GDPR Consent

The CIVIS alliance and its member universities will treat the information you provide with respect. Please refer to our privacy policy for more information on our privacy practices. By applying to this course you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

This Blended Intensive Programme will be taught by professors from CIVIS member universities.

Antonis Livieratos

Antonis Livieratos, Assistant professor of entrepreneurship, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Business Administration. Antonis has a long experience working with startups. He co-founded several startups and has worked for over 15 years as a coach and consultant for various industries. He is heading the Technology Transfer Office and the Business accelerator of the NKUA (Archimedes Center of Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship).

Yiannis Dimitrakopoulos

Yiannis Dimitrakopoulos, Assistant professor of operation research, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Business Administration. Yiannis is the Technology Transfer Office Manager at Archimedes Center of Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship of NKUA.

Maria Dolores Escat Cortes

Maria Dolores Escat Cortes, Associate professor, Department of Business Organization, Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Maria works on the people management and co-working among startup teams.

Antonin Ricard

Antonin Ricard, Associate professor, IAE graduate school of management, Aix-Marseille Université. Antonin is the dean of IAE and the co-founder of the Chair of New Venture Legitimacy.

Ali Ghods

Ali Ghods, Assistant professor of entrepreneurship, IAE graduate school of management, Aix-Marseille Université. Ali is a member of the Chair of New Venture Legitimacy.