TECHNOLOGY & HIGH GROWTH
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
COUSRE DATE: 26-28 AUGUST 2010
COURSE OVERVIEW
The 21st century is tilting towards an economy primarily driven
by technology and knowledge, where individuals have to
recognize and anticipate high-technology opportunities so as
to join the ranks of future entrepreneurial leaders. Infusing an
enterprising spirit into business endeavours and the promotion of
inventive skills has been implemented as an impetus to promote
“technopreneurship”. Individuals with technical skills who are
potential entrepreneurs – are often referred to as technological
entrepreneurs or “technopreneurs”. Most governments have
recognised the potential in high-tech and have begun nurturing
this industry through educational institutions. They acknowledge
the importance of intellectual capital in growing knowledge
economies and create conditions that foster innovation – which
ultimately has more to do with education than bandwidth.
The course is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding
of technology entrepreneurship. The course aims to develop
understanding and rigour in the field of technology entrepreneurship
through a comprehensive study on the nature of technology
innovation and high-expectation ventures. The course supports
engineers and individuals with technical backgrounds who
are opting to start their own business and/or in the process of
reinventing industries and markets. The fields of technology and
innovation are visited to provide a platform to understand how
entrepreneurial ventures are able to achieve high-growth and
improve competitiveness.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
• Developing a mind set that stresses entrepreneurial learning and
accepts uncertainty is the primary desired outcome of this course.
• Critically evaluate and reflect on the key factors required to simulate actual entrepreneurial environments and adopt
embed technology in organizations of varying size and context
1
• Understand how individuals function within a high-tech
enterprise culture
• Discuss technopreneurs as potential catalysts
• Appreciate technology and; risk taking behaviour; creative
problem solving; tolerance of uncertainty; non-linear
innovation; failure as a stimulus to enterprise; personal
entrepreneurship and its synergy to corporate objectives
• Formulate and embed a ‘techno-enterprise culture’ within an
overall strategic framework
• Critically evaluate through practical examples, drawn from
research, technopreneurs endeavours
COURSE PHILOSOPHY AND METHODOLOGIES
An integrative pedagogical approach will allow students to gain
knowledge and develop competencies and skills in entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial competencies include practical competence
(to perform), foundational competence (understanding of what
and why this is done), and reflexive competence (ability to learn
and adapt to changes). Primarily, the role of facilitator will be to
identify theory-based competencies in entrepreneurship to be
mastered, together with the course, also providing motivational
value to the learner.
Lectures may move at a slower or faster pace depending on student
interests and mastery of the material. Students will be required
to work individually and/or together in groups. The theory
will serve to provide students with background principles and
understanding. To enable students to evaluate and apply these
principles in an experiential mode it will be expected of them to
conduct practical assignments or projects.
Pedagogical methods and applications such as lectures, project
assignments, presentations and multiple contacts with local
industry and entrepreneurs will be used. The facilitator will
entrepreneurial approaches to teaching with assumptions of
student time management and self-motivation.
FACILITATOR

Prof B Urban
Prof Urban is the acting director of the Wits Business School and
incumbent Chair in Entrepreneurship (Lamberti Foundation) at
WBS, University of Witwatersrand. He has more than 20 publications,
in leading journals, including:
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, International Journal
of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, International Journal
of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, International Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Small Business, International Journal of
Human Resource Management.

He has presented several papers at international entrepreneurship

conferences and won best paper awards. He is the series editor
of ‘Perspectives in Entrepreneurship: a Research Companion’
published by Heinemann locally and Springer Books
internationally, and has co-authored ‘Entrepreneurship Theory
and Practice’ published by Oxford University Press. He serves
as reviewer for many local and international journals. Boris has
participated on many panels as an entrepreneurship expert
including the recent 2009 MIT-WBS GSW.

Prof Urban’s signature research themes, which he designed

for the Centre for Entrepreneurship, situated at WBS, serves as
the platform for research fellows and Masters/PhD students
undertaking research in entrepreneurship. Prof Urban is
also the Programme Director of the Masters in Management
(Entrepreneurship and NVC). His supervision and teaching
experience is primarily positioned in entrepreneurial studies,
where he has taught and designed a variety of new entrepreneurship
programmes at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels.

Apart from his academic background Prof Urban has entrepreneurial

and industry experience. He has been successfully involved in
many new ventures and has operated as a franchisor and
franchisee. Boris has worked at several multinational organisations
in various capacities. Through consulting and training he has
delivered successful interventions to multinational clients and the
public sector, where he also presented his research findings to
the Office of the South African Presidency.

Contacts
Sonia Newton
E-mail: sonia.newton@wits.ac.za
Tel: +27 (0)11 717 3665