Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is not a business discipline.  Instead, it is a means of conceptually conducting your thoughts and actions.

What is entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is focused on opportunity identification, enhancement, and realization to create value for all stakeholders. The point of view for all entrepreneurship ventures is the “owner”, but it has evolved beyond the classic start-up notion to include companies and organizations of all types and stages. The skills learned through an entrepreneurship major are vital for the success of any business large or small, public or private, corporate or not-for-profit, local or global. While the entrepreneurship major will give a broad skill-set for business, it will also provide highly customized paths for success in very specific business systems including new ventures, franchises, corporate ventures, socially responsible companies, and family controlled enterprises.

What kinds of career choices can I expect?
Entrepreneurship is what powers the economy, and our graduates have the skills and contacts to make ideas real. An entrepreneurship major from Shippensburg University can prepare you graduates for any of four types of work:

• Corporate entrepreneurship (also known as intrapreneurship), where our graduates develop new operations or products for existing corporations;
• Independent entrepreneurship where our graduates start their own for-profit firms;
• Family business where our graduates go into the family firm as new or future management, and
• Social entrepreneurship where our graduates start new or develop existing not-for-profit or community service oriented firms. 

Today when company recruiting ads use words like "leading-edge" or talk about developing new products or markets, they are talking about corporate entrepreneurship.  When government and civic organizations talk about becoming more innovative and proactive, they are building on the growing social entrepreneurship movement.  And as always, if you have an idea of your own, for a product, a service or just a way of life for yourself, there is no alternative to going independent.  For any of these goals, an entrepreneurship major from Shippensburg University can get you where you want to be.

How does this major prepare me to be an entrepreneur?
The entrepreneurship major focuses on opportunity recognition, assessment, and realization. Entrepreneurship students will be able to holistically apply the management skills of traditional business disciplines to the recognition and shaping of entrepreneurial opportunities and to the development of business models that will make use of those opportunities in ways that create value. Students will learn to prepare for the challenges involved in new venture creation and small business management. The emphasis of this nationally accredited program is the recognition of opportunities and the conversion of new ideas into business plans with a focus on implementation. New business development, small business management, franchising, family business, and corporate entrepreneurship are all areas of study within this major. The program is designed to help people understand risk and develop an entrepreneurial perspective by overcoming challenges and achieving success. 

This major prepares students for careers as entrepreneurs, corporate entrepreneurs, and small business owners. It focuses on providing students with the skills that they will need to initiate and manage business ventures, including developing new products, drafting a business plan, and forming and running a family business. Other topics covered are financial management, marketing, and human resource management in a small business setting. Students will also learn to analyze consumer and business trends and to use this information in planning and developing a new business venture.

How is the entrepreneurship curriculum structured?
You will be required to take three sets of courses:

• The first set includes the general education courses, such as English, history, mathematics, psychology, and science, and provides a background for understanding the society and world in which we function.
  
• The second set of courses is the business core curriculum, common to all business administration majors. Examples of courses in this core are accounting, statistics, finance, management, and marketing. These subjects will give you a view of the broad spectrum of the basic functions and needs of an organization.
  
• The third set of courses is the sequence for entrepreneur majors which provides the necessary technical knowledge with respect to tools, techniques, and concepts.

What specific courses will I take?  
All entrepreneurship students are required to take the same six-course sequence. Thus, because of the limited size and the progressiveness of the course work students will be required to work very closely with other students and faculty on all projects. The six required classes are:

• International Business --- provides students with the tools for working in a global business environment. Fall term in junior year.
  
• Topics in Entrepreneurship --- five modules are presented to provide students in-depth knowledge of critical business factors. The five factors are entrepreneurial finance, cash accounting, marketing management, innovation management, and knowledge management. Spring term in junior year.
  
• Small/Family Business Management --- prepares students of own and operate a small business.  The major project of this class will be a “dehydrated” business plan. Spring term in junior year.
  
• Marketing Research --- prepares students to conduct consumer and business research, which is necessary for all new business ventures. Fall term in senior year.
  
• Entrepreneurship (new venture creation) --- prepares students to identify and create a high growth venture. The major project of this class is a complete business plan that could be used to raise start-up capital. Additionally, all students will be required to enter business plans in state and national Entrepreneurship contests. Fall term in senior year.
  
• Change Management (corporate entrepreneurship) --- this class prepares students to become corporate entrepreneurs and change agents. The major project in this class will be a corporate business plan to start a new venture or development of a reengineering project for an established company. Spring term in senior year.

Are scholarships available for entrepreneurship majors?
The John L. Grove scholarships are available to incoming business freshmen and transfers who meet the qualifications. In addition, one four-year scholarship/internship is awarded each year to an incoming entrepreneurship freshman with high academic qualifications. Two scholarships/internships are awarded to sophomores/juniors/majoring in entrepreneurship who have demonstrated high academic achievement and who show a potential for success in the field.

What are the opportunities for an internship?
An internship program is offered by the College of Business which provides experience and college credit. There are many internship opportunities for entrepreneurship majors, and in some cases students continue as part-time employees while finishing the coursework for their degree.

Where can I get more information?
Dr. Michael Coolsen
Department of Management and Marketing
224 Grove Hall Shippensburg University
1871 Old Main Drive Shippensburg, PA 17257-2299
717-477-1439
Fax: 717-477-4068
E-mail:mkcool@ship.edu

John L. Grove College of Business
717-477-1435
E-mail: business@ship.edu

The John L. Grove College of Business is accredited by the AACSB International

Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is focused on opportunity identification, enhancement, and realization to create value for all stakeholders. The point of view for all entrepreneurship ventures is the “owner”, but it has evolved beyond the classic start-up notion to include companies and organizations of all types and stages. The skills learned through an entrepreneurship major are vital for the success of any business large or small, public or private, corporate or not-for-profit, local or global.  While the entrepreneurship major will give a broad skill-set for business, it will also provide highly customized paths for success in very specific business systems including new ventures, franchises, corporate ventures, socially responsible companies, and family controlled enterprises. Students will learn to prepare for the challenges involved in new venture creation and small business management. The emphasis of this nationally accredited program is the recognition of opportunities and the conversion of new ideas into business plans with a focus on implementation. New business development, small business management, franchising, family business, and corporate entrepreneurship are all areas of study within this major. The program is designed to help people understand risk and develop an entrepreneurial perspective by overcoming challenges and achieving success.

General Management
General management skills are required in organizations of every size and kind. The concentration focuses on the acquisition of knowledge and skills that are necessary for accepting and exercising responsibility - for making decisions, understanding behavior, recognizing the relationship of the organization with its environment, and understanding available options. Because the general management program permits a high degree of flexibility in choice of electives, you can tailor a program of study that best fits your career interests whether they are in the service or manufacturing sector. You will be prepared to work in small, medium, and large organizations in either the public or private sector, in a wide range of functional areas. Currently the outlook is strong in areas involving total quality management (TQM) and international standards (ISO) programs. Internships are available to increase both your learning and employment opportunities. If graduate school is in your career plans, our accreditation by AACSB, the International Association of Management Education, is a plus.

Human Resource Management
The people aspect of business is a growing field both in employment opportunities and in salaries. The goals of human resource management are the efficient and effective utilization of human resources to achieve strategic organization objective while accomplishing individual goals. Human resource management encompasses personnel, labor and industrial relations, compensation and benefits, training and development, and legal issues. Students are afforded the opportunity of developing knowledge and skills in job analysis, human resource planning, recruiting, interviewing, training and development, law, labor relations, and continuous improvement. Graduates of the program begin their careers in the human resource departments of corporations, government agencies, unions, and other private and public organizations. They are employed as interviewers, recruiters, job analysts, grievance and arbitration specialists, negotiators, compensation specialists, safety directors, and training coordinators.

International Management
With an ever-increasing number of firms operating outside the boundaries of just one country, having an understanding on the culture, customs, religions, political systems, and language makes you extremely versatile in the global business environment. The international management program supplements the core business curriculum with courses that extend you knowledge of business, management, marketing, finance, and economics to the global arena while familiarizing you with various world cultures, religions, and societies. Proficiency in a foreign language is a requirement of the international management major. Although studying abroad is not a program requirement, it is strongly recommended that international management majors take advantage of study abroad opportunities to development their language skills and enhance their awareness of cultural and business practice differences. In addition to be qualified for entry-level position in US firms, our graduates have taken management trainee position in US subsidiaries of foreign firms such as BMW, Royal Dutch Shell, and Unilever. Graduates have begun their careers work for a small import/export firm, a freight forwarder, the international department of a bank, and as a sales correspondent in the international division of a large multinational corporation.