Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona

Creation of Cultural Entities

• code 07421
• course 1
• term Term 2
• type OB
• credits 3

Main language of instruction: Spanish

Other languages of instruction: English

If the student is enrolled for the English track then classes for that subject will be taught in the same language.

Head instructor

Dr. Jordi AULADELL - jauladell@uic.es
Lc. Alfonso GIRONZA - agironza@uic.es

Office hours

by appointment

The Creation of Cultural Entities course focuses on the main topics involved in creating successful cultural businesses. This course seeks to provide the founding principles and knowledge to entrepreneurs and managers of cultural entities. Students are encouraged to learn how to use well-researched theories about strategy, innovation and business management to understand why things happen the way they do in organisation management, and to understand what management tools and methods can be effective under different circumstances.

The methodology of the course is very student-oriented and practical: in class we will learn the most important concepts and theoretical frameworks to start practicing them with a ‘learning by doing’ approach. Students will have to work on their Business Plan early on, and all the course and classes are intended to support students throughout the development of their Business Plan.

In short, the course seeks to identify critical success factors in creating and managing cultural entities and gives the student the opportunity to exercise related skills with an active and practical methodology.

Students are expected to be familiar with and to use basic economics and finance concepts, and to apply knowledge acquired in other courses such as cultural marketing, communication, and funding for culture. 

 The educational goals for this course are threefold:

• Firstly, to become accustomed to the entrepreneurial process of generating ideas and how to commercialise cultural projects;
• secondly, to understand what is required to build a successful cultural business;
• thirdly, to appreciate some of the basics in private organisations and the economic environment in which these entities operate.

Basic competences:

• To have and understand knowledge which provides a grounding or opportunity to be original in terms of the development and/or application of ideas often in a research based context.

 Cross-disciplinary competences:

• To design, direct, produce and evaluate projects, programmess, strategies, policies or cultural actions which involve a wide variety  of different professional profiles, agents  and institutions.

General competences:

• To analyze and interpret social and cultural environments in order to identify needs, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths.
• To search for and/or  administr economic resources within the framework of an institution, a company, or in a programme, project or cultural service.
• To act responsibly and produce good quality rigorous and efficient work that is placed at the service of society.

Specific Competences:

• To design and carry out an efficient and viable business plan within the creative sector

The student:

• Has and understands knowledge which provides a grounding or opportunity to be original in terms of the development and/or application of ideas often in a research based context.
• Designs, directs, produces and evaluates projects, programmess, strategies, policies or cultural actions which involve a wide variety  of different professional profiles, agents  and institutions.
• Analyzes and interprets social and cultural environments in order to identify needs, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths.
• Searchs for and/or  administr economic resources within the framework of an institution, a company, or in a programme, project or cultural service.
• Acts responsibly and produce good quality rigorous and efficient work that is placed at the service of society. 
• Designs and carries out an efficient and viable business plan within the creative sector

In this class, we will take an active learning approach. This approach requires students to prepare for the class. In other words, you should do the assigned readings and/or answering the preparation questions for the study cases ,  think about the issues discussed in the assigned readings, and be prepared to contribute to the class discussion. As instructor, my primary role is to facilitate the learning process. While you will have formal lectures, the main learning will be achieved through case and article preparations, class discussions, and work on assignments.  

The course is composed of a mixture of theory classes, case studies and article analyses and discussions, and a group project work. The class is offered in English thus all class material will be available in English only. Students will be provided with the cases, readings, exercises and lectures.

Theory classes:

The objective of theory classes is to understand main theoretical concepts related to creation of cultural entities and consider all relevant elements in developing and implementing effective business plan. 

Group project work:

During the course you will have to work on a business plan for a new cultural entity. Working on these assignments should:

• Allow you to practice the concepts covered in class in order to help you learn and understand them better and prepare for the final exam at the same time
• Motivate you to learn more about specific industries and sectors
• Sharpen your analytical skills
• Help you to become better in dealing with ambiguity
• Encourage you to learn how to make recommendations and how to justify your opinions
• Improve you group working skills
• Give you an opportunity for public speaking in front of relatively friendly audience

This is a highly integrative course. Students are expected to develop their Business Plan throughout the course. In order to do so, the course has a practical approach that combines both theoretical content with exercises in class.

It is recommendable to take maximum advantage of classes to develop the content of the Business Plan.  In order to do so, students are asked to develop a holistic point of view able to integrate knowledge acquired in other courses such as marketing, communication, and finance or funding for culture.

For the best outcome of the course in terms of knowledge acquired and discussions, students must participate actively in class, reading all the material required for discussions and exercises. 

The use of laptops or other electronic devices (iPad, tablet, etc) is necessary to conduct the course exercises so please be ready to use them only for learning purposes.

During the term, students will be evaluated as indicated in the table below:

Considerations:

a. Each assessment element (the second column) is scored with a grade between 0 and 10 with one decimal point precision. Zero is the lowest grade and ten is the highest grade. 

b. The final grade for the course is calculated by adding grades obtained in each element multiplied by their assigned weights (the first column). 

c. The final grade of the course is reported on the scale from 0 to 10 with one decimal point precision. 

d. In addition to numeric final grades, you are also given descriptive grades: 

• NS (no show) 
• 0.0 – 4.9 Failed
• 5.0 – 6.9 Passed
• 7.0 – 8.9 Notable 
• 9.0 – 10.0 Excellent

e. A student can obtain “NS” (“No show”) grade only if he/she doesn’t have any grade in any of the five grading elements. 

f. To obtain a passing course grade, you must obtain the final group project grade that is equal to or greater than 5.0 AND the total course grade that is equal to or greater than 5.0. If the final group project grade is less than 5.0, the final group project grade becomes the course final grade irrespective of other grades. 

g. Exam 1 includes only material covered before the Exam 1. Exam 2 includes only material covered between Exam 1 and Exam 2. The final exam will consist exclusively on the presentation of the Business Plan.

h. All students in a group receive the same grade for any group work.

i. There will be no individual extra credit work assigned if you fail any of obligatory grading elements; you are unable to attend the exams for whatever reason, or if you obtain a grade below your expectations. 

j. Class preparation and participation grading element evaluates your preparation for the case and article discussions, not your class attendance record. However, missing classes or coming unprepared to classes lowers your grade for this evaluation element. A missed class, weather justified or unjustified, counts as an unprepared class. If your attendance falls below 80%, this grade falls to zero. 

k. A student can have a perfect attendance record and still score zero in participation grade. A failure to actively participate in group and class activities during the discussions of cases and articles will be considered as an indication that a student has not prepared for the class. Do not think of this grade as an entitlement or a gift – it has to be EARNED. 

Books of reference;

• Pinson, Linda, “Anatomy of a Business Plan : The Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Business and Securing Your Company's Future”
• Gillman, Joan and White, Sarah, “Business plans that work : includes actual business plans that successfully attracted financing”
• Blank, Steve and Dorf, Bob, “The Startup owner's manual : the step-by-step guide for building a great company”
• Carpenter, M. A. and Sanders, W. G., (2009). “Strategic Management Concepts And Cases” (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NY: Pearson Prentice Hall. 
• Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010). “Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers”. Wiley. 
• Tokan, B. (2013). “How To Write Your First Business Plan”. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 
• Kim, W. C. and Mauborgne, R. (2005). “Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested market Space And Make Competition Irrelevant”. Harvard Business Review Press. 

 Teaching resources (posted on the course intranet): 

• Powerpoint slides 
• Supplementary articles 
• Supplementary video cases (web link provided when possible)