Unit Synopsis
This unit offers a critical exploration of the evolving landscape of entrepreneurship, innovation, and start-up development. It focuses on the strategic and contextual factors that shape new start-up creation, guiding you to assess the economic and societal impacts of innovation, analyse key drivers of start-up success across industries, and evaluate the viability and scalability of start-up ventures. You will explore the core stages of the entrepreneurial process, including opportunity identification, feasibility analysis, business modelling, funding, and growth planning. The unit places particular emphasis on how creativity, innovation, and digital transformation are reshaping start-up business models and market dynamics. Through real-world case studies and practical activities, you will strengthen your ability to manage uncertainty, assess entrepreneurial risk, and design start-ups that are innovative, sustainable, and competitive.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Completion of 48 credit points in first year of study. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 2. Report | 30% |
| 3. Presentation | 30% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 93.33% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 14.42% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: SUTE and In-Class Feedback
Group assessment (assignment 2) was very challenging. I loved this unit. It was so interesting and I would have loved to do assessment 2 on my own.
Simplify Assessment 2 into an individual task to help students focus on developing their innovative business startup idea.
Assessment 2 has been redesigned as an individual task to improve clarity, reduce workload complexity, and allow students to focus more effectively on developing their innovative business startup idea.
Source: SUTE
The course is very well structured and clear. The courses recording is delivered very clearly and well
Continuously refining and improving the unit.
The unit continues to be refined through regular updates to teaching materials and recorded content to maintain clarity and support student learning.
Source: SUTE
The lecturer is attentive and also goes the extra mile to assist students
Thanks, continuously refining and improving the unit.
Ongoing efforts are being made to further enhance student support and continuously improve the unit’s teaching quality.
Source: SUTE
Separating Assessment 2 into two individual assignments would make the workload more manageable and less daunting.
Assessment 2 will be separated into two components with different due dates from Term 1 2026. This change will help distribute the workload more evenly and make the assessment process more manageable.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
I really enjoyed this unit and found it extremely valuable. It helped reduce my fears about starting a business, and I now feel much more confident. The teaching team were knowledgeable and engaging.
We will ensure ongoing clarity in learning materials, provide practical examples to support confidence in entrepreneurship, and continue offering opportunities for direct engagement through consultations and workshops.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
It was a pleasure listening to the lecturer throughout the unit. I appreciated the feedback provided and the timely clarification offered whenever I needed it. Thank you.
We will continue to provide timely clarification and constructive feedback to support student learning, while also ensuring that all lecture and workshop sessions are delivered in a professional setting to maintain consistency and student engagement.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Provide assignment exemplars.
Assignments in this unit require students to develop original business ideas with real-world application; therefore, past student work cannot be used as exemplars. Providing exemplars may also limit creativity, which is a key component of the unit. Instead, we will continue to offer clearer instructions, structured templates, and explicit expectations. In addition, students are encouraged to attend drop-in consultations for personalised guidance on their ideas, which has been found exceptionally useful by those who attended.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of entrepreneurship, innovation, and new start-ups through critical review, synthesis of current knowledge and developments, and evaluation of their importance within society.
- Critically analyse and synthesise the knowledge, qualities, and skills required to become a successful entrepreneur in start-up ventures.
- Demonstrate creative and innovative thinking skills, along with critical thinking, to identify a new start-up opportunity and evaluate its feasibility.
- Synthesise knowledge and exercise critical thinking to apply appropriate frameworks that evaluate the preferred business model for the start-up opportunity.
- Apply technical skills to develop and communicate a business plan for launching a start-up venture in both oral and written formats.
Not applicable
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | ||
| 2 - Report | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Presentation | • | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | ||
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | • | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |