Entrepreneurship and Enterprise
Sample Exam Material
2008-09
Description
The exam duration is 1.5 hours. It is in two parts, Part 1 is a Portfolio based question
worth 30% of total marks and Part 2 an essay section where you must answer 2
questions from 4.
Portfolio Question Hints
There are no previous examination questions as this is the first year of this format.
The question will be based around you giving advice to a person about starting up a
business and will focus around the three topics, Business Support, Start up and
Finance, Entrepreneurial Marketing. You may bring into your answer knowledge from
the other topics. These topics will not be used in Part 2.
Essay Question Hints:
This section tests the depth of your knowledge and understanding. In answering the
essay questions, you will be penalised for using bullet points, so please remember to
write in clear sentences. We would expect you to be able to write at least two to
three pages worth (or more) of normal size handwriting for each essay to give an
answer that will contain enough for you to be able to pass. You will need to judge
yourself whether your handwriting in an exam would be considered “normal” size.
Essentially, if you are only able to write a paragraph or one page, it probably is not
nearly enough.
In the essays you may be expected to illustrate your answers with company
examples, and more credit is given if you use examples that were NOT worked
through in class, but are the result of additional reading. First class answers will
always show evidence of additional reading. In terms of referencing, you may be
expected to name theories and put dates to those, we do not expect you to write out
a full bibliography.
If your handwriting is difficult for others to read and you already know this is the case,
please take extra care as markers cannot mark scripts properly that are illegible. If
you jot down an essay plan at the top of your answer, please also remember to score
this out before you hand in your script, so that markers do not consider it part of your
answer. We suggest you spend 30 minutes per essay in this section.
Sample Essay Questions:
Q1) There are a number of competing theories and models of firm growth.
Describe and compare these theories, and critique the notion that firm growth
is predictable. Please illustrate your answer with examples from companies
that you know.
Good answers might contain:
A description (possibly with diagrams) with name and date of Greiner’s model of firm
growth (1972) and the Churchill and Lewis (1983) model, and contrast that with
Storey’s predictive characteristics model (1994). The answer would explain, for
example, that Greiner’s model was written in the context of large firms, whereas
Churchill and Lewis set out to describe the small firm experience. Storey’s model
takes a different tack altogether, focussing on the characteristics of the entrepreneur,
the firm and the strategy. Critique could include that firms are growing far more
quickly due to the advent of the internet, that stages can be skipped or that
companies can fall back onto previous stages because of external events. The
answer might well include a discussion in the context of Nichol McKay or other case
studies or examples, where it seems the characteristics approach can really only be
applied after the fact, no matter how keen banks, business angels and VCs would
like to be able to “pick winners.”
Q2) Many commentators over time have attempted to define, within their own
paradigms, the term “entrepreneur”. Compare and contrast the economic view
with the view of psychologists.
A good answer might include:
A full explanation, with key writers named and dated (Schumpeter, Knight, Cassonm
McLelland etc.) The answer would describe and explain (in full sentences) how
economists view entrepreneurs, as:
Coordinator of resources (Efficient Manager); Risk-Evaluator in face of uncertainty
(Foresight); Arbitrageur to move markets towards equilibrium (Alertness to
opportunities); Innovator to cause progress through disruption (Leadership); Agents
of Change; Strategic/Judgmental Decision-makers; Concerned with profit, income
and wealth
And that psychologists are interested in entrepreneurs in the following ways:
Concerned with internal cognitive development of individuals & behaviour,
conditioned by their environments; Psychodynamic Model (Deviant personalities
through abnormal childhood experiences – deprivation, dislike of authority figures)
Personality Traits (need for autonomy, achievement, control of own destiny, creativity
& vision, ability to learn from experience); Personal drivers for entrepreneurship other
than profits, income & wealth.