Student entrepreneur presenting at Tilburg University

Education in entrepreneurship

Do you have a business idea, or have you encountered a problem you want to solve? Would you like to start your own business, or take over a business? Or are you someone who sees opportunities everywhere and is always eager to start something new? Then entrepreneurship education is perfect for you.

Learn about entrepreneurship

An entrepreneurial mindset is key to anyone’s career, whether it is as an employee within a firm or as a business owner. We at Tilburg University can help you grow this mindset within and outside of your curriculum. Would you like to find out more about entrepreneurship and develop your skills? Check out what we offer as part of the Bachelor's and Master's programs. You can take either a complete Bachelor's or Master's program, or separate courses during your Bachelor's or Master's program.

On a Bachelor's level

Full Bachelor's program Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation

A truly unique 3-year Bachelor’s program for those who can’t wait to create new value though entrepreneurship and business innovation. Learn how to drive an organization forward with business innovation or how to change the world with a new start-up that will scale to a large company. Ultimately, we aim to educate entrepreneurial, open-minded academically trained thinkers who are eager to continuously gain new knowledge. Graduates with self-confidence, ready to take action and create new economic, social and environmental value.

More on the BSc Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation

Bachelor's courses in entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship courses

If you are interested in entrepreneurship, but not in the entire minor program, you can decide to take one or more of our entrepreneurship courses. Maybe you are looking for a course which better reflects suits your Bachelor's program. Below is a list of all Tilburg University Bachelor's subjects related to entrepreneurship, so you can pick and choose what suits you best.

  • Introduction to Corporate Entrepreneurship
    Being entrepreneurial within a company, that’s what this course is about. Large companies tend to focus on running their existing business, become less innovative and inflexible. They can lose sight of the need to innovate, adapt and be entrepreneurial. This course helps you to understand the role and importance of an entrepreneurial mindset in larger corporations. 

  • Creative Entrepreneurship
    In this course, you will study entrepreneurship in the context of those industries where creativity is a key element in their value proposition to the public, such as the gaming, film or design industries: from Spotify to food trucks, and from Damien Hirst to El Bulli. Literature, case studies, assignments and workshops are all used to highlight the various aspects of creative entrepreneurship. You will discuss the opportunities and risks from globalization and the development of the internet and how these changes can lead to new business models and new types of business. 

  • Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice
    You create your own business idea, and develop a business plan. This is then the basis for you to study the most important elements in starting a business.  How do you write a business plan and which business model fits your idea? How do you arrange financing and attract investors? How do you find the right customers and learn from them? How do you develop a good network and how do you compose the best startup team? These are just a few of the topics covered. After developing your own business plan, you evaluate and validate it before finally pitching it to potential investors. 

  • Entrepreneurial Governance & Finance
    Anybody starting or running a business has to deal with a range of laws and regulations. In this course you will examine both the legal and entrepreneurial side of contracts and legal questions in early-stage companies. It is essential to have a basic knowledge of these kinds of legal issues, because they govern the relations between all of the parties engaged in doing business. We also look at the legislation which is relevant when financing a business. 

  • Social Innovation Project
    This course provides an opportunity to use your entrepreneurial skills in practice. You will work on an innovative solution to a social problem in a team with fellow students. It will give you the chance to make a real difference and see immediate results. You will develop the various skills required when launching a startup and developing your business. 

  • Tax Aspects of Business Activities
    The course introduces you to important tax laws, such as those concerning income tax, corporate income tax, sales tax, real estate transfer tax and gift and inheritance tax. We will examine these levies within a broader economic and legal framework and study how the various laws relate to each other. We will also see what they mean for entrepreneurs and legal entities. This course is offered in Dutch. 

  • Dutch Company Law
    This course is about the various legal entities that you will encounter when running a business. We explain the distinctive characteristics of each type of legal entity and describe how they operate.  You will then apply this knowledge in practical case studies.  This course is also suitable for those with no previous knowledge of law, as it begins with an introduction to private and public law. The course is offered in Dutch. 

  • Innovation, Organization and Entrepreneurship
    If you are interested in how and why companies engage in innovation, then this course is for you. In this course we both discuss internal aspects of innovation (firm resources and capabilities that increase the likelihood of innovation) and external aspects of innovation (the organization of knowledge creation). In order to understand the process of innovation, we look at foundational theories (e.g. Evolutionary Theory) to understand organizational innovation. The knowledge acquired in the course is applied through practical case studies. 

Overview of Entrepreneurship courses at Bachelor level

Course School ECTS Study year Semester
Introduction to Corporate Entrepreneurship TiSEM 6 3 1
Creative Entrepreneurship TiSEM 6 3 1
Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice TiSEM 6 3 1
Entrepreneurial Governance and Finance TLS 6 3 2
Social Innovation Project TSHD 6 2 and 3 1 or 2
Fiscal aspects of entrepreneurship TLS 6 3 1
Corporate law TiSEM 6 3 2
Innovation, Organization and Entrepreneurship TSB 6 3 /pre-master 1

* For the admission requirements of each subject, please see the study guide.

Entrepreneurship Minor

The Entrepreneurship Minor helps you develop an entrepreneurial mindset, plus the associated knowledge and skills. It prepares you to either start-up your own business or bring entrepreneurial thinking to established companies. As proof of your knowledge and skills, you can apply for the 'Entrepreneurship Minor' certificate from the Department of Management, Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TiSEM), by mailing to tisem-mgmt@tilburguniversity.edu, after successful completion of the three courses of the Entrepreneurship Minor.

Why this minor?

  • The Entrepreneurship Minor combines stimulating, inspiring lectures and case studies with engaging assignments that will expose you to some of the key challenges that entrepreneurs face in starting and scaling ventures.
  • You gain a sound understanding of key concepts and insights from entrepreneurship theory, conduct case assignments and develop your entrepreneurial skills.
  • The knowledge, skills and certificate help set you apart in your future career.

What and for whom?

The Entrepreneurship Minor consists of three courses and represents a course load of 18 ECTS. It is open to all Tilburg University Bachelor students (with the exception of students in the Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation Bachelor's program) and is provided in the first semester of the third Bachelor year. The Minor is taught in English.

Courses

  • Creative Entrepreneurship
    In this course, you will study entrepreneurship in the context of those industries where creativity is a key element in their value proposition to the public, such as the gaming, film or design industries: from Spotify to food trucks, and from Damien Hirst to El Bulli. Literature, case studies, a challenging assignment and workshops are all used to highlight the various aspects of creative entrepreneurship. You will discuss the opportunities and risks from globalization and the development of the internet and how these changes can lead to new business models and new types of business. 

  • Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice
    In this course, you will study how scale-ups result from the enterprising behavior of individual entrepreneurs or small entrepreneurial teams. Through eight themes, the course introduces you to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship. Each theme addresses a critical dimension of the entrepreneurial process. Teaching cases are used to have you to step into the shoes of actual entrepreneurs. Most of the cases feature entrepreneurs that were young graduates. You will study a Dutch, Belgian or German scale-up to witness how the theories presented in this course can inform entrepreneurial practice. You may learn that entrepreneurs do not need to be inventors, raise millions to start their business, or write a solid business plan.  

  • Introduction to Corporate Entrepreneurship
    Being entrepreneurial as a salaried worker within a company, that’s what this course is about. Large companies tend to focus on running their existing business, as a result they less eager to explore and develop new lines of business. Process innovations are used to increase efficiency and productivity, product innovation becomes more incremental. They can lose sight of the need to innovate, adapt and be entrepreneurial. However, established firms do seek to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive. This course helps you to understand the role and strategic importance of entrepreneurship to larger corporations.

On a Master's level

Full Master's program Strategic Management: Entrepreneurship

The Master’s program Strategic Management: Entrepreneurship provides students with career enhancing insights into entrepreneurship in the context of existing innovative firms that need to innovate to survive and the new economy where sustainability is creating new business opportunities. It also looks at the challenges involved in taking good and clever ideas and actually implementing them in various settings.

More on the MSc Strategic Management: Entrepreneurship

Full Master's program Data Science in Business and Entrepreneurship

The Master's program in Data Science in Business and Entrepreneurship is ideal for students who want to apply data science to solve problems. This two-year Master’s program combines knowledge on data science from mathematics, statistics and computer science with subjects such as management, entrepreneurship and business models. You will also look at the law, regulations and ethical considerations that come into play.

  • Are you interested in deploying the potential power of big data to solve real-world problems?
  • Do you enjoy the challenge of working with complex, structured or unstructured data?
  • Do you like to transform innovative data-centered concepts and ideas into concrete novel and value-adding products and services?  
  • And, would you like to design your own business initiatives?

Then the Joint Master in Data Science and Entrepreneurship is perfect for you.

Joint program

Data Science in Business and Entrepreneurship is a collaboration between Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology. It combines the best of both worlds: the technological know-how of Eindhoven University of Technology and Tilburg University’s business, legal and societal insights. This Master's program is unique in the Netherlands. 

More on the MSc Data Science in Business and Entrepreneurship

Master’s courses in entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship courses

Are you interested in entrepreneurship, but less keen on following the Master's track? Then you can also take individual courses in entrepreneurship instead. Perhaps you’re looking for a course which better suits your Master’s program. The list below shows the available entrepreneurship courses at the Master level at Tilburg University. Have a look and see what suits you best.

  • Corporate Entrepreneurship
    Being entrepreneurial within a company- that’s what this course is about. It advances your knowledge on entrepreneurship and innovation by discussing the need for corporate entrepreneurship, the various forms in which it exists, its potential challenges and solutions in terms of implementation. 

  • Sustainable Entrepreneurship
    How do we solve the social and environmental problems of today? In this course we look at the roles of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in this. We integrate approaches such as Cradle-to-Cradle, B-Corp, CSR, eco-innovation and sustainable business models in our journey to understand how entrepreneurial businesses can play a role in creating a better world. For this course we ask you to write a case study about a sustainable business on the basis of desk research and interviews. 

  • Strategy Implementation
    Without a good execution, strategy is useless. This course aims at identifying the requirements and conditions under which firms can successful implement their business strategy. In addition to the relevant theory, you will have the opportunity to practice aspects of strategy implementation in both group and individual assignments. The course includes interactive skills training sessions, both on and offline. 

  • Entrepreneurial Finance
    In this course you will obtain an understanding of a wide variety of issues related to the financing of entrepreneurial firms. From both an academic and practical perspective. After you develop your own business plan in a small group, we organize a session where you present this plan and defend it in front of a panel of real life investors, in a Dragon’s Den setting! Read more in Osiris.

  • Law, Entrepreneurship and Finance
    What challenges do founder-entrepreneurs face when pursuing their dream of building a global business? You will discover the answer during this course. You will learn how to decide where to locate  your startup, and how to make use of the emerging global ‘virtual’ innovation eco-system. The issue of investor readiness will also be examined, with the focus on building a stable and sustainable relationship between founder-entrepreneur and investor. The course also features international guest lecturers. 

  • Organizing Strategy and Entrepreneurship
    Any organization seeking success has to adapt constantly, which requires overcoming internal barriers. This course will focus on the role of strategic leadership in managing this process, and on serious gaming as an instrument to do that.  In small teams of students you will work on cases that test your understanding of the literature and how they are applied in real-life situations. 

  • Strategic Marketing Management
    To be successful, entrepreneurs need to offer some distinctive value that sets them apart from their competitors, in the customer’s view. This requires a carefully designed marketing strategy as the basis for decisions. In this course, you will learn to analyze company information form an appropriate marketing strategy and develop an implementation plan to execute that strategy. We will be using the Markstrat© game to practice and develop your decision-making skills. 

  • Social Media Marketing (BDM)
    Companies are increasingly using social media such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Companies are increasingly using social media such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to reach and persuade people, and to build loyalty. However, these new social media differ from more traditional means of communication in many important respects. This course will focus on how companies can effectively use social media for promotional or marketing purposes. We will discuss recent scientific developments in this area and welcome some interesting guest speakers from the field.