Faculty of Electrical Engineering

and Computer Science

Smetanova ulica 17
SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia

Sample questions for the written exam in Entrepreneurship

From the textbook:
Robert D. Hisrich, Michael P. Peters, Dean A. Shepherd (2013): Entrepreneurship, 9th Edition,
International edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Below I state sample questions of which three or four you shall receive to answer or solve at the
written exam, which lasts for 60 minutes.

Chapter 1: Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurial Opportunities

1. Describe the entrepreneurial opportunities.
2. Explain an entrepreneurs background and characteristics that impact his/her intention to act
entrepreneurially.
3. Entrepreneurs think differently from non-entrepreneurs. Describe the entrepreneurial way of
thinking
4. Describe a choice of a role model as one of the most important factors influencing
entrepreneurs in their career path.
5. How would you describe what is sustainable entrepreneurship?
Chapter 2: Corporate Entrepreneurship
6. Discuss how entrepreneurial management is distinct from the way existing firms are
traditionally managed in terms of: (1) strategic orientation and (2) management structure.
7. Discuss how entrepreneurial management is distinct from the way existing firms are
traditionally managed in terms of: (1) commitment to opportunity and (2) growth
orientation.
8. Discuss how entrepreneurial management is distinct from the way existing firms are
traditionally managed in terms of: (1) commitment of resources, (2) control of resources, and
(3) entrepreneurial culture.
9. What are the nine important characteristics for establishing corporate entrepreneurship in
an organization?

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Chapter 3: Entrepreneurial Strategy and Exploiting New Entries

10. Explain what it means that the essential act of entrepreneurship involves new entry.
11. Describe how resources represent the basic building blocks to a firms functioning and
performance.
12. Explain market and technological knowledge that are particularly relevant to the generation
of new entries.
13. Describe advantages that come from being the first mover (the first to introduce a new
product and/or the first to create a new market).
14. Describe first-mover disadvantages.
15. Considerable risk of a new entry can be reduced by market scope strategies. Discuss how.
16. Considerable risk of a new entry can be reduced by imitation strategies. Discuss how.
Chapter 4: Creativity and the Business Idea
17. Describe sources of new ideas.
18. Innovation is the key to the economic development of any company, region of a country or
country itself. Describe various levels of innovation based on the uniqueness of the idea
(breakthrough innovation, technological innovation, and ordinary innovation).
19. To facilitate the success or failure of any new product the entrepreneur should use a
consumers as well as a firms viewpoints. Discuss this.
20. Which establishing evaluation criteria are used to evaluate the new idea in terms of market
opportunity, competition, the marketing system, financial factors, and production factors.
21. Describe the stages of the product planning and development process.
Chapter 5: Identifying and Analyzing Domestic and International Opportunities
22. Each and every innovative idea and opportunity should be carefully assessed. One good way
to do this is to develop an opportunity assessment plan. Describe the elements of an
opportunity assessment plan.
23. Explain why international entrepreneurial decisions are more complex (in comparison to
domestic) due to such uncontrollable factors as economics, politics, and technology.
24. Explain the cultures elements that the global entrepreneur must consider when decide to go
global.
25. What are motivations for a firm to go global?
26. How a firm does its foreign market selection?
27. Explain entrepreneurial entry strategy: exporting (indirect and direct exporting).
28. Explain entrepreneurial entry strategies: non-equity arrangements.
29. Explain entrepreneurial entry strategies: direct foreign investment (DFI).
30. Explain entrepreneurial entry strategy: entrepreneurial partnering.
31. Discuss barriers to international trade.
Chapter 7: The Business Plan: Creating and Starting the Venture
32. In a business plan, critical issues for environmental and industry analysis should be
presented. Discuss them.

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33. In a business plan, a description of the venture should be represented. Discuss this.
34. In a business plan, a production plan should be represented. Discuss this.
35. In a business plan, a description of organization structure should be represented. Discuss
this.
Chapter 11: Sources of Capital
36. Describe the firms internal and external funds.
Chapter 12: Informal Risk Capital, Venture Capital, and Going Public
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.

Describe the venture capital.

Describe eight factors of valuing the venture.
Discuss liquidity ratios.
Discuss activity ratios.
Discuss leverage ratios.
Discuss profitability ratios.
Explain advantages and disadvantages of going public.

Chapter 13: Strategies for Growth and Managing the Implications of Growth
44. Describe the penetration growth strategies based upon knowledge of product and/or
market.
45. Describe the product development strategies based upon knowledge of product and/or
market.
46. Describe the market development growth strategies based upon knowledge of product
and/or market.
47. Describe the diverzification growth strategies based upon knowledge of product and/or
market.
Chapter 14: Accessing Resources for Growth from External Sources
48. In growing a business, joint ventures may be used. Discuss this type of external party to help
grow.
49. In growing a business, acquisitions may be used. Discuss this type of external party to help
grow.
50. In growing a business, mergers may be used. Discuss this type of external party to help grow.
51. In growing a business, leveraged buyouts may be used. Discuss this type of external party to
help grow.
52. In growing a business, franchising may be used. Discuss this type of external party to help
grow.
I hope these questions would help you get an impression what you are expected to comprehend and
be able to answer at the written examination.
March 23, 2016
Ph. D. Dijana Monik, Full Professor

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