ENHANCING ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS BY DEVELOPING A MARKETING CASE ON THE INNOVATIVE PRODUCT 'POWERINSOLE®'

The aim of this paper is to introduce and discuss an easy-to-use case for fostering entrepreneurial skills of students who may - but do not necessarily have to - have prior knowledge of marketing management. Research has shown that working on cases is an adequate way to foster entrepreneurial skills that comprise the students' ability to apply knowledge of business management, particularly marketing management, as well as their personal and social skills. Hence, it seems desirable to find a business case that deals with a product that students can quickly relate to, find interesting and that is also easy to understand. The recently developed innovative Powerinsole (R) is such a product and can easily be explained to students. They can quickly get an idea of the innovative product that needs to be marketed. Students can acquire and/or apply their knowledge about marketing management as well as improve their personal and social skills by working in teams and building a business case on how to promote such a product. The paper comprises the basic information about the product and its specifications, a selection of assignments for the students, some suggestions on how to solve the problems and how the learning outcome can be evaluated.