Courses
All HBS MBAs take a first-year course, The Entrepreneurial Manager (TEM). Other first-year courses feature some entrepreneurial cases and companies, viewed from that course’s point of view, and TEM brings all those together in a general management perspective. The Field course also has a very significant entrepreneurship component.
In the second-year, there are over 20 entrepreneurial elective courses, which are grouped into three broad categories: Entrepreneurial business creation and management; Entrepreneurship: a historical perspective; and Entrepreneurship in specific contexts.
As you think about courses, it’s a good idea to speak with your TEM professor, as well as with the faculty who teach any of the courses you are thinking about taking. It is preferable to do this during the spring and summer, rather than during the hectic add/drop period in early fall.
You need to think about both the areas of strength and focus you want to deepen, as well as any gaps in your background that you want to try to shore up. Again, field studies and projects courses are a great way to work on your own idea, to look for an idea, dive into an industry, or to meet some start-ups where you may want to work.
Our Course Offerings
Links below will take you to the official course descriptions as they appear in our MBA course catalog. For most courses, we also offer a PDF version of the most recent syllabus. Note that most course materials (cases and notes) have a 6 digit number, indicating their availability via Harvard Business School Publishing. Some materials and courseware (spreadsheets) are unavailable, but listed here for the sake of completeness.
Required MBA Courses in Entrepreneurship
Elective MBA Courses in Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial business creation and management
- Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Entrepreneurial Marketing
- Managing Change
- Managing for Creativity, half-course
Entrepreneurship: a historical perspective
- The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: The U.S.
- Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism
- Entrepreneurial Leadership: Past, Present and Future
Entrepreneurship in specific contexts:
- Building Business in the Context of a Life
- Commercializing Science
- Doing Business in China
- Entrepreneurial Leadership in Turbulent Times
- Entrepreneurial Management in a Turnaround Environment
- Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital in Healthcare
- Entrepreneurship in Education Reform
- Executing Strategy, half-course
- Field Study Seminar: Building Green Businesses
- Field Study Seminar: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Shaped by Crises
- Field Study Seminar: Evaluating the Entrepreneurial Opportunity
- Field Study Seminar in Healthcare Technology Entrepreneurship: A Hands-on Experience
- Field Study Seminar: Innovating in Health Care
- Founders' Dilemmas
- Growing, Financing, and Managing Family and Closely Held Firms
- International Entrepreneurship
- Launching Technology Ventures, half-course
- Law and the Life Cycle of a Business - Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship, half-course
- Law and the Life Cycle of a Business - Operating As a Public Company, half-course
- Leading Innovative Ventures
- Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship
- Managing Innovation
- The Online Economy: Strategy and Entrepreneurship
- Private Equity Finance
- Real Estate Development, Design, and Construction, half-course
- Real Property
- Sustainable Cities; Urbanization, Infrastructure, and Finance, half-course, half-course
- Venture Capital and Private Equity