Finalist

Fast Forward Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year Award

Francisco-Jose Molina-Castillo

Finalist of the Fast Forward Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year Award

University of Murcia - Spain

"EUREKA!. An entrepreneurial methodology for product innovation."


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Summary

The EUREKA methodology combines three key elements:
1) An interactive e-book on new productdevelopment,
2) A podcast on innovation and entrepreneurship, and
3) A technique to create new products in the classroom autonomously by students.
EUREKA has allowed changing the way of teaching about innovation and entrepreneurship. With this methodology, students create and patent innovations that can later be the seed to create a new company. In this way, the teaching/learning process is transformed as the student and their new product is at the centre of the whole process. The one-way communication from teacher to student is transformed into a threedimensional axis between the teacher, the student, and the new product. The interactive e-book allows students to interact with the content, evaluate their progress with quiz questions and discover the theory of innovation through a novel that tells the story of a student who starts working in a company. This book tells a story (relationships with co-workers, former university classmates, relationship with successful products, etc.); it is not a list of concepts of a traditional book. The story interweaves theoretical aspects with the reality of a company. The podcast tells real examples of products that have left their mark on the history of innovation. In addition, interviews and company
visits allow the content to be taken outside the classroom. The EUREKA methodology is unique and revolutionary, just like the more than 300 new products that my students have created over 12 years and that have allowed them to become entrepreneurs.

Key People


Carolina Lopez-Nicolas
Full Professor. University of Murcia
Management and Finance,  co-author of Eureka ebook



Rosa Huertas
Novel writer
co-author of Eureka ebook



María García-Ciudad
Primary school teacher
Former student and co-author of Eureka ebook



Oana Frumuzache
Novel writer
Former student and co-author of Eureka ebook



Ana-Gema Gonzalez-Piqueras
Consumer insight analysis
Former student and co-author of Eureka ebook



Vanesa Marcos-Davila
Ux/Ui/Product designer
co-author of Eureka ebook



Pablo Saura-Manzanera
Marketing Junior in Connectif
Former student and co-author of Eureka ebook



Emilio Cano-Molina
Podcaster in emilcar.fm
Podcaster and host of EUREKA


Acknowledgements

https://businessmakeover.eu. European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 645791.

Images

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IMPACT STORY

Impacting lifes

During more than 20 years of teaching and research, I have travelled a lot and been forced to spend much time in airports. Anyone who has flown has had the experience of a cancelled flight and waiting patiently at the airport. I remember sitting on a bench on one such occasion, expecting my flight to depart. The delay was more than two hours, so I had to put up with it like the rest of the passengers. Suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder. I thought something had fallen on the floor, but when I turned around, I discovered that it was a person calling my name, "Fran, it's good to see you again". It was my surprise to find out that it was a former student whom I had the good fortune to teach and with whom I applied the methodology EUREKA. Everything changed at that moment; the hours of waiting turned into a happy chat with my former student, who told me how much he had enjoyed the EUREKA methodology and how it had helped him start working in a large company and create new products. At that time, I became a student and enjoyed his experiences and the latest developments he made. Since then, I have met many other students during my travels, and it has always been motivating. All the effort put into creating the EUREKA methodologyhas been worth it. My students and their experiences are the best rewards during all these years of my professional career.

LEARNINGS

Lessons learned

I never thought of becoming a university professor. When I was studying for my business degree, I dreamt of working for a big firm or starting my own company. However, destiny led me to become a teacher and to discover a facet that had never crossed my mind. I set out to change the teaching paradigm that I had experienced years ago as a student from the very beginning. In my first years of teaching, my colleagues did not use transparencies and limited themselves to writing on the blackboard. Instead, I decided to go to class with a laptop, an overhead projector, a slide presenter, and gadgets. I didn't want the students to spend the time copying what I put on the board, so I managed to get my material to them through a web page that I created myself that included an intranet (at that time, almost nobody had or used e-mail). The experience was enriching both for the students and me as a teacher. Years later, I was commissioned to teach a course on innovation and new products. I then thought of creating the EUREKA methodology and getting the students to learn the fundamental concepts, develop their latest products, and maybe work for a big company or make their own one day. Although I did not achieve my dream of creating a company, I am happy to see that my students have been able to work for a big company or become great entrepreneurs.

FUTURE PLANS

What's coming?

I have always tried to apply the results of my research in my teaching. One of the fundamental aspects of innovation is that it is necessary to improve new products and adapt them to the market. Otherwise, they will not be attractive to customers. My students are my customers, and I want them to be satisfied with their time in my classes. That is why I have decided to improve the EUREKA methodology and go one step further. The latest contributions in teaching innovation highlight the importance of gamifying the teaching activity in the classroom. To this end, I am creating a business simulation software that allows accurate decisions to be made in a competitive environment. Now students can create new products, launch them on the market, and compete with their peers in a simulated environment. This software, combined with the EUREKA methodology, will allow teaching about innovation and entrepreneurship to be taken to another level. The advantage of using simulation software is that students must reason their decision making, or their new product will be less successful than their peers competing in the same market. In addition, the teacher can analyse the students' decisions and give them advice so that they do not repeat the mistakes in the following stages of the entrepreneurial game. This software will be fully adaptable to different situations, markets or new products and will become a reference for teaching courses about innovation and entrepreneurship.


KEY STATISTICS

1200 students

The number of undergraduate and postgraduate students that have benefit from this methodology

300 new products

Over 300 products created by students.

Over 100 companies

More than 100 companies have collaborated to design new products jointly with students.

Frequent visits to companies to show results

Frequent visits to companies to show results and learn new methodologies to develop new products.

1st Podcast Worldwide

The first podcast worldwide dedicated to teaching about new products, entrepreneurship at university level.

Over 40 podcasts

More than 40 podcast chapters talk about new products that had an impact on society worldwide.

More than 80 papers published in academic journals

More than 80 papers published in academic journals about innovation and entrepreneurship such as: Journal of Product Innovation, Harvard Business Review, Journal of the Academy the Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing Management, Technovation, Informat

More than 100 contributions to conferences

More than 100 contributions in conferences about innovation and entrepreneurship such as: Academy of Marketing Science, Product Development Management Association, International Product Development Management Conference, European Marketing Academic Confer

More than 10 academic books published

More than 10 academic books published analysing the develop and launch of new products by companies

Over 5 million euros of funding secured

Over 5 million euros of funding obtained at European, national, and regional level

Collaboration with many companies across Europe

Collaboration with many companies across Europe during the last 20 years to help them develop and launch new products into the market.

https://itunes.apple.com/es/book/eureka/id1398265977?l=es&ls=1&mt=11 a

Apple Book EUREKA

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