Communication in Focus: Comparing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

​ Project Summary:

• ​​​​​​​Chicago and Hong Ko​ng are both global business and cultural centers, as well as hubs for innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in both cities. DePaul students worked on strategic communication and business challenges facing the class client, a pioneer tech incubator and coworking space based in Chicago. In addition to gaining greater cross-cultural competency. DePaul students used the insights gained through interviews and collaborations with the students from the University of Hong Kong to help inform their final project recommendations to the class client. 

Project Len​​gth:

• Se​ven Weeks
  

 Technology Tools Used​​:

 Interaction Mode: ​

• Students summarized the perceptions and attitudes about the United States, and specifically Chicago, among Hong Kong residents, particularly Hong Kong business and communication professionals (as part of submitting a team-based status report update and then as part of making a team-based research presentation of findings to the class client, a coworking provider).
• Students summarized the state of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Hong Kong, specifically identifying the key players and the key trends in this market's ecosystem (as part of submitting a team-based status report update and then as part of making a team-based research presentation of findings to the class client, a coworking provider).

• Students compared and contrasted the opportunities and the challenges of working on a cross-cultural collaborative research project, specifically the various team-based collaboration opportunities, such as conducting interviews with each other (through guided in-class discussions about these experiences). 
   
  

Student Feedback:​​​

• "I learned to broaden my horizons and understand that it’s super important to consider the many differences between … people from other countries. Aside from the obvious cultural differences, it’s really eye opening to learn how to effectively communicate in spite of the difficulties of language barriers, time zones, etc. Once we got used to the scheduling and communicating, it was really fun to interact with a group of people who we may never have gotten the chance to learn from and interact with if not for that class."    ~Jamie S. 2021​
  

​To learn more about this project, read the article found below.

Leung, P., & Ragas, M. (2020, Jun). Intercultural research-based learning through virtual inter-institutional exchange: Experiences during Covid-19. Teaching and Learning Connections, 12. Retrieved from https://www.cetl.hku.hk/teaching-learning-cop/experiences-during-covid-19/ 

Matt Ragas

 

 

Institution: DePaul University
Discipline: Mass Communication
Course name: Public Relations & Advertising Entrepreneurs

Patrick Leung

 

 

Institution: University of Hong Kong
Discipline: Applied English Studies 
Course name: Academic English for Information Management & Social Data Science