IP Publishing Ltd
JUNE 2009 ISSUE (VOL 23, NO 3)
148 Monitor A bimonthly round-up of developments worldwide
SPECIAL ISSUE: Entrepreneurship education in difficult economic conditions
Guest editors: Harry Matlay and David Rae
151 Introduction
153 The role of inquiry-based learning in entrepreneurship education
163 Corporate entrepreneurship training evaluation: a model and a new research perspective
175 Enterprise education: learning through personal experience
183 Creating an enterprise culture in a university: the role of an entrepreneurial learning team
199 Graduating into start-up: exploring the transition
243 Educating students for e-entrepreneurship in the UK, the USA and China
142 Calendar
Title: The role of inquiry-based learning in entrepreneurship education
Abstract: This paper introduces a course design that used history and inquiry-based learning to develop science students’ understanding of invention, innovation and commercialization processes. First, it explains inquiry-based learning and then introduces a sample course design, explaining the rationale, structure and process. Following on from this introduction, a student case study on the development of Taxol is used to show how inquiry-based learning can enhance science students’ understanding of entrepreneurial processes. The case study provides an illustration of the forms of knowledge gained through the use of inquiry-based learning. The paper concludes by highlighting the benefits and challenges of this type of course for the students and pointing out how such a course can provide a different approach for entrepreneurship education targeted at science and engineering students.
Title: Corporate entrepreneurship training evaluation: a model and a new research perspective
Abstract: This paper looks at corporate entrepreneurship (CE) training and proposes some insights for its evaluation. The literature review begins by outlining what corporate entrepreneurship entails and the rationale for a firm adopting a more entrepreneurial posture. Subsequently, organizational devices for encouraging corporate entrepreneurship are explored, with a particular focus on the practice of training. Assessing the effect of training programmes leads to the question of how the programmes, especially CE programmes, can be effectively evaluated. An evaluative framework for CE training initiatives is proposed. The paper draws on evaluation principles from three fields of literature – training, adult education and entrepreneurship education. This study focuses on the ‘changes in learners’ that occur as a result of training. The evaluation insights gained from these three fields are coupled with an individualized measure of entrepreneurial orientation to present a schematic of effective CE training evaluation.
Title: Enterprise education: learning through personal experience
Abstract: This paper outlines the development of a reflective process through which student feelings are brought to the surface to advance their learning outcomes. A key notion in relation to the capacity of student development is the ability of students to alter their collective habits of thought and in turn the nature of the learning environment. The paper examines student reflection in the context of students’ heightened awareness of self and their potential influence on their environment. The notion of ‘surfacing feelings’ is used to describe the outcome of individual and group reflection through which several parties become aware of the active reflections of individual students, thereby increasing the potential depth of overall reflection. Finally, the author considers the transferability of the ideas discussed to other educational contexts.
Title: Creating an enterprise culture in a university: the role of an entrepreneurial learning team
Abstract: The ‘entrepreneurial university’ is considered a desirable and achievable goal, but how do universities become entrepreneurial? The role of the enterprising academic in stimulating cultural change is often overlooked. This article presents as a case study the teaching team at the University of Derby, UK, who ‘acted as entrepreneurs’ for five years to stimulate enterprising learning across the university. The analysis provides insights into cultural change in a modern regional university. The authors explore three questions: how can a university develop an entrepreneurial culture, how can entrepreneurial teachers stimulate cultural change, and are there general learning points to be gained from the experience at the University of Derby? The process of developing an enterprising culture in a university is examined by tracing the organizational, pedagogical, systemic and behavioural changes and conflicts that arose. The authors examine the impact on a higher education institution of five years of significant growth in enterprise learning from a zero base, including the development of an enterprise curriculum, innovative learning methods, funded projects for student and community entrepreneurship, practice-based research and the formation of networks of educators, practitioners and influencers. They conclude with an account of the ‘Energizing Enterprise Education’ staff development event for the team and the university. The paper highlights the significance of the values, skills and methods of an entrepreneurial teaching team as crucial factors in the cultural change process and in addressing the inevitable conflict with the ‘base culture’.
Title: Graduating into start-up: exploring the transition
Abstract: The main purpose of the exploratory research discussed in this paper was to generate insights into the complexity of the career-making processes involved in the transition from being a student to starting up a business. Using story-telling interviews, data were collected from fifteen graduates based in the Yorkshire region of the UK. Qualitative thematic analysis produced a chronological summary for each respondent, charting the sequence of events that led to start-up and providing appropriate context and rationale so that key themes could be identified. The research began as a study of the career-making process of moving from student status to self-employment; it ended by offering valuable insight into the complex transition process undertaken by a group of diverse graduates. This subtle shift of positioning is important, and reflects the outcomes of the in-depth research undertaken with the respondents. The findings suggest that only very rarely could the transition process be regarded as strategic. It was not a linear process with clear stages, but rather a continuous process which often stretched back to the respondent’s pre-university life. The process is discussed in relation to three major themes: personal characteristics, employment experiences and lifestyle, and support. Appreciation and awareness of the lack of common transition and contextual processes, aspirations, factors and required capabilities must be reflected in policy and practice that seek to promote and enhance graduate entrepreneurship. The authors’ findings question the suitability of neat policy formulas and skills-based interventions to encourage more students to take a start-up pathway. Further research is needed to strengthen the fledgling understanding of this process.
Abstract: Recent guidance for UK government policy makers has warned that HEIs face an uncertain future and has advocated transdisciplinary curricula. Earlier, in 2005, two other UK government papers highlighted the advantages of integrating design-related strategies into business environments and addressed the impact creativity could have on business performance. A key recommendation was to strengthen the relationships between businesses, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and creative professionals from design disciplines who could positively affect business performance and provide digital media, industrial design, packaging, graphic design, branding and advertising. If the successful entrepreneur has personal skills, attributes and behaviours that extend beyond the purely commercial, HEIs need to develop students with capabilities that meet the entrepreneurial challenges of the knowledge economy. This paper draws on entrepreneurship and business education strategies that have evolved out of art and design disciplines at Swansea Metropolitan University in the UK. The authors argue that curriculum development should incorporate ‘business’ acumen in all programmes outside business schools and should develop the fundamental skills for developing and exploiting ‘creativity’ in programmes within them. The provision of a symbiotic experience of business and creativity across the curriculum has many benefits, not least because it responds to calls from entrepreneurship educators for a paradigm shift to develop right-brain entrepreneurial capabilities as well as left-brain analytical skills. Such pedagogies are well-established in the design disciplines and the evidence suggests that they are important as a wide-reaching, cross- disciplinary enabling strategy.
Abstract: This paper focuses on factors that influence the appropriateness of entrepreneurship studies to the needs and expectations of management students in Israel, where entrepreneurs are considered cultural heroes. The results of the authors’ research revealed great interest in entrepreneurship studies among most of the students surveyed. However, differences were found between those students who intended to start a business and those who did not – in their business-related background, entrepreneurial traits and their business needs and expectations from entrepreneurship studies. These results highlight the disparity between the supply and the expectations from entrepreneurship programmes in universities, and as such have important implications for entrepreneurship education.
Abstract: This paper examines the perceptions and attitudes of mature students in relation to a ground- breaking one-year ‘top-up’ degree in business and enterprise, exploring how those perceptions and attitudes evolve during the students’ studies. It concludes with a discussion of how entrepreneurship educators can best support the development of these novel students as enterprising individuals in businesses and organizations. A longitudinal approach has been adopted for the research. Students on the programme complete questionnaires at the beginning, halfway through, and at the end of the programme, enabling the researchers to identify changes in perceptions and attitudes over time. This paper is concerned with the first and second questionnaires in the research study, which indicate positive changes in the students’ perceptions of themselves as enterprising and creative individuals. Additional benefits of the programme have also been identified, such as the development of students’ networking skills, the raising of their confidence in expressing their ideas, and an improvement in their ability to motivate others to express their ideas. The implications for policy makers relate to how novel enterprise education schemes can support the development of an enterprising society. Similarly, entrepreneurship educators can gain insight into how innovative workplace-based learning, linked to organizations as well as personal objectives, can be delivered.
Title: Educating students for e-entrepreneurship in the UK, the USA and China
Abstract: A growing body of research evaluates various aspects of entrepreneurship education (such as curriculum, delivery and assessment) and links it to outcomes in terms of both the number and quality of entrepreneurs entering an economy. There is, however, a marked paucity of empirically rigorous research appraising the impact of entrepreneurship education on graduates’ intentions and perceived ability to set up Internet-based e-enterprises that can operate across temporal and geographical boundaries. This paper provides a comparative overview of entrepreneurship education in the UK, the USA and China with a focus on IT and non-IT students’ e- entrepreneurship intentions, perceptions and outcomes. The research on which the paper is based was carried out in two distinct phases: first, focus groups were used to design, pilot and develop a comprehensive research questionnaire for use in a wider, multi-country survey; second, questionnaires were then distributed to students in IT and non-IT related disciplines in the UK, the USA and China. The preliminary results show that most respondents were slow to conceptualize and contextualize e-entrepreneurship in the prevailing socio-economic and political conditions of their countries of origin. There were no significant differences between students of IT and non-IT disciplines in their perceptions of the viability and practicality of engaging in e- entrepreneurship. Generic support initiatives appear to neglect the vast portfolio of skills needs for graduates engaging in Internet trading. The authors recommend that entrepreneurship education providers should engage with emergent models of e-entrepreneurship and that policy makers should provide innovative initiatives to cater for the specific needs of e-entrepreneurs.