The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonEntrepreneurship plays a significant role in the economic development of society. Education is also the most important pillar for the development of a nation, and this is the reason why business schools and universities are paying attention to promoting entrepreneurship education programmes. There are various courses available for entrepreneurship education with a wide variety of contents, delivery methods, teaching approaches and duration. These programmes are being provided at numerous levels and there is a need to assess the effectiveness of these programmes from different aspects and to find out the strategies for designing entrepreneurship education programmes more effective in terms of creating more entrepreneurs. In order to know the effectiveness, intention plays an important role. If participants develop their intention to start their own venture in business, then it will be a good indicator of their future entrepreneurial behaviour. Hence the current research examines the impact of entrepreneurship education programmes in terms of intention by using the well-known theory of Azjen of planning behaviour. Currently, entrepreneurship education courses are delivered by various means hence this research makes a useful contribution by focussing on four key characteristics i.e. introduction of role model, introduction of entrepreneurial network, business planning activities and feedback given by the mentors or teachers during the class. Another important aspect is that the sample is kept consistent by only including those HE courses whose duration is ten to twelve weeks (twenty to twenty-five contact hours). In order to collect data, the survey method was used and overall four hundred questionnaires were included in the final data analysis. To obtain more reliable results on specific entrepreneurship education characteristics and their influence on entrepreneurial intention, this study used SEM path analysis for fitness of the overall model instead of regression for separate relationships. The results suggest that the feedback and business plan activities can directly impact on entrepreneurial intention. This knowledge can help draw up guidelines for entrepreneurship education courses and their providers. Also, the link between entrepreneurial networking and change in intention is mediated by participants’ subjective norm though entrepreneurial networking does not influence change in intention directly, it can mediate through subjective norm. Similarly, the introduction of role models does not have a direct impact, but it is also mediated by participants’ attitude towards behaviour. This research makes further relevant contributions by increasing knowledge of the relationship of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention through investigating the mediating roles of subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and attitudes in the relationships between elements of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, which have not been done before. This study also suggests that these three components play mediating roles in this relationship. As these three components are relevant for developing the entrepreneurial intention hence it is also important to explore their mediating roles. Additionally, this research contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by identifying essential characteristics: a) relevance of business plan activities, b) introduction of role models, c) introduction of entrepreneurial network and d) feedback by mentors or teachers. This is the first study in the area which has taken the step to fill this gap where a variety of entrepreneurship education courses are available, but which key characteristics can make the courses more result oriented in terms of developing entrepreneurial intention are still not available. This research has been conducted by using accepted theories such as Kolb’s experiential learning theory, Azjen’s theory of planned behaviour and recent teaching models with current entrepreneurship education programmes based on these key characteristics. Overall the results of the research can be used by educational institutions, universities, organisation such as higher education academies or education policy makers, or anyone else who is aiming for developing and creating more entrepreneurs in the future. Entrepreneurs play a significant role in promoting the economy hence this research makes a significant practical contribution

The Impact of Organizational Practices on the Information Security Management Performance

Abstract: Information explosion and pressures are leading organizations to invest heavily in information security to ensure that information technology decisions align with business goals and manage risks. Limited studies have been done using small- and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. Furthermore, a small number of parameters have been used in the previous studies. This research aims to examine and analyze the effect of security organizational practices on information security management performance with many parameters. A model has been developed together with hypotheses to evaluate the impact of organizational practices on information security management performance. The data is collected from 171 UK employees at manufacturing SMEs that had already implemented security policies. The structure equation model is employed via the SPSS Amos 22 tool for the evaluation of results. Our results state that security training, knowledge sharing, security education, and security visibility significantly impact information security performance. In addition, this study highlights a significant impact of both security training and knowledge sharing on trust in the organization. Business leaders and decision-makers can reference the proposed model and the corresponding study results to develop favourable tactics to achieve their goals regarding information security management

Implementation of a Deutsch-like quantum algorithm utilizing entanglement at the two-qubit level, on an NMR quantum information processor

We describe the experimental implementation of a recently proposed quantum algorithm involving quantum entanglement at the level of two qubits using NMR. The algorithm solves a generalisation of the Deutsch problem and distinguishes between even and odd functions using fewer function calls than is possible classically. The manipulation of entangled states of the two qubits is essential here, unlike the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and the Grover's search algorithm for two bits.Comment: 4 pages, two eps figure

The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention: an empirical study of entrepreneurship education's four key characteristics

Entrepreneurship plays a significant role in the economic development of society. Education is also the most important pillar for the development of a nation, and this is the reason why business schools and universities are paying attention to promoting entrepreneurship education programmes. There are various courses available for entrepreneurship education with a wide variety of contents, delivery methods, teaching approaches and duration. These programmes are being provided at numerous levels and there is a need to assess the effectiveness of these programmes from different aspects and to find out the strategies for designing entrepreneurship education programmes more effective in terms of creating more entrepreneurs. In order to know the effectiveness, intention plays an important role. If participants develop their intention to start their own venture in business, then it will be a good indicator of their future entrepreneurial behaviour. Hence the current research examines the impact of entrepreneurship education programmes in terms of intention by using the well-known theory of Azjen of planning behaviour. Currently, entrepreneurship education courses are delivered by various means hence this research makes a useful contribution by focussing on four key characteristics i.e. introduction of role model, introduction of entrepreneurial network, business planning activities and feedback given by the mentors or teachers during the class. Another important aspect is that the sample is kept consistent by only including those HE courses whose duration is ten to twelve weeks (twenty to twenty-five contact hours). In order to collect data, the survey method was used and overall four hundred questionnaires were included in the final data analysis. To obtain more reliable results on specific entrepreneurship education characteristics and their influence on entrepreneurial intention, this study used SEM path analysis for fitness of the overall model instead of regression for separate relationships. The results suggest that the feedback and business plan activities can directly impact on entrepreneurial intention. This knowledge can help draw up guidelines for entrepreneurship education courses and their providers. Also, the link between entrepreneurial networking and change in intention is mediated by participants’ subjective norm though entrepreneurial networking does not influence change in intention directly, it can mediate through subjective norm. Similarly, the introduction of role models does not have a direct impact, but it is also mediated by participants’ attitude towards behaviour. This research makes further relevant contributions by increasing knowledge of the relationship of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention through investigating the mediating roles of subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and attitudes in the relationships between elements of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, which have not been done before. This study also suggests that these three components play mediating roles in this relationship. As these three components are relevant for developing the entrepreneurial intention hence it is also important to explore their mediating roles. Additionally, this research contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by identifying essential characteristics: a) relevance of business plan activities, b) introduction of role models, c) introduction of entrepreneurial network and d) feedback by mentors or teachers. This is the first study in the area which has taken the step to fill this gap where a variety of entrepreneurship education courses are available, but which key characteristics can make the courses more result oriented in terms of developing entrepreneurial intention are still not available. This research has been conducted by using accepted theories such as Kolb’s experiential learning theory, Azjen’s theory of planned behaviour and recent teaching models with current entrepreneurship education programmes based on these key characteristics. Overall the results of the research can be used by educational institutions, universities, organisation such as higher education academies or education policy makers, or anyone else who is aiming for developing and creating more entrepreneurs in the future. Entrepreneurs play a significant role in promoting the economy hence this research makes a significant practical contribution

Entrepreneurship Education and Its Role in Influencing Intention to become Entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship plays a significant role in economic development of the society and education is also the most important pillar for the development of the nation and this is the reason that business schools and universities are paying their attention to promote entrepreneurship education programmes. But these programmes are being provided at numerous levels and there is a great need to assess the effectiveness of these programmes from different aspects. National culture and pedagogical engineering of courses can play an important role in this area and it can be considered as a good contribution in theory as well as in practice. Certain aspects of entrepreneurship can be taught successfully. But we need to find out that how can we make entrepreneurship education programmes more effective? The aim of the research is to find out the impact of entrepreneurship education programmes in terms of intention and also to study the factors which can increase the intention? The research will be conducted in two different countries to test whether the results can be applied universally or they are very different in different countries

Factors influencing students’ satisfaction with continuous use of learning management systems during the COVID‑19 pandemic: An empirical study

COVID-19 has impacted educational processes in most countries: some educational institutions have closed, while others, particularly in higher education, have converted to online learning systems, due to the advantages offered by information technologies. This study analyzes the critical factors influencing students' satisfaction with their continuing use of online learning management systems in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the integration of social cognitive theory, expectation confirmation theory, and DeLone and McLean's IS success model, a survey was conducted of 181 UK students who engaged with learning management systems. It was found that, during the pandemic, service quality did not influence students' satisfaction, although both information quality and self-efficacy had significant impacts on satisfaction. In addition, the results revealed that neither self-efficacy nor satisfaction impacted personal outcome expectations, although prior experience and social influence did. The findings have practical implications for education developers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to develop effective strategies for and improve the use of learning management systems during the pandemic

Radiance Interpolants for Accelerated Bounded-Error Ray Tracing

this paper, we present a system that exploits object-space, rayspace, image-space and temporal coherence to accelerate ray tracing. Our system uses per-surface interpolants to approximate radiance, while conservatively bounding error. The techniques we introduce in this paper should enhance both interactive and batch ray tracers