Bridging the traditional-progressive education rift through entrepreneurship

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to use entrepreneurship to bridge the traditional – progressive education rift. Design/methodology/approach - The rift between traditional and progressive education is first deconstructed into five dualisms. Conceptual question-based analysis is then applied to determine if and how three entrepreneurial tools could contribute to bridging this rift; effectuation, customer development and appreciative inquiry. Finally, pattern based generalizations are drawn from this analysis. Findings – Patterns in the analysis motivate the articulation of an overarching educational philosophy – learning-through-creating-value-for-others – grounded in entrepreneurship and capable of bridging the educational rift. Research limitations/implications Only three entrepreneurial tools were included in the conceptual analysis, signifying a need to explore whether other tools could also help teachers bridge the traditional - progressive education rift. Entrepreneurial tools and the new educational philosophy manifesting entrepreneurship could also need to be further contextualized in order to be useful in education. Practical implications - The tentatively new educational philosophy has been shown to be capable of bridging five dualisms in education which are currently problematic for teachers in their daily practice, and to remedy teacher challenges such as complexity, lack of resources, assessment difficulties, and student disengagement. Originality/value – An educational philosophy grounded in entrepreneurship has arguably not been proposed previously. Contrasting existent educational philosophies, this new philosophy goes beyond learning-through to also emphasize creating-value-for-others. This could facilitate bridging between traditional and progressive education, one of the most important challenges in education. It could also be used to facilitate the infusion of entrepreneurship into general education

The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

Using a teaching model framework, we systematically review empirical evidence on the impact of entrepreneurship education (EE) in higher education on a range of entrepreneurial outcomes, analyzing 159 published articles from 2004 to 2016. The teaching model framework allows us for the first time to start rigorously examining relationships between pedagogical methods and specific outcomes. Reconfirming past reviews and meta-analyses, we find that EE impact research still predominantly focuses on short-term and subjective outcome measures and tends to severely underdescribe the actual pedagogies being tested. Moreover, we use our review to provide an up-to-date and empirically rooted call for less obvious, yet greatly promising, new or underemphasized directions for future research on the impact of university-based entrepreneurship education. This includes, for example, the use of novel impact indicators related to emotion and mind-set, focus on the impact indicators related to the intention-to-behavior transition, and exploring the reasons for some contradictory findings in impact studies including person-, context-, and pedagogical model-specific moderator

An emotion based approach to assessing entrepreneurial education

This study investigates links between emotional events and developed entrepreneurial competencies in an action-based entrepreneurship education program where students create real-life ventures. It represents a novel approach to assessing entrepreneurial education. A longitudinal design was applied following three engineering students during nine intensive months. Students were equipped with a mobile smartphone app used to report emotional events and critical learning events. Reports were followed up quarterly with semi-structured interviews. Links were identified through data analysis software NVIVO. Findings indicate a large number of links between emotional events and developed entrepreneurial competencies. Three kinds of emotional events strongly linked to developed entrepreneurial competencies were interaction with outside world, uncertainty and ambiguity and team-work experience. These emotional events were linked to formation of entrepreneurial identity, increased self-efficacy, increased uncertainty and ambiguity tolerance and increased self-insight. These links represent early empirical evidence for three effective design principles of entrepreneurial education, and can also be used as indirect measures in assessment. This study also confirms venture creation programs as a suitable environment for studying entrepreneurship as experience. Limitations of this study include a small number of interviewees, unknown transferability of results to other contexts, and risk for individual bias in data coding

“What is Value?” – A Framework for Analyzing and Facilitating Entrepreneurial Value Creation

Abstract Entrepreneurship viewed as new value creation is a perspective gaining ground in entrepreneurial education. Educators have found it to be a helpful approach in order to escape a situation where the two established ways to infuse entrepreneurship into education are both quite problematic. A value creation view on entrepreneurship, however, currently lacks a clear answer to a crucial question: What is value? Responding to this research gap, the article presents a value framework consisting of five different kinds of value: economic, enjoyment, social, harmony and influence value. Each kind of value can be experienced and created both for oneself and for others, thus constituting a total of ten different perspectives on value. This value framework has in practice been useful for teachers working with educational design. It has also been useful for research on assessment of the impact entrepreneurial education has on students, leading to new insights that could improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurial education. The value framework also casts new light on what entrepreneurship is and why people engage in entrepreneurship. A limitation of the work presented here is the inherent difficulty in conducting a systematic literature review on a term as generic as “value”

Venture Creation Programs: bridging entrepreneurship education and technology transfer

Purpose – The article explores how university-based entrepreneurship programs, incorporating real-life venture creation into educational design and delivery, can bridge the gap between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer within the university environment. Design/Methodology/Approach – Based on a literature review and snowball sampling over a two-year period, 18 entrepreneurship education programs were identified as applying a venture creation approach. Ten of these programs were selected for case study, including direct interviews and participatory observation during a two-day workshop. Empirical findings were iteratively related to theory within entrepreneurship education and technology transfer. Findings - The article identifies the bridging capabilities of venture creation programs across five core themes, illustrating the potential benefits of closer collaboration between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer in a university environment. Research implications – A definition for ‘venture creation program’ is tested empirically. These programs are shown to be sophisticated laboratory environments, allowing for clinical research towards the understanding of entrepreneurship and technology transfer processes. Practical implications – Findings identify practical benefits of combining entrepreneurship educators and technology transfer activities, such as increased value creation through not only new firms, but also an entrepreneurially equipped graduate population.. Venture creation programs allow for ‘spin-through’ of innovative ideas in the university environment, while simultaneously contributing to entrepreneurial learning. Originality / Value – This article presents findings from the first multiple case study into entrepreneurship educations specifically designed to develop real-life venture as part of the core curriculum. Findings provide basis for investigating the value of integrating entrepreneurship education and technology transfer at the university

The entrepreneurial employee in public and private sector – What, Why, How

Entrepreneurial employees that drive innovation and change have become a sheer necessity for many established organisations in public and private sector. This report gives a science-based overview of what entrepreneurial employees do, why such behaviours are needed and how any employee can become more entrepreneurial. Being entrepreneurial is not something magic, it is a discipline that can be learned by any employee in private and public sector. A simple explanatory “diamond” model is provided that guides employees, managers and policymakers. The report offers new clarity in an under-researched but important and promising area. What entrepreneurial employees do is that they exercise their deeply personal agency to create something novel of value for others. They learn experientially what value different creations have for others. Employees who do this over time develop their entrepreneurial competences. Why they do this is because it benefits their organisation and themselves. They contribute to overall efficiency, to future-proofing the organisation, and to building a more engaging organisational culture. In return, they get a more meaningful inner work life, higher autonomy, more recognition and a boosted career trajectory. How to become more entrepreneurial is described through four focus areas; agency, novelty, value for others and learning. Entrepreneurial employees raise their agency through dedication, courage and action-taking. They work with novelty through envisioning, claiming and organising the new. They create new value for others through empathic discussions and prototypes. Finally, they learn through analyzing, experimenting with and revising their value creation attempts.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen