The return of the Jedi in entrepreneurship?! : Developing a validated competence framework for sustainable entrepreneurship and exploring the specific role of moral competencies in the sustainable entrepreneurial process

Although the importance of competencies for sustainable entrepreneurship is recognized both from practical and theoretical point of view, the field of competencies for sustainable entrepreneurship is relatively young. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to contribute to the understanding of what competencies constitute a competence framework for sustainable entrepreneurship and how these competencies are enacted in entrepreneurial decision making processes. The main research question: What role do competencies for sustainable entrepreneurship play in sustainable entrepreneurial processes? addresses the aim and research issues of this dissertation. In addition, five sub-research questions were formulated: 1. What is the empirical strength of the existing key competence frameworks for sustainable entrepreneurship? 2. How do key competencies for sustainable entrepreneurship relate to well-known antecedents for entrepreneurial behavior? 3. Which individual moral antecedents play a role in the entrepreneurial process of opportunity recognition for sustainable development? 4. How is moral competence enacted in the early stage of the sustainable entrepreneurial process? 5. How are competencies for sustainable entrepreneurship enacted within the decision making process of sustainable entrepreneurs? The competence framework is assessed on its validity in an educational context, reporting on the self-perceived scores of 402 respondents. Furthermore, a performance based assessment was developed to study the relation between the competence framework and opportunity recognition. Here, 96 respondents participated in an online platform that formed the foundation for the performance based assessment. Finally, 33 sustainable entrepreneurs were interviewed to assess the enactment of the competencies in actual decision making processes. The different studies and sub-questions have mounted up to some main conclusions. The results show that the competencies can be operationalised and measured in a reliable and valid way in a framework consisting of 6 distinct competencies (diversity competence, systems thinking competence, foresighted thinking competence, interpersonal competence, normative competence and strategic action competence). When it comes to the opportunity recognition process, it becomes clear that the competencies that tap into values (i.e. normative competence and strategic action competence) are very important and could be seen as distinctive for sustainable entrepreneurs. During the different critical moments in the decision making process, some competencies surface more than others, which show the dynamic and context dependent character of the competencies. This dissertation has, besides several theoretical implications, implications for higher education institutions and sustainable start-up companies

Entrepreneurial learning at the boundary: How to learn from a local cheese maker

The learning innovation we report in this article is an international rapid-prototyping event (48 hours) in which teams of international BSc and MSc students from two universities (Western Europe and South-East Africa, respectively) jointly designed and developed a prototype for a local small-business owner in a developing economy. The learning innovation has its origin in the simple observation that the majority of the current theories, cases, and learning activities that characterize entrepreneurship education have their origin in western-oriented epistemologies and ontologies. The goal of this entrepreneurial learning activity was to develop students’ entrepreneurial competencies through interaction and cross-boundary entrepreneurial problem-solving between university students from western and non-western origin. The results underpin that it is very worthwhile for higher education teachers—who look for new, cost-effective “wide” entrepreneurship education programs—to adopt such events. The results show that the program not only contributes to short-term impact (e.g., joy of learning and collaborating, confidence in the own expertise, and seeing where to contribute) but also enables longer term impact (e.g., moving from intention to an actual start-up). Moreover, the activity produces actual solutions that, in this case the cheese maker can implement, can help the business to grow and survive

Entrepreneurial learning at the boundary: how to learn from a local cheese maker

The learning innovation we report in this article is an international rapid-prototyping event (48 hours) in which teams of international BSc and MSc students from two universities (Western Europe and South-East Africa, respectively) jointly designed and developed a prototype for a local small-business owner in a developing economy. The learning innovation has its origin in the simple observation that the majority of the current theories, cases, and learning activities that characterize entrepreneurship education have their origin in western-oriented epistemologies and ontologies. The goal of this entrepreneurial learning activity was to develop students’ entrepreneurial competencies through interaction and cross-boundary entrepreneurial problem-solving between university students from western and non-western origin. The results underpin that it is very worthwhile for higher education teachers—who look for new, cost-effective “wide” entrepreneurship education programs—to adopt such events. The results show that the program not only contributes to short-term impact (e.g., joy of learning and collaborating, confidence in the own expertise, and seeing where to contribute) but also enables longer term impact (e.g., moving from intention to an actual start-up). Moreover, the activity produces actual solutions that, in this case the cheese maker can implement, can help the business to grow and survive

Commercialization pathways for climate services for small holder farmers in the global South

Climate change disproportionally affects many countries in the Global South where smallholder farmers make up the majority of the agricultural sector. Weather and Climate Information Services (WCIS) bridge the gap between smallholder farmers and scientific weather forecasts to create actionable knowledge to assist farmers to make optimal agricultural decisions. Over the past years there has been a spur in WCIS initiatives targeting smallholder farmers. However, many projects fail to commercialize and create a long-term impact. The current study addresses this issue by studying potential commercialization pathways of WCIS for smallholder farmers in the Global South. WCIS representatives and experts were interviewed to reach a deeper understanding of the barriers and opportunities of different, potential commercialization pathways. The results indicate that there are multiple commercialization pathways for WCIS for smallholder farmers in the Global South. Projects may employ a wide variety of business development activities, partnerships and revenue models to sustain their business. Many WCIS rely on donor money, which poses a threat to the market and the commercialization process. The results suggest that a revenue model where a third party absorbs costs to the end-user is most promising, whereas a user-pay model seems to have the least potential. There are several possibilities for future scenarios for WCIS in the Global South such as to seek collaboration with the National Meteorological Departments, integrate with a partner in the value chain of smallholder farmers or to create an academic spin-off and become a service platform for smallholder farmers

Social goal commitment in entrepreneurial teams: an entrepreneurship education experiment

Although values and motivations of entrepreneurs are thought to impact key decisions and performance during business venturing, research in this field is still scarce. Organizational psychology and entrepreneurship literature has suggested that social value orientation (SVO) might affect entrepreneurial behavior. In this article, we hypothesized about the relationship between social value orientation and entrepreneurial performance in the context of entrepreneurial teams. We have developed preliminary insights through an entrepreneurial educational field experiment with students being sampled in teams based on proself and proother orientations. As hypothesized, prosocial teams performed better, yet surprisingly altruism in teams was related to worse performance. Our preliminary findings further indicate that team relationship conflict played a positive role in prosocial teams’ performance. Although preliminary, these findings may offer promising insights to the entrepreneurial team and entrepreneurship education literature