Student challenges in entrepreneurship education : planning for uncertainty

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Case-based entrepreneurship education in and for the Nordic region

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Entrepreneurial Learning as an Effectual Process

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address how entrepreneurial learning may be understood as an effectual process in the early phase of venture creation. Design/methodology/approach Previous research is used to develop a conceptual frame of reference, which is further developed through a longitudinal qualitative case study of five new venture teams. Conceptualising these teams’ learning as sequences of events over a one-year period provides rich insight from real-life processes. Findings A conceptual model of how entrepreneurial learning may be understood as an effectual process is presented. The interactions and interdependencies between nine process characteristics along three main dimensions in the process, activity, multiple actors and context-dependent, demonstrate how the process tie together as a whole. Research limitations/implications The present paper argues for further cross-fertilisation of entrepreneurial learning and effectuation research and showcases how studies of entrepreneurial learning may contribute to organisational learning in entrepreneurial ventures. The conceptualisation of characteristics and dimensions aims to support future process studies by suggesting a framework for analysing process events in longitudinal studies. Originality/value Previous research has already established how activities are central to entrepreneurial learning and emphasised that what constitutes the two dimensions of multiple actors and context-dependence is important. The present paper contributes to entrepreneurial learning with an enhanced understanding of why and how the three dimensions are important as well as interdependent and mutually interactive. The present paper also contributes to organisational learning by extending the understanding of learning in emerging entrepreneurial organisations

Student Entrepreneurs’ Learning from Action and Interaction

Summary Student entrepreneurs are major contributors to the creation of new entrepreneurial ventures based on university knowledge and research. This thesis asks how student entrepreneurs learn and argues that situated and social aspects of student entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial learning are important. Previous research has primarily emphasised the roles of teachers, faculty and managers in facilitating students’ entrepreneurial learning. Hence, there is a need to study the process of how student entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial learning actually occurs based on facilitation in a university context. This thesis contains four empirical research papers on how student entrepreneurs’ learning is facilitated as well as how student entrepreneurs’ learning occurs. The thesis cover paper presents a meta-analysis of the four papers using an analytical framework based on the communities of practice concept to address the research questions in this thesis. The empirical research data come from two types of support initiatives for student entrepreneurship and originates in 47 in-depth interviews and a broad range of secondary data sources. The research papers use qualitative analysis methods and applies dyads, longitudinal studies and metaphor-based approaches. The analysis of empirical data includes the concepts of entrepreneurial effectuation and organisational sponsorship in addition to entrepreneurial learning and communities of practice as frames of reference. This thesis reveals how student entrepreneurs are central actors in co-creating the environments in which they also learn—namely, their communities of practice. This thesis suggests that how student entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial learning is facilitated and occurs should be considered to be interrelated and integrated. Hence, students’ practice of contributing to others is a central element in learning by doing, and accordingly, this research uncovers the activities students do to contribute to university entrepreneurship. The implications for practice call for teachers, faculty, university managers and public policy makers to enable informal interactions as this thesis shows that informal interactions equip student entrepreneurs to take on central roles in other student entrepreneurs’ learning processes

How combinations of network participation, firm age and firm size explain SMEs' responses to COVID-19

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are important to the economy but vulnerable to changes in their environment. A current example of an exogenous shock threatening SMEs globally is the COVID-19 pandemic, and the firms’ responses to the crisis are essential to the prosperity of national economies in the future. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate how different antecedent factors may explain SMEs’ responses to COVID-19. This is done through an empirical study of 247 SMEs in Norway and the application of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), which enables a nuanced evaluation of how complex combinations of several co-existing factors can explain SMEs’ responses to crises. The results demonstrate how three types of crisis responses can be explained by combinations of SMEs’ participation in formal and informal networks, firm characteristics, such as firm size and firm age, and the negative impact of the crisis on the firm

Interorganizational learning between knowledge-based entrepreneurial ventures responding to COVID-19

Purpose – The COVID-19 crisis has significantly affected entrepreneurial ventures, where knowledge resources are limited and contextual uncertainty is heightened. This paper aims to identify if and how interorganizational learning (IOL) may assist entrepreneurial ventures adapt, survive and grow in a crisis. Design/methodology/approach – The following research question is asked: How may responding to the adversity induced by the COVID-19 pandemic affect IOL between entrepreneurial ventures? Four hypotheses were developed to carry out a quantitative study of 228 knowledge-based entrepreneurial ventures in Norway. Findings – The results illustrate how different combinations of adversity from COVID-19 and the active responses conducted by entrepreneurial ventures influence IOL. Four clusters representing different behaviors are developed accordingly as follows: “collaborators”, “supporters”, “responders” and “victims.” The findings provide empirical support for the importance of engaging in interactive and collaborative activities for IOL. Research limitations/implications – The findings can help in understanding how COVID-19 influences IOL between entrepreneurial ventures. Policymakers may use these findings to promote organizational continuity in entrepreneurial ventures by creating and nurturing support systems that promote IOL during a crisis. Originality/value – Studying a contemporary and critical situation – the COVID-19 pandemic – the present paper provides an empirical study of the antecedents to IOL, adding to the currently scarce body of research on IOL in and between entrepreneurial ventures

A Finite-Size Study on Samarium-Substituted Bismuth Ferrite: Multiferroic and Lead-Free Piezoelectric Materials

Multiferroic materials combine two or more ferroic orders such as ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism and ferroelasticity. They have a great interest for the development of the next generations of digital electronic memory devices. Bismuth ferrite has shown to posess both ferroelectric and magnetic order at room temperature, which makes it both scientifically and comercially interesting.The negative impact on the environment by using lead in mass-produced units has made development of lead-free piezoelectric materials for use in sensors, actuators and transducers prioritized and samarium substituted bismuth ferrite has shown to posess a piezoelectric response high enough to be considered for commercial applications. In this project work, 10mol% samarium substituted bismuth ferrite, Bi_{0.9}Sm_{0.1}FeO_{3}, powders have been synthesized using a wet-chemical method and calcined to a range of temperatures to achieve a range of nanocrystalline sizes in the powders. These powders has been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rietveld refinement and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The powders have also been milled, pressed and sintered to pellets for ferroelectric and piezoelectric testing. The crystal structure was found to belong to the R3c group as for bismuth ferrite, BiFeO_{3}, but the unit cell geometry is changed slightly, and the ferroelectric polarizability is lowered in the case of samarium substitution. This fact is interesting regarding piezoelectricity by thereby increasing the ability to achieve a higher piezoelectric response. No results were achieved from ferroelectric and piezoelectric measurement due to the conductivity found in the sintered pellets were too high, probably due to secondary sillenite phases found in the material. There has been found a finite size effect of a decrease in unit cell volume and tetragonality, of which the decrease in volume is contradictory to the expectations. There is also clear finite size effects on the decrease of cooperative displacement of cations, a measure for the polarization, and for the lowering of the ferroelectric phase transition temperature. The finite size effect for the ferroelectric phase transition has not been reported before. The magnetic phase transition temperature also show a decrease as a clear finite size effect. A linear relationship between electric polarization and magnetic ordering has also been observed in this project. The results from this project contributes to the understanding of material properties of BiFeO_{3} and derived compositions by an investigation of substitution effects and finite size effects. The results presented here motivates further research on these materials