The theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship

There is an on-going debate in the entrepreneurship academy about whether we can actually teach students to be entrepreneurs. Its resolution is inextricably connected with our theoretical assumptions because they affect how and what we teach. This article is the first in a set of two contained in this issue that argues that we should develop more refined, cumulative theory and teach it to students in a way that emphasizes learning by doing, which should accelerate student mastery. This first article treats the theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship, whereas the second addresses the pedagogical side of entrepreneurship theory.Those who advocate that entrepreneurship can be understood and taught to students assume that researchers will eventually develop a more general theory of entrepreneurship. Theory is an essential part of what we teach because we do not know any other way to help students anticipate the future, which is a key to entrepreneurial success, unless we counsel them to rely on luck or intuition. The limitation of luck and intuition is that we do not know how to teach either of them. If students could accurately anticipate the future, they could allocate their resources in the most productive manner, which would ensure their survival, satisfaction and prosperity. Despite the current limitations of our theorizing, theory still offers the most promise as course content for students.This article sides with Kuhn (1970) who argued that theory is the most practical thing that we can teach to students. Its purpose is to comment on the progress to date in developing entrepreneurship theory. It begins by analyzing the contents of 18 syllabi provided by participants at a retreat for entrepreneurship scholars. It notes a wide divergence in topics, and possible causes for this divergence, which seem to be characteristic of a developing academic discipline. It appeals for more theory in our courses and suggests questions to which entrepreneurship scholars can provide distinctive answers when compared with those offered by scholars from other disciplines.One way to add more theoretical content to entrepreneurship courses is to teach students what they ought to do, which is coded language for theory. In addition, instructors should not merely describe what entrepreneurs do, particularly in light of the observation that most of them fail and accordingly have been described as ill-fated fools. Finally, assuming that scholars can offer a more general theory of entrepreneurship, they would be able to emphasize more deductive approaches as opposed to inductive ones.These appeals for more theoretical content depend on several assumptions, which include: (1) the improbability that students can encounter circumstances that would be similar to anecdotal lessons learned in entrepreneurship school; (2) the existence of a process that can be explained theoretically; (3) studying ideal types can be discouraging to aspiring entrepreneurs if they do not fit a special profile; (4) the high failure rate among entrepreneurs makes suggesting to students that they ought to pattern their activities after them seem illogical; (5) studying average profiles, anecdotal recommendations, rules of thumb or war stories can only lead to average returns, given semi-strong information efficiency; and (6) leveraging the motivational benefits of studying successful entrepreneurs may have detrimental, unintended consequences, among others.This article notes possible causes of non-cumulative theory building and suggests several opportunities to build cumulative theory. Although it acknowledges that the field of entrepreneurship currently lacks cumulative theory, it offers a contingency approach for teaching entrepreneurship, which is actually very similar to the scientific method used by scholars to develop hypotheses about the future.     

Using Mind Maps to Distinguish Cultural Norms between French and United States Entrepreneurship Students

The globalization of entrepreneurship education requires instructors to understand, and adjust the curriculum for, cultural disparities. This study investigates the impact of cultural norms on the attitudes of university entrepreneurship students in France and the United States—regions with contrasting Hofstede and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor indices. It uses mind maps from students as culturally agnostic open‐ended measures of their attitudes. Two mind maps were collected from each student, one on the appeal of entrepreneurship and one on the apprehension toward entrepreneurship, for a total of 1,213 concepts that were then scored using the Moore–Bygrave staged model of entrepreneurship to measure student likes and dislikes toward innovation, the decision to launch a start‐up, new venture implementation, and venture growth. The Shannon entropy of a mind map was used as a measure of student fixation; lower entropy indicates the student is motivated or deterred by a subset of the curriculum, whereas higher entropy indicates that attitudinal components are more balanced across the curriculum. Participating students were enrolled in similar entrepreneurship courses, and exhibited attitudes with similar entropy. However, French students found the growth stage to be the most appealing and were most apprehensive about innovation, whereas U.S. students found innovation to be the most appealing stage and were most apprehensive about the growth stage, thus revealing different contextual drivers of learning and engagement with the educational materials. This research contributes to the advancement of entrepreneurship education in two ways. First, by using mind maps and differential model‐based semantic scoring, it distinguishes between motivation and deterrence, and accounts for both cognitive and affective components of attitudes toward entrepreneurship. Second, it presents a formative assessment technique with which educators can measure students' cultural disposition to the different topics of an entrepreneurship course, and can then tailor the syllabus to this disposition. This technique can potentially improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in multicultural settings, such as those involving educators, students, or course material from different regions and cultures.     

What's Gender Got to Do with It? The Experiences of U.S. Women Entrepreneurship Students

The purpose of this case study was to understand the gendered experiences women students report while participating in a university entrepreneurship program. This qualitative study sought to shed light on some of the unanswered questions about women’s experiences by interviewing women entrepreneurship students and their faculty members at a university site. The data were analyzed through the lens of Acker’s theory of gendered organizations. From these data, themes were identified that can in turn help enrich entrepreneurship programs in the future.     

Incorporating a Short-Term Study Abroad Service Trip for Educating International Entrepreneurship in the BOP Market

ABSTRACT

The bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market has gained importance in international entrepreneurship due to its large market potential. Drawing on the literature of international business education, as well as social entrepreneurship and international entrepreneurship education, we propose a course to educate students how to develop business intimacy with the BOP community. We employ the experiential-learning pedagogical framework and design elements including a short-term study abroad service trip, an entrepreneurship project, and structured reflections. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, we demonstrate that the course facilitates students’ learning in the key areas of international and social entrepreneurship, including the economic and social value of community embeddedness for BOP ventures, the emotional intelligence in interacting with BOP communities, and the attitude toward social entrepreneurship.     

关于对大学生培养公益创业概念的研究

目前,大学生公益创业面临的问题是教育不足,需要社会的支持和信任,需要相关的政策支持及媒体正能量的宣传。高校应开展大学生公益创业概念的教育,使大学生对公益创业有一个比较清晰的认识,引导大学生选择公益创业的方向。同时,加大政府及社会组织给予大学生公益创业的支持,以增强大学生救死扶伤的信念,培养大学生良好阳光的心性,提高大学生公益创业的积极性。     

Business education and entrepreneurial skills: Evidence from Arab universities

The authors aimed to investigate business undergraduates’ cognition toward entrepreneurship; in particular, they examined four entrepreneurship skills. Data consist of questionnaire responses obtained from 668 undergraduates attending universities in two different Arab countries. The study used a logistic regression to gauge the effect of delivering four entrepreneurial skills on entrepreneurship cognition. The results reveal that business students perceive the four entrepreneurial skills as key elements for starting their own business.     

基于众创生态视角的大学生创新创业环境建设研究

我国现阶段正处于创新驱动的环境中,从生态层面对大学生创新创业环境进行系统性研究,将大学生作为生态化的主要驱动力量,实施多种创新要素同时驱动,以推动创新服务环境的优化升级,进而在教育中逐渐塑造和培养学生创新创业的能力。在大众创业创新的环境下,高校积极培养创新型人才,引入开放式的教育思维,借助于产学研多种资源的合理利用,构建了有机生态链,实现动态化发展,形成多元化的教育环境。本文讨论了大学生创新创业的发展环境,然后进一步提出了开展创新创业环境建设的有效策略,对于大学生今后的创新创业活动发挥了积极的推动作用。     

大学生创业瓶颈分析与对策研究——以江苏镇江大学生创业为例

大学生创业是促进大学生就业的重要途径。文章以江苏镇江的大学生创业为研究对象,在查阅文献和问卷调查的基础上,从社会、高校、个人三个层面分析制约大学生创业的瓶颈,创业瓶颈是由创业环境、创业教育、创业意识三个方面的原因造成的。要解决大学生创业瓶颈问题,就必须采取提升城市总体经济实力、完善创业保障机制、加强对大学生创业意愿培养。     

The Role of Perceived University Support in the Formation of Students' Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurship education is central to student entrepreneurship. Previous research has attempted to understand the role of entrepreneurship education in the formation of students' entrepreneurial intention and behavior, albeit in an isolated manner. Universities can support entrepreneurship in many ways, but it is important to measure students' perception of the support that they receive in order to understand the extent of such support and its impact on students. The current study proposed and tested an integrative, multiperspective framework. We have hypothesized that the three dimensions of university support, that is, perceived educational support, concept development support, and business development support, together with institutional support, shape students' entrepreneurial self‐efficacy. In turn, entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and individual motivations constitute the fundamental elements of the intention to start a business. A sample of 805 university students took part in the study and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our findings showed that perceived educational support exerted the highest influence on entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, followed by concept development support, business development support, and institutional support. Self‐efficacy in turn had a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. Individual motivations such as self‐realization, recognition, and role had an additional impact on intention. However, intention was not related to financial success, innovation, and independence. The findings suggest that a holistic perspective provides a more meaningful understanding of the role of perceived university support in the formation of students' entrepreneurial intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Linking Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth

In the 1980s stagflation and high unemployment caused a renewed interest in supply side economics and in factors determining economic growth. Simultaneously, the 1980s and 1990s have seen a reevaluation of the role of small firms and a renewed attention for entrepreneurship. The goal of this survey is to synthesize disparate strands of literature to link entrepreneurship to economic growth. This will be done by investigating the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth using elements of various fields: historical views on entrepreneurship, macro-economic growth theory, industrial economics (Porter's competitive advantage of nations), evolutionary economics, history of economic growth (rise and fall of nations) and the management literature on large corporate organizations. Understanding the role of entrepreneurship in the process of economic growth requires the decomposition of the concept of entrepreneurship. A first part of our synthesis is to contribute to the understanding of the dimensions involved, while paying attention to the level of analysis (individual, firm and aggregate level). A second part is to gain insight in the causal links between these entrepreneurial dimensions and economic growth. A third part is to make suggestions for future empirical research into the relationship between (dimensions of) entrepreneurship and economic growth.     

Linking globalization of entrepreneurship in small organizations

The field of entrepreneurship spans a wide variety of topic areas, and among the most important is that of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The aim of this paper is to link entrepreneurship and SMEs. Attempting to generalize the outcomes of entrepreneurship in small organizations from different sectors, countries or industries should be activities that are part of daily life on an international scale. In extracting and transferring the outcomes of this research into entrepreneurship and SMEs, policy makers should see an aspect that must be consolidated within the environment of international globalization that surrounds us. It should not be forgotten that what starts out as small (i.e. an SME) can become large over time and this entrepreneurship can form a part of a new organizational structure. A brief overview of the contents of each of the articles included in this special issue on the globalization of entrepreneurship in small organizations is also presented herein.      

大学生创业倾向和创业教育需求研究

以湖北大学在校学生为例,对创业态度与意向、创业路径与策略、创业知识与能力和创业教育需求进行调查。结果表明：男生比女生创业自信度高;就业前景好,创业意愿也高;大学生倾向于先就业后创业：行业发展是创业地点选择的主要因素,行业选择起点较低;认为缺乏管理实践经验是创业的主要劣势：对于创业教育有很高的渴求度,倾向以公选课方式学习,内容上则希望了解更多的优惠政策。     

低碳经济背景下的大学生创业问题研究

发展低碳经济为大学生的创业提供了机遇，如更多有前景的创业项目，政府的支持，以及创业环境的不断优化。在此背景下的创业教育，应以低碳经济为主题，加强政策宣传和低碳项目的推广，调整课程设置，将低碳教育融八课程体系，倡导低碳消费，实施低碳管理，同时加强大学生的社会责任和创新思维教育。     

大学生创业服务体系构建的影响因素与对策

在大学生创业过程中,需要政府、高校、企业及社会机构等创业服务主体为大学生提供各种服务与支持,帮助大学生完成创业活动。文章应用系统动力学,从政府、社会、学校和企业四个方面绘制了创业服务体系复杂关系反馈图,通过对图中反馈关系和各种影响大学生创业因素的分析,提出了构建和完善大学生创业服务体系的对策建议,为创业服务体系的建设提供决策参考。     

论大学生创业服务体系的建构

论述了我国大学生创业面临诸多困难和问题,加强大学生创业服务体系建设,构建完整的校园创业教育体系、协调有序的社会创业扶持服务体系是促进大学生创业发展的重要途径。     

Opportunities to Improve Entrepreneurship Education: Contributions Considering Brazilian Challenges

This paper identifies challenges and opportunities for enhancing higher education in entrepreneurship considering student perceptions concerning both their demand for entrepreneurship education and their entrepreneurial intention as well as previous studies that present the points of view of experts. The main focus is Brazilian higher education, but the results address challenges that cross borders, such as the need for a practical approach. The study analyzed the data from the Brazilian version of the 2011 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) obtained with an online questionnaire answered by 25,751 Brazilian students from 37 colleges and universities. To give a reference for a better understanding of Brazilian statistics, data were compared to those of the 2011 international GUESSS involving also 25 other countries and 64,079 responses from them. Three hypotheses were tested. The results show that entrepreneurship education has a significant negative effect on student entrepreneurial intention and also on self‐efficacy. The same occurs between entrepreneurial intention and students' demand for entrepreneurship education. Brazilian students present higher levels of entrepreneurial intention and are significantly more motivated to take courses and activities in entrepreneurship than those students in the international sample. Approximately 50 percent of Brazilian students are potential entrepreneurs. One of the opportunities identified is to take advantage of students' positive attitudes and their high demand. The opportunities could play an important role in overcoming the challenges recognized, among which are the need for a more practical approach and the need for larger and diversified educational offerings beyond business planning. The challenges make Neck and Greene's recommendations, presented in a 2011 issue of JSBM, particularly important for Brazil. The last three sections propose different explanations, suggestions for more research, and practical recommendations.     

构建新形势下大学生创业支持体系研究

大学生创业已经成为新形势下拉动就业的强大驱动力,是国家未来经济发展的重要支柱,但是．当前我国大学生创业成功率极低．制约我国大学生创业的关键因素是创业支持体系不完善。要想尽快提升我国大学生的创业水平,一定要构建并能落实好一套全方位的高效的创业支持体系。青年大学生有广博的知识、创新的思维、创业的智慧,他们是创业的主力军,是建设创新型国家的重要引擎,理应得到政府、高校及社会的重视,将创业支持的重心转移到青年大学生身上是落实科学发展观,促进大学生创业就业,实现社会全面、协调、创新、可持续发展的重要保障。     

大学生创业教育实践：金融危机背景下的探索

对大学生进行创业教育既是时代的呼吁,也是社会的要求。在金融危机的大背景下,大学生的创业教育又有了新的机遇与特点。通过对大学生创业教育实践需要把握的理念与现实存在的突出问题的分析,为大学生创业教育实践提出了解决问题的基本途径。     

文化传承与创业实践育人的研究

大学生在新的经济形势下，充满了对创业的向往。但是大学生创业面临多种困境，很多创业计划仅是一个创意，这种创意又缺乏立足于市场的特点，缺乏中国特色，不能将中国古典文化融入创业。高校教师应在古典文化传承的基础上指导大学生进行创业实践，这样才能不断提高大学生创业的能力，提高大学生创业成功率。     

Do entrepreneurship programmes raise entrepreneurial intention of science and engineering students? The effect of learning,inspiration and resources

Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this study tests the effect of entrepreneurship programmes on the entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions of science and engineering students. This is necessary in order to confirm (or disconfirm) conventional wisdom that entrepreneurship education increases the intention to start a business. The results show that the programmes raise some attitudes and the overall entrepreneurial intention and that inspiration (a construct with an emotional element) is the programmes' most influential benefit. The findings contribute to the theories of planned behaviour and education and have wider implications for a theory of entrepreneurial emotions and also for the practice of teaching entrepreneurship.