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A Model for Experiential Entrepreneurship Education
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Courses in entrepreneurship are vital components of a business school curriculum and typically contain experiential learning techniques in concert with traditional teaching methods. Empirical studies of the effectiveness of these entrepreneurship courses at developing future entrepreneurs, however, have found mixed results. This paper makes the case that two important aspects of experiential learning, a whole person focus and contact with the environment, are too often neglected in the pedagogy. Incorporating these two oft-neglected aspects results in a five-step model of experiential entrepreneurship education that has shown promise in developing future successful entrepreneurs.
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... One is that it should focus on a person, and the other the environment in which it is executed. These two points have to be very seriously incorporated into the pedagogy for developing future successful entrepreneurs (Pittz, 2014). ...
Entrepreneurship is a driving force in finding a source of income for an unemployed group. Entrepreneurs should design their products/services by emotionally connecting to their customers. This study attempts to develop a model by making use of structural equation modeling techniques for integrating the design thinking approach and emotional intelligence (EI) to enhance entrepreneurial attitudes among existing and budding entrepreneurs who are in the student community which will lead to sustainable performance. The model considered the five steps of the design thinking approach empathizing, designing, ideating, prototyping, and testing. The model enables the connection between the five design thinking stages and the components of EI. Both design thinking and EI will help attain an entrepreneurial attitude, which includes components like attitude towards business startup, marketing, recording of finance, good communication, effective leadership, and problem-solving ability. The findings of the study clearly show that EI positively influences the design-thinking process among students. Design thinking mediates EI’s influence on students’ entrepreneurial attitudes. The research study has suggested a model which will be helpful for those students who have an inner calling to become emotionally strong entrepreneurs who can be the pillars for the sustainable wellness of society.
... As such, students are directly involved in activities or tasks related to their studies, and then they are asked to reflect on this experience to learn (Ahn, 2008;Kolb, 1984). More specifically, in entrepreneurship, using such pedagogical approaches consists of confronting students with the entrepreneurial reality during their learning (Fleck & Teckchandani, 2020;Pittz, 2014). Thus, they learn and practice entrepreneurship simultaneously (Arbaugh et al., 2021;Litzky et al., 2020). ...
This article focuses on the impact of an entrepreneurship education program on nascent student entrepreneurs. It is based on the implementation of the French-language program “Étudiant-entrepreneur… Oui, c’est possible” (Student-entrepreneur… Yes, it’s possible) in different faculties at the Hassan I University in Morocco. The study used a pretest-posttest research design with 32 participants trained in the program and 30 participants in the control group. The results show that the program significantly improved knowledge, skills, or competencies about starting a business, entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), and entrepreneurial behavior (marginally), but not entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions. Under the assumption that strong attitudes and intentions are prerequisites for becoming nascent entrepreneurs, the present results suggest that specific content training coupled with pedagogical approaches adapted based on progress in the entrepreneurial process benefits those with insufficient knowledge and ESE as they work to develop their entrepreneurial ideas.
... Experiential learning happens when interactive experiences are part of business curriculums and students can interact with the entrepreneurial community. The contact with the entrepreneurial environment in which students will potentially start a business during college or after graduation is a fundamental part of the experiential learning approach and is difficult to reproduce in a virtual setting (Pittz, 2014). As such, experiential learning provides students with high-impact learning experiences through several pedagogical methods. ...
In March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, more than 90% of the world’s student population went through an unprecedented and sudden transition to distance learning. Although this was a challenging time for instructors across all disciplines, entrepreneurship educators faced the unique dilemma of preserving the experiential nature of entrepreneurship education in the online environment. We look at how entrepreneurship educators addressed experiential learning through online education during the pandemic and some of the solutions adopted given the experiential, hands-on nature of entrepreneurship education. We review the first wave of literature on the topic, and we offer the results of a recent survey of entrepreneurship educators who are members of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). In doing this, we have added to a growing literature on the shift of entrepreneurial education to an online setting.
... Firm intention" is frequently used to describe the choice to launch a business (Christian et al., 2015;Pittz, 2014). Entrepreneurial education is precisely the type of strategic activity that may be studied through the examination of human intentions since this effort requires extensive forethought (Barral et al., 2018). ...
Higher education institutions must be an integral part of the ecosystem and work closely with all stakeholders to promote entrepreneurship. To create entrepreneurial endeavors that are mutually beneficial and self-sustaining, these systems necessitate a lot of connections among organizations, individuals, and operations. The university setting might be the best place to start to identify potential entrepreneurs who play crucial parts in establishing and maintaining strong entrepreneurship cultures within countries. One of the first stages in Kenya’s new strategy for entrepreneurship growth was the inclusion of entrepreneurship instruction in all technical teacher education institutions in the country. Hence the Ministry of Renew search, Technical Training, and Technology implemented a new policy mandating all technical education participants to accomplish a course in entrepreneurship education. Despite the initiatives, the growth of the Higher Education Entrepreneurship Ecosystem has remained sluggish in the county. But with digital transformation in the country, it was expected this was to act as the key driver in Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Higher Education. The paper aimed at examining how digital transformation is a key driver in Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Higher Education in Kenya. The study was anchored on the Schumpeter theory of innovation, the theory of change, and the Institutional Theory. The paper used a desk review in-depth desktop review. The findings imply that we are trying to establish how digital transformation triggers the growth of entrepreneurship in higher education.
... Universities and career schools can use VR devices to make education fun and encourage students to delve deeper into a field. As in business education, VR demystifies complex course materials by simulating real-world experiences for college students [60]. Metaverse assists human resources in businesses with recruitment and training. ...
In this study, an in-depth literature review method was applied. Period; It examines academic studies and current information on the internet and its interpretation of entrepreneurship in the metaverse world. For those who want to be entrepreneurs in the world of Metaverse, business opportunities, conveniences and difficulties of Metaverse are evaluated. The concepts of virtual reality and virtual world, which are the leading steps of the rapidly developing digital age, are gaining importance. The metaverse world, which leads them and breaks new ground in the virtual world, is a universe in which it is predicted that investors will make large investments in terms of technology and economy. For this purpose, the researcher examined studies in the metaverse literature, and as a result of these studies, the subject of entrepreneurship in the metaverse world was discussed. In the metaverse world, the study results on entrepreneurship are seen as an opportunity to be seized economically. Those who will participate in the upcoming metaverse shift will seize this great opportunity. Another finding is that taking place in the metaverse world is not suitable for the time being in terms of costs. To avoid being affected by increasing costs, it is recommended that entrepreneurial individuals first determine a good idea and make a good feasibility study on how to realise this idea in the virtual world. This article is an original study that addresses the benefits, conveniences and challenges of being an entrepreneur in the Metaverse world. The literature review found no investigation on entrepreneurship in the Metaverse world. The fact that the Metaverse has the potential to have great effects on the business world and social life standards in the future makes this research more interesting. In addition, by specifying the impact of Metaverse on the business world, it has been tried to shed light on the problems and opportunities that large or small-scale enterprises and entrepreneurs will face in the future.
... • Industry knowledge ) (Lee, Abdulghani, and Hope, 2018) • A philanthropic image (Shore & McLauchlan, 2012) • Advertising (Lee, Abdulghani, and Hope, 2018) • Employees who are entrepreneurial graduates: innovative, flexible problem solvers who recognise opportunities, make responsible decisions and create employment (Dahlstedt and Hertzberg 2012;Jones and Iredale, 2014;O'Leary, 2015) • Success from a diverse range of business types to meet changing niche markets (Harrington & Maysami,) • Reduced risks of failure with adaptable and knowledgeable operators (Jones and Iredale, 2014) • New products and processes to improve the challenges of today and the future (Pittz, 2014.) While entrepreneurship educators may be preparing students well by using a relevant pedagogical methodology for the economic demands created by the COVID19 crisis, internationally, the majority of public-school classroom teachers have not yet realised the significance of an entrepreneurial approach. ...
Effective implementation of entrepreneurship education requires more than government policy to enable teachers and leaders to implement the content and pedagogy required for successful and innovative programmes to occur in schools. This paper provides an up-to-date literature review of research into the characteristics of teachers and school leaders who have intentionally implemented entrepreneurship education. This review was conducted in order to gain insight into the attitudes and values of teachers, the role of leadership and the enablers and barriers to success. This systematic review of the literature found 61 studies relating to the approach teachers and leaders took when implementing entrepreneurship education and factors that enabled successful implementation. Six enablers, which support effective implementation of entrepreneurship education were identified: consensus between teachers on methods, support from leadership, an entrepreneurial school culture, prioritisation, professional development, and teacher networking. Implications of the review included the need for research into how to support leaders to seek professional development in entrepreneurship education and strategies to implement the approach. A comparison of the effectiveness of different pedagogical methods provides an opportunity to measure the relevance of the approach, which the authors argue begins to address social and employment-related issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
... A consideration for further reflection concerns rethinking the role of action in EE. A lot of (mainstream) EE seems to be almost obsessed with "action," perhaps resulting from the primacy the field grants experiential learning (Pittz, 2014). Even if researchers advocate for the need to better understand how knowledge is derived from experience (H€ agg & Kurczewska, 2020), gaining experience through action continues to demarcate EE practices. ...
This article offers reflections based on the special issue on unsettling entrepreneurship education (EEP 3(3)) in which contributions have resisted the tendency to see students as consumers with the ‘right’ to take part in entrepreneurship education (EE) so as to effectively shape their enterprising selves. Here we resume our editorial discussions of what unsettling entrepreneurship education could mean for us – as entrepreneurship researchers and as teachers – and seek to mark out new directions both for research and education by reflecting upon ethical perspectives, identity work, and how EE can be seen to create an affective and emotional workspace. These aspects not only invite us to ask new research questions, but may also challenge our position as teachers in EE and invite us to reflect upon our view of students. To frame the need of continuous reflection, when navigating the terrain of EE in neoliberal society, we both take off and arrive in the current Covid-19 pandemic and suggest that this crisis can teach us something as valuable as ‘standing still’, which helps us all to reconsider what kind of entrepreneurial society that we build together with our students in entrepreneurship education.
The changing demands of business and society in the 21st century have necessitated a shift in educational priorities toward building competencies that will prepare a student for work and life. This trend has only been intensified by the outbreak of the global Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 that has turned our focus to leveraging technology in the classroom more than ever before. From the perspective of entrepreneurship education, a focus on entrepreneurial competencies allows educators to be more intentional about the role that both curricular and co-curricular activities play in the entrepreneurial process. It has also forced us to consider technology-based solutions that can augment, or in some cases even replace, traditional classroom activities. In this paper, we highlight a novel podcast that was intentionally designed to improve the development of entrepreneurial competencies called Enfactor. We provide detail about the objectives and optimal implementation of Enfactor while discussing its role in the classroom.
A look at entrepreneurship education research shows that there are basically two types of entrepreneurship courses: First, courses for entrepreneurship and second, courses about entrepreneurship such as lectures, formal seminars, individual essays etc. Most of the latter courses can be characterized as teacher-centric where the student involvement is passive. From a more modern perspective and in order to train entrepreneurs trying, experimenting and learning about one's own experience is crucial. More innovative approaches, such as project-based learning, action-based learning and experiential learning, therefore, are gradually appearing on the scene In this context, within the last few years some universities have introduced training firms, mostly for students of economics and business. In Germany, due to a lack of legal possibilities training firms at public universities are still a rarity and therefore under-researched. Thus, the research question for the present contribution is how informal learning can be structured using training firms, and what effects this has on the preparation of learners for later professional practice and / or self-employment. Therefore, the methodology for this paper is first to review the literature related to entrepreneurial learning in order to better understand the informal learning experience in training firms. Second, the case of a communication design agency for students around HTW Berlin, a public university for applied sciences, is analyzed to gain insight into the impact that practice firms can have on entrepreneurship education in general, and in particular in non-business subjects. For this purpose, a case study has been developed based on interviews, which include both the perspective of the students and of the trainer. Overall, the results will show a best practice example of entrepreneurial training and learning in a university context, which can be useful for those involved in the development of course concepts for entrepreneurship education.
This article proposes a new framework for designing business education programs which combines behavioral and business competencies to provide students, through experiential learning, with the tools necessary to succeed in their career paths and actively participate in the economic and societal development of diverse communities. The authors develop the framework by applying elements from the methodology for building conceptual frameworks in multidisciplinary contexts based on grounded theory. The framework, holistic in nature, is composed of the design process and the corresponding supporting elements and processes needed to foster an entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial behavior, including emotion and inspiration, in students who will engage in differing roles when they graduate. It promotes a responsive curriculum with a sharp focus on pedagogy as well as the process of curriculum implementation from mission statement to outcomes assessment.
Our paper presents a conceptual history of the development of the entreprenership field. The dynamism of conceptual movements in the entrepreneurship field has created theory development marked by volatile concepts and transient scholars. Nonetheless, it is the fastest growing field in the domain of business studies and the fastest growing division in the Academy of Management. We undertake to chronicle key concepts driving this recent activity by beginning with prehistoric conceptual foundations of entrepreneurship and tracing them into the present day. Our analysis employs a logical mechanism of conjecture and refutation to illustrate the emergence, rise, re-emergence, and/or decline of key theories and concepts within the context of (a) prehistoric, (b) classical, (c) neoclassical, (d) Austrian market process, and (e) multidisciplinary conceptual movements. The contributions of our paper include a clearer perspective on the conceptual roots of the entrepreneurship field as a scholarly area and the relevance of influential conceptual notions and their impact on entrepreneurial thought (e.g., arbitraging market, equilibrium models). Contributions also include a contextualizing of contemporary entrepreneurship theory, such as recent work focusing on the role of opportunities in the entrepreneurial discovery process. Finally, we detail implications for the way ahead in the entrepreneurship field as a scholarship-based discipline.
Purpose
Facing the multiplication of entrepreneurship education programmes (EEP) and the increasing resources allocated, there is a need to develop a common framework to evaluate the design of those programmes. The purpose of this article is to propose such a framework, based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).
Design/methodology/approach
TPB is a relevant tool to model the development of entrepreneurial intention through pedagogical processes. The independent variables are the characteristics of the EEP and the dependent variables are the antecedents of entrepreneurial behaviour. To illustrate and test the relevance of the evaluation methodology, a pilot study is conducted.
Findings
Data are consistent and reliable, considering the small scale of this experiment. The EEP assessed had a strong measurable impact on the entrepreneurial intention of the students, while it had a positive, but not very significant, impact on their perceived behavioural control.
Research implications/limitations
This is a first step of an ambitious research programme aiming at producing theory‐grounded knowledge. Reproduction of the experiment will allow researchers to test how specific characteristics of an EEP influence its impact and how the impact differs across several cohorts of students. Those comparisons will serve to improve a priori the design of EEP.
Originality/value
The new methodology is built on a robust theoretical framework and based on validated measurement tools. Its originality is about a relative – longitudinal – measure of impact over time and a particular use of the theory of planned behaviour which is seen as an assessment framework.
Can entrepreneurship be taught? Can it be learned? The debate continues unabated in the press, at academic conferences, and even meetings of successful practitioners.
Entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurs' states of mind that direct attention, experience, and action toward a business concept, set the form and direction of organizations at their inception. Subsequent organizational outcomes such as survival, development (including written plans), growth, and change are based on these intentions. The study of entrepreneurial intentions provides a way of advancing entrepreneurship research beyond descriptive studies and helps to distinguish entrepreneurial activity from strategic management.
