Description
During in this such a detailed breakdown clarify do entrepreneur courses matter an investigation of students from mälardalen university.
Portada
By:
Peng He
Parityada Punthapong
Centeno Ignacio
Group 2015
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship
Thesis Advisor:
Roland Almqvist
June 2008
Do Entrepreneur Courses
“Matter”?
An Investigation of
Students from Mälardalen
University, Sweden
ABSTRACT
Date J une 4th, 2008
Level Master Thesis EFO705, 10 points (15 credits)
Authors Peng He, Year of birth 1985
[email protected]; [email protected]
Punthapong Parityada, Year of birth 1983
[email protected]; [email protected]
Centeno López Ignacio, Year of birth 1982
[email protected]; [email protected]
Title Do Entrepreneurship Courses Matter? An Investigation of Students from
Swedish University, Mälardalen University
Supervisor Roland Almqvist
Problem Does the course provide competency to become an Entrepreneur?
Purpose The purpose is to investigate the relationship between Entrepreneur
perspectives and education objectives in order to explore students´
attitudes towards the course and also their expectations to become an
Entrepreneur.
Method This thesis is based on qualitative study focusing on face to face
interviews through semi-structure interview method with Entrepreneur
program’s co-founder and lecturers and focus groups with students
enrolled in the program IB&E in 2007-2008.
Conclusion The paper shows that perspectives on Entrepreneur affect Entrepreneur
Education’s objectives amongst different respondents. Therefore, the
perspectives are the key criteria by which Entrepreneur course is judged
and subsequently decides whether the course provide competency in
becoming an Entrepreneur. Since the empirical data shows that students’
perspectives on Entrepreneur is broadened by the end of the course, the
answer to the question is therefore a two sided coin – a yes or a no will
depend on how students define the term Entrepreneur.
Keywords Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Education, Competency, Skills.
Table of contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIOn ....................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Motivation ........................................................................................................ 2
1.3 Research Question ............................................................................................ 2
1.4 Research Purpose .............................................................................................. 2
1.5 Target Group ..................................................................................................... 2
1.6 Disposition ........................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 4
2.1 Methodological Approach ................................................................................. 4
2.2 Reasons for choosing that approach.................................................................. 5
2.3 Methods data collection .................................................................................... 5
2.3.1 Primary data ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.3.2 Secondary data ........................................................................................................................... 6
2.4 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 6
2.4.1 Criticism of sources ..................................................................................................................... 6
2.4.2 Data Limitation ........................................................................................................................... 7
2.5 Reference System .............................................................................................. 7
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 8
3.1 Entrepreneur ..................................................................................................... 8
3.1.1 The Mainstream definition of Entrepreneur .............................................................................. 8
3.1.2 Other perspectives of Entrepreneur ......................................................................................... 10
3.2 Entrepreneur Education .................................................................................. 12
3.2.1 Entrepreneur Education in Sweden .......................................................................................... 17
3.3 Competency .................................................................................................... 19
3.3.1 Knowledge ................................................................................................................................ 21
3.3.2 Skills .......................................................................................................................................... 22
3.3.3 Experience ................................................................................................................................ 24
CHAPTER 4: Model of ANALYSIS ................................................................................ 27
4.1 EECM ............................................................................................................... 27
CHAPTER 5: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS ............................................................................ 32
5.1 Entrepreneur Education in Mälardalen University ........................................... 32
5.2 Interview with Karin Berglund ......................................................................... 33
5.3 Interview with Carina Holmgren...................................................................... 35
5.4 Interview with Peter Vaigur ............................................................................ 35
5.5 Focus group with students .............................................................................. 37
CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS .............................................................................................. 39
6.1 Different Perspectives on Entrepreneur .......................................................... 39
6.2 Impact of Perspectives on Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur Course objectives .. 41
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION AND Recommendations ................................................... 46
7.1 Implications .................................................................................................... 47
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 49
APPENDIX A .............................................................................................................. 56
Interview Discussion Guide ................................................................................... 56
Focus Group Discussion Guide .............................................................................. 58
APPENDIX B .............................................................................................................. 60
The program Entrepreneurship in Lund University ................................................ 60
Entrepreneur Course syllabus in Malardalen University ........................................ 60
Table of Figures
Figure 1: EECM ......................................................................................................... 28
Figure 2: Entrepreneur Perspective Model ................................................................ 29
Figure 3: Entrepreneur Education Model .................................................................. 30
Figure 4: Competency Model .................................................................................... 31
Figure 5: EECM in MDH and Students ....................................................................... 45
List of Abbreviations
EDU07 Entrepreneurship Education 2007
EE Entrepreneur education
EECM Entrepreneur Education Competency Model
IB&E International business and Entrepreneurship
ITEC Institute of Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization
MDH Mälardalen University
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
TTO Technology Transfer Office
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
In recent years, the term “Entrepreneur” is increasingly mentioned in the world.
Entrepreneur is everywhere, as suggested by Brockhaus, “In the united states over 20
million business tax returns are filed each year and another 20 million of unreported
micro entrepreneurs are believed to exist. If you subtract the number of very young and
very old, perhaps as high as one in four or five adult Americans have some form of
business. There are five million businesses with more than one employee. At the same
time the number of new employees in small businesses has increased by over two
million. Similar trends are reported in almost every major industrialized country. ”
(Brockhaus, 2001 pp13)
The importance of Entrepreneurs contributing to both the economy and standard of
living has been realized in the last two decades, therefore there have been more and
more people who want to become Entrepreneurs. They are eager to be Entrepreneurs to
improve either their incomes or their living standards, so the growing trend attracts the
academic world’s attention about Entrepreneurial Education which offers the teaching
of Entrepreneurship. Thus, the world is now offering different kinds of Entrepreneurial
Education on different levels. Sweden is now doing the same entrepreneurial promotion
as well.
However, different universities seem to have different objectives when it comes to
Entrepreneur Education. Mälardalen University (Sweden) was founded in 1977. At
present, the university is known as one of Sweden’s largest institutes of higher
education. Out of all courses taught to the international master students, International
Business and Entrepreneurship is one of the most popular courses taken by many
foreign students. The course international business and entrepreneurship is continuously
developing. There has been an initiation of advance level within this 2007-2008
academic year. At present, the aim of the course is to enhance student participants to the
specialization of international business with particular focus on entrepreneurship to
prepare them for professional work in an international business setting and for further
academic studies.
Taking into consideration, the importance and the growing trend of Entrepreneur
Education and the differentiated objectives of Entrepreneur Education at MDH, there
raises the motivation to explore deeply in to the area so that best practice in
Entrepreneur Education can be identified and embedded in the future.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
2
1.2 Motivation
As mentioned above, different universities have different objectives when it comes to
Entrepreneur Education. As the students of the program at MDH, we realize that unlike
any other universities, MDH undertakes theory based approach as the mean for
Entrepreneur Education. Hence, we believe it would be beneficial to throw some light
on the area of Entrepreneur Education, especially the course at MDH by reflecting
voices from students who in this case are treated as the customers regarding the
usefulness of the programme. As suggested by Calvin A. Kent: “Never be satisfied
with your program: This represents the true spirit of Entrepreneurship”, therefore, we
believe that although there could be positive result at the end of study, there would
always be room for improvement within the area.
1.3 Research Question
The curiosity in action above leads us to the research question – Does the Entrepreneur
Course at Mälardalen University provide competency in becoming Entrepreneur? In
other words, we want to investigate whether the approach taken by the university is
proved useful to the students.
1.4 Research Purpose
The purpose is to investigate the relationship between Entrepreneur perspectives and
education objectives in order to explore students´ attitudes towards the course and also
their expectations to become an Entrepreneur.
1.5 Target Group
As the study involves the topic of Entrepreneur Education in University level, we
believe that the paper will mainly be beneficial to the academics, for instance,
universities’ personals responsible for structuring Entrepreneur programme, universities
lecturers, both present and future students of the programme and researchers within the
area. Besides, as the paper provides perspectives of Entrepreneur, it can in turn prove
useful to the non-academics audiences as well, for instance, Entrepreneurs. However,
the conclusions and recommendations of this research are mainly for the academics who
are directly involve within the area.
In the case of students, there is evidence that more and more students are interested in
taking up Entrepreneur course in the future; they come from all over the world and they
are becoming interested in those Entrepreneurial programs, hoping that they will
someday be able to run their own business in the future or obtain greater Entrepreneurial
competencies.
On the other hand, universities or teachers who are offering the Entrepreneurial
Education, as well as educators want to find the right way to give their knowledge about
Entrepreneurship to the students in the proper methods, with the hope that the students
can really learn some useful Entrepreneurial competencies from the programs.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
3
Non-traditional audiences could also benefit from Entrepreneurship education (Harold
P. Welsch 2001); to give an example, the case of many people who are in the process of
their own business can be mentioned; they need to know more about how to approach
their success and how to solve their front problems in either short or long term, looking
forward to being able to get some useful solutions or views from enrolling the
education.
1.6 Disposition
This section explains the development of this thesis´ flow. In the following Theory part,
we aim to explain three theories that are the base of the thesis. First, there is a
discussion about different perspectives of Entrepreneur; providing two different
streams, economic perspective as mainstream connecting Entrepreneurs to the economic
dimension and non-economic perspective emphasized on “other” values.
Secondly, the theory of Entrepreneur Education is highlighted and we discussed about
different perspectives on Entrepreneur Education as well. As Entrepreneur Education
developed, the concept of Entrepreneur Education has been expanded into broader
ways. After reviewing the history of Entrepreneur Education in the world and in
Sweden, there is a shifting stage from teaching skills to competency. In addition, after
the review with Mälardalen University we find that different perspectives influence
different teaching objectives, and competency is here again emphasized in Entrepreneur
Education.
Lastly, the theory of competency as the concept of Entrepreneurial competencies relates
to Entrepreneurs' performance (Draganidis and Mentaz, 2006). There are three elements
of competency that can be taught: Skills, Knowledge and Experience with its respective
teaching approaches. Furthermore, the model involving the relationship of the above
mentioned theories will be presented to give the reader a comprehensive view
In the Empirical findings’ chapter, empirical views with the analysis from the
qualitative approach conducted with the academic and students respondents will be
provided. Right after that, the analysis of these data follows.
In the subsequent chapter “Conclusions and Implications” we will present the results of
our research with suggestions regarding to the topic. In the final chapter, the
implications for future research will be presented mainly target at the academic
audiences.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
4
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Methodological Approach
To begin with, we have to say that we have used the Dialogue; The dialogue is a
discussion addressed to the exploration of a subject or the resolution of a problem, and
with this definition, we share relevant information in order to arrive at mutually
agreement to commitment. Perhaps the goal is not to collect data but to share our
viewpoints.
This paper undertakes qualitative approach to gain in-depth insights. From both focus
groups and in-depth interviews, it is witnessed that there are different perspectives of
Entrepreneurship amongst respondents. We will divide the respondents into two
different groups, the academic personals and the students. The academic personals
refers to the teacher, researcher and co-founder, Peter Vaigur, Carina Holmgren and
Karin Berglund; on the other hand, the student group involves the students who enrolled
in Entrepreneur Course in MDH.
Considering the advantages of face to face interview, this kind of interviews are the
most frequently used format and are used to obtain information from one person about
particular situations, problems and topics. The face to face interview provides a free
exchange of ideas between the moderator and the respondent and leads itself to asking
more complex questions and getting more detailed responses. Furthermore, it permits
more complex questions to be asked than in other types of data collection.
According to Morgan (1998), focus group interviews are “methods for collecting
qualitative data to be analysed and related to research questions, also focused efforts for
gathering data on specific topics and group discussions to generate data across a range
of experiences and opinions”. The focus groups rely on interaction within a group,
rather than a question-and-answer format. Moreover, interviewees may feel more at
ease and spontaneous in a group situation.
In addition to the primary data, the external sources of the secondary data include
published books and journal articles. For our purpose both are important. The main
source of the secondary data for the development of the literature review comes mostly
from journal articles from an electronic and also paper format sources such as books
from the university library.
To sum up, the research methods which are appropriate to the objectives of our study
are Literature review, Face to Face Interview and Focus Group Interview; Instead of a
quantitative approach such as survey or as questionnaire.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
5
2.2 Reasons for choosing that approach
In this paper, we gathered the data by using both primary data and secondary data in
order to make our thesis reliable and suitable for the time limitation. However, both
primary and secondary data have advantages and disadvantages that we have taken into
consideration and we have selected the most appropriate way to do our thesis.
Ghauri & Gronhaug (2002) emphasize that the enormous saving in time and money is
the first and foremost advantage of using secondary data. There are two types of
secondary data named internal sources and external sources. Internal sources include
information on customers, suppliers, employees, marketing plan and, sometimes, even
on the competitors while external sources include published books and journal articles.
When secondary data are not available or are unable to help to answer our research
questions, collecting other data which are relevant to particular study and research
problem is necessary (Ibid). The data are called primary data including observations,
experiments, survey and even interviews. The main advantage of primary data is that
they are collected specifically for the particular study.
2.3 Methods data collection
In this section, the way we obtained the data is described for the reader because often
there are different methods that we can use to investigate a research problem and
knowing how the data was collected will help the reader to evaluate the validity of our
results. How the information is analyzed to obtain the results will also be explained in
the last chapter.
2.3.1 Primary data
To fulfil the research purpose, it is necessary to address to the questions of how and
why and therefore, qualitative approach has been selected to gain deeper insight to those
questions. From Face to Face Interview, we aim at exploring the motivation for the
formation of course and to clarify the course objective with Berglund and Holmgren.
Berglund is one of the co-founders of the Entrepreneur Course as well as a researcher in
MDH University. Holmgren is the researcher who is doing the doctoral thesis in MDH
University. She mainly deals with different projects in the compulsory and secondary
level. Vaigur is the teacher of Entrepreneur Course in MDH.
In the field of Focus Group Interview, we aim at exploring the motivation for choosing
Entrepreneur course and their expectation towards the course both before and after
attending it, with the students enrolled in our program. We divided Focus Group into
two sections. Section one contains six students, who used to be working in the
following fields: accounting, business journal; besides that, others students are just fresh
graduates with no working experience from their bachelor education. The second
section contains five students. Four out of the five students used to work in the
following fields: logistics, legal department. One out of the five students is doing his
bachelor course in our University.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
6
In both qualitative approaches, projective technique is used to in-depth interview with
regards to the abstract concept, for instance, skills and the concept that needs
imagination to gain the most in-depth knowledge. (Please address yourselves to the
Appendix for discussions guides for face to face interviews and focus group
interviews conducted).
2.3.2 Secondary data
From literature review, we relate competency to Entrepreneur definitions based on
economic perspectives, then we pin down the elements of competency for
Entrepreneurship (as cited by most literature) and other section to pull out how this
elements of competency are mostly taught in the university.
The literature review have been collected from mainly source and database such as
Mälardalen University through the library and Electronic library information navigator
which integrates data from several publishers, databases and e-print open archives
(ELIN@). Furthermore, the other data base such as Emerald and Google scholar have
been used.
2.4 Data Analysis
The process of analysis in this paper is through data collection from the literature
review; using different theories such as Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Education and
Competency. The search is done through the main key words such as Entrepreneur,
Entrepreneur Education, Competency, Skills, Knowledge, Experience and collected
these theories from different data base said above. For the purpose of this study the
empirical findings come from different interview with professor, lecture and student in
order to extract the most useful information to provide a conclusion.
2.4.1 Criticism of sources
The qualitative research has the ability to study a specific phenomenon. Instead of using
a qualitative method, it had been more appreciate to start with a quantitative study in
order to establish a sample of respondents and then using qualitative research to look
deeply. Myers (2002) argues “for the value of every single study providing that
parameters are guided by the goals of the study” but he says that "The ultimate aim of
qualitative research is to offer a perspective of a situation and provide well-written
research reports that reflect the researcher's ability to illustrate or describe the
corresponding phenomenon. One of the greatest strengths of the qualitative approach is
the richness and depth of explorations and descriptions." (Myers 2002) However, we
believe that although we do not have the percentage to complete the whole picture of
the study, the deep exploration of the qualitative would be able to give us explanation
about issues involve within the paper.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
7
2.4.2 Data Limitation
Besides that, we relate that quantitative approach is as important as the qualitative
approach in the sense that it provides the tangible results through figures, and because
there is a problem in following up the questionnaire, so the alternative of qualitative
approach is taken as a measure to prevent the time deadline. Moreover, the amount of
needed people to make it and the number of answers expected were unknown.
For the development of this paper, we come across the limitations in finding resources
regarding competency in Entrepreneur Education. Firstly, because the area is
comparatively new and exhibits limited resources of the issue; secondly, because most
of the resource are available in Swedish language; One important limitation of our
literature review, the book Entrepreneurial Learning by Westlund and Peterson 2006 is
in Swedish, and this book has encouraged practitioners to consider competencies
instead of focusing purely on traits and skills.
2.5 Reference System
There are many different systems for the citation of references. In this paper Harvard
system is used. In this system the author's surname and year of publication are cited in
the text and besides that a reference list is included at the end in alphabetical order by
authors referred to in the citations of the text. The reference list includes details such as
the author’s surname, the publication year, title, publisher, volume and number of
pages.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
8
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Entrepreneur
3.1.1 The Mainstream definition of Entrepreneur
Over the years, there are many theories and discussions relating to the issue of whom or
what exactly is an Entrepreneur. From different literature, there exhibit many
perspectives of Entrepreneur. To capture the whole picture, the thesis reviews
definitions of Entrepreneur over years.
Firstly, the paper discusses the early contribution by Cantillon , Say and Marshall. Next,
the paper discusses the more recent theories of Entrepreneurship concentrating on
Schumpeter, Knight, Kirzner, and Schultz. Lastly, the paper also includes some more
recent contributions made by Shane and Venkataraman(2000) and Casson.
The earliest definition of Entrepreneur is of Cantillon in year 1730. For him,
Entrepreneur is as the person who buys at a certain price and sells at an uncertain price
(Cantillon 1755). This definition only gives importance for the price. Besides, the skill
in bearing of risk – engaging in business without an assurance of the profits is derived.
Later, J ean-Baptiste Say has a different perspective on Entrepreneur. Say sees
Entrepreneur as the main agent of production in the economy. Rather than emphasizing
on the risk-bearing role of the Entrepreneur, Say stresses that the Entrepreneur's
"...principle quality is to have good judgment." (Hebert and Link, 1988). Say regards
Entrepreneur as a manager of a firm; an input in the production process. The
Entrepreneur acts in the static world of equilibrium, where he assesses the most
favorable economic opportunities. The payoff to the Entrepreneur is not profits arising
from risk-bearing but instead a wage accruing to a scarce type of labor. Say highlights,
in that way, that the role of the Entrepreneur is separated from that of the capitalist.
From Cantillon’s emphasis on pricing scheme to Say’s Entrepreneur as the main agent
for production in economy, we can see that both definitions from the earlier years, the
perspectives of Entrepreneur has been rooted in economic arena.
Later, the early neo-classical economist, Alfred Marshall devotes his attention to the
Entrepreneur. In addition to the risk bearing and management aspects emphasized by
Cantillon and Say, Marshall introduces an innovating function of the Entrepreneur by
emphasizing that the Entrepreneur continuously seeks opportunities to minimize costs
(Marshall, 1964). This definition exists in "Principles of Economics”.
Schumpeter opposes the existing views of the Entrepreneur as a risk bearer and a
manager of a company. Instead, Schumpeter argued that envisioned that Entrepreneurs
“created” opportunity by using “innovative combinations”. For him, an Entrepreneur is
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
9
an innovator--an individual who carries out one of the following five tasks: 1) the
creation of a new good or a new quality; 2) the creation of a new method of production;
3) the opening of a new market; 4) the capture of a new source of supply; or 5) the
creation o f a new organization or industry (Swedberg, 2000).
Schumpeterian Entrepreneur was a nonconformist, who used novel combinations
proactively to respond to unfulfilled opportunity, which would eventually lead “creative
destruction” of passive and lethargic industry to practices, if not the industry and
industry members. Schumpeterian Entrepreneur was not, therefore, an imitator or
emulator, rather, an innovator (Galunic and Roden, 1998).
Other author, Knight’s (1921) suggested that Entrepreneurs were concerned with the
“Efficiency” in economic factors by continually reducing waste, increasing savings and
thus creating additional value. This reconfirmed the Austrian economics’ notion of
value.
An important contribution of Knight was to recognize the distinction between risk and
uncertainty. The latter is uninsurable since it relates to unique events, e.g., a shift in
consumer taste. According to Knight, the main function of the Entrepreneur is to
assume the uncertainty related to these events, thereby shielding all other stakeholders
against it. Knightian theory of Entrepreneurship is a refinement of the theory by
Cantillon (Hebert and Link, 1988). He showed that the Entrepreneurs assume risky
decision because of the state of uncertainty in which they were working.
Kirzner (1973) says that Entrepreneurs possessed “Alertness” to identify opportunity
and exploited them accordingly. In some cases, the Entrepreneur simply “saw”
perceived price-quality disparities but an Entrepreneur should be able to “see”
opportunities, and take advantage of those opportunities. And actual irruption
“Entrepreneurs use innovation to exploit or create change and opportunity for the
purpose of making profit. They do this by shifting economic resources from an area of
lower productivity into an area of higher productivity and greater yield, accepting a high
degree of risk and uncertainty in doing so.” (Burns 2005).
Casson (1982) synthesizes and extends previous work by Schumpeter, Knight, Kirzner,
and many others. Defines the Entrepreneur as “someone who specializes in taking
judgmental decisions about the coordination of scarce resources”. The Entrepreneur is
someone who has a comparative advantage in making decisions. He throws new light
on: Proprietorship and Entrepreneurship and the risk-bearing as an Entrepreneurial
function. And also he made an interesting attempt to develop a theory linking
Entrepreneurs with economic development. He emphasized the aspect of resource
coordination and decision-making.
Carland (1984), add an Entrepreneur is an individual who establishes and manages a
business for the principal purposes of profit and growth. The Entrepreneur is
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
10
characterized principally by innovative behavior and will employ strategic management
practices in the business. Baumol (1993) extends previous work by Schumpeter.
Deakins (1998) suggests that concerns with Entrepreneurial personality divert attention
away from the learning and development process in Entrepreneurship, namely that the
individual gains skills and attributes from undertaking Entrepreneurship rather more
innate abilities. We will use that consideration to explain our purpose.
Recent theories of Entrepreneurship build on the works described above. Shane and
Venkataraman (2000) state that "Entrepreneurship involves the nexus of two
phenomena: the presence of lucrative opportunities and the presence of enterprising
individuals" (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). Their theory is inspired by the
Kirznerian Entrepreneurial discovery process but they emphasize that prior information
is needed to complement the new information in the discovery of business opportunities.
In this respect, they are similar to Schultz who argues that human capital is an important
determinant of Entrepreneurial ability.
Casson (2005) tries to encompass both the Schumpeterian and the Knightian definitions
by arguing that Entrepreneurs are individuals who specialize in decision making. The
Schumpeterian Entrepreneur applies information about inventions to create new
combinations and is ultimately the one who decides if the new combinations are
profitable. The Knightian Entrepreneur assesses the unique situations arising in the
future and makes decisions about how to exploit these situations to make a profit.
However, while it is true that both the Knightian and the Schumpeterian Entrepreneurs
are decision makers, many decision makers are not Entrepreneurs according to their
theories.
According to Berglund and Holmgren (2008); Economic Entrepreneurship is something
good for society as well as for people, also Entrepreneurship solves the problems of the
structural change of the business sector, Entrepreneurship leads to economic growth and
the creation of jobs and Entrepreneurship develops society in an accurate direction.
To conclude, we can see that many Entrepreneur definitions have been developed over
years. While some add on to the other definitions, the other provides critics on the
agreeable versus non agreeable part. But whatsoever, one thing is clear that all
definitions reviewed above are all based upon economic perspectives.
3.1.2 Other perspectives of Entrepreneur
From above, there exhibits the evidence that in earlier years all the definitions of
Entrepreneur has been derived from perspective of economists and thus rooted in that
arena. However as the years past, most research and study are conducted and the
perspectives of Entrepreneur are broadened. Therefore, it is necessary to be mentioned
that exist different approaches of Entrepreneurship, economic, social and environmental
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
11
approach. We assume for our discourse the economic approach, and also as the
mainstream, in order to explain this approach, and according to Berglund and Holmgren
(2008); Economic Entrepreneurship is something good for society as well as for people,
also Entrepreneurship solves the problems of the structural change of the business
sector, Entrepreneurship leads to economic growth and the creation of jobs and
Entrepreneurship develops society in an accurate direction.
Often there seems to be as many stories to tell about Entrepreneurship as there are
Entrepreneurs engaged in changing communities, revitalizing societal structures,
starting businesses, initiating change processes within organizations, developing ideas,
or introducing Entrepreneurship to the school world. Hence, Entrepreneurs are now
more than just the economic perspective. Social, Corporate and environmental
perspectives are as well developed from Entrepreneur researchers simultaneously which
are nonmainstream, the mainstream is still connecting Entrepreneurs to the industrial
sphere and the economic dimension (Hjorth, 2003), which puts “other” values such as
social and environmental to the second place (Steyaert and Hjorth, 2004).
The social Entrepreneurship refers to innovative activity with a social objective in either
the for-profit sector, such as in social-purpose commercial ventures (e.g., Dees and
Anderson, 2003; Emerson & Twersky, 1996) or in corporate social Entrepreneurship
(e.g., Austin et al 2004); or in the nonprofit sector, or across sectors, such as hybrid
structural forms which mix for-profit and nonprofit approaches (Dees, 1998). Other
approach of social Entrepreneurship typically refers to the phenomenon of applying
business expertise and market-based skills in the nonprofit sector such as when
nonprofit organizations develop innovative approaches to earn income (Reis, 1999;
Thompson, 2002). Common across all definitions of social Entrepreneurship is the fact
that the underlying drive for social Entrepreneurship is to create social value, rather than
personal and shareholder wealth (e.g., Zadek & Thake, 1997), and that the activity is
characterized by innovation, or the creation of something new rather than simply the
replication of existing enterprises or practices. The central driver for social
Entrepreneurship is the social problem being addressed, and the particular
organizational form a social enterprise takes should be a decision based on which
format would most effectively mobilize the resources needed to address that problem.
Ecopreneurs (Pastakia, 1998) may be divided into two broad groups based on their
objectives: Commercial. An individual/ group or corporation that seeks to maximize
personal (organisational in the case of a corporation) gains by identifying green
business opportunities (eco-friendly products and processes) and converting them into
viable business ventures may be referred to as commercial ecopreneurs or ecopreneurial
corporations respectively. Commercial ecopreneurs show their concern for the
environment through a conscious and consistent preference for ecofriendly business.
Social Entrepreneur. An individual that seeks to promote an eco-friendly
idea/product/technology either through the market or non-market routes may be referred
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
12
to as a social ecopreneur. An institution which seeks to achieve the same objective may
be called a social ecopreneurial organisation.
The corporate Entrepreneurship is the term used to describe Entrepreneurial behavior in
established, larger organization. The objective of this is simple- to gain competitive
advantage by encouraging innovation at all level in the organization. Also the Green
paper of the European Commission (2003), consider why is Entrepreneurship important?
Because Entrepreneurship contributes to job creation and growth, Entrepreneurship is
crucial to competitiveness and also Entrepreneurship to unlock personal potential.
Keeping on the European Commission: “Encouraging the enterprise spirit is a key to
creating jobs and improving competitiveness and economic growth throughout Europe.”
(European Commission, 2004b). We assume that Entrepreneurship seems to be good for
society and for people. Entrepreneurship is as the grand solution to economic growth
and development as it is what creates jobs, contribute to growth and competitiveness.
From the discussion above, the paper derives a model that there are two types of
Entrepreneur the mainstream and the non mainstream or the one containing other values.
But both contribute to the society and economic and therefore it rises to the emphasis on
education that will be discuss in the next chapter. (Please refer to chapter 4, see figure
2: Entrepreneur Perspective Model, page 29)
3.2 Entrepreneur Education
Deakins (1998) suggests that concerns with Entrepreneurial personality divert attention
away from the learning and development process in Entrepreneurship, namely that the
individual gains skills and attributes from undertaking Entrepreneurship rather more
innate abilities. Therefore, in this part, the paper discusses different perspectives of
Entrepreneur Education, as the concept of Entrepreneur Education develops, we find it
contains more dimensions such as social and governmental though the economic
dimension is still the mainstream. After viewing the history of Entrepreneur Education
in the world and Sweden we find that Entrepreneur Education has been growing and
changing in high pace in the last decades, especially in Sweden, there is a shifting stage
from teaching skills to teaching competency. In addition, we find that with the study of
Lund University and Mälardalen University, different emphasizes of different
perspectives influence different teaching objectives.
Entrepreneur Education from the words we can firstly guess it should be involved in the
education teaching about Entrepreneurship. We can see those definitions in the order of
publishing years about Entrepreneur Education below:
Kourilsky (1995) defines Entrepreneurial education such as “opportunity recognition,
marshalling of resources in the presence of risk, and building a business venture”.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
13
We can see that Kourisky seems only to focus on Entrepreneur Education in economic
dimensions; the aim of his Entrepreneur Education is to “build a business venture”.
However, in the year 1997, we find a quite forecasting definition:
Entrepreneurial education has also been defined in terms of creativity and innovation
applied to social, governmental, and business arenas (Gottleib and Ross, 1997).
From that we see that Gottleib and Ross have very broad views of the term Entrepreneur
Education, they opened the traditional definitions which were in economic dimensions
only, however from the later definitions of Entrepreneur Education, we find that
although Gottleib and Ross opened the definition broader, the economic dimensions are
still to some extent the mainstream. For example, one year after Gottleib and Ross’s
definition,
Bechard and Toulouse (1998) define Entrepreneurial education such as “a collection of
formalised teachings that informs, trains, and educates anyone interested in business
creation, or small business development”. They point out that Entrepreneurial education
focuses on combining and carrying out a new combination of business elements while
education for small business ownership focuses on the skills needed to reproduce or
acquire an existing business.
Shane (2003) points out: “the level of interest in Entrepreneurship among business
school students is also extremely high ... every university campus, it seems, has a wealth
of courses about how to start and finance new business”.
In the year 1998 and 2003, Bechard ,Toulouse and Shane believe that Entrepreneur
Education is in the economic dimension which refers to the “skills to reproduce or
acquire an existing business” and ” how to start and finance new business”. However
we find the following one two years after Shane’s:
Entrepreneurial Education can be viewed broadly in terms of the skills that can be
taught and the characteristics that can be engendered in individuals that will enable
them to develop new and innovative plans. (Colin J ones and J ack English 2004)
According to Matlay and Westhead (2005), Entrepreneurship Education is also
promoted as an effective way to facilitate the transition of a growing graduate
population from education and into work.
This definition above seems to be considered as some kind of work oriented promotion
ways which can promote graduates into work in a faster method, and of course work
involves quite a lot, not only in economic dimensions but can in other dimensions as
mentioned above “social and governmental” also . Next, the paper presents another
definition which is formed in 2006:
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
14
Hannon (2006) argues that: “Entrepreneurship Education is now part of the HE
landscape … of a broader aim to embed the notions of enterprise and Entrepreneurship
throughout the education system from primary, secondary and through tertiary levels. “
From what Hannon said, we can see that he thinks Entrepreneur Education is the
education in those levels teaching about enterprise and Entrepreneurship, which are still
in the economic perspective.
From those definitions, we see that although there are many definitions about
Entrepreneur Education, still most of them are in the economic dimension which
emphasis on the start-up courses. (Shane 2003, Kourilsky 1995,Bechard and Toulouse
1998 ) At the same decade, Entrepreneur Education seemed to have grown a little bit
into other areas such as social, governmental. (Gottleib and Ross 1997, Matlay and
Westhead 2005). In addition, we find that as time passes by, not only more concepts
were involved in Entrepreneur Education, but more levels such as primary and
secondary are involved in it. And as previous part mentioned, Hjorth (2003) finds out
that the mainstream is still about economic perspectives, which is our main focus as
well.
In order to learn more about the changing phenomenon of Entrepreneur Education, the
following part exaggerates about the history about Entrepreneur Education.
History about Entrepreneur Education around the world
Entrepreneurship education is hardly a 21st century phenomenon. First, the paper
discusses the EE in USA where the education is pioneered. It shows that Entrepreneur
Education is really a new phenomenon which mainly involves skills about small or
start-up venture in the last decades. However it expands or grows pretty fast in the
recent years. Gary (2006) even points out that Entrepreneur Education is the fasters-
growing course of study on campuses national wide. And it mainly teaches about the
mainstream—economic perspectives especially in the transferable skills of starting up
business or ventures.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) starts up its Entrepreneurship Center
16 years ago. Other research universities introduced their own courses in
Entrepreneurship during the 1990s. Even Harvard Business School, the epitome of
education for future leaders of traditional corporations, has a mandatory course on
Entrepreneurship. (Gwynne, 2008)
In the past two years, however, the pace has quickened significantly. According to the
National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, about 160 academic centers now
teach the subject. "I would describe the situation more as a new phase in
Entrepreneurship education than a new awareness," says J onathan Rosen, executive
director of Boston University’s Institute of Technology Entrepreneurship and
Commercialization (Gwynne, 2008)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
15
With that expansion, there is a similar increase in the field of Entrepreneurship
Education. The recent growth and development in the curricula and programs devoted
to Entrepreneurship and new-venture creation have been remarkable. The number of
colleges and universities that offer courses related to Entrepreneurship has grown from a
handful in the 1970s to over 1,600 in 2005 (Kuratko 2005).
McMullan and Gillin (2001) point out that although universities have been offering
courses in Entrepreneur Education for over thirty years, graduate programs are only
seven years old.
Currently 1,992 two- and four-year colleges and universities offer at least one course in
Entrepreneurship, up from about 300 in the 1984-1985 school years, according to a new
survey by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes Entrepreneurship
education. Today Entrepreneurship is the fastest-growing course of study on campuses
nationwide ( Gray, 2006).
According to Vesper and Gartner (1997) the number and variety of Entrepreneurship
programs has expanded considerably during the past two decades, both in Europe and
elsewhere.
New Entrepreneurship programmes have been emerging at business schools in Australia
and overseas. In the USA, they have been launched at such prestigious institutions as
Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. In 1999, there were
170 American universities offering courses in Entrepreneurship. Less than half of them
existed three years earlier (Lord, 1999). Similarly, a growing number of Australian
universities are offering Entrepreneurship programs in response to developments in
overseas universities and accelerated by the Australian Federal Government’s
innovations statement. The rise of these programs has also been fuelled by
unprecedented student demand as students look for a style of business education that
will provide them with the transferable skills (Cooper et al., 2004)
Besides that, according to the definition mentioned below, Colin J ones and J ack English
view Entrepreneur Education as terms of skills that can be taught and the characteristics
that can be engendered in individuals. It is the same as what Cooper (2004) said,
Entrepreneur Education aims at transferable skills.
Entrepreneurship Education for business people is becoming a key imperative at some
Canadian universities, Grant Isaac, dean of the Edwards School of Business at the
University of Saskatchewan, observes that educating for Entrepreneurship has meant an
expansion of focus from managing wealth and creating managers, to wealth creation
and fostering both the skills and the visioning necessary to create new enterprises, The
three universities covered in this article - Saskatchewan, Laurier and Waterloo - are
leaders in the field, each with a unique offering that is clearly striking a chord with
students who want to start their own enterprises or become part of an Entrepreneurial
corporate culture. (Anonymous 2007)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
16
Chia (1996) finds out that Traditional business school programs emphasize the large
established corporation over the small or start-up venture and nurture the follower and
steward over the leader, creator and risk taker.
We can see that Entrepreneur Education was really a new phenomenon which mainly
involves skills about small or start-up venture in the last decades. However it expands or
grows pretty fast in the recent years. Gary (2006) even points out that Entrepreneur
Education is the fasters-growing course of study on campuses national wide. And it
mainly teaches about the mainstream—economic perspectives especially in the
transferable skills of starting up business or ventures.
European Commission 2004b says that “Entrepreneurship teaching will aim to foster in
the students those personal qualities such as creativity, spirit of initiative and
independence that contribute to the development of an Entrepreneurial attitude, which
will prove useful in their life and in every working activity.”
The description above stresses that students must be encouraged to develop personal
qualities that relevant to Entrepreneurship, such as creativity, a spirit of initiative, risk-
taking and responsibility (Berglund and Holmgren, 2008). These qualities are now seen
as the fashion word “skill” as well.
We can see that here European Commission even highlighted that Entrepreneur
Education should provide the skills of creativity, spirit of initiative and Entrepreneurial
attitude. As well as Berglund and Holmgren (2008) add risk-taking and responsibility
skills.
As our findings in this chapter, we can see that there are a lot of researches and articles
showing within the history of Entrepreneur Education, it grows a lot in its numbers as
well as its contents. (Gwynne, 2008, Kuratko 2005 and Gray, 2006) besides that, it’s
really a world wide thing, not only in Europe or USA, but all over the world. (Gartner
and Vesper (1994) In addition, the world seems to be highlighting the word “skills”
when they are doing Entrepreneur Education. (Chia, 1996,Cooper et al., 2004, Gary
2006). So after reviewing the environment of Entrepreneur Education in the world, we
may ask ourselves, what’s it like in Sweden? It is the same as the world? In order to
know it, we then take a look at the Entrepreneur Education in Sweden in the same way
we viewed Entrepreneur Education in the world.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
17
3.2.1 Entrepreneur Education in Sweden
As mentioned before, all over the world is doing Entrepreneur Education as well as in
Europe. Since Sweden is a part of Europe, it also provides programs and courses in
Entrepreneur Education.
According to Sweden Career Guide 2006, (Sweden Career Guide 2006). The Swedish
government has also launched many actions to stimulate Entrepreneurship and
innovation in Sweden, both on a national and regional basis. In its 2004 budget bill, the
Swedish government recognized the need for specific actions to stimulate growth, such
as tax relief for small companies and increased investment on research in the IT and
telecom sectors. The growth of business parks and business creation close to university
areas are other signs of the major focus on Entrepreneurship in Sweden. Universities are
also now concentrating on how to act more commercially as institutions, and how to
train students in the tactics of Entrepreneurship. The concepts of Entrepreneurship and
innovation are present in many recurrent educational programs at the universities.
Students may combine their university degrees with shorter courses in Entrepreneurship
and business development. University programs entirely focused on Entrepreneurship
have also been established at some universities. There are educational institutes
specialized on Entrepreneurship and business creation; one example being the
Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship. For professionals there are a number of
seminars and courses available on themes related to business creation and
Entrepreneurship.
History of Entrepreneur Education in Sweden
Initial efforts to stimulate Entrepreneurship at the lower levels of the Swedish
educational system were made by two private organizations in 1980. Ten years later, in
the end of the 1990s interest in Entrepreneurship in the educational system reached the
policy sphere and became an industry and trade policy question.
During 2004, an extensive study of Entrepreneurship education was conducted within
the Nordic countries: Creating Opportunities for Young Entrepreneurship. (Lundstrom
2005) the purpose of this study was to map, evaluate and analyse activities already
ongoing in the area of young Entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on
Entrepreneurship education. Since there was a lack of a common definition of what
Entrepreneurship education is about, the focus in the surveys was on the use of the
words Entrepreneurship and/or enterprising (Berglund and Holmgren 2008). That
means till then, the content of this education remained, however, a mystery.
Since then there was no advice conforming the current knowledge about the
Entrepreneurial process, and more perspectives of Entrepreneurs had come out during
that time, for instance, social perspectives or environment perspectives, a better
pedagogical approach which refers to the “New School (Ronstadt in Kent 1990) needs
to improve the Entrepreneurial Education. The “New School” provides some new
perspectives about Entrepreneurs in that time, for instance, “successful Entrepreneurs
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
18
are critical thinkers, as well as action-oriented. And “Any age can be the right age, but
the odds of career continuance favour starting earlier, during the late 20s and early 30s”.
Similarly in the Swedish Government’s Proposition knowledge and quality- 11 steps to
develop the upper secondary school” it is, for instance, argued that Entrepreneurship is
more a perspective than a separate educational goal:
“The education should bring about knowledge that prepare for employment, starting and
running a business as well as actively participate in society. A competence that is often
requested is Entrepreneurship, meaning the competence to initiate and carry through
different activities and projects. Through an Entrepreneurship perspective the students’
capability of initiative, creativity and spirit of enterprise can be stimulated.” (Spinosa,
Flores and Dreyfus, 1997). In order to get known more about the question, a research
project called “Entrepreneurship Education 2007”(EDU07) was launched during
autumn 2006 in Sweden, which aims to regard what Entrepreneurship education means
as well as how it is performed in the school world (Berglund and Holmgren, 2006 ).
In the EDU07, researchers focus on the earlier stages of the educational system, as well
as on what teachers do when they do Entrepreneurship education.
Berglund and Holmgren (2008) argue that Entrepreneurship education should be about
learning to make something of what you already have, to navigate from the position that
you hold.
From that, we could see that from the teaching history of Entrepreneur Education in
Sweden there is a shifting stage of Entrepreneur Education from blind to a little bit
clear, which means the goal of Entrepreneur Education was a mystery in the
past(Berglund and Holmgren 2008), and it developed to what is Entrepreneur Education
after later researches and courses, and then it developed like now: it should be about
learning to make something of what you already have. (That refers to the concept of
Competency in the later part)
As mentioned in Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, there was a shifting, as we can see
in the model, there is a broken line going from Skills to Competency. In order to explain
the next model more clearly, we would like to describe it as following:
Basically when the world is talking about skills in Entrepreneur Education dimension, it
often concerns to what is an Entrepreneur, people use the skills to describe what
Entrepreneurs are, they have such certain skills, so that they perform better in being
Entrepreneurial. They have the skill of creativity, they have the skill of innovation, they
have the skill of risk-taking and so forth. And we can see that there is a line going from
Entrepreneur Education to Skills.
But after lots of researches of Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, scholars have
changed their minds. Scholars think that people are not like superheroes with whom
have those skills born, besides that Berglund and Holmngren (2008) argues that it is
better to look at what people really do when they are doing Entrepreneurship. That is to
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
19
say, in their point of view, it is not so useful if people only know what an Entrepreneur
is, what is more important is to know what Entrepreneurs do. So instead of skills,
Berglund presents Competency for the action of “what Entrepreneurs do”. She believes
the action in between people and how they act is more important in Entrepreneur
Research. So the Swedish Entrepreneur Education to some extent needs to shift from
skills to competency instead. So we can see there is a line going from Skills to
Competency.
As a conclusion, this paper provide a model, if people are talking about what
Entrepreneurs are, it concerns to skills. However if people are talking about what
Entrepreneurs do, it concerns to competency instead. Here we are not really judging
which side is better or worse, they both are involved in the Entrepreneur Education, not
only in Sweden, but in the world. Sweden is moving from skills to competency has its
reason, while some other place may want to stick on skills, they might also have their
points. (Please refer to chapter 4, see figure 3: Entrepreneur Education Model, page
30)
Besides that, in our research, although we know that there was a shifting stage from
Skills to Competency, we do not know what exactly the reason is, because mostly the
theories and articles talking about Competency are Swedish, and that is one of our
limitations as mentioned in Methodology part. However, we partly know that perhaps
the Swedish Education System really now emphasizes more on Competency since it is
¨what to do¨. If we are looking for the relationship between skills and competency, or
why there are such debates, the next Competency chapter will clarify that.
3.3 Competency
The answers to the questions such as ‘what is skill and what is competency’ will be seen
presented in this chapter. About competency, since we mentioned in the EE part that the
EE in Sweden is shifting from skills to competency and it must also explain the
questions written before. To start with, the main point of this section is Competency,
and two different approaches are explained, the work approach related to work task and
performance, and Entrepreneur approach. Furthermore, this paper provides three
different elements of competency, which are Knowledge, Skills and Experience.
Starting with the definition of competency, it must be said that there are more than one
definition of it. The first definition provided, defines competencies as “competencies as
underlying characteristics that are casually related to effective and/or superior
performance in a job” (Boyatzis 1982 cited in Man 2006). Although during the last
years the studies about competencies have increased, further more definitions of
competency exist, such as “the ability and willingness to perform a task” (Burgoyne
1988 cited in Man 2006). Both definitions are focused in the work approach, referring
to performance in a job and to perform a task. Albanese and North keep on the same
perspective, considering competency like “a skill and/or personal characteristic that
contributes to effective managerial performance”(Albanese 1989) or such as “the ability
to performance the activities within an occupation”, under North´s (1993) view.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
20
Another approach, which more focused on the Entrepreneur himself/herself, is the point
of view of Hornby and Thomas (1989), they says that “competence is the knowledge,
skills and qualities of effective managers/leaders”. Even in Entrepreneur’s perform, the
Entrepreneur is assumed to be both the owner and the manager, and it is believed that
the areas of Entrepreneurial competencies are broader than managerial competencies
(J ohnson & Winterton, 1999). Thereby “the concept of Entrepreneurial competencies
relates to Entrepreneurs' performance” (Draganidis & Mentaz, 2006).
While there is no universally accepted list of Entrepreneurial competencies, this study
follows Entrepreneurial competencies as a theoretical framework led by Man (2005).
Man defines Entrepreneurial competencies as “individual characteristics, including
personality traits, knowledge, and skill” (Ibis). Further investigation of this issue is
intended through the use of the competency approach in studying the Entrepreneurial
characteristics.
In general, the competency approach, which takes into account both work approaches
and Entrepreneur approach, “seeks to identify long-lasting individual characteristics
leading to success or performance in a job and subsequently, in an organization”
(Thomas and Herrisier, 1991 cited in Man 2006). However, focusing on the
characteristics leading to competencies, Boyatzis said “it can be a motive, trait, an
aspect of the person’s self-image or social role, skill, or a body of knowledge upon
which he or she draws” (Boyatzis, 1982 cited in Man 2006). Another point of view
which is similar to Boyatzi made is the classification that Bartlett and Ghoshal (1997
cited in Man 2006) did. They identified three different categories of competencies. the
first of them considers attitudes/traits, the second category deals with
knowledge/experience; and the last one talks about skills/abilities.
The definition of competencies by Spencer and Spencer (1993 cited in Nab et al 2007)
is rather similar to all that has been said before, but this definition brings different
elements together: “the definition of competencies combines several Entrepreneurial
elements : 1) motives and intentions, 2) attributes, 3) self-concept (attitudes), 4)
knowledge and 5) skills”. This definition assembles many of the elements from
Entrepreneurial theoretical perspectives.
With the literature review about competencies, Man and Lau (2005) suggest that
“Entrepreneurial competencies comprise of components that are more deeply rooted in a
person’s background (traits, personality and attitudes) as well as those that can be
acquired at work or through training and education (skills, knowledge and experience)”.
Once given the different competency definitions, it is considered to prove that the
competency can be taught, because competencies are changeable and learnable, and
interventions in terms of education can contribute to this process. Moreover,
“competencies can be improved through education and training” (Burgoyne, 1993;
Parry, 1998 cited in Man 2006) and also the experience has shown that “training
programmes for Entrepreneurship can largely achieve their aim of developing
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
21
Entrepreneurial competencies” (Wallace, 1998; Kirby and Mullen, 1990 cited in Man
2005).
Taking all that into account, it is accepted that knowledge and skills can be learned and
can be taught; the self-concept is changeable, but not without large difficulties, and
attributes are open to changes and can be changed by educators by influencing thoughts,
feelings and behavioural intentions.
The most adequate definition of competency for our study is cited by Man and Lau
(2005), and suggests that “Entrepreneurial competencies comprise of components that
are more deeply rooted in a person’s background (traits, personality and attitudes) as
well as those that can be acquired at work or through training and education (skills,
knowledge and experience)”. In order to visualize the picture of the definition of Man
and Lau (2005), it can be drawn as competency in the top, with two different roots,
competency as person´s background and competency acquired through training and
education. The former root defines each of us and gives us our own inner
characteristics, that is why it cannot be taught. We assume, in that sense, that only
following the latter root the elements of competency can be acquired through education
and training, and they can also be taught. Those elements are skills, knowledge and
experience. (Please refer to chapter 4, see figure 4: Competency Model, page 31)
To sum up, the different elements competency has are shown and also the assumption
that the competency can be improved through education has been deeply explained. In
the next sections of this paper more information will be provided in order to explain the
three different elements of competency, Knowledge, Skills and Experience.
3.3.1 Knowledge
As mentioned before, knowledge is an element of competency, which is also necessary
to achieve competent performance. Using knowledge base, the student can incorporate
theoretical concepts, even more substantial and deep ideas in many different areas; in
our precise case, it refers to the field of Entrepreneurship.
From Penrose (1959), there are two types of knowledge: objective knowledge, which
can be coded, taught, learned, or transmitted by other people; and experience, which is
the result of learning from personal experience, and cannot be transmitted, as it
produces a change in individuals that cannot be separated from them.
According to our study, the ability to learn is essential in developing Entrepreneurial
capabilities (Rae and Carswell 2000 Cited in Man 2006). We consider learning as a
mind work of acquiring and structuring knowledge, and it includes different attempts to
demystify the process of Entrepreneurial learning. Even in the economic
perspective/context some of the opportunities are generated by knowledge. Therefore
rich knowledge could generate more Entrepreneurship.
Considering that the term knowledge is wide meaning, for this study we relate
knowledge with teaching theory, because theory provides knowledge. The professors
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
22
are obligated to teach theory because it is closer to the truth than observation alone. The
truth is the knowledge of the things as they are, the things as they were and the things as
they shall be (Fiet 2001). Even theory is used to explain what is not obvious through
observation. Barney (1997 cited in Fiet 2001) says: “it is insufficient to transmit and
apply present knowledge. It is the function of university education to advance the state
of knowledge as well”. In that sense, some authors assume that teaching theory is
boring for students but the acquisition of relevant knowledge must be done through
theory. The teaching of theory must be done in a way that can be understood and later
be applied by students.
As Bill Bygrave (1993 cited in Fiet 2001 ), the Director of Entrepreneurial Studies at
Babson College, noted “there are two ways to ruin an Entrepreneurship course. The first
way is to have it consist entirely of the practical application and analysis of cases. The
second way is to have it be entirely theory”. The second way refers to a course
consisting only of theory. Stevenson and J arillo (1991 cited in Pyysiäinen et al 2006))
say “that more knowledge is needed about the “how” of Entrepreneurial behaviour.
Generating this kind of knowledge makes it possible to teach Entrepreneurship they
argue”.
As mentioned above, the knowledge is taught through a theory-based learning, and this
methodology is based on the assumption that it is the teacher who initiates the transfer
of knowledge; in the extent of the fact that it works in that way, the students tend to
practice less and acquire fewer competencies (Fiet, 2001). Having acquired the
competencies, thereby the students gain knowledge through theory and it gives them the
chance of applying the knowledge they have previously acquired. In this sense, from the
point of view of Entrepreneurship, the knowledge is linked to the creation of a body of
theory-based learning in the process (Ibid).
We assume the knowledge as an element of competency and including competencies in
learning process provides a framework for understanding the elements affecting
Entrepreneurial learning. To finish with, it cannot be forgotten that the learning
methodology to transfer knowledge is a theory-based methodology, that is, it is a
methodology which consist of transmitting theory.
3.3.2 Skills
Skills are other element of competency; we consider skills as the ability or talent to be
developed. Entrepreneur Skills are necessary for Entrepreneurial actions and behaviours
must be developed and encouraged in order to maintain competitiveness within the
global enterprise economy. Again, there are many definitions on skills.
For the exploratory study: “Entrepreneurial Skills Assessment” (Smith, et al 2007).
They consider that for Entrepreneurial activities different skills are required. Their
study examines a particular set of seventeen skills defined in four major categories: The
first category is called “Technical Skills”. These technical skills are described as the
“skills necessary to be successful in one’s line of business”( Lyons, 2002 cited in Smith
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
23
2007). Another category is “Managerial Skills”. Lyons described managerial skills as
“the skills needed to organize the work on a day-to-day basis” (Ibid). “Entrepreneurial
Skills” is the third category, and it described Entrepreneurial skills as “the skills needed
to develop innovative products and services and to generate solutions to emerging needs
in the marketplace” (Ibis). The final category, “Personal Maturity Skills”, described
personal maturity skills as “the skills needed to attain self-awareness, emotional
maturity, ability and willingness to accept responsibility, and creativity” (Ibid).
According to Smilor (1997) and Kilby (1971 cited in Pyysiäinen et al 2006)
Entrepreneurial skills refer to those activities, or practical know-how. This point of view
is similar to the point of view of Lyons. They talk about the different courses that do not
offer or focus on the development of the same skills, for example, a course entitled
“Entrepreneurial skills for small business” offers the following list of Entrepreneurial
skills:
Personal skills:
• Innovation
• Initiative
• Risk-taking
• Ability to deal with the unknown with ease
• Accepting challenges
• Taking responsibility
• Seeking opportunities in change
Interpersonal skills:
• Interacting with others effectively
• Communicating effectively
• Negotiating
• Influencing
• Demonstrating leadership
Process skills:
• Ability to plan and organize
• Ability to analyse synthesise and evaluate
• Ability to execute the plan.
Entrepreneurs are generalists who are good at a variety of skills, and the Entrepreneurial
skills are essential for value-added business. An Entrepreneur must use his skills to take
advantage of emerging opportunities, but nobody have the DNA of an Entrepreneur.
Looking at all the literature review above, we can see that there are many explanations
on Entrepreneur skills. To scope down, we would include all those skills that are most
cited from the above literature review as Innovative, Creative, Confidence,
Organization, Problem solving, Analyse, Self- awareness, Networking, Interactive,
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
24
Take responsibility, Planning, Responsibility, Leadership, Initiative, Risk taker, Seeking
opportunities and Communication. Although there are many different set of skills, the
purpose of this paper is not exploring which skills are judged relevant by Entrepreneurs.
As many writers have noted (Weinrauch, 1984; Bechard and Toulouse, 1998; Gorman
et al., 1997 cited in Galloway et al 2005) the practice of entrepreneur education is one
that requires a blend of knowledge, skills and attitudes, which recognises the synergistic
links between management theory and Entrepreneurial practice. It therefore
acknowledges the need for the development of both "hard" and "soft" skills
simultaneously throughout the period of education and beyond. That is to say, the
period of practice of entrepreneur education can simultaneously impact the development
of both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills.
It is expected to analyze practice and to perform practice-based learning with different
kinds of activities. Together with that, it is also expected to apply and assimilate
knowledge from theory to practice, developing their skills. Using information
technology to manage information with technical and Entrepreneurial skills will
definitively facilitate the learning of students.
The concept of skills implies the possibility of learning, and consequently the matter of
being possible to teach them; Gibb (1996 cited in Pyysiäinen et al 2006) “makes the
point that the overriding aim of entrepreneur education is to develop enterprising
behaviours, skills and attributes”. In academic discussions, the concept of
Entrepreneurial skills is related to the debate on whether Entrepreneurship can be
conceived as something teachable or not. Katz (1991 Pyysiäinen et al 2006)), for
example, suggests that, “most likely, there are some skills which can be taught and
some that cannot”.
3.3.3 Experience
The last element of competency is Experience. In this paper does not enter in details
about definition of experience, but it however provides three mainstreams of relevant
experience.
Based on the Wood and Bandura´s (1989 cited in Erikson 2003 ) perspectives, three
mainstreams of experiences are identified; Mastery experience, Vicarious experience
and Social experience.
The first one, Mastery experience, explains that the most effective way for individuals
to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy is through mastery experience. i.e. from
practical experience and from repeated performance accomplishments. The
achievements have reinforced their self-efficacy, which contributes to individuals
aspirations and future accomplishments and repeated accomplishments increase
individual´s capability.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
25
The second one, Vicarious experience, points out that observational learning from role
models is the second way to strengthen self-belief. Role models affect self-efficacy
through a social comparison process, because people partly judge their capabilities in
comparison to others.
The last one, Social experience, is the third way to strengthen the sense of self-efficacy.
If the people receive positive encouragement, they will be more likely to exert greater
effort.
The experience comprises events in the life of the learner, those arising from the
learner's participation in activities implemented by teachers. Moreover, the experience
has shown that training programmes for Entrepreneurship can largely achieve their aim
of developing Entrepreneurial competencies (Wallace, 1998; Kirby and Mullen, 1990).
By participating in different kinds of simulations, games or role playing, the students
have the opportunity to formulate their own responses to issues in a specific situation
according to the kind of practice. Another different way can be through analyzing case
studies and proposing different solutions and alternatives. The experience-based
programs permit this type of involvement. Therefore, the objective is to find ways to
supplement the standard textbook and lectures with experience-based activities and
learning (Calvin 1990). The inconvenient is mostly that the experience is acquired once
the student starts to work.
Cohen and Walker (1993 cited in Andresen et al 1995) assume that “experience is the
foundation of, and the stimulus for, learning and learners actively construct their own
experience”. Mcdermot´s (2001) contributions are considerations about experience
based learning, as “Ability to apply knowledge, the expectation of the need to undertake
lifelong learning, and capacity to do so and acquiring effective problem solver.”
To sum up, from the literature review above the elements of competency regarding
skills, knowledge and experience, basically we can see that knowledge can be acquired
through theory-based learning (Fiet, 2001); skills can be acquired through practice-
based learning and experience can be acquired through experience-based learning.
(Wood and Bandura 1989 & Wallace, 1998; Kirby and Mullen, 1990 and Calvin 1990),
however it is still hard to clearly distinguish them from each other since they are related
to each other in some way, that is to say there are always overlaps between them. The
clearest example is the knowledge which adds to each teaching approach.
According to Penrose’s perspective (1959), there are two ways of knowledge, objective
knowledge and experience; however, Bartlett and Ghoshal (1997) differerentiate
knowledge and experience as two elements of competency. Form that we could see that
both terms of knowledge and experience are tricky and therefore there is some overlap
part between them, since we can always see in the reality life that some gains
experience as well as knowledge at the same time. J ones-Evans, Williams, Deacon
(2000) in their article show that the practiced-based learning enhances the knowledge as
well. Besides that, Fiet (2001) showed that skills can be acquired through theory-based
learning; however theories are some kind of knowledge as well. Thereby, it is proved
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
26
that occasionally teaching skills are overlap with knowledge. Furthermore, sometimes
there might be a possibility that certain theories are developed from experiences.
Dispelling the ‘Theory vs. Practical Experience’ Debate, it can be said that ‘practical
experience contributes to the development and refinement of an individual’s theories’
(Anon 2007).
Therefore, reviewing the above literature the different teach methodologies are shown;
In the moment which Knowledge is taught, in education the approach refers to Theory-
based learning; in the case of the teaching of the Skills, the methodology is Practice-
based learning. The last teaching methodology comes from Experience, which refers to
Experience-based learning.
Concluding, the general view of the Competency model is made up for the three
elements of competency such as Skills, Experience and Knowledge. Each element can
be acquired through different based learning. This paper suggests that it is necessary to
consider an integrated set of skills, experience, and knowledge constituting learning
behaviours in the context which facilitates the development and the use of such
behaviours, in order to lead to the desirable learning outcomes. (Please refer to chapter
4, see figure 4: Competency Model, page 31)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
27
CHAPTER 4: MODEL OF ANALYSIS
4.1 EECM (Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Education, Competency Model)
In this chapter, the paper provides a picture of the complete model – the EECM. From
the top, it mainly explains the relationship between perspectives of Entrepreneur
(economic perspective as mainstream and non economic perspectives) and Entrepreneur
Education (Course contents and teaching approaches). The paper locates the
relationship between the emphasis on Entrepreneur Education in Sweden that has been
shifted from skills to competency as the result of the shift from Entrepreneur
perspectives. Then, competency will be explained by describing three elements of
competency. Those elements are skills, knowledge and experience. Each one of those
elements which can be taught has its teaching approach (please refer to the literature
review).
For reader convenience, the next section breaks down and explains the EECM step by
step and later on the analysis is done as an integration of empiric data and the EECM.
(Please refer to chapter 6, Data Analysis, page 39)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
28
ENTREPRENEUR EDUCATION COMPETENCY MODEL; EECM
Figure 1: EECM
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
29
To begin with, the paper starts with the discussion of Entrepreneur. Here, the model
shows that there are two types of Entrepreneur - the mainstream or the economic rooted
perspectives and the non mainstream or the one containing other values. Due to the fact
that both perspectives are perceived to contribute positively to the society and economy,
entrepreneur education has been emphasized internationally. Therefore, entrepreneur
education develops rapidly and changes with time (Pleases refers to the Entrepreneur
section).
As we can see in the model, the broken line shows the trend shifting from skills to
competency; however, we are not saying here in the left side of the model that skills
cannot be taught. What we are trying to pointing out is that according to the literature
review we found, many parts of the world are still focusing on skills, but Sweden has
shifted its focus from skills to competency and treats skills as one element of
competency.
ENTREPRENEUR PERSPECTIVE MODEL
Figure 2: Entrepreneur Perspective Model
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
30
Entrepreneurship is becoming more and more popular all over the world, and together
with that, a great interest is growing in the academic fields, both in research and in
practice. As the European Commission says:
“To integrate entrepreneurship education into all schools’ curricula and provide
schools with proper support to allow them to put in place effective and high quality
education scheme”. (European Commission, 2004a, cited in Berglund et al 2008)
“Encouraging the enterprise spirit is a key to creating jobs and improving
competitiveness and economic growth throughout Europe”. (European Commission,
2004b, cited in Berglund et al 2008).
Therefore, the entrepreneur is good for both the society and for the economy, as many
authors coming next have mentioned.
As mentioned in Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, there was a growth and a shift, as
it can be seen in the model, there is a broken line going from Skills to Competency. The
model discusses that EE is shifted from skills dimension, which deals with what an
Entrepreneur is and means, to Competency, concerning what an entrepreneur does
instead. (Please refer to the Entrepreneur Education section).
ENTREPRENEUR EDUCATION MODEL
Figure 3: Entrepreneur Education Model
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
31
Including competencies in learning process provides a framework for understanding the
elements affecting Entrepreneurial learning. The elements of competency in our study
mean Knowledge, Experience and Skills. This paper suggests that it is necessary to
consider an integrated set of skills, experience, and knowledge constituting learning
behaviours in the context which facilitates the development and the use of such
behaviours, in order to lead to the desired learning outcomes. Combining the elements
of competency with its teach approaches, Practice-, Experience- and Theory-Based
learning, the next model provides a wide vision of the model of competency (Please
refer to the Competency section).
COMPETENCY MODEL
Figure 4: Competency Model
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
32
CHAPTER 5: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
Through the EDU07, Berglund and Holmgren (2008) were able to reach groups of
teachers at different schools, at different locations and on different levels in the
educational system. And later information will show that Entrepreneurship education
has been emphasized differently at the selected schools. That is to say, different schools
offer different Entrepreneurial Courses which are involved in Entrepreneurial Education
and aims at different objectives. For instance we would consider Lund in the case here
as the university offer Entrepreneur course like MDH, that is a one year programme
course. In Lund case, after reading the objectives of Entrepreneur Education in Lund
University, we can see that Lund University emphasis on the theories as well as using
the knowledge and skills in practice. The programme aims to provide students both
theories and actions where students initiate and carry out genuine Entrepreneurial
projects. From that, we know that Lund University emphasis on both theories and
practical knowledge and skills. (Please address yourselves to the Appendix for The
program “Entrepreneurship” in Lund University Sweden aims).
5.1 Entrepreneur Education in Mälardalen University
We found Lund has emphasised on theories and practice both, now what about the
Entrepreneur Education in Mälardalen University since Berglund and Holmgren (2008)
point out different universities emphasis differently?
From the syllabus of the course “Organization theory and Entrepreneurship” which
means the Entrepreneur course in Mälardalen University, we can find the following:
After reading the syllabus of the course, we find that it aims at providing a deeper
knowledge and understanding of Entrepreneurship from an Entrepreneurial perspective.
Here we can see that Mälardalen University emphasis on the deeper knowledge and
understand from an Entrepreneurial perspective. We know that an Entrepreneurial
perspective means the different perspectives in theories. As a conclusion of our finding
of the course, mdh only focuses on the theory part in its Entrepreneur Education. In
short, Mälardalen emphasises its Entrepreneur Education in different theoretical
perspectives.
And after reading the teaching objectives and course content in Mälardalen University,
we find that the objectives which are intended to be provided by mdh are to make
students understand and explain different perspectives of Entrepreneurship as well as to
made students analyse and conclude in theoretical fields. (Please address yourselves to
the Appendix for course syllabus)
From the emphasised perspective and the objectives of Mälardalen University, we can
see that when mdh emphasises on only theory concepts, it also aims to provide students
only knowledge and skills in theory concepts field.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
33
With the comparison of Lund University and Mälardalen University, we can see that if
different universities emphasis differently, they would provide different objectives as
their goals.
As mentioned in the methodology part, we would like to use qualitative approach to
analyze our empirical data, including the interviews with Peter Vaigur, Karin Berglund,
Carina Holmgren and focus groups with the students enrolled in our course. More
information of those people can be found in the following parts.
Peter Vaigur, a part time lecturer of the Entrepreneur Course at Mälardalen University
and a full time researcher within organizational field. Besides, Vaigur is a MBA
graduate majoring in Entrepreneur arena. Therefore, to gain detailed and deep
information about the course and about Entrepreneur, it is clear that he would be one of
the most appropriate persons to ask.
Karin Berglund is said to be one of the co-founders of the Entrepreneur Programme in
Mälardalen University, which make us think that her contribution could be appropriate
for our paper; we could get important information regarding the Entrepreneur Course at
Mälardalen University from her, such as the motivation and the objectives of the course.
Carina Holmgren is another person we thought of for our thesis because she is an active
researcher within Entrepreneur Education arena. At present, she is working as a
Research Assistant at Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research. At the
moment, Holmgren is conducting a research on ‘Entrepreneur Education in Primary and
Secondary level’. Besides that, she has the experience working together with Karin
Berglund within Entrepreneur Education field. Therefore, to gain deeper insight on
Entrepreneur Education, we think it would be beneficial to interview Holmgren.
To fulfil our purpose in exploring whether the Entrepreneur course provide enough
competency in becoming an entrepreneur, we therefore need to speak to the students.
Focus group approach is selected to gain deeper insight together with bouncing of new
ideas within the group. To gain relevant information, the choice of the students who are
actually enrolled in the Entrepreneur Course in Mälardalen University has been taken.
After those interviews with the people mentioned above, we collected the data and
found some interesting findings which will be explained more deeply in the next part.
We would like to list our findings in the following order: Interview with Vaigur,
interview with Berglund, interview with Holmgren, and focus groups with the students
who enrolled in the Entrepreneur Course in Mälardalen University.
5.2 Interview with Karin Berglund
Karin Berglund is the first one we interviewed, and before interviewing her, we viewed
the article she recommended us to read. The article is entitled “who is an
Entrepreneur?” Is the wrong question, wrote by William B. Gartner. Firstly, we were
intended to figure out which entrepreneurial skills can be learnt from the Entrepreneur
Course at Mälardalen University. However, through the article and interview with
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
34
Berglund, the emphasis has to be shifted from exploring the skills learnt to the
competency gained from the Entrepreneur course. This is mainly due to Berglund’s
perspective on Entrepreneur Education.
According to Berglund, the terms skills is considered abstract and is difficult to explore.
She perceives that skill concept is more connected to who entrepreneur is rather than
what they do.
“The skills or traits in definitions of Entrepreneurship are abstract. It is very hard to
relate to the concept of what Entrepreneur really are rather than what they do.”
Besides, Berglund perceives that the skill concept in Entrepreneur Education is out
dated. She believes that there has been a shift from emphasis of skills to competency in
Entrepreneur Education. To her, competency connects what people really do when they
are doing Entrepreneurship. Therefore, competency answers the question of what
Entrepreneurs do rather than who they are.
“Entrepreneurship is much more relation, it is not inside of individual, it is about what
happened in between individuals.”
The reason for the above reasoning given by Berglund is that skills are more about
psychology, while competency is more related to something in between people. The
most important thing in her research is “to figure out what those persons really do when
they are doing Entrepreneurship.” That is why she was trying to open up our minds
from considering Entrepreneur Education as teaching skills to teaching about
entrepreneur competency. Also, she perceives that skills are in some kind of identity
structure and those kinds of skills are not the same in different situations, it depends on
how people perceive it and teachers cannot pour skills into individuals. Therefore, there
is a shift of objective for Entrepreneur Education at Mälardalen University.
“When it comes to the development of Entrepreneurship course on MDH we rely also
on other theoretical sources. We share, for instance, the view that the world (inducing
people) is socially constructed which opens up for seeing creation processes as mainly
social. Hence, creating a social setting - and teaching students how to do so - are more
important than focusing on "inner" traits/skills”.
As a conclusion of her interview, it is clear that Berglund is not going with the
mainstream views of Entrepreneur. Skills might be considered important for others but
for her as it is considered to be outdated. Besides, skill involves traits and psychological
factors and can not possibly be taught. Therefore, there is a shift of emphasis from skills
to competency in Entrepreneur Education at the university.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
35
5.3 Interview with Carina Holmgren
After the interview with Carina Holmgren, who is now a researcher doing her doctoral
thesis for 3 years in Mälardalen University focusing on Entrepreneur Education, we get
some interesting findings as well.
Holmgren is in charge of different projects in the compulsory and secondary level. She
thinks that the Entrepreneur is someone who makes things come through. Due to her
researching content, she did not talk much about Entrepreneur Education in the
advanced level (master level). However, she did agree with the fact that there is a
shifting trend in Entrepreneur Education in Sweden.
“The shift to competency in Entrepreneur Education was originally imported from
Canada”
To her, a shift to competency involves more content and more contact with other
people. Besides that, she also agrees that the world is still talking about skills while in
Sweden Entrepreneur Education is shifting from skills to competency. The reason why
the shift exists is that, similar to Berglund, skills can’t be taught.
“Skill is something inside, and it cannot be developed”.
Besides that, we get to know that Entrepreneur Education is becoming more and more
important, because the policy makers think that Entrepreneurs are good for the society
and for the economics.
As a conclusion of the interview of Holmgren, we found almost the same ideas as
Berglund. Due to her research limitation, she did not show much about Entrepreneur
Education in the master level. However she confirmed the shifting stage about the
Entrepreneurial Education in Sweden, and she did not believe that skills could be
educated.
5.4 Interview with Peter Vaigur
A couple of days after the interview with Berglund, we got the appointment with Peter
Vaigur. Vaigur has been teaching in Mälardalen University for 2 years, besides that he
was a student enrolled in such programs. Now he is mainly a researcher and a part time
lecturer who teaches Entrepreneur course within 2008 semester.
In his point of view, he is quite a non economic perspective researcher in Entrepreneur
Education as well; he thinks it is hard to explain what an Entrepreneur is; however, he
can keep talking more about what Entrepreneurial is not. What is more, he also agrees
that Entrepreneurs do not necessarily need to be in economic dimensions. For him,
Entrepreneurship is more like an action, why people are doing things, rather than who
they are. Actually for him, the word “Entrepreneur” or “Entrepreneurship” is just a
fashionable word that in the world lots of people want to use and know; however, it is
just like a label, people use it or talk about it because it is fashionable, perhaps some
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
36
time later, it would change to some other words, or some other fashionable label again.
So he now prefers it to be actions rather than an explanation to what that label is.
In his point of views, Vaigur believes that people like to talk about “Entrepreneur” in
economic dimensions because it is easier to evaluate the performance when compare to
that of the non-economic perspectives.
“If we talk about social value stuff like that, it is hard to evaluate it. So it is easier to
have short time expand for evaluate it. That is why economic it is easy or it is easy in
economic sense because in some sense it’s easy to count money.”
Besides that, in his opinion, he is always sceptical about skills or Entrepreneurial skills,
he believes skills are biological.
”Those skills are brought down to some source of biology or something physiological
that some people born with, just like the DNA.” He does not believe in skills “for two
reasons, the major one is…I do not think we as a researcher can research on those
psychological traits, it is very hard. Do not you think we have social dimension when we
see them when somebody is Entrepreneurial but it hard to go into someone’s brain and
see what the DNA of these guys or girls. Once again see the action when somebody is
Entrepreneurial.”
To sum up Vaigur’s point of view on Entrepreneur, we see that he is really non-
traditional, he has the non-economic perspectives on “Entrepreneur”, plus he believes in
using the actions to evaluate people whether they are Entrepreneurial or not. He is not
interested in those skills because he believes that skills are like DNA, which is born
with, and it is inside of human brains, which can not be opened and investigated.
Moreover, when it comes to Entrepreneur Education, Vaigur, as a graduate from such
programs, thinks that it is an attractive course. It teaches him critical thinking and
broaden his perspectives.
“It is not a program for starting your own business, it is an academic course, and it
was more helpful for future researcher than for future Entrepreneur. Thanks for this
program; I would never start my own business.”
In addition, he thinks Entrepreneur Education also involves both practical and academic
sides. But for a one year program, theory is perceived to be the best approach.
“The most practical thing is the good theory and it is very hard to divide practical and
academic sides in Entrepreneur Education.”
In addition, he is trying to teach students to be critical as his way of teaching. However,
he agrees that being critical needs to be based on theories, so perhaps the “critical
thinking” is to some extent seen as one of the overlap zones in Entrepreneur Education,
because we can see that how to teach students being critical, itself, is passing the
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
37
knowledge to students, what is more, if the students gain it, it somehow becomes critical
skills since students can apply the knowledge into some other ways.
Vaigur’s Entrepreneur Education part, he believes that it should be more academic, the
practical part in the course is as well good theories. That is to say, he wants to teach the
students knowledge, or even some so called practical knowledge which overlaps with
the skills and knowledge. But in sum, he emphasizes the theories or knowledge in
Entrepreneur Education.
As a summary of the interview with Peter Vaigur, he is very non-traditional in both
perceiving Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education. He also emphasizes actions in
perceiving Entrepreneur and knowledge in Entrepreneur Education.
5.5 Focus group with students
After the interviews with Berglund and Vaigur, we found that they were at the same
side judging Entrepreneur or Entrepreneur Education, they both preferred competency
to skills in Entrepreneur Education. In order to invest how the students know about
teachers’ objectives, we started our interview with the focus group. Here are the
interesting findings from the interview of those students who are enrolled in the
Entrepreneur Course in Mälardalen University.
Basically before coming here to study the Entrepreneur Course, some of them worked
in different companies or fields, some of them were fresh graduates. It shows that they
come here with different experiences, however before studying the course, most of the
students believed that it should be about business start-up, or at least managing the
business, which means that most of them did not know what it meant to be taught here;
but we also found that most of them did not check the syllabus of the course before, that
is to say, in those students’ original point of view, the course should be about starting a
business or managing the business. Besides that, equally part of them wanted to be
Entrepreneurs before coming here for the course.
Let us see the later findings: After finishing the Entrepreneurial course in Mälardalen
University, they find new knowledge through the course which mainly aims at different
perspectives of Entrepreneur, is quite different from their expectations before studying
it. The thing is, how do they feel about the changes? Most of them showed the positive
impact on the knowledge of the understanding of Entrepreneur, however they didn't
think that the change that the course brings them could be useful or applied in their
lives, or the change did not help them become Entrepreneurs. Two out of them even feel
scared of being Entrepreneur though they wanted to be Entrepreneurs before studying
the course. In short, none of them wanted to start their own business immediately after
the graduation.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
38
To sum up, basically they think the course is good but it does not offer them enough for
becoming Entrepreneurs even though they know there are more than just economic
Entrepreneurs in the world. In addition, most of the students think that the aim of the
course which only provides theories is not so practical.
For the students, those “magic and fashionable” terms such as “innovation, strategy and
leadership” are not taught here being skills; however, the knowledge about the terms
can be found.
Most of them showed that it is good to know more knowledge about Entrepreneur, but
what they got from the course is too general. A few of them think that it is not necessary
to attend a course. However, more people think that the course is good because it may
tell them the directions in the future or the theories in the course can be used as a guide
rule in the future. Improvements should be putting the theories into practices, or a
combination of theories and work experience learning, or at least the theories should be
those that can be applied in practice.
All in all, from the interview of the students, generally, those students were with various
experiences before joining the course, and they did not know much about Entrepreneur
or Entrepreneurial courses before studying the area. They expected it to be about
starting a business or something related to business world. After studying the
Entrepreneurial course they found the change of their minds regarding the
understanding of Entrepreneur or starting their own business as an Entrepreneur in the
future to different extent. The change cannot help them being Entrepreneurs. Most of
them showed that it is interesting to know more knowledge or theories about
Entrepreneur; however, they are more eager into practical theories or practical
knowledge.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
39
CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the paper aims at analyzing the empirical data together with the EECM
model. The paper discussion therefore follows the model flow together with the analysis
of the information obtained from the interviews with Peter Vaigur and Karin Berglund
or the paper refers to as the academic personals and then the finding from students.
Please not that the analysis will not be done following the order regarding the
interviews that are presented in the chapter 5, Empirical findings. However, the paper
integrates relevant empirical data to the order of the model. Below represents the flow
of the discussion.
The discussion starts by first understanding different perspectives on the term
Entrepreneur possessed by both actors who are involved in Entrepreneur program at
MDH, that is, the academic personals and the students. This is important because the
literature review in the paper presents the idea that perspective is related to shifting on
the objectives of Entrepreneur Education, for instance, the course objectives and
structure as in the case of Swedish shifting of emphasis from skills to competency.
(Swedish Government’s Proposition 2005 and Berglund and Holmgren 2008). For
students, their perspectives can in turn be related to their objectives towards the
Entrepreneur course. Finally, comparison of students’ objectives before and after taking
the Entrepreneur Course can be done with the teaching approach in Competency theory
to answer the question whether Entrepreneur Course provides competency to become an
entrepreneur?
6.1 Different Perspectives on Entrepreneur
From the empirical data, it is clear that at the initial stage, meaning before attending
Entrepreneur Course at MDH, the respondents, both the academics and the students
possess different perspectives on Entrepreneur.
From the empirical data, both Berglund and Vaigur work in the field of Entrepreneur,
may it be the lecturers or the researchers. Therefore, the academics being familiar with
research and study of Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education have broader
perspectives compared with the students. Together with that, they are often skeptical to
the term within economic dimension.
To begin, Vaigur is an ex-student of Entrepreneur program, a full time researcher and a
part time lecturer of Entrepreneur Course. Therefore, it is perceived that he is more
involved within the field and has more ideas about Entrepreneur. For instance, Vaigur
thinks that Entrepreneur definition is not confined to the meaning of being the owner of
a business as projected by most of media nowadays but can appear in other context as
well, for instance, as discussed in the literature review, the Ecopreneurs from Pastakia
(1998) and the Corporate Entrepreneurship from Burns (2005).
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
40
Not only that, through the in-depth interview, it is perceived that Vaigur is skeptical
about the Entrepreneurship in economic context. He perceives that the economic
Entrepreneur is nowadays a fashion in Sweden. He believes that the Swedish people are
being exposed to the Entrepreneur terms in their everyday life, for instance, in the news,
in books and magazines. He perceives that such Entrepreneur often has positive
meaning attached to it, for instance, entrepreneur is said to be economically productive
and contributes a lot to the society and therefore the Government is trying to provide
support to enhance Entrepreneurship. He knows that for example that the Swedish
government has launched many actions to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation in
Sweden, both on the national and the regional basis. This data is in line with the
evidence from Gwynne (2008) about Government’s budget increased to support
Entrepreneur. Apparently, he perceives that it is his job as a researcher to be curious and
to question the term Entrepreneur within economic context so to broaden up the
entrepreneur term to other dimensions.
“I would be able to give you 2 days lectures on rather what an entrepreneur is not!”
(Peter Vaigur, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship Course)
Similar to Vaigur, Berglund who is an active researcher within Entrepreneur field and a
co-founder of Entrepreneur program at MDH, believes that social network is also
important when it comes to Entrepreneur. This is of course different when we refer back
to entrepreneur definition in earlier age where entrepreneur is often a businessman with
certain skills, for instance, innovative, creative and risk- taking (European Commission
2004b ,Berglund and Holmgren 2008).
On the other hand, the focus group where none of the students were Entrepreneur before
joining the course suggests that students mainly acquire perspectives of Entrepreneur
through media and that mainly involve the term within economic sense.
From the groups that consist of students with varying types of experiences, for instance,
students who have experience working as employees in both private and public
companies, students with experience in running their own company and students with
no working experience at all, it is found that before joining the course, they often
understand the term Entrepreneur that is rooted from economic context. For instance,
Entrepreneur is the business owner. This is in line with the Entrepreneur definition by
Carland, 1984 in the literature review section. It says that Entrepreneur is about an
individual who establishes and manages a business for the principal purposes of profit
and growth (Carland, 1984). All in all, the students’ perspective connoted the idea about
Entrepreneur in economic sense as suggested in literature review about Entrepreneur
definition in the earlier age or what we referred to as the mainstream (Hjorth, 2003).
Therefore, unlike the academic personals who gain the perspective through their
expertise within Entrepreneur area, the students gain information of entrepreneur
through various media, for instance television, radio and magazines. The media is
perceived to suggest the economic side of entrepreneur. Therefore, such information
influences students and perceives entrepreneur within the economic arena.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
41
“Entrepreneurs are those who can take the risk to start up his own business” (Male
student, worked as a Senior Account Executive in a Shipping Company, India)
“For me, entrepreneur, at that time before I learnt is a person who has a lot of money
and open the company and the company is big.” (Female student, worked as a legal
personal in Chinese Law Company)
“Entrepreneurs are those who do business.” (Male student, no experience in working,
Spain)
However, there are minority of students who before joining the course have no idea
about the exact definition of Entrepreneur. Some of them confuse the Entrepreneur term
with that of manager.
Thus, from the Entrepreneur perspective model (please refer chapter 4, see Figure 2:
Entrepreneur perspective model, page 29), it is clear that people who are more familiar
with the field which in this case are Vaigur and Berglund will have broader perspectives
on the terms and are more skeptical towards entrepreneur within the mainstream side.
Therefore, they possess non-economic perspectives on Entrepreneur. On the other hand,
students who we consider here as a general people and are not familiar with the other
value of Entrepreneur but the mainstream value which is economic, understand that
entrepreneur is a businessman. This fits in with the economic perspective of the model.
In the next section, we will make a discussion on the impact of perspectives on
Entrepreneur to the objectives of Entrepreneur Course in the university which in this
case is Mälardalen University.
6.2 Impact of Perspectives on Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur Course
objectives
The change in Entrepreneur perspectives affects Entrepreneur Education. This aligns
with the literature review section on Entrepreneur Education. In the past, Entrepreneur
Education around the world had the objective of teaching skills (Gibbs, 1993) but
nowadays, Entrepreneur Education, especially in Sweden, is shifting the objective from
skills to competency. As suggested by Berglund and Holmgren (2008) who argues that
it is better to observe what people really do when they are doing Entrepreneurship.
So instead of skills, Berglund presents Competency for the action of “what
Entrepreneurs do”.
From the empirical data through face to face interview with Berglund, who is a
researcher in the field of Entrepreneur Education and Entrepreneurship focuses on
Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, through the project EDU07 which focuses mainly
on the earlier stages of the educational system, we have learnt that nowadays, in
Sweden, Entrepreneur Education is changing from skills to competency. Berglund
confirms that and according to her, skills are more about psychological which people
are born with and can’t be taught whereas competency is more about social interaction
and can be taught.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
42
“The entrepreneurial skills inside individuals instead of that are related to whom I
meet, and in what situation I am. You see the problem, it’s kind of related to
psychological”. (Karin Berglund, co-founder of Entrepreneur Course at MDH)
The finding can be integrated to the Entrepreneur Education model. The Entrepreneur
Education approach has two main perspectives which are Skills and Competency; for
the first one, it is the approach which the Entrepreneur Education has focused on the last
decades. On the other hand, it is the competency. This approach is new, and it is not
totally established (please refer chapter 4, see Figure 3: Entrepreneur Education
model, page 30)
Besides, this view is similar to Vaigur and Carina’s. They both are aware of the shift
from skills to competency in Sweden as they have similar perception about skills that
are related to the individuals and can not be taught. However, when referring back to the
literature review, we can find the relevant information about competency is provided.
Competency model shows that there are three different elements that can be taught,
namely, Skills, Experience and Knowledge; these three elements respectively have a
different way of teaching (please refer chapter 4, see Figure 4: Competency model,
page 31).
The academics’ non economic perspective towards Entrepreneur influences the way
Entrepreneur Course is structured at MDH. According to the course structure, the main
objective of Entrepreneurship course is to introduce students to the Entrepreneur terms
in non-economic contexts. According to the course lecturer, the Entrepreneur Course at
MDH is unique in the sense that it does not aim at enhancing Entrepreneur from
economic context, for instance, writing business plan, teaching students how to get
funds, but aims at deconstructing the term Entrepreneurship and broadening it to some
other dimensions which they believe can create more opportunities and in turn
contribute to the society.
Therefore, their objectives are to teach students to think critically about the term
Entrepreneur in some other contexts rather than typical male business owner (Burns
2005).
“If through Entrepreneur Education, we can learn that women can become
entrepreneur, immigrant can, young people can, then that open up more opportunity
and can contribute to society.”(Peter Vaigur, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship Course)
Refer back to different perspectives mentioned in the above section; the objective of the
students is different from the academic personals. In addition to the economic
perspective of Entrepreneur, the majority of students who enrolled in the
entrepreneurship program want to become entrepreneurs – they want to be the owner
and start their own business. Therefore, the majority of students expect the course to
provide knowledge about the start-up of business which includes knowledge about
management, innovation, risk taking and capital flow. This is reflected from the skills
they often associated with entrepreneur in economic terms. Therefore, the objective of
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
43
the course for the students is not to broaden perspective about Entrepreneur but to gain
skills for starting their own business.
Besides affecting the course objectives amongst the academics and students,
perspectives on Entrepreneur also influence objectives of teaching approach. To fulfill
the course objectives, the academics establish the course structure by emphasizing
mainly on competency through teaching theories. Theories are believed by the
academics to be able to enhance critical skills. (Fiet 2001) By this, MDH’s objective of
Entrepreneur Course is to broaden perspectives of non-economic Entrepreneur as well
as enhance critical thinking amongst the students through theory-based teaching
approach.
Whilst for the students, as their objective is to gain skills to establish business. They
expect to learn some methods through hands on approach, for instance, experiential and
practice based learning, for instance, case studies and task assignments in other word,
anything that is not theory. Together with that, theory is being perceived as not
important when it comes to Entrepreneur Education.
“I expect to learn cases of successful entrepreneur to make you make right decision
when you have your own company” (Female student, Accountant, China)
“In real life we don’t use theory. My mom never uses theory she learnt in school to run
the business.” (Female student, owner of a business in Thailand)
“I don’t think entrepreneur is about study theory and you become entrepreneur, I
already know that. You need to practice” (Female student, no experience in working,
China)
To project the analysis in the model (please see Figure 5: EECM in MDH and
Students, page 45), the depiction is clear that due to different perspectives, the
academics personals and the students possess different objectives towards Entrepreneur
course structure and the teaching approach. While the red arrows clearly show that
academics personals on having non-academic perspective towards entrepreneur
undertake the knowledge element of competency through the theory-based learning
approach as they believe that entrepreneur is not about business practice but involves
other dimensions. Therefore, the course mainly aims at broadening students’
perspective on Entrepreneur. However, the other side of the model, the green arrows
shows students’ perception of Entrepreneur and their objective of the course that is
totally opposite to that of the academics persons. Students believe in mainstream
entrepreneur which is rooted in economic sense. Therefore, their objective of the course
is the start-up of the business. Therefore, they expect to learn skills as shown by the
arrow through practice based approach.
Therefore, from the model it would be clear that due to different perspectives, different
objectives towards the course are created amongst respondents. From the model itself,
we can point out that the majority of the students are not satisfied with the course and
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
44
believe that the course does not provide enough competency for becoming entrepreneur
as it is not mainly about how to start a business, that is to say, the skills of the
entrepreneurs.
Due to the fact that the result above was evaluated based on students’ perceptions before
attending the course, interesting result is discovered when exploring the students’
perception after the course has been taken.
While the majority of the students who strongly hold the mainstream perspective about
Entrepreneur and personally want to become Entrepreneur/business owner are still
dissatisfy with the course due to the similar objective they hold before attending the
course, the minority of students change their perception after the course. They comply
with the objectives of MDH’s Entrepreneurship course and believe that there are many
perspectives on entrepreneur. The interesting part is that, these students perceive that the
course aspire them to become Entrepreneur from the other context that is not a
businessman as rooted in economic dimension.
“I came to know many things about what entrepreneurship can be and it’s better I
think, we have Entrepreneur Education in different views of entrepreneur. I can now
become social entrepreneur in the future if I want to” (Male student, Logistic staff,
Vietnam).
This result reflects the power of perception towards the objective of the course. Here, it
is clear that the course has succeeded in broadening up the perspective of Entrepreneur
to students. All students are aware that the Entrepreneur is not necessarily based on the
mainstream perspectives or rooted in economic arena. Thus, we see that theory based
learning helps broadening the perspectives. Due to the fact that the students’ perspective
has been broadened, the objective has been changed. Therefore, we see that the minority
of students see the usefulness of the program and divert their objective from becoming a
businessman like Entrepreneur to some other type of Entrepreneur. It should however
be noted that this affect only exhibits amongst students who have unclear idea about
Entrepreneur at initial stage meaning they do not clearly understand the term
Entrepreneur before attending the course. (Please see the figure below)
To conclude, we learn from the model that perception has strong influence on the
objective of the course (both the structure and the content). While strong perception on
Entrepreneur term is difficult to change that is the evident of the majority of students
who do not change their objective of wanting to learn a start-up course both before and
after the enrollment of the Entrepreneur program. Weak or unclear perception about
Entrepreneur definition can alter the initial objectives.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
45
Analysis of EECM in MDH
Figure 5: EECM in MDH and Students
C
h
a
n
g
e
i
n
s
t
u
d
e
n
t
s
´
p
e
r
s
p
e
c
t
i
v
e
s
a
f
t
e
r
t
h
e
c
o
u
r
s
e
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
46
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
To conclude, the paper has fulfilled the research purpose by first establishing
relationship between perspectives on Entrepreneur to Course objectives. Through
analysis, it is found that perspectives on Entrepreneur affect Entrepreneur Education’s
objectives amongst different respondents. Therefore, the perspectives are the key
criteria by which Entrepreneur course is judged and subsequently decides whether the
course provide competency in becoming an Entrepreneur. The answers to the question
does Entrepreneur Course provide competency to become Entrepreneur appear to be a
two sided coin answer.
The first side is “no”. From the analysis, we see that majority of students are more
familiar with the mainstream perspective of Entrepreneur and have the background of
wanting to becoming such entrepreneurs. Therefore, they expect to be taught an
economic related entrepreneurship course, for instance, a start up course that emphasize
on practice based learning. So, they perceive the competency which is provided through
theory based learning does not provide them the competency to become entrepreneur in
starting their own business.
However, after a thorough exploration, the “yes” does appear amongst minority of
students after the course is taken where they see the course as being useful in
broadening their perspectives about Entrepreneur. They see more importunity in
becoming some other types of Entrepreneurs rather than the mainstream economic
Entrepreneur. This offers them more alternatives and therefore is perceived to have
enhanced competency in providing them with knowledge in becoming entrepreneur
other than starting up their own business.
As a summary the answers to the research question would depend on how a person
perceive the term Entrepreneur. If people perceive it more to be into business dimension
which in this case majority of the students do, they would perhaps see more about the
negative side of the answer, which is “no”, the course does not provide competency to
become an Entrepreneur. However, if people have broader views of the term, which
means they perceive it is not only to be into business dimension, they would see the
positive side of the answer, which is “yes” and believe that they gain competency to
become an Entrepreneur. In our point of view, it is really important that how people
treat and perceive the term “Entrepreneur”.
Therefore, the information obtained from this study has help identify the key criteria for
course judgement both prior and after attending the course. It is the fact that all students
have least idea about Entrepreneur before they join the course. This is because through
media, they tend to be familiar to the economic views of Entrepreneur than the non
economic ones. Therefore, there exists expectation about teaching of skills and
knowledge that involves in the mainstream perspective. And despite reading the course
objective from the university’s website, majority of students still have the perception
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
47
that the course is about a start up course and perceive that theory-based learning is
useless.
Therefore, the first recommendation for the personals responsible in structuring the
programme is to take a step back and to look at the structure and the objectives of the
course. It is true that the perspective of Entrepreneur is shifting from economic
perspective to the non-economic which in turns impact the objective of Entrepreneur
Education from skills towards competency. However, from the theory, it suggests that
skill is still treated as one of the competency’s elements. Therefore, the elements of
competency besides knowledge through theory based learning should be considered. As
suggested by the Director of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College that “there are
two ways to ruin an Entrepreneurship course. The first way is to have it consist entirely
of the practical application and analysis of cases. The second way is to have it be
entirely theory”. Therefore, there should be a balance amongst all elements of
competency. The decision on the course structure using balanced elements of
competency and their teaching methods could possibly attract more candidates.
As proved by the paper that theory based learning has succeeded in broadened up
students’ perspective towards the term Entrepreneur, the last recommendation would be
about the course improvement on the course advertisement. The university should
develop strategic communication to educate students about benefit of theory based
learning and other perspectives of Entrepreneur and the benefit of knowing more about
Entrepreneur beyond economic boarder. This would help create an urge to learn
amongst future candidates. Finally, the university could reduce unclear perspective on
Entrepreneur prior the course and thus reduce bad judgement once the course is
completed.
7.1 Implications
The implication mainly is applicable to the main target of the thesis, that is, traditional
audiences.
The implication for the traditional audiences, the result of this thesis could help support
University’s decision regarding Entrepreneur course structure involving both course
objectives and teaching methods as mentioned by the recommendation.
For the students, the implication of the research is that perhaps they should gain more
information about Entrepreneur in other values rather than pure economic perspective
before approaching the Entrepreneurial field because that would open them to more
opportunity. Also, hey should take caution in studying thoroughly about the university’s
course objectives before joining so as to avoid false perception and judgment.
As for further research for both academic personnel’s and universities, there is a missing
part that should be considered, namely the timeliness and the weighting.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
48
From the paper, we learnt that all elements of competency are important and that all
elements, namely, skills, knowledge and experience need to be balanced. The next
question is what is considered to be a balance. This is one of the questions that are
worth exploring.
The second question that needs to be considered is about the Timelines. From the study,
the result might be negative now, at least amongst majority of students who perceived to
be unsatisfied with the program as it offers different objectives than they expect. But
what about in the future? Questions like, do students go back to their previous
knowledge they received from entrepreneurship course at later stage? should be
considered as there exhibits the idea from students that they might as well go back to
the knowledge they received from their master degree in the future, when they are ready
to become entrepreneur.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
49
REFERENCES
Albanese, R., 1989. Competency-based mangement education, Journal of
Management Development. Vol: 8 pp: 66-76.
Andresen, L., Boud, D. and Cohen, R., Experienced- based Learning. In Foley, G.
(Ed),Understanding Adult Education and Training. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 207-
215 (1995).
Anon 2007 Cited on 2008 May 18th from:
Anonymous. 2007 ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION Profit. Toronto:. Vol. 26,
pg. 61.
Austin, J .E., Leonard, H., Reficco, E., and Wei-Skillern, J ., 2004. Corporate social
entrepreneurship: A new vision of CSR. Harvard Business School Working Paper
No. 05-021. Boston: Harvard Business School.
Bartlett, C.A. and Ghoshal, S., 1997. The myth of the generic manager: new
personal competencies for new management roles. California Management Review.
Vol. 40 pp. 92-116.
Baumol, W. J ., 1993. Entrepreneurship, Management and the Structure of Payoffs.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bechard, J . and Toulouse, J .M., 1998. Validation of a didactic model for the
analysis of raining objectives in entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing.
Vol. 13 pp. 317-332.
Berglund K. and Holmgren C., 2006. At the Intersection of entrepreneurship
education policy and practice. Proceedings from the 14th NCSB Conference in
Stockholm, Sweden, pp1-23.
Berglund, K. Holmgren, C., 2008. ‘What do teachers do when they do
entrepreneurship education? … and How can we ask about it?’, Int. J. Business and
Globalisation, Vol. 2 pp.354–372.
Burns, P., 2005. Corporate entrepreneurship: Building an entrepreneurial
organization, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Calvin A.K., 1990. Entrepreneurship Education: Current Developments, Future
Directions, Greenwood Publishing Group.
Cantillon, R., 1755. Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général
Carlan, J .W. Hoy,F. Boulton, W.R.; Carland, J .A.C., 1984. Differentiating
Entrepreneurs from Small Business Owners. Academy of Management Review, Vol:
9, pp: 354-359.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
50
Casson, M., 1982. The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory, Robertson, Oxford,
Casson, M., 2005. Entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm. Journal of Economic
Behavior & Organization, Vol: 58, pp: 327-348.
Chia, R. (1996), “Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: university
business schools and the Entrepreneurial imagination”, J ournal of Management
Studies, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 409-28.
Colin, J . and J ack, E. 2004 “A contemporary approach to Entrepreneurship
education” Education & Training Vol 46 Pages 416-423
Cooper, S., Bottomley, C. and Gordon, J . (2004), “Stepping out of the classroom
and up the ladder of learning: an experiential learning approach to Entrepreneurship
education”, Industry & Higher Education, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 11-22.
Deakins, D. and Freel, M., 1998. Entrepreneurial Learning and the Growth Process
in SMEs. The Learning Organization: An International Journal, Vol: 5, pp: 144-
155.
Dean's Office 2007 Lund University Cited on May 16th from:http://www.ehl.lu.se/en/education/programmes/masters?pid=12
Dees, J .G. and Anderson, B.B., 2003. For-profit social ventures. International
Journal of Entrepreneurship Education ( special issue on social entrepreneurship).
Vol:2 pp1– 26.
Dees, J .G., 1998. The meaning of "social entrepreneurship." Comments and
suggestions contributed from the Social Entrepreneurship Founders Working Group.
Draganidis, F. and Mentaz, G., 2006. Competency based management: a review of
systems and approaches. Information Management & Computer Security. Vol. 14 pp.
51-64.
ELIN@. From:http://elin.lub.lu.se/elin?
func=loadTempl&templ=home&lang=en
Emerson, J . and Twersky, F., 1996. New social entrepreneurs: The success,
challenge and lessons of non-profit enterprise creation. San Francisco: Roberts
Foundation, Homeless Economic Development Fund.
Erikson T., 2003. Towards a taxonomy of Entrepreneurial learning experiences
among potential Entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development. Vol 10 pp: 106-112
European Commission. 2003. Green paper: entrepreneurship in Europe. European
Commission.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
51
European Commission. 2004b. Helping to Create an Entrepreneurial Culture a
Guide on Good Practices in Promoting Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Skills
Through Education, European Commission, Brussels.
Fiet J . O., 2001. The pedagogical side of Entrepreneurship theory. Journal of
Business Venturing. Vol: 16 pp: 101-117
Future 2007 School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology
Malardalen university refering on 18th April 2008 from: Galloway L, Anderson M,
Brown W, Wilson L. 2005 Enterprise skills for the economy. J ournal: Education +
Training. Vol: 47, pp: 7 – 17.
Galloway L., Anderson M., Brown W, and Wilson L., 2005. Enterprise skills for the
economy. Education & Training. Vol 47 pp: 7-17
Galunic, D.C. and Roden S., 1998. Resource Recombination in the Firm:
Knowledge and Potential for Schumpeterian Innovation, Strategic Management
Journal, Vol: 19, pp: 1193–1201.
Gartner, William B., 1988. Who Is an Entrepreneur? Is the Wrong Question.
American Journal of Small Business, Vol: 12, pp: 11-32.
Ghauri, P.N. and Gronhaug, K., 2002. Research Methods in Business Studies: A
Practical Guide, 2nd ed., Financial Times Prentice-Hall, London.
Gibb, A. A. (1993), `The Enterprise Culture and Education: Understanding
Enterprise Education and its Links with Small business, Entrepreneurship and Wider
Educational
Gorman G., Hanlon D, King W., 1997. Some research perspectives on
entrepreneurship education, enterprise education and education for small business
management: a ten-year literature review. International Small Business Journal, vol
15 pp: 56(22)
Gottleib, E. and Ross, J .A. (1997), “Made not born: HBS courses and
Entrepreneurial management”, Harvard Business School Bulletin, Vol. 73 February,
pp. 41-5.
Gray B.P., 2006. Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? FSB : Fortune Small Business.
Vol. 16 pp. 34, 9.
Gwynne P., 2008. More schools teaching entrepreneurship. Research Technology
Management Arlington: Vol:51, pp 6.
Hannon, P. (2006), “Teaching pigeons to dance: sense and meaning in
Entrepreneurship education”, Education +Training, Vol. 48 No. 5, pp. 296-308.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
52
Harold P. Welsch 2001 in Robert H. Brockhaus Gerald E. Hills Heinz Klandt &Harold
P. Welsch Entrepreneurship Education A global view Chapter: C, page 167-170
Hebert, R.F. and Link, A.N., 1988. The Entrepreneur: Mainstream Views and
Radical Critiques. New York: Praeger, 2nd edition.
Hjorth, D., 2003. Rewriting Entrepreneurship. Liber, Malmö.
Hornby?D. and Thomas, R., 1989. Towards a better standard of management.
Personnel Management. Vol:21 pp: 52-55.
J ohnson, S and Winterton, J ., 1999. Management skills, Skills Task Force Research
Paper Draganidis, F. and Mentaz, G., 2006. Competency based management: a review
of systems and approaches. Information Management & Computer Security. Vol. 14
pp. 51-64.
J ones-Evans, D., Williams W. and Deacon J ., 2000. Developing entrepreneurial
graduates: An action-learning approach. Education & Training. Vol. 42 pp. 282, 7.
Kirby, D.A. and Mullen, D., 1990. Developing enterprising graduates. Journal of
European Industrial Training, Vol. 14 pp. 27-32.
Kirzner, I., 1973. Competition and Entrepreneurship.
Knight, F.H., 1921/61. Risk uncertainty and profit. Kelley, 2nd edition.
Kourilsky, M.L. (1995), Entrepreneurship Education: Opportunity in Search of
Curriculum, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation, Kansas City, MO
Kuratko D. F., 2005. The Emergence of Entrepreneurship Education: Development,
Trends, and Challenges. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Vol. 29, pg. 577.
Lichtenstein, G. A., and Lyons, T.S. (1996). Incubating New Enterprises: A Guide
to Successful Practice. Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute.
Lord, M. (1999), “Attention, aspiring capitalists: B-school students are studying
Entrepreneurship”, US News Online,available at: www.usnews.com
Louw, L., Eeden, S.M., Bosch, J .K., Venter, D.J .L., 2003. Entrepreneurial traits of
undergraduate students at selected South African tertiary institutions, International
Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol: 9, pp.5-26.
Lundström, A. (2005) Creating Opportunities for Young Entrepreneurship – Nordic
Examples and Experiences, FSF, Örebro.
Lyons, T. S., 2002. The Entrepreneurial League System: Transforming Your
Community’s Economy Through Enterprise Development. Washington, DC: The
Appalachian Regional Commission.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
53
Lyons, T. S., 2003. Policies for Creating an Entrepreneurial Region. In Main Streets
of Tomorrow: Growing and Financing Rural Entrepreneurs. Center for the Study of
Rural America: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pp. 97-105.
Man T.W.Y., 2006. Exploring the behavioural patterns of Entrepreneurial learning,
Education & Training. Vol: 48 pp: 309-321.
Man W.Y.T. and Lau, T., 2005. The context of Entrepreneurship in Hong Kong: An
investigation through the patterns of Entrepreneurial competencies in contrasting
industrial environments. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Vol:12 pp: 464-481.
Marshall, T.H., 1964. Class, Citizenship, and Social Development. Doubleday,
Garden City, New York.
Matlay, H. (2005), “Entrepreneurship education in UK higher education institutes: a
longitudinal approach”, WP 14/05, Global Independent Research, Coventry.
McDermott, K.J ., Göl, Ö. and Nafalski, A., Considerations on experience-based
learning. Proc. 4th UICEE Annual Conf. on Engng. Educ., Vol 6 pp 219-222
(2001).
McMullan,W.E and Gillin,L.M. in Robert H. Brockhaus et. Entrepreneurship
Education a global view 2001 chapter 3 pp57-58
MDH 2007 cited on May 18th from:http://www.mdh.se/studieinformation/VisaKursplan?termin=20081&sprak=en&kurs
kod=EFO512
Morgan D.L., 1998. The focus group guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications.
Myers, M. (2000). Qualitative research and the generalizability question: Standing
firm with Proteus. The Qualitative Report, 4(3/4). From:http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR4-3/myers.html
Nab, J ., Pilot, A., Brinkkemper, S. and Berge, H. 2007. Authentic competence-based
learning in university education in Entrepreneurship. In Conference Proceedings
IntEnt2007 . Gdansk: University of Technology.
North, D., 1993. Applying the competences approach to management: the
employment service’s experience. Revue europeenne de Psychologie.
Parry, S.B., 1998. J ust what is a competency? (and why should you care?). Training.
Vol. 35, pp. 58-61.
Pastakia, A., 1998. Grassroots ecopreneurs: change agents for a sustainable society.
Journal of Organizational Change Management. Vol: 11 pp: 157-173.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
54
Penrose, E., 1995 [1959]. The Theory of the growth of the Firm, Oxford University
Press.
Pyysiäinen J , Anderson A, McElwee G, Vesala K,. 2006. Developing the
entrepreneurial skills of farmers: some myths explored. International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol: 12, pp: 21 – 39.
Reis, T., 1999. Unleashing the new resources and entrepreneurship for the common
good: A scan, synthesis and scenario for action. Battle Creek, MI : W.K. Kellogg
Foundation.
Robert H.Brockhaus Gerald E. Hills Heinz Klandt Harold P. Welsch
Entrepreneurship education a global view 2001.
Shane, S. (2003), A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual –
Opportunity Nexus, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.
Shane, S.A, Venkataraman, S,. 2000, The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of
research, Academy of Management review, Vol: 25, pp: 217-226.
Smilor, R.W. (1997), “Entrepreneurship: reflections on a subversive activity”,
Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 12 No. 5, pp. 341-6.
Smith L. W., Schallenkamp K. and Eichholz E.D., 2007. Entrepreneurial skills
assessment: an exploratory study, International Journal of Management and
Enterprise Development, Vol: 2, pp:179 – 201.
Stevenson, H.H. & J arillo, J .C., 1991. A new entrepreneurial paradigm.
Socioeconomics: Toward a new synthesis. pp: 185–208.
Steyaert, C. and Hjorth, D., 2004. Narrative and Discursive Approaches in
Entrepreneurship: A Second Movements in Entrepreneurship Book, Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham.
Swedberg, R., 2000. Entrepreneurship: the social science view. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Sweden Career Guide 2006: Small Business / Entrepreneurship / Start-Ups
Employment Trends GoingGlobal. Going Global Career Guides. Sweden. Mobile:
2006. pg. 1, 4
Swedish Government’s Proposition 2003-2004 Knowledge and Quality-Eleven
Steps to Develop the Upper Secondary School, Stockholm, pp140
Vesper, K.H., & Gartner, W.B. (1997). Measuring progress in entrepreneurship
education. Journal of Business Venturing, Vol: 12, pp: 403-421.
Wallace, J ., 1998. The impact of small business courses on competencies. 22
nd
National Small Business Consulting Conference, Santa Fe, NM, 4-7 February.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
55
Weinrauch, J .D. 1984. Educating the entrepreneur: understanding adult learning
behaviour. Journal of Small Business Management. Vol. 22 pp. 32-37
William L. Smith, Ken Schallenkamp, Douglas E. Eichholz,. 2007. Entrepreneurial
skills assessment: an exploratory study, International Journal of Management and
Enterprise Development, Vol: 2, pp:179 – 201.
Wood, R. and Bandura, A., (1989), "Social cognitive theory of organisational
management", Academy of Management Review, Vol. 14 pp.361-84.
Zadek, S. and Thake, S., 1997. Send in the social entrepreneurs. New Statesman.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
56
APPENDIX A
25
th
April 2008
Interview Discussion Guide
for Academics (1 HOUR)
N.B. This guide is intended as a ‘checklist’ for the interviewer. He/She will treat
this as a menu from which to select areas and guide the general flow of discussion.
The guide will thus be a springboard for discussion; participants’ responses may
often lead the discussion in new directions or change the order of topics. Some
questions or issues may be skipped if issues have already been sufficiently
covered at an earlier stage.
Material Required
A tape recorder
A table mentioned in sec2
1. Introduction (5 / 5 min)
Respondents Introduction
- Name
- Age
- J ob title
- How many years in the school
- Responsibility
Introduce the interviewer
Explain detail of the interview.
- Thesis background
- Purpose
- Research questions
- methodology
2. Perception towards Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education (EE)(15 / 20 mins)
This section aims at exploring respondent’s perception towards Entrepreneur and EE
to spot their thinking towards the elements important for it
In your opinion, what is an Entrepreneur?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
57
Which are the skills important for it?
- Where does this perception come from?
- Can it be taught? Why? Why not?
What about EE?
- How do you think about the debate ‘Is the entrepreneur born or made?
Who do you think would be interested in it?
Why does it need to be taught?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
What skills/elemets are important to it? Where does this perception come from?
What about EE in Europe VS any other part of the world? Is it the same? Why?
Why not?
3. Understanding the formation of the course at Malardalen University (15 / 35 mins)
This section aims to gain insight on how the course was created on which foundations.
What about the Entrepreneurship course at Malardalen?
- When was it created?
- Why was it created?
- Why combine it with the International business course?
How was the course created? Base on which perception, theory, and structure?
Why were such perception, theory, and structure?
What are the aims and objectives of the course? Why?
What is your expectation towards the course?
4. Definition Clarification (5 min/ 40min)
You mentioned the skills taught by the school in the last section and because
different people interpret such skills differently, what is the definition of this skills
defined by the program?
5. Thesis Evaluation (15 min/ 55min)
SHOW THE Model and EXPLAIN ABOUT IT
How relevant are the models mentioned…
- In the Entrepreneur section
- In the EE section
5. Conclusion and Recommendation (5 min/ 60min)
Interviewer check if there is further opinions from the respondents
- END -
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
58
25
th
April 2008
Focus Group Discussion Guide
For Students (1 HOUR)
N.B. This guide is intended as a ‘checklist’ for the interviewer. He/She will treat
this as a menu from which to select areas and guide the general flow of discussion.
The guide will thus be a springboard for discussion; participants’ responses may
often lead the discussion in new directions or change the order of topics. Some
questions or issues may be skipped if issues have already been sufficiently
covered at an earlier stage.
Material Required
A tape recorder
A table mentioned in sec2
1. Introduction (5 / 5 min)
Respondents Introduction
- Name
- Age
- J ob title
Introduce the interviewer
Explain detail of the interview.
- Thesis background
- Purpose
- Research questions
- methodology
2. Perception towards Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education (EE)(20 / 25 mins)
This section aims at exploring respondent’s perception towards Entrepreneur to
spot their thinking towards elements important to it
Before the course, in your opinion, what is an Entrepreneur?
Where did you get such idea?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
Which are the elements/characteristics important for it?
- Where does this perception come from?
- Can it be taught? Why? Why not?
What about after the course, what is your perception towards entrepreneur?
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
59
3. Understanding the EE and their objective to course at Malardalen University (25 / 50
mins)
What about EE?
- How do you think about the debate ‘Is the entrepreneur born or made?
Who do you think would be interested in it?
Why does it need to be taught?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
Why do you choose this course?
Did you apply anywhere else? Why? Why not?
What is your expectation towards the course? Why?
After attending the course, what do you think about it?
- The course content
- The teaching method
3. Conclusion and Recommendation (10 min/ 60min)
What if you are the founder of the programme? What would you have done to the
programme structure?
Interviewer check if there is further opinions from the respondents
- END -
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
60
APPENDIX B
The program Entrepreneurship in Lund University
“The basis of the programme is the belief that Entrepreneurship cannot be taught only
by traditional forms of instructions but has to be assimilated and reinforced through real
experiences. As such, the programme will provide students with a thorough grounding
in theories related to the Entrepreneurial process, while at the same time encouraging
their development and use of knowledge and skills in practice. This programme aims to
provide students with a range of valuable skills and knowledge for recognizing and
exploiting lucrative business opportunities with growth potential. It will provide
students with a thorough grounding in theories related to the Entrepreneurial process,
while at the same time encouraging their development and use of knowledge and skills
in practice. The programme is characterized by an action-oriented pedagogy where
students will initiate and carry out genuine Entrepreneurial projects with the goal of
forming companies at the end of their master year. In developing their Entrepreneurial
project students will get to meet and interact with qualified actors from both academia
and industry. The knowledge and skills gained from this programme will be particularly
useful for individuals interested in learning how to start up and manage their own new
ventures. In addition, the program will provide valuable knowledge and skills for
individuals interested in working with new venture projects (for example as
development managers in established firms) as well as for individuals who will work
close to new and small ventures (business advisors, consultants, TTO-managers etc). ”
(Dean´s Office 2007 Lund )
Entrepreneur Course syllabus in Malardalen University
Objectives
The course Organization theory and Entrepreneurship aims at providing a deeper
knowledge and understanding of Entrepreneurship and organizations from an
Entrepreneurial perspective. Emphasis is put on the interplay of Entrepreneurship,
organization and institutional conditions. The course aim is also to test different
scientific perspectives on the empirical phenomena and to give an understanding of the
perspectives effect on the knowledge produced. (MDH 2007)
Learning objectives
By the completion of the course the student shall have demonstrated:
- the ability to give interpretation and explanation of Entrepreneurship, theoretically and
empirically, from actor-oriented-, organizational- as well as institutional perspective.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
61
- the ability to design research studies autonomously, including gathering and
interpretation of qualitative data and presentation of results that give contribution to
knowledge of the relationships between Entrepreneurship and organisation.
- the ability to analyse and come to conclusions regarding theoretical as well as
empirical issues.
- the ability to apply knowledge and understanding in relation to professional vocations
regarding organization, management and change.
Course content
The role of Entrepreneurship and innovation in different organizational contexts is
considered as pivotal in relation to economic, social, environmental and organizational
change. The content of this course focus on Entrepreneurship, and the interrelationships
between Entrepreneurship, organisations and institutions on the basis of theory and
research in this area. The course comprise of task assignments that develops knowledge
and skills in undertaking research as well as a professional approach in relation to
vocational issues (MDH 2007).
doc_583787154.pdf
During in this such a detailed breakdown clarify do entrepreneur courses matter an investigation of students from mälardalen university.
Portada
By:
Peng He
Parityada Punthapong
Centeno Ignacio
Group 2015
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship
Thesis Advisor:
Roland Almqvist
June 2008
Do Entrepreneur Courses
“Matter”?
An Investigation of
Students from Mälardalen
University, Sweden
ABSTRACT
Date J une 4th, 2008
Level Master Thesis EFO705, 10 points (15 credits)
Authors Peng He, Year of birth 1985
[email protected]; [email protected]
Punthapong Parityada, Year of birth 1983
[email protected]; [email protected]
Centeno López Ignacio, Year of birth 1982
[email protected]; [email protected]
Title Do Entrepreneurship Courses Matter? An Investigation of Students from
Swedish University, Mälardalen University
Supervisor Roland Almqvist
Problem Does the course provide competency to become an Entrepreneur?
Purpose The purpose is to investigate the relationship between Entrepreneur
perspectives and education objectives in order to explore students´
attitudes towards the course and also their expectations to become an
Entrepreneur.
Method This thesis is based on qualitative study focusing on face to face
interviews through semi-structure interview method with Entrepreneur
program’s co-founder and lecturers and focus groups with students
enrolled in the program IB&E in 2007-2008.
Conclusion The paper shows that perspectives on Entrepreneur affect Entrepreneur
Education’s objectives amongst different respondents. Therefore, the
perspectives are the key criteria by which Entrepreneur course is judged
and subsequently decides whether the course provide competency in
becoming an Entrepreneur. Since the empirical data shows that students’
perspectives on Entrepreneur is broadened by the end of the course, the
answer to the question is therefore a two sided coin – a yes or a no will
depend on how students define the term Entrepreneur.
Keywords Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Education, Competency, Skills.
Table of contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIOn ....................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Motivation ........................................................................................................ 2
1.3 Research Question ............................................................................................ 2
1.4 Research Purpose .............................................................................................. 2
1.5 Target Group ..................................................................................................... 2
1.6 Disposition ........................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 4
2.1 Methodological Approach ................................................................................. 4
2.2 Reasons for choosing that approach.................................................................. 5
2.3 Methods data collection .................................................................................... 5
2.3.1 Primary data ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.3.2 Secondary data ........................................................................................................................... 6
2.4 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 6
2.4.1 Criticism of sources ..................................................................................................................... 6
2.4.2 Data Limitation ........................................................................................................................... 7
2.5 Reference System .............................................................................................. 7
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 8
3.1 Entrepreneur ..................................................................................................... 8
3.1.1 The Mainstream definition of Entrepreneur .............................................................................. 8
3.1.2 Other perspectives of Entrepreneur ......................................................................................... 10
3.2 Entrepreneur Education .................................................................................. 12
3.2.1 Entrepreneur Education in Sweden .......................................................................................... 17
3.3 Competency .................................................................................................... 19
3.3.1 Knowledge ................................................................................................................................ 21
3.3.2 Skills .......................................................................................................................................... 22
3.3.3 Experience ................................................................................................................................ 24
CHAPTER 4: Model of ANALYSIS ................................................................................ 27
4.1 EECM ............................................................................................................... 27
CHAPTER 5: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS ............................................................................ 32
5.1 Entrepreneur Education in Mälardalen University ........................................... 32
5.2 Interview with Karin Berglund ......................................................................... 33
5.3 Interview with Carina Holmgren...................................................................... 35
5.4 Interview with Peter Vaigur ............................................................................ 35
5.5 Focus group with students .............................................................................. 37
CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS .............................................................................................. 39
6.1 Different Perspectives on Entrepreneur .......................................................... 39
6.2 Impact of Perspectives on Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur Course objectives .. 41
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION AND Recommendations ................................................... 46
7.1 Implications .................................................................................................... 47
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 49
APPENDIX A .............................................................................................................. 56
Interview Discussion Guide ................................................................................... 56
Focus Group Discussion Guide .............................................................................. 58
APPENDIX B .............................................................................................................. 60
The program Entrepreneurship in Lund University ................................................ 60
Entrepreneur Course syllabus in Malardalen University ........................................ 60
Table of Figures
Figure 1: EECM ......................................................................................................... 28
Figure 2: Entrepreneur Perspective Model ................................................................ 29
Figure 3: Entrepreneur Education Model .................................................................. 30
Figure 4: Competency Model .................................................................................... 31
Figure 5: EECM in MDH and Students ....................................................................... 45
List of Abbreviations
EDU07 Entrepreneurship Education 2007
EE Entrepreneur education
EECM Entrepreneur Education Competency Model
IB&E International business and Entrepreneurship
ITEC Institute of Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization
MDH Mälardalen University
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
TTO Technology Transfer Office
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
In recent years, the term “Entrepreneur” is increasingly mentioned in the world.
Entrepreneur is everywhere, as suggested by Brockhaus, “In the united states over 20
million business tax returns are filed each year and another 20 million of unreported
micro entrepreneurs are believed to exist. If you subtract the number of very young and
very old, perhaps as high as one in four or five adult Americans have some form of
business. There are five million businesses with more than one employee. At the same
time the number of new employees in small businesses has increased by over two
million. Similar trends are reported in almost every major industrialized country. ”
(Brockhaus, 2001 pp13)
The importance of Entrepreneurs contributing to both the economy and standard of
living has been realized in the last two decades, therefore there have been more and
more people who want to become Entrepreneurs. They are eager to be Entrepreneurs to
improve either their incomes or their living standards, so the growing trend attracts the
academic world’s attention about Entrepreneurial Education which offers the teaching
of Entrepreneurship. Thus, the world is now offering different kinds of Entrepreneurial
Education on different levels. Sweden is now doing the same entrepreneurial promotion
as well.
However, different universities seem to have different objectives when it comes to
Entrepreneur Education. Mälardalen University (Sweden) was founded in 1977. At
present, the university is known as one of Sweden’s largest institutes of higher
education. Out of all courses taught to the international master students, International
Business and Entrepreneurship is one of the most popular courses taken by many
foreign students. The course international business and entrepreneurship is continuously
developing. There has been an initiation of advance level within this 2007-2008
academic year. At present, the aim of the course is to enhance student participants to the
specialization of international business with particular focus on entrepreneurship to
prepare them for professional work in an international business setting and for further
academic studies.
Taking into consideration, the importance and the growing trend of Entrepreneur
Education and the differentiated objectives of Entrepreneur Education at MDH, there
raises the motivation to explore deeply in to the area so that best practice in
Entrepreneur Education can be identified and embedded in the future.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
2
1.2 Motivation
As mentioned above, different universities have different objectives when it comes to
Entrepreneur Education. As the students of the program at MDH, we realize that unlike
any other universities, MDH undertakes theory based approach as the mean for
Entrepreneur Education. Hence, we believe it would be beneficial to throw some light
on the area of Entrepreneur Education, especially the course at MDH by reflecting
voices from students who in this case are treated as the customers regarding the
usefulness of the programme. As suggested by Calvin A. Kent: “Never be satisfied
with your program: This represents the true spirit of Entrepreneurship”, therefore, we
believe that although there could be positive result at the end of study, there would
always be room for improvement within the area.
1.3 Research Question
The curiosity in action above leads us to the research question – Does the Entrepreneur
Course at Mälardalen University provide competency in becoming Entrepreneur? In
other words, we want to investigate whether the approach taken by the university is
proved useful to the students.
1.4 Research Purpose
The purpose is to investigate the relationship between Entrepreneur perspectives and
education objectives in order to explore students´ attitudes towards the course and also
their expectations to become an Entrepreneur.
1.5 Target Group
As the study involves the topic of Entrepreneur Education in University level, we
believe that the paper will mainly be beneficial to the academics, for instance,
universities’ personals responsible for structuring Entrepreneur programme, universities
lecturers, both present and future students of the programme and researchers within the
area. Besides, as the paper provides perspectives of Entrepreneur, it can in turn prove
useful to the non-academics audiences as well, for instance, Entrepreneurs. However,
the conclusions and recommendations of this research are mainly for the academics who
are directly involve within the area.
In the case of students, there is evidence that more and more students are interested in
taking up Entrepreneur course in the future; they come from all over the world and they
are becoming interested in those Entrepreneurial programs, hoping that they will
someday be able to run their own business in the future or obtain greater Entrepreneurial
competencies.
On the other hand, universities or teachers who are offering the Entrepreneurial
Education, as well as educators want to find the right way to give their knowledge about
Entrepreneurship to the students in the proper methods, with the hope that the students
can really learn some useful Entrepreneurial competencies from the programs.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
3
Non-traditional audiences could also benefit from Entrepreneurship education (Harold
P. Welsch 2001); to give an example, the case of many people who are in the process of
their own business can be mentioned; they need to know more about how to approach
their success and how to solve their front problems in either short or long term, looking
forward to being able to get some useful solutions or views from enrolling the
education.
1.6 Disposition
This section explains the development of this thesis´ flow. In the following Theory part,
we aim to explain three theories that are the base of the thesis. First, there is a
discussion about different perspectives of Entrepreneur; providing two different
streams, economic perspective as mainstream connecting Entrepreneurs to the economic
dimension and non-economic perspective emphasized on “other” values.
Secondly, the theory of Entrepreneur Education is highlighted and we discussed about
different perspectives on Entrepreneur Education as well. As Entrepreneur Education
developed, the concept of Entrepreneur Education has been expanded into broader
ways. After reviewing the history of Entrepreneur Education in the world and in
Sweden, there is a shifting stage from teaching skills to competency. In addition, after
the review with Mälardalen University we find that different perspectives influence
different teaching objectives, and competency is here again emphasized in Entrepreneur
Education.
Lastly, the theory of competency as the concept of Entrepreneurial competencies relates
to Entrepreneurs' performance (Draganidis and Mentaz, 2006). There are three elements
of competency that can be taught: Skills, Knowledge and Experience with its respective
teaching approaches. Furthermore, the model involving the relationship of the above
mentioned theories will be presented to give the reader a comprehensive view
In the Empirical findings’ chapter, empirical views with the analysis from the
qualitative approach conducted with the academic and students respondents will be
provided. Right after that, the analysis of these data follows.
In the subsequent chapter “Conclusions and Implications” we will present the results of
our research with suggestions regarding to the topic. In the final chapter, the
implications for future research will be presented mainly target at the academic
audiences.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
4
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Methodological Approach
To begin with, we have to say that we have used the Dialogue; The dialogue is a
discussion addressed to the exploration of a subject or the resolution of a problem, and
with this definition, we share relevant information in order to arrive at mutually
agreement to commitment. Perhaps the goal is not to collect data but to share our
viewpoints.
This paper undertakes qualitative approach to gain in-depth insights. From both focus
groups and in-depth interviews, it is witnessed that there are different perspectives of
Entrepreneurship amongst respondents. We will divide the respondents into two
different groups, the academic personals and the students. The academic personals
refers to the teacher, researcher and co-founder, Peter Vaigur, Carina Holmgren and
Karin Berglund; on the other hand, the student group involves the students who enrolled
in Entrepreneur Course in MDH.
Considering the advantages of face to face interview, this kind of interviews are the
most frequently used format and are used to obtain information from one person about
particular situations, problems and topics. The face to face interview provides a free
exchange of ideas between the moderator and the respondent and leads itself to asking
more complex questions and getting more detailed responses. Furthermore, it permits
more complex questions to be asked than in other types of data collection.
According to Morgan (1998), focus group interviews are “methods for collecting
qualitative data to be analysed and related to research questions, also focused efforts for
gathering data on specific topics and group discussions to generate data across a range
of experiences and opinions”. The focus groups rely on interaction within a group,
rather than a question-and-answer format. Moreover, interviewees may feel more at
ease and spontaneous in a group situation.
In addition to the primary data, the external sources of the secondary data include
published books and journal articles. For our purpose both are important. The main
source of the secondary data for the development of the literature review comes mostly
from journal articles from an electronic and also paper format sources such as books
from the university library.
To sum up, the research methods which are appropriate to the objectives of our study
are Literature review, Face to Face Interview and Focus Group Interview; Instead of a
quantitative approach such as survey or as questionnaire.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
5
2.2 Reasons for choosing that approach
In this paper, we gathered the data by using both primary data and secondary data in
order to make our thesis reliable and suitable for the time limitation. However, both
primary and secondary data have advantages and disadvantages that we have taken into
consideration and we have selected the most appropriate way to do our thesis.
Ghauri & Gronhaug (2002) emphasize that the enormous saving in time and money is
the first and foremost advantage of using secondary data. There are two types of
secondary data named internal sources and external sources. Internal sources include
information on customers, suppliers, employees, marketing plan and, sometimes, even
on the competitors while external sources include published books and journal articles.
When secondary data are not available or are unable to help to answer our research
questions, collecting other data which are relevant to particular study and research
problem is necessary (Ibid). The data are called primary data including observations,
experiments, survey and even interviews. The main advantage of primary data is that
they are collected specifically for the particular study.
2.3 Methods data collection
In this section, the way we obtained the data is described for the reader because often
there are different methods that we can use to investigate a research problem and
knowing how the data was collected will help the reader to evaluate the validity of our
results. How the information is analyzed to obtain the results will also be explained in
the last chapter.
2.3.1 Primary data
To fulfil the research purpose, it is necessary to address to the questions of how and
why and therefore, qualitative approach has been selected to gain deeper insight to those
questions. From Face to Face Interview, we aim at exploring the motivation for the
formation of course and to clarify the course objective with Berglund and Holmgren.
Berglund is one of the co-founders of the Entrepreneur Course as well as a researcher in
MDH University. Holmgren is the researcher who is doing the doctoral thesis in MDH
University. She mainly deals with different projects in the compulsory and secondary
level. Vaigur is the teacher of Entrepreneur Course in MDH.
In the field of Focus Group Interview, we aim at exploring the motivation for choosing
Entrepreneur course and their expectation towards the course both before and after
attending it, with the students enrolled in our program. We divided Focus Group into
two sections. Section one contains six students, who used to be working in the
following fields: accounting, business journal; besides that, others students are just fresh
graduates with no working experience from their bachelor education. The second
section contains five students. Four out of the five students used to work in the
following fields: logistics, legal department. One out of the five students is doing his
bachelor course in our University.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
6
In both qualitative approaches, projective technique is used to in-depth interview with
regards to the abstract concept, for instance, skills and the concept that needs
imagination to gain the most in-depth knowledge. (Please address yourselves to the
Appendix for discussions guides for face to face interviews and focus group
interviews conducted).
2.3.2 Secondary data
From literature review, we relate competency to Entrepreneur definitions based on
economic perspectives, then we pin down the elements of competency for
Entrepreneurship (as cited by most literature) and other section to pull out how this
elements of competency are mostly taught in the university.
The literature review have been collected from mainly source and database such as
Mälardalen University through the library and Electronic library information navigator
which integrates data from several publishers, databases and e-print open archives
(ELIN@). Furthermore, the other data base such as Emerald and Google scholar have
been used.
2.4 Data Analysis
The process of analysis in this paper is through data collection from the literature
review; using different theories such as Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Education and
Competency. The search is done through the main key words such as Entrepreneur,
Entrepreneur Education, Competency, Skills, Knowledge, Experience and collected
these theories from different data base said above. For the purpose of this study the
empirical findings come from different interview with professor, lecture and student in
order to extract the most useful information to provide a conclusion.
2.4.1 Criticism of sources
The qualitative research has the ability to study a specific phenomenon. Instead of using
a qualitative method, it had been more appreciate to start with a quantitative study in
order to establish a sample of respondents and then using qualitative research to look
deeply. Myers (2002) argues “for the value of every single study providing that
parameters are guided by the goals of the study” but he says that "The ultimate aim of
qualitative research is to offer a perspective of a situation and provide well-written
research reports that reflect the researcher's ability to illustrate or describe the
corresponding phenomenon. One of the greatest strengths of the qualitative approach is
the richness and depth of explorations and descriptions." (Myers 2002) However, we
believe that although we do not have the percentage to complete the whole picture of
the study, the deep exploration of the qualitative would be able to give us explanation
about issues involve within the paper.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
7
2.4.2 Data Limitation
Besides that, we relate that quantitative approach is as important as the qualitative
approach in the sense that it provides the tangible results through figures, and because
there is a problem in following up the questionnaire, so the alternative of qualitative
approach is taken as a measure to prevent the time deadline. Moreover, the amount of
needed people to make it and the number of answers expected were unknown.
For the development of this paper, we come across the limitations in finding resources
regarding competency in Entrepreneur Education. Firstly, because the area is
comparatively new and exhibits limited resources of the issue; secondly, because most
of the resource are available in Swedish language; One important limitation of our
literature review, the book Entrepreneurial Learning by Westlund and Peterson 2006 is
in Swedish, and this book has encouraged practitioners to consider competencies
instead of focusing purely on traits and skills.
2.5 Reference System
There are many different systems for the citation of references. In this paper Harvard
system is used. In this system the author's surname and year of publication are cited in
the text and besides that a reference list is included at the end in alphabetical order by
authors referred to in the citations of the text. The reference list includes details such as
the author’s surname, the publication year, title, publisher, volume and number of
pages.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
8
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Entrepreneur
3.1.1 The Mainstream definition of Entrepreneur
Over the years, there are many theories and discussions relating to the issue of whom or
what exactly is an Entrepreneur. From different literature, there exhibit many
perspectives of Entrepreneur. To capture the whole picture, the thesis reviews
definitions of Entrepreneur over years.
Firstly, the paper discusses the early contribution by Cantillon , Say and Marshall. Next,
the paper discusses the more recent theories of Entrepreneurship concentrating on
Schumpeter, Knight, Kirzner, and Schultz. Lastly, the paper also includes some more
recent contributions made by Shane and Venkataraman(2000) and Casson.
The earliest definition of Entrepreneur is of Cantillon in year 1730. For him,
Entrepreneur is as the person who buys at a certain price and sells at an uncertain price
(Cantillon 1755). This definition only gives importance for the price. Besides, the skill
in bearing of risk – engaging in business without an assurance of the profits is derived.
Later, J ean-Baptiste Say has a different perspective on Entrepreneur. Say sees
Entrepreneur as the main agent of production in the economy. Rather than emphasizing
on the risk-bearing role of the Entrepreneur, Say stresses that the Entrepreneur's
"...principle quality is to have good judgment." (Hebert and Link, 1988). Say regards
Entrepreneur as a manager of a firm; an input in the production process. The
Entrepreneur acts in the static world of equilibrium, where he assesses the most
favorable economic opportunities. The payoff to the Entrepreneur is not profits arising
from risk-bearing but instead a wage accruing to a scarce type of labor. Say highlights,
in that way, that the role of the Entrepreneur is separated from that of the capitalist.
From Cantillon’s emphasis on pricing scheme to Say’s Entrepreneur as the main agent
for production in economy, we can see that both definitions from the earlier years, the
perspectives of Entrepreneur has been rooted in economic arena.
Later, the early neo-classical economist, Alfred Marshall devotes his attention to the
Entrepreneur. In addition to the risk bearing and management aspects emphasized by
Cantillon and Say, Marshall introduces an innovating function of the Entrepreneur by
emphasizing that the Entrepreneur continuously seeks opportunities to minimize costs
(Marshall, 1964). This definition exists in "Principles of Economics”.
Schumpeter opposes the existing views of the Entrepreneur as a risk bearer and a
manager of a company. Instead, Schumpeter argued that envisioned that Entrepreneurs
“created” opportunity by using “innovative combinations”. For him, an Entrepreneur is
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
9
an innovator--an individual who carries out one of the following five tasks: 1) the
creation of a new good or a new quality; 2) the creation of a new method of production;
3) the opening of a new market; 4) the capture of a new source of supply; or 5) the
creation o f a new organization or industry (Swedberg, 2000).
Schumpeterian Entrepreneur was a nonconformist, who used novel combinations
proactively to respond to unfulfilled opportunity, which would eventually lead “creative
destruction” of passive and lethargic industry to practices, if not the industry and
industry members. Schumpeterian Entrepreneur was not, therefore, an imitator or
emulator, rather, an innovator (Galunic and Roden, 1998).
Other author, Knight’s (1921) suggested that Entrepreneurs were concerned with the
“Efficiency” in economic factors by continually reducing waste, increasing savings and
thus creating additional value. This reconfirmed the Austrian economics’ notion of
value.
An important contribution of Knight was to recognize the distinction between risk and
uncertainty. The latter is uninsurable since it relates to unique events, e.g., a shift in
consumer taste. According to Knight, the main function of the Entrepreneur is to
assume the uncertainty related to these events, thereby shielding all other stakeholders
against it. Knightian theory of Entrepreneurship is a refinement of the theory by
Cantillon (Hebert and Link, 1988). He showed that the Entrepreneurs assume risky
decision because of the state of uncertainty in which they were working.
Kirzner (1973) says that Entrepreneurs possessed “Alertness” to identify opportunity
and exploited them accordingly. In some cases, the Entrepreneur simply “saw”
perceived price-quality disparities but an Entrepreneur should be able to “see”
opportunities, and take advantage of those opportunities. And actual irruption
“Entrepreneurs use innovation to exploit or create change and opportunity for the
purpose of making profit. They do this by shifting economic resources from an area of
lower productivity into an area of higher productivity and greater yield, accepting a high
degree of risk and uncertainty in doing so.” (Burns 2005).
Casson (1982) synthesizes and extends previous work by Schumpeter, Knight, Kirzner,
and many others. Defines the Entrepreneur as “someone who specializes in taking
judgmental decisions about the coordination of scarce resources”. The Entrepreneur is
someone who has a comparative advantage in making decisions. He throws new light
on: Proprietorship and Entrepreneurship and the risk-bearing as an Entrepreneurial
function. And also he made an interesting attempt to develop a theory linking
Entrepreneurs with economic development. He emphasized the aspect of resource
coordination and decision-making.
Carland (1984), add an Entrepreneur is an individual who establishes and manages a
business for the principal purposes of profit and growth. The Entrepreneur is
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
10
characterized principally by innovative behavior and will employ strategic management
practices in the business. Baumol (1993) extends previous work by Schumpeter.
Deakins (1998) suggests that concerns with Entrepreneurial personality divert attention
away from the learning and development process in Entrepreneurship, namely that the
individual gains skills and attributes from undertaking Entrepreneurship rather more
innate abilities. We will use that consideration to explain our purpose.
Recent theories of Entrepreneurship build on the works described above. Shane and
Venkataraman (2000) state that "Entrepreneurship involves the nexus of two
phenomena: the presence of lucrative opportunities and the presence of enterprising
individuals" (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). Their theory is inspired by the
Kirznerian Entrepreneurial discovery process but they emphasize that prior information
is needed to complement the new information in the discovery of business opportunities.
In this respect, they are similar to Schultz who argues that human capital is an important
determinant of Entrepreneurial ability.
Casson (2005) tries to encompass both the Schumpeterian and the Knightian definitions
by arguing that Entrepreneurs are individuals who specialize in decision making. The
Schumpeterian Entrepreneur applies information about inventions to create new
combinations and is ultimately the one who decides if the new combinations are
profitable. The Knightian Entrepreneur assesses the unique situations arising in the
future and makes decisions about how to exploit these situations to make a profit.
However, while it is true that both the Knightian and the Schumpeterian Entrepreneurs
are decision makers, many decision makers are not Entrepreneurs according to their
theories.
According to Berglund and Holmgren (2008); Economic Entrepreneurship is something
good for society as well as for people, also Entrepreneurship solves the problems of the
structural change of the business sector, Entrepreneurship leads to economic growth and
the creation of jobs and Entrepreneurship develops society in an accurate direction.
To conclude, we can see that many Entrepreneur definitions have been developed over
years. While some add on to the other definitions, the other provides critics on the
agreeable versus non agreeable part. But whatsoever, one thing is clear that all
definitions reviewed above are all based upon economic perspectives.
3.1.2 Other perspectives of Entrepreneur
From above, there exhibits the evidence that in earlier years all the definitions of
Entrepreneur has been derived from perspective of economists and thus rooted in that
arena. However as the years past, most research and study are conducted and the
perspectives of Entrepreneur are broadened. Therefore, it is necessary to be mentioned
that exist different approaches of Entrepreneurship, economic, social and environmental
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
11
approach. We assume for our discourse the economic approach, and also as the
mainstream, in order to explain this approach, and according to Berglund and Holmgren
(2008); Economic Entrepreneurship is something good for society as well as for people,
also Entrepreneurship solves the problems of the structural change of the business
sector, Entrepreneurship leads to economic growth and the creation of jobs and
Entrepreneurship develops society in an accurate direction.
Often there seems to be as many stories to tell about Entrepreneurship as there are
Entrepreneurs engaged in changing communities, revitalizing societal structures,
starting businesses, initiating change processes within organizations, developing ideas,
or introducing Entrepreneurship to the school world. Hence, Entrepreneurs are now
more than just the economic perspective. Social, Corporate and environmental
perspectives are as well developed from Entrepreneur researchers simultaneously which
are nonmainstream, the mainstream is still connecting Entrepreneurs to the industrial
sphere and the economic dimension (Hjorth, 2003), which puts “other” values such as
social and environmental to the second place (Steyaert and Hjorth, 2004).
The social Entrepreneurship refers to innovative activity with a social objective in either
the for-profit sector, such as in social-purpose commercial ventures (e.g., Dees and
Anderson, 2003; Emerson & Twersky, 1996) or in corporate social Entrepreneurship
(e.g., Austin et al 2004); or in the nonprofit sector, or across sectors, such as hybrid
structural forms which mix for-profit and nonprofit approaches (Dees, 1998). Other
approach of social Entrepreneurship typically refers to the phenomenon of applying
business expertise and market-based skills in the nonprofit sector such as when
nonprofit organizations develop innovative approaches to earn income (Reis, 1999;
Thompson, 2002). Common across all definitions of social Entrepreneurship is the fact
that the underlying drive for social Entrepreneurship is to create social value, rather than
personal and shareholder wealth (e.g., Zadek & Thake, 1997), and that the activity is
characterized by innovation, or the creation of something new rather than simply the
replication of existing enterprises or practices. The central driver for social
Entrepreneurship is the social problem being addressed, and the particular
organizational form a social enterprise takes should be a decision based on which
format would most effectively mobilize the resources needed to address that problem.
Ecopreneurs (Pastakia, 1998) may be divided into two broad groups based on their
objectives: Commercial. An individual/ group or corporation that seeks to maximize
personal (organisational in the case of a corporation) gains by identifying green
business opportunities (eco-friendly products and processes) and converting them into
viable business ventures may be referred to as commercial ecopreneurs or ecopreneurial
corporations respectively. Commercial ecopreneurs show their concern for the
environment through a conscious and consistent preference for ecofriendly business.
Social Entrepreneur. An individual that seeks to promote an eco-friendly
idea/product/technology either through the market or non-market routes may be referred
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
12
to as a social ecopreneur. An institution which seeks to achieve the same objective may
be called a social ecopreneurial organisation.
The corporate Entrepreneurship is the term used to describe Entrepreneurial behavior in
established, larger organization. The objective of this is simple- to gain competitive
advantage by encouraging innovation at all level in the organization. Also the Green
paper of the European Commission (2003), consider why is Entrepreneurship important?
Because Entrepreneurship contributes to job creation and growth, Entrepreneurship is
crucial to competitiveness and also Entrepreneurship to unlock personal potential.
Keeping on the European Commission: “Encouraging the enterprise spirit is a key to
creating jobs and improving competitiveness and economic growth throughout Europe.”
(European Commission, 2004b). We assume that Entrepreneurship seems to be good for
society and for people. Entrepreneurship is as the grand solution to economic growth
and development as it is what creates jobs, contribute to growth and competitiveness.
From the discussion above, the paper derives a model that there are two types of
Entrepreneur the mainstream and the non mainstream or the one containing other values.
But both contribute to the society and economic and therefore it rises to the emphasis on
education that will be discuss in the next chapter. (Please refer to chapter 4, see figure
2: Entrepreneur Perspective Model, page 29)
3.2 Entrepreneur Education
Deakins (1998) suggests that concerns with Entrepreneurial personality divert attention
away from the learning and development process in Entrepreneurship, namely that the
individual gains skills and attributes from undertaking Entrepreneurship rather more
innate abilities. Therefore, in this part, the paper discusses different perspectives of
Entrepreneur Education, as the concept of Entrepreneur Education develops, we find it
contains more dimensions such as social and governmental though the economic
dimension is still the mainstream. After viewing the history of Entrepreneur Education
in the world and Sweden we find that Entrepreneur Education has been growing and
changing in high pace in the last decades, especially in Sweden, there is a shifting stage
from teaching skills to teaching competency. In addition, we find that with the study of
Lund University and Mälardalen University, different emphasizes of different
perspectives influence different teaching objectives.
Entrepreneur Education from the words we can firstly guess it should be involved in the
education teaching about Entrepreneurship. We can see those definitions in the order of
publishing years about Entrepreneur Education below:
Kourilsky (1995) defines Entrepreneurial education such as “opportunity recognition,
marshalling of resources in the presence of risk, and building a business venture”.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
13
We can see that Kourisky seems only to focus on Entrepreneur Education in economic
dimensions; the aim of his Entrepreneur Education is to “build a business venture”.
However, in the year 1997, we find a quite forecasting definition:
Entrepreneurial education has also been defined in terms of creativity and innovation
applied to social, governmental, and business arenas (Gottleib and Ross, 1997).
From that we see that Gottleib and Ross have very broad views of the term Entrepreneur
Education, they opened the traditional definitions which were in economic dimensions
only, however from the later definitions of Entrepreneur Education, we find that
although Gottleib and Ross opened the definition broader, the economic dimensions are
still to some extent the mainstream. For example, one year after Gottleib and Ross’s
definition,
Bechard and Toulouse (1998) define Entrepreneurial education such as “a collection of
formalised teachings that informs, trains, and educates anyone interested in business
creation, or small business development”. They point out that Entrepreneurial education
focuses on combining and carrying out a new combination of business elements while
education for small business ownership focuses on the skills needed to reproduce or
acquire an existing business.
Shane (2003) points out: “the level of interest in Entrepreneurship among business
school students is also extremely high ... every university campus, it seems, has a wealth
of courses about how to start and finance new business”.
In the year 1998 and 2003, Bechard ,Toulouse and Shane believe that Entrepreneur
Education is in the economic dimension which refers to the “skills to reproduce or
acquire an existing business” and ” how to start and finance new business”. However
we find the following one two years after Shane’s:
Entrepreneurial Education can be viewed broadly in terms of the skills that can be
taught and the characteristics that can be engendered in individuals that will enable
them to develop new and innovative plans. (Colin J ones and J ack English 2004)
According to Matlay and Westhead (2005), Entrepreneurship Education is also
promoted as an effective way to facilitate the transition of a growing graduate
population from education and into work.
This definition above seems to be considered as some kind of work oriented promotion
ways which can promote graduates into work in a faster method, and of course work
involves quite a lot, not only in economic dimensions but can in other dimensions as
mentioned above “social and governmental” also . Next, the paper presents another
definition which is formed in 2006:
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
14
Hannon (2006) argues that: “Entrepreneurship Education is now part of the HE
landscape … of a broader aim to embed the notions of enterprise and Entrepreneurship
throughout the education system from primary, secondary and through tertiary levels. “
From what Hannon said, we can see that he thinks Entrepreneur Education is the
education in those levels teaching about enterprise and Entrepreneurship, which are still
in the economic perspective.
From those definitions, we see that although there are many definitions about
Entrepreneur Education, still most of them are in the economic dimension which
emphasis on the start-up courses. (Shane 2003, Kourilsky 1995,Bechard and Toulouse
1998 ) At the same decade, Entrepreneur Education seemed to have grown a little bit
into other areas such as social, governmental. (Gottleib and Ross 1997, Matlay and
Westhead 2005). In addition, we find that as time passes by, not only more concepts
were involved in Entrepreneur Education, but more levels such as primary and
secondary are involved in it. And as previous part mentioned, Hjorth (2003) finds out
that the mainstream is still about economic perspectives, which is our main focus as
well.
In order to learn more about the changing phenomenon of Entrepreneur Education, the
following part exaggerates about the history about Entrepreneur Education.
History about Entrepreneur Education around the world
Entrepreneurship education is hardly a 21st century phenomenon. First, the paper
discusses the EE in USA where the education is pioneered. It shows that Entrepreneur
Education is really a new phenomenon which mainly involves skills about small or
start-up venture in the last decades. However it expands or grows pretty fast in the
recent years. Gary (2006) even points out that Entrepreneur Education is the fasters-
growing course of study on campuses national wide. And it mainly teaches about the
mainstream—economic perspectives especially in the transferable skills of starting up
business or ventures.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) starts up its Entrepreneurship Center
16 years ago. Other research universities introduced their own courses in
Entrepreneurship during the 1990s. Even Harvard Business School, the epitome of
education for future leaders of traditional corporations, has a mandatory course on
Entrepreneurship. (Gwynne, 2008)
In the past two years, however, the pace has quickened significantly. According to the
National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, about 160 academic centers now
teach the subject. "I would describe the situation more as a new phase in
Entrepreneurship education than a new awareness," says J onathan Rosen, executive
director of Boston University’s Institute of Technology Entrepreneurship and
Commercialization (Gwynne, 2008)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
15
With that expansion, there is a similar increase in the field of Entrepreneurship
Education. The recent growth and development in the curricula and programs devoted
to Entrepreneurship and new-venture creation have been remarkable. The number of
colleges and universities that offer courses related to Entrepreneurship has grown from a
handful in the 1970s to over 1,600 in 2005 (Kuratko 2005).
McMullan and Gillin (2001) point out that although universities have been offering
courses in Entrepreneur Education for over thirty years, graduate programs are only
seven years old.
Currently 1,992 two- and four-year colleges and universities offer at least one course in
Entrepreneurship, up from about 300 in the 1984-1985 school years, according to a new
survey by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes Entrepreneurship
education. Today Entrepreneurship is the fastest-growing course of study on campuses
nationwide ( Gray, 2006).
According to Vesper and Gartner (1997) the number and variety of Entrepreneurship
programs has expanded considerably during the past two decades, both in Europe and
elsewhere.
New Entrepreneurship programmes have been emerging at business schools in Australia
and overseas. In the USA, they have been launched at such prestigious institutions as
Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. In 1999, there were
170 American universities offering courses in Entrepreneurship. Less than half of them
existed three years earlier (Lord, 1999). Similarly, a growing number of Australian
universities are offering Entrepreneurship programs in response to developments in
overseas universities and accelerated by the Australian Federal Government’s
innovations statement. The rise of these programs has also been fuelled by
unprecedented student demand as students look for a style of business education that
will provide them with the transferable skills (Cooper et al., 2004)
Besides that, according to the definition mentioned below, Colin J ones and J ack English
view Entrepreneur Education as terms of skills that can be taught and the characteristics
that can be engendered in individuals. It is the same as what Cooper (2004) said,
Entrepreneur Education aims at transferable skills.
Entrepreneurship Education for business people is becoming a key imperative at some
Canadian universities, Grant Isaac, dean of the Edwards School of Business at the
University of Saskatchewan, observes that educating for Entrepreneurship has meant an
expansion of focus from managing wealth and creating managers, to wealth creation
and fostering both the skills and the visioning necessary to create new enterprises, The
three universities covered in this article - Saskatchewan, Laurier and Waterloo - are
leaders in the field, each with a unique offering that is clearly striking a chord with
students who want to start their own enterprises or become part of an Entrepreneurial
corporate culture. (Anonymous 2007)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
16
Chia (1996) finds out that Traditional business school programs emphasize the large
established corporation over the small or start-up venture and nurture the follower and
steward over the leader, creator and risk taker.
We can see that Entrepreneur Education was really a new phenomenon which mainly
involves skills about small or start-up venture in the last decades. However it expands or
grows pretty fast in the recent years. Gary (2006) even points out that Entrepreneur
Education is the fasters-growing course of study on campuses national wide. And it
mainly teaches about the mainstream—economic perspectives especially in the
transferable skills of starting up business or ventures.
European Commission 2004b says that “Entrepreneurship teaching will aim to foster in
the students those personal qualities such as creativity, spirit of initiative and
independence that contribute to the development of an Entrepreneurial attitude, which
will prove useful in their life and in every working activity.”
The description above stresses that students must be encouraged to develop personal
qualities that relevant to Entrepreneurship, such as creativity, a spirit of initiative, risk-
taking and responsibility (Berglund and Holmgren, 2008). These qualities are now seen
as the fashion word “skill” as well.
We can see that here European Commission even highlighted that Entrepreneur
Education should provide the skills of creativity, spirit of initiative and Entrepreneurial
attitude. As well as Berglund and Holmgren (2008) add risk-taking and responsibility
skills.
As our findings in this chapter, we can see that there are a lot of researches and articles
showing within the history of Entrepreneur Education, it grows a lot in its numbers as
well as its contents. (Gwynne, 2008, Kuratko 2005 and Gray, 2006) besides that, it’s
really a world wide thing, not only in Europe or USA, but all over the world. (Gartner
and Vesper (1994) In addition, the world seems to be highlighting the word “skills”
when they are doing Entrepreneur Education. (Chia, 1996,Cooper et al., 2004, Gary
2006). So after reviewing the environment of Entrepreneur Education in the world, we
may ask ourselves, what’s it like in Sweden? It is the same as the world? In order to
know it, we then take a look at the Entrepreneur Education in Sweden in the same way
we viewed Entrepreneur Education in the world.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
17
3.2.1 Entrepreneur Education in Sweden
As mentioned before, all over the world is doing Entrepreneur Education as well as in
Europe. Since Sweden is a part of Europe, it also provides programs and courses in
Entrepreneur Education.
According to Sweden Career Guide 2006, (Sweden Career Guide 2006). The Swedish
government has also launched many actions to stimulate Entrepreneurship and
innovation in Sweden, both on a national and regional basis. In its 2004 budget bill, the
Swedish government recognized the need for specific actions to stimulate growth, such
as tax relief for small companies and increased investment on research in the IT and
telecom sectors. The growth of business parks and business creation close to university
areas are other signs of the major focus on Entrepreneurship in Sweden. Universities are
also now concentrating on how to act more commercially as institutions, and how to
train students in the tactics of Entrepreneurship. The concepts of Entrepreneurship and
innovation are present in many recurrent educational programs at the universities.
Students may combine their university degrees with shorter courses in Entrepreneurship
and business development. University programs entirely focused on Entrepreneurship
have also been established at some universities. There are educational institutes
specialized on Entrepreneurship and business creation; one example being the
Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship. For professionals there are a number of
seminars and courses available on themes related to business creation and
Entrepreneurship.
History of Entrepreneur Education in Sweden
Initial efforts to stimulate Entrepreneurship at the lower levels of the Swedish
educational system were made by two private organizations in 1980. Ten years later, in
the end of the 1990s interest in Entrepreneurship in the educational system reached the
policy sphere and became an industry and trade policy question.
During 2004, an extensive study of Entrepreneurship education was conducted within
the Nordic countries: Creating Opportunities for Young Entrepreneurship. (Lundstrom
2005) the purpose of this study was to map, evaluate and analyse activities already
ongoing in the area of young Entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on
Entrepreneurship education. Since there was a lack of a common definition of what
Entrepreneurship education is about, the focus in the surveys was on the use of the
words Entrepreneurship and/or enterprising (Berglund and Holmgren 2008). That
means till then, the content of this education remained, however, a mystery.
Since then there was no advice conforming the current knowledge about the
Entrepreneurial process, and more perspectives of Entrepreneurs had come out during
that time, for instance, social perspectives or environment perspectives, a better
pedagogical approach which refers to the “New School (Ronstadt in Kent 1990) needs
to improve the Entrepreneurial Education. The “New School” provides some new
perspectives about Entrepreneurs in that time, for instance, “successful Entrepreneurs
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
18
are critical thinkers, as well as action-oriented. And “Any age can be the right age, but
the odds of career continuance favour starting earlier, during the late 20s and early 30s”.
Similarly in the Swedish Government’s Proposition knowledge and quality- 11 steps to
develop the upper secondary school” it is, for instance, argued that Entrepreneurship is
more a perspective than a separate educational goal:
“The education should bring about knowledge that prepare for employment, starting and
running a business as well as actively participate in society. A competence that is often
requested is Entrepreneurship, meaning the competence to initiate and carry through
different activities and projects. Through an Entrepreneurship perspective the students’
capability of initiative, creativity and spirit of enterprise can be stimulated.” (Spinosa,
Flores and Dreyfus, 1997). In order to get known more about the question, a research
project called “Entrepreneurship Education 2007”(EDU07) was launched during
autumn 2006 in Sweden, which aims to regard what Entrepreneurship education means
as well as how it is performed in the school world (Berglund and Holmgren, 2006 ).
In the EDU07, researchers focus on the earlier stages of the educational system, as well
as on what teachers do when they do Entrepreneurship education.
Berglund and Holmgren (2008) argue that Entrepreneurship education should be about
learning to make something of what you already have, to navigate from the position that
you hold.
From that, we could see that from the teaching history of Entrepreneur Education in
Sweden there is a shifting stage of Entrepreneur Education from blind to a little bit
clear, which means the goal of Entrepreneur Education was a mystery in the
past(Berglund and Holmgren 2008), and it developed to what is Entrepreneur Education
after later researches and courses, and then it developed like now: it should be about
learning to make something of what you already have. (That refers to the concept of
Competency in the later part)
As mentioned in Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, there was a shifting, as we can see
in the model, there is a broken line going from Skills to Competency. In order to explain
the next model more clearly, we would like to describe it as following:
Basically when the world is talking about skills in Entrepreneur Education dimension, it
often concerns to what is an Entrepreneur, people use the skills to describe what
Entrepreneurs are, they have such certain skills, so that they perform better in being
Entrepreneurial. They have the skill of creativity, they have the skill of innovation, they
have the skill of risk-taking and so forth. And we can see that there is a line going from
Entrepreneur Education to Skills.
But after lots of researches of Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, scholars have
changed their minds. Scholars think that people are not like superheroes with whom
have those skills born, besides that Berglund and Holmngren (2008) argues that it is
better to look at what people really do when they are doing Entrepreneurship. That is to
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
19
say, in their point of view, it is not so useful if people only know what an Entrepreneur
is, what is more important is to know what Entrepreneurs do. So instead of skills,
Berglund presents Competency for the action of “what Entrepreneurs do”. She believes
the action in between people and how they act is more important in Entrepreneur
Research. So the Swedish Entrepreneur Education to some extent needs to shift from
skills to competency instead. So we can see there is a line going from Skills to
Competency.
As a conclusion, this paper provide a model, if people are talking about what
Entrepreneurs are, it concerns to skills. However if people are talking about what
Entrepreneurs do, it concerns to competency instead. Here we are not really judging
which side is better or worse, they both are involved in the Entrepreneur Education, not
only in Sweden, but in the world. Sweden is moving from skills to competency has its
reason, while some other place may want to stick on skills, they might also have their
points. (Please refer to chapter 4, see figure 3: Entrepreneur Education Model, page
30)
Besides that, in our research, although we know that there was a shifting stage from
Skills to Competency, we do not know what exactly the reason is, because mostly the
theories and articles talking about Competency are Swedish, and that is one of our
limitations as mentioned in Methodology part. However, we partly know that perhaps
the Swedish Education System really now emphasizes more on Competency since it is
¨what to do¨. If we are looking for the relationship between skills and competency, or
why there are such debates, the next Competency chapter will clarify that.
3.3 Competency
The answers to the questions such as ‘what is skill and what is competency’ will be seen
presented in this chapter. About competency, since we mentioned in the EE part that the
EE in Sweden is shifting from skills to competency and it must also explain the
questions written before. To start with, the main point of this section is Competency,
and two different approaches are explained, the work approach related to work task and
performance, and Entrepreneur approach. Furthermore, this paper provides three
different elements of competency, which are Knowledge, Skills and Experience.
Starting with the definition of competency, it must be said that there are more than one
definition of it. The first definition provided, defines competencies as “competencies as
underlying characteristics that are casually related to effective and/or superior
performance in a job” (Boyatzis 1982 cited in Man 2006). Although during the last
years the studies about competencies have increased, further more definitions of
competency exist, such as “the ability and willingness to perform a task” (Burgoyne
1988 cited in Man 2006). Both definitions are focused in the work approach, referring
to performance in a job and to perform a task. Albanese and North keep on the same
perspective, considering competency like “a skill and/or personal characteristic that
contributes to effective managerial performance”(Albanese 1989) or such as “the ability
to performance the activities within an occupation”, under North´s (1993) view.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
20
Another approach, which more focused on the Entrepreneur himself/herself, is the point
of view of Hornby and Thomas (1989), they says that “competence is the knowledge,
skills and qualities of effective managers/leaders”. Even in Entrepreneur’s perform, the
Entrepreneur is assumed to be both the owner and the manager, and it is believed that
the areas of Entrepreneurial competencies are broader than managerial competencies
(J ohnson & Winterton, 1999). Thereby “the concept of Entrepreneurial competencies
relates to Entrepreneurs' performance” (Draganidis & Mentaz, 2006).
While there is no universally accepted list of Entrepreneurial competencies, this study
follows Entrepreneurial competencies as a theoretical framework led by Man (2005).
Man defines Entrepreneurial competencies as “individual characteristics, including
personality traits, knowledge, and skill” (Ibis). Further investigation of this issue is
intended through the use of the competency approach in studying the Entrepreneurial
characteristics.
In general, the competency approach, which takes into account both work approaches
and Entrepreneur approach, “seeks to identify long-lasting individual characteristics
leading to success or performance in a job and subsequently, in an organization”
(Thomas and Herrisier, 1991 cited in Man 2006). However, focusing on the
characteristics leading to competencies, Boyatzis said “it can be a motive, trait, an
aspect of the person’s self-image or social role, skill, or a body of knowledge upon
which he or she draws” (Boyatzis, 1982 cited in Man 2006). Another point of view
which is similar to Boyatzi made is the classification that Bartlett and Ghoshal (1997
cited in Man 2006) did. They identified three different categories of competencies. the
first of them considers attitudes/traits, the second category deals with
knowledge/experience; and the last one talks about skills/abilities.
The definition of competencies by Spencer and Spencer (1993 cited in Nab et al 2007)
is rather similar to all that has been said before, but this definition brings different
elements together: “the definition of competencies combines several Entrepreneurial
elements : 1) motives and intentions, 2) attributes, 3) self-concept (attitudes), 4)
knowledge and 5) skills”. This definition assembles many of the elements from
Entrepreneurial theoretical perspectives.
With the literature review about competencies, Man and Lau (2005) suggest that
“Entrepreneurial competencies comprise of components that are more deeply rooted in a
person’s background (traits, personality and attitudes) as well as those that can be
acquired at work or through training and education (skills, knowledge and experience)”.
Once given the different competency definitions, it is considered to prove that the
competency can be taught, because competencies are changeable and learnable, and
interventions in terms of education can contribute to this process. Moreover,
“competencies can be improved through education and training” (Burgoyne, 1993;
Parry, 1998 cited in Man 2006) and also the experience has shown that “training
programmes for Entrepreneurship can largely achieve their aim of developing
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
21
Entrepreneurial competencies” (Wallace, 1998; Kirby and Mullen, 1990 cited in Man
2005).
Taking all that into account, it is accepted that knowledge and skills can be learned and
can be taught; the self-concept is changeable, but not without large difficulties, and
attributes are open to changes and can be changed by educators by influencing thoughts,
feelings and behavioural intentions.
The most adequate definition of competency for our study is cited by Man and Lau
(2005), and suggests that “Entrepreneurial competencies comprise of components that
are more deeply rooted in a person’s background (traits, personality and attitudes) as
well as those that can be acquired at work or through training and education (skills,
knowledge and experience)”. In order to visualize the picture of the definition of Man
and Lau (2005), it can be drawn as competency in the top, with two different roots,
competency as person´s background and competency acquired through training and
education. The former root defines each of us and gives us our own inner
characteristics, that is why it cannot be taught. We assume, in that sense, that only
following the latter root the elements of competency can be acquired through education
and training, and they can also be taught. Those elements are skills, knowledge and
experience. (Please refer to chapter 4, see figure 4: Competency Model, page 31)
To sum up, the different elements competency has are shown and also the assumption
that the competency can be improved through education has been deeply explained. In
the next sections of this paper more information will be provided in order to explain the
three different elements of competency, Knowledge, Skills and Experience.
3.3.1 Knowledge
As mentioned before, knowledge is an element of competency, which is also necessary
to achieve competent performance. Using knowledge base, the student can incorporate
theoretical concepts, even more substantial and deep ideas in many different areas; in
our precise case, it refers to the field of Entrepreneurship.
From Penrose (1959), there are two types of knowledge: objective knowledge, which
can be coded, taught, learned, or transmitted by other people; and experience, which is
the result of learning from personal experience, and cannot be transmitted, as it
produces a change in individuals that cannot be separated from them.
According to our study, the ability to learn is essential in developing Entrepreneurial
capabilities (Rae and Carswell 2000 Cited in Man 2006). We consider learning as a
mind work of acquiring and structuring knowledge, and it includes different attempts to
demystify the process of Entrepreneurial learning. Even in the economic
perspective/context some of the opportunities are generated by knowledge. Therefore
rich knowledge could generate more Entrepreneurship.
Considering that the term knowledge is wide meaning, for this study we relate
knowledge with teaching theory, because theory provides knowledge. The professors
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
22
are obligated to teach theory because it is closer to the truth than observation alone. The
truth is the knowledge of the things as they are, the things as they were and the things as
they shall be (Fiet 2001). Even theory is used to explain what is not obvious through
observation. Barney (1997 cited in Fiet 2001) says: “it is insufficient to transmit and
apply present knowledge. It is the function of university education to advance the state
of knowledge as well”. In that sense, some authors assume that teaching theory is
boring for students but the acquisition of relevant knowledge must be done through
theory. The teaching of theory must be done in a way that can be understood and later
be applied by students.
As Bill Bygrave (1993 cited in Fiet 2001 ), the Director of Entrepreneurial Studies at
Babson College, noted “there are two ways to ruin an Entrepreneurship course. The first
way is to have it consist entirely of the practical application and analysis of cases. The
second way is to have it be entirely theory”. The second way refers to a course
consisting only of theory. Stevenson and J arillo (1991 cited in Pyysiäinen et al 2006))
say “that more knowledge is needed about the “how” of Entrepreneurial behaviour.
Generating this kind of knowledge makes it possible to teach Entrepreneurship they
argue”.
As mentioned above, the knowledge is taught through a theory-based learning, and this
methodology is based on the assumption that it is the teacher who initiates the transfer
of knowledge; in the extent of the fact that it works in that way, the students tend to
practice less and acquire fewer competencies (Fiet, 2001). Having acquired the
competencies, thereby the students gain knowledge through theory and it gives them the
chance of applying the knowledge they have previously acquired. In this sense, from the
point of view of Entrepreneurship, the knowledge is linked to the creation of a body of
theory-based learning in the process (Ibid).
We assume the knowledge as an element of competency and including competencies in
learning process provides a framework for understanding the elements affecting
Entrepreneurial learning. To finish with, it cannot be forgotten that the learning
methodology to transfer knowledge is a theory-based methodology, that is, it is a
methodology which consist of transmitting theory.
3.3.2 Skills
Skills are other element of competency; we consider skills as the ability or talent to be
developed. Entrepreneur Skills are necessary for Entrepreneurial actions and behaviours
must be developed and encouraged in order to maintain competitiveness within the
global enterprise economy. Again, there are many definitions on skills.
For the exploratory study: “Entrepreneurial Skills Assessment” (Smith, et al 2007).
They consider that for Entrepreneurial activities different skills are required. Their
study examines a particular set of seventeen skills defined in four major categories: The
first category is called “Technical Skills”. These technical skills are described as the
“skills necessary to be successful in one’s line of business”( Lyons, 2002 cited in Smith
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
23
2007). Another category is “Managerial Skills”. Lyons described managerial skills as
“the skills needed to organize the work on a day-to-day basis” (Ibid). “Entrepreneurial
Skills” is the third category, and it described Entrepreneurial skills as “the skills needed
to develop innovative products and services and to generate solutions to emerging needs
in the marketplace” (Ibis). The final category, “Personal Maturity Skills”, described
personal maturity skills as “the skills needed to attain self-awareness, emotional
maturity, ability and willingness to accept responsibility, and creativity” (Ibid).
According to Smilor (1997) and Kilby (1971 cited in Pyysiäinen et al 2006)
Entrepreneurial skills refer to those activities, or practical know-how. This point of view
is similar to the point of view of Lyons. They talk about the different courses that do not
offer or focus on the development of the same skills, for example, a course entitled
“Entrepreneurial skills for small business” offers the following list of Entrepreneurial
skills:
Personal skills:
• Innovation
• Initiative
• Risk-taking
• Ability to deal with the unknown with ease
• Accepting challenges
• Taking responsibility
• Seeking opportunities in change
Interpersonal skills:
• Interacting with others effectively
• Communicating effectively
• Negotiating
• Influencing
• Demonstrating leadership
Process skills:
• Ability to plan and organize
• Ability to analyse synthesise and evaluate
• Ability to execute the plan.
Entrepreneurs are generalists who are good at a variety of skills, and the Entrepreneurial
skills are essential for value-added business. An Entrepreneur must use his skills to take
advantage of emerging opportunities, but nobody have the DNA of an Entrepreneur.
Looking at all the literature review above, we can see that there are many explanations
on Entrepreneur skills. To scope down, we would include all those skills that are most
cited from the above literature review as Innovative, Creative, Confidence,
Organization, Problem solving, Analyse, Self- awareness, Networking, Interactive,
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
24
Take responsibility, Planning, Responsibility, Leadership, Initiative, Risk taker, Seeking
opportunities and Communication. Although there are many different set of skills, the
purpose of this paper is not exploring which skills are judged relevant by Entrepreneurs.
As many writers have noted (Weinrauch, 1984; Bechard and Toulouse, 1998; Gorman
et al., 1997 cited in Galloway et al 2005) the practice of entrepreneur education is one
that requires a blend of knowledge, skills and attitudes, which recognises the synergistic
links between management theory and Entrepreneurial practice. It therefore
acknowledges the need for the development of both "hard" and "soft" skills
simultaneously throughout the period of education and beyond. That is to say, the
period of practice of entrepreneur education can simultaneously impact the development
of both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills.
It is expected to analyze practice and to perform practice-based learning with different
kinds of activities. Together with that, it is also expected to apply and assimilate
knowledge from theory to practice, developing their skills. Using information
technology to manage information with technical and Entrepreneurial skills will
definitively facilitate the learning of students.
The concept of skills implies the possibility of learning, and consequently the matter of
being possible to teach them; Gibb (1996 cited in Pyysiäinen et al 2006) “makes the
point that the overriding aim of entrepreneur education is to develop enterprising
behaviours, skills and attributes”. In academic discussions, the concept of
Entrepreneurial skills is related to the debate on whether Entrepreneurship can be
conceived as something teachable or not. Katz (1991 Pyysiäinen et al 2006)), for
example, suggests that, “most likely, there are some skills which can be taught and
some that cannot”.
3.3.3 Experience
The last element of competency is Experience. In this paper does not enter in details
about definition of experience, but it however provides three mainstreams of relevant
experience.
Based on the Wood and Bandura´s (1989 cited in Erikson 2003 ) perspectives, three
mainstreams of experiences are identified; Mastery experience, Vicarious experience
and Social experience.
The first one, Mastery experience, explains that the most effective way for individuals
to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy is through mastery experience. i.e. from
practical experience and from repeated performance accomplishments. The
achievements have reinforced their self-efficacy, which contributes to individuals
aspirations and future accomplishments and repeated accomplishments increase
individual´s capability.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
25
The second one, Vicarious experience, points out that observational learning from role
models is the second way to strengthen self-belief. Role models affect self-efficacy
through a social comparison process, because people partly judge their capabilities in
comparison to others.
The last one, Social experience, is the third way to strengthen the sense of self-efficacy.
If the people receive positive encouragement, they will be more likely to exert greater
effort.
The experience comprises events in the life of the learner, those arising from the
learner's participation in activities implemented by teachers. Moreover, the experience
has shown that training programmes for Entrepreneurship can largely achieve their aim
of developing Entrepreneurial competencies (Wallace, 1998; Kirby and Mullen, 1990).
By participating in different kinds of simulations, games or role playing, the students
have the opportunity to formulate their own responses to issues in a specific situation
according to the kind of practice. Another different way can be through analyzing case
studies and proposing different solutions and alternatives. The experience-based
programs permit this type of involvement. Therefore, the objective is to find ways to
supplement the standard textbook and lectures with experience-based activities and
learning (Calvin 1990). The inconvenient is mostly that the experience is acquired once
the student starts to work.
Cohen and Walker (1993 cited in Andresen et al 1995) assume that “experience is the
foundation of, and the stimulus for, learning and learners actively construct their own
experience”. Mcdermot´s (2001) contributions are considerations about experience
based learning, as “Ability to apply knowledge, the expectation of the need to undertake
lifelong learning, and capacity to do so and acquiring effective problem solver.”
To sum up, from the literature review above the elements of competency regarding
skills, knowledge and experience, basically we can see that knowledge can be acquired
through theory-based learning (Fiet, 2001); skills can be acquired through practice-
based learning and experience can be acquired through experience-based learning.
(Wood and Bandura 1989 & Wallace, 1998; Kirby and Mullen, 1990 and Calvin 1990),
however it is still hard to clearly distinguish them from each other since they are related
to each other in some way, that is to say there are always overlaps between them. The
clearest example is the knowledge which adds to each teaching approach.
According to Penrose’s perspective (1959), there are two ways of knowledge, objective
knowledge and experience; however, Bartlett and Ghoshal (1997) differerentiate
knowledge and experience as two elements of competency. Form that we could see that
both terms of knowledge and experience are tricky and therefore there is some overlap
part between them, since we can always see in the reality life that some gains
experience as well as knowledge at the same time. J ones-Evans, Williams, Deacon
(2000) in their article show that the practiced-based learning enhances the knowledge as
well. Besides that, Fiet (2001) showed that skills can be acquired through theory-based
learning; however theories are some kind of knowledge as well. Thereby, it is proved
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
26
that occasionally teaching skills are overlap with knowledge. Furthermore, sometimes
there might be a possibility that certain theories are developed from experiences.
Dispelling the ‘Theory vs. Practical Experience’ Debate, it can be said that ‘practical
experience contributes to the development and refinement of an individual’s theories’
(Anon 2007).
Therefore, reviewing the above literature the different teach methodologies are shown;
In the moment which Knowledge is taught, in education the approach refers to Theory-
based learning; in the case of the teaching of the Skills, the methodology is Practice-
based learning. The last teaching methodology comes from Experience, which refers to
Experience-based learning.
Concluding, the general view of the Competency model is made up for the three
elements of competency such as Skills, Experience and Knowledge. Each element can
be acquired through different based learning. This paper suggests that it is necessary to
consider an integrated set of skills, experience, and knowledge constituting learning
behaviours in the context which facilitates the development and the use of such
behaviours, in order to lead to the desirable learning outcomes. (Please refer to chapter
4, see figure 4: Competency Model, page 31)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
27
CHAPTER 4: MODEL OF ANALYSIS
4.1 EECM (Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Education, Competency Model)
In this chapter, the paper provides a picture of the complete model – the EECM. From
the top, it mainly explains the relationship between perspectives of Entrepreneur
(economic perspective as mainstream and non economic perspectives) and Entrepreneur
Education (Course contents and teaching approaches). The paper locates the
relationship between the emphasis on Entrepreneur Education in Sweden that has been
shifted from skills to competency as the result of the shift from Entrepreneur
perspectives. Then, competency will be explained by describing three elements of
competency. Those elements are skills, knowledge and experience. Each one of those
elements which can be taught has its teaching approach (please refer to the literature
review).
For reader convenience, the next section breaks down and explains the EECM step by
step and later on the analysis is done as an integration of empiric data and the EECM.
(Please refer to chapter 6, Data Analysis, page 39)
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
28
ENTREPRENEUR EDUCATION COMPETENCY MODEL; EECM
Figure 1: EECM
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
29
To begin with, the paper starts with the discussion of Entrepreneur. Here, the model
shows that there are two types of Entrepreneur - the mainstream or the economic rooted
perspectives and the non mainstream or the one containing other values. Due to the fact
that both perspectives are perceived to contribute positively to the society and economy,
entrepreneur education has been emphasized internationally. Therefore, entrepreneur
education develops rapidly and changes with time (Pleases refers to the Entrepreneur
section).
As we can see in the model, the broken line shows the trend shifting from skills to
competency; however, we are not saying here in the left side of the model that skills
cannot be taught. What we are trying to pointing out is that according to the literature
review we found, many parts of the world are still focusing on skills, but Sweden has
shifted its focus from skills to competency and treats skills as one element of
competency.
ENTREPRENEUR PERSPECTIVE MODEL
Figure 2: Entrepreneur Perspective Model
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
30
Entrepreneurship is becoming more and more popular all over the world, and together
with that, a great interest is growing in the academic fields, both in research and in
practice. As the European Commission says:
“To integrate entrepreneurship education into all schools’ curricula and provide
schools with proper support to allow them to put in place effective and high quality
education scheme”. (European Commission, 2004a, cited in Berglund et al 2008)
“Encouraging the enterprise spirit is a key to creating jobs and improving
competitiveness and economic growth throughout Europe”. (European Commission,
2004b, cited in Berglund et al 2008).
Therefore, the entrepreneur is good for both the society and for the economy, as many
authors coming next have mentioned.
As mentioned in Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, there was a growth and a shift, as
it can be seen in the model, there is a broken line going from Skills to Competency. The
model discusses that EE is shifted from skills dimension, which deals with what an
Entrepreneur is and means, to Competency, concerning what an entrepreneur does
instead. (Please refer to the Entrepreneur Education section).
ENTREPRENEUR EDUCATION MODEL
Figure 3: Entrepreneur Education Model
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
31
Including competencies in learning process provides a framework for understanding the
elements affecting Entrepreneurial learning. The elements of competency in our study
mean Knowledge, Experience and Skills. This paper suggests that it is necessary to
consider an integrated set of skills, experience, and knowledge constituting learning
behaviours in the context which facilitates the development and the use of such
behaviours, in order to lead to the desired learning outcomes. Combining the elements
of competency with its teach approaches, Practice-, Experience- and Theory-Based
learning, the next model provides a wide vision of the model of competency (Please
refer to the Competency section).
COMPETENCY MODEL
Figure 4: Competency Model
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
32
CHAPTER 5: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
Through the EDU07, Berglund and Holmgren (2008) were able to reach groups of
teachers at different schools, at different locations and on different levels in the
educational system. And later information will show that Entrepreneurship education
has been emphasized differently at the selected schools. That is to say, different schools
offer different Entrepreneurial Courses which are involved in Entrepreneurial Education
and aims at different objectives. For instance we would consider Lund in the case here
as the university offer Entrepreneur course like MDH, that is a one year programme
course. In Lund case, after reading the objectives of Entrepreneur Education in Lund
University, we can see that Lund University emphasis on the theories as well as using
the knowledge and skills in practice. The programme aims to provide students both
theories and actions where students initiate and carry out genuine Entrepreneurial
projects. From that, we know that Lund University emphasis on both theories and
practical knowledge and skills. (Please address yourselves to the Appendix for The
program “Entrepreneurship” in Lund University Sweden aims).
5.1 Entrepreneur Education in Mälardalen University
We found Lund has emphasised on theories and practice both, now what about the
Entrepreneur Education in Mälardalen University since Berglund and Holmgren (2008)
point out different universities emphasis differently?
From the syllabus of the course “Organization theory and Entrepreneurship” which
means the Entrepreneur course in Mälardalen University, we can find the following:
After reading the syllabus of the course, we find that it aims at providing a deeper
knowledge and understanding of Entrepreneurship from an Entrepreneurial perspective.
Here we can see that Mälardalen University emphasis on the deeper knowledge and
understand from an Entrepreneurial perspective. We know that an Entrepreneurial
perspective means the different perspectives in theories. As a conclusion of our finding
of the course, mdh only focuses on the theory part in its Entrepreneur Education. In
short, Mälardalen emphasises its Entrepreneur Education in different theoretical
perspectives.
And after reading the teaching objectives and course content in Mälardalen University,
we find that the objectives which are intended to be provided by mdh are to make
students understand and explain different perspectives of Entrepreneurship as well as to
made students analyse and conclude in theoretical fields. (Please address yourselves to
the Appendix for course syllabus)
From the emphasised perspective and the objectives of Mälardalen University, we can
see that when mdh emphasises on only theory concepts, it also aims to provide students
only knowledge and skills in theory concepts field.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
33
With the comparison of Lund University and Mälardalen University, we can see that if
different universities emphasis differently, they would provide different objectives as
their goals.
As mentioned in the methodology part, we would like to use qualitative approach to
analyze our empirical data, including the interviews with Peter Vaigur, Karin Berglund,
Carina Holmgren and focus groups with the students enrolled in our course. More
information of those people can be found in the following parts.
Peter Vaigur, a part time lecturer of the Entrepreneur Course at Mälardalen University
and a full time researcher within organizational field. Besides, Vaigur is a MBA
graduate majoring in Entrepreneur arena. Therefore, to gain detailed and deep
information about the course and about Entrepreneur, it is clear that he would be one of
the most appropriate persons to ask.
Karin Berglund is said to be one of the co-founders of the Entrepreneur Programme in
Mälardalen University, which make us think that her contribution could be appropriate
for our paper; we could get important information regarding the Entrepreneur Course at
Mälardalen University from her, such as the motivation and the objectives of the course.
Carina Holmgren is another person we thought of for our thesis because she is an active
researcher within Entrepreneur Education arena. At present, she is working as a
Research Assistant at Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research. At the
moment, Holmgren is conducting a research on ‘Entrepreneur Education in Primary and
Secondary level’. Besides that, she has the experience working together with Karin
Berglund within Entrepreneur Education field. Therefore, to gain deeper insight on
Entrepreneur Education, we think it would be beneficial to interview Holmgren.
To fulfil our purpose in exploring whether the Entrepreneur course provide enough
competency in becoming an entrepreneur, we therefore need to speak to the students.
Focus group approach is selected to gain deeper insight together with bouncing of new
ideas within the group. To gain relevant information, the choice of the students who are
actually enrolled in the Entrepreneur Course in Mälardalen University has been taken.
After those interviews with the people mentioned above, we collected the data and
found some interesting findings which will be explained more deeply in the next part.
We would like to list our findings in the following order: Interview with Vaigur,
interview with Berglund, interview with Holmgren, and focus groups with the students
who enrolled in the Entrepreneur Course in Mälardalen University.
5.2 Interview with Karin Berglund
Karin Berglund is the first one we interviewed, and before interviewing her, we viewed
the article she recommended us to read. The article is entitled “who is an
Entrepreneur?” Is the wrong question, wrote by William B. Gartner. Firstly, we were
intended to figure out which entrepreneurial skills can be learnt from the Entrepreneur
Course at Mälardalen University. However, through the article and interview with
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
34
Berglund, the emphasis has to be shifted from exploring the skills learnt to the
competency gained from the Entrepreneur course. This is mainly due to Berglund’s
perspective on Entrepreneur Education.
According to Berglund, the terms skills is considered abstract and is difficult to explore.
She perceives that skill concept is more connected to who entrepreneur is rather than
what they do.
“The skills or traits in definitions of Entrepreneurship are abstract. It is very hard to
relate to the concept of what Entrepreneur really are rather than what they do.”
Besides, Berglund perceives that the skill concept in Entrepreneur Education is out
dated. She believes that there has been a shift from emphasis of skills to competency in
Entrepreneur Education. To her, competency connects what people really do when they
are doing Entrepreneurship. Therefore, competency answers the question of what
Entrepreneurs do rather than who they are.
“Entrepreneurship is much more relation, it is not inside of individual, it is about what
happened in between individuals.”
The reason for the above reasoning given by Berglund is that skills are more about
psychology, while competency is more related to something in between people. The
most important thing in her research is “to figure out what those persons really do when
they are doing Entrepreneurship.” That is why she was trying to open up our minds
from considering Entrepreneur Education as teaching skills to teaching about
entrepreneur competency. Also, she perceives that skills are in some kind of identity
structure and those kinds of skills are not the same in different situations, it depends on
how people perceive it and teachers cannot pour skills into individuals. Therefore, there
is a shift of objective for Entrepreneur Education at Mälardalen University.
“When it comes to the development of Entrepreneurship course on MDH we rely also
on other theoretical sources. We share, for instance, the view that the world (inducing
people) is socially constructed which opens up for seeing creation processes as mainly
social. Hence, creating a social setting - and teaching students how to do so - are more
important than focusing on "inner" traits/skills”.
As a conclusion of her interview, it is clear that Berglund is not going with the
mainstream views of Entrepreneur. Skills might be considered important for others but
for her as it is considered to be outdated. Besides, skill involves traits and psychological
factors and can not possibly be taught. Therefore, there is a shift of emphasis from skills
to competency in Entrepreneur Education at the university.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
35
5.3 Interview with Carina Holmgren
After the interview with Carina Holmgren, who is now a researcher doing her doctoral
thesis for 3 years in Mälardalen University focusing on Entrepreneur Education, we get
some interesting findings as well.
Holmgren is in charge of different projects in the compulsory and secondary level. She
thinks that the Entrepreneur is someone who makes things come through. Due to her
researching content, she did not talk much about Entrepreneur Education in the
advanced level (master level). However, she did agree with the fact that there is a
shifting trend in Entrepreneur Education in Sweden.
“The shift to competency in Entrepreneur Education was originally imported from
Canada”
To her, a shift to competency involves more content and more contact with other
people. Besides that, she also agrees that the world is still talking about skills while in
Sweden Entrepreneur Education is shifting from skills to competency. The reason why
the shift exists is that, similar to Berglund, skills can’t be taught.
“Skill is something inside, and it cannot be developed”.
Besides that, we get to know that Entrepreneur Education is becoming more and more
important, because the policy makers think that Entrepreneurs are good for the society
and for the economics.
As a conclusion of the interview of Holmgren, we found almost the same ideas as
Berglund. Due to her research limitation, she did not show much about Entrepreneur
Education in the master level. However she confirmed the shifting stage about the
Entrepreneurial Education in Sweden, and she did not believe that skills could be
educated.
5.4 Interview with Peter Vaigur
A couple of days after the interview with Berglund, we got the appointment with Peter
Vaigur. Vaigur has been teaching in Mälardalen University for 2 years, besides that he
was a student enrolled in such programs. Now he is mainly a researcher and a part time
lecturer who teaches Entrepreneur course within 2008 semester.
In his point of view, he is quite a non economic perspective researcher in Entrepreneur
Education as well; he thinks it is hard to explain what an Entrepreneur is; however, he
can keep talking more about what Entrepreneurial is not. What is more, he also agrees
that Entrepreneurs do not necessarily need to be in economic dimensions. For him,
Entrepreneurship is more like an action, why people are doing things, rather than who
they are. Actually for him, the word “Entrepreneur” or “Entrepreneurship” is just a
fashionable word that in the world lots of people want to use and know; however, it is
just like a label, people use it or talk about it because it is fashionable, perhaps some
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
36
time later, it would change to some other words, or some other fashionable label again.
So he now prefers it to be actions rather than an explanation to what that label is.
In his point of views, Vaigur believes that people like to talk about “Entrepreneur” in
economic dimensions because it is easier to evaluate the performance when compare to
that of the non-economic perspectives.
“If we talk about social value stuff like that, it is hard to evaluate it. So it is easier to
have short time expand for evaluate it. That is why economic it is easy or it is easy in
economic sense because in some sense it’s easy to count money.”
Besides that, in his opinion, he is always sceptical about skills or Entrepreneurial skills,
he believes skills are biological.
”Those skills are brought down to some source of biology or something physiological
that some people born with, just like the DNA.” He does not believe in skills “for two
reasons, the major one is…I do not think we as a researcher can research on those
psychological traits, it is very hard. Do not you think we have social dimension when we
see them when somebody is Entrepreneurial but it hard to go into someone’s brain and
see what the DNA of these guys or girls. Once again see the action when somebody is
Entrepreneurial.”
To sum up Vaigur’s point of view on Entrepreneur, we see that he is really non-
traditional, he has the non-economic perspectives on “Entrepreneur”, plus he believes in
using the actions to evaluate people whether they are Entrepreneurial or not. He is not
interested in those skills because he believes that skills are like DNA, which is born
with, and it is inside of human brains, which can not be opened and investigated.
Moreover, when it comes to Entrepreneur Education, Vaigur, as a graduate from such
programs, thinks that it is an attractive course. It teaches him critical thinking and
broaden his perspectives.
“It is not a program for starting your own business, it is an academic course, and it
was more helpful for future researcher than for future Entrepreneur. Thanks for this
program; I would never start my own business.”
In addition, he thinks Entrepreneur Education also involves both practical and academic
sides. But for a one year program, theory is perceived to be the best approach.
“The most practical thing is the good theory and it is very hard to divide practical and
academic sides in Entrepreneur Education.”
In addition, he is trying to teach students to be critical as his way of teaching. However,
he agrees that being critical needs to be based on theories, so perhaps the “critical
thinking” is to some extent seen as one of the overlap zones in Entrepreneur Education,
because we can see that how to teach students being critical, itself, is passing the
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
37
knowledge to students, what is more, if the students gain it, it somehow becomes critical
skills since students can apply the knowledge into some other ways.
Vaigur’s Entrepreneur Education part, he believes that it should be more academic, the
practical part in the course is as well good theories. That is to say, he wants to teach the
students knowledge, or even some so called practical knowledge which overlaps with
the skills and knowledge. But in sum, he emphasizes the theories or knowledge in
Entrepreneur Education.
As a summary of the interview with Peter Vaigur, he is very non-traditional in both
perceiving Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education. He also emphasizes actions in
perceiving Entrepreneur and knowledge in Entrepreneur Education.
5.5 Focus group with students
After the interviews with Berglund and Vaigur, we found that they were at the same
side judging Entrepreneur or Entrepreneur Education, they both preferred competency
to skills in Entrepreneur Education. In order to invest how the students know about
teachers’ objectives, we started our interview with the focus group. Here are the
interesting findings from the interview of those students who are enrolled in the
Entrepreneur Course in Mälardalen University.
Basically before coming here to study the Entrepreneur Course, some of them worked
in different companies or fields, some of them were fresh graduates. It shows that they
come here with different experiences, however before studying the course, most of the
students believed that it should be about business start-up, or at least managing the
business, which means that most of them did not know what it meant to be taught here;
but we also found that most of them did not check the syllabus of the course before, that
is to say, in those students’ original point of view, the course should be about starting a
business or managing the business. Besides that, equally part of them wanted to be
Entrepreneurs before coming here for the course.
Let us see the later findings: After finishing the Entrepreneurial course in Mälardalen
University, they find new knowledge through the course which mainly aims at different
perspectives of Entrepreneur, is quite different from their expectations before studying
it. The thing is, how do they feel about the changes? Most of them showed the positive
impact on the knowledge of the understanding of Entrepreneur, however they didn't
think that the change that the course brings them could be useful or applied in their
lives, or the change did not help them become Entrepreneurs. Two out of them even feel
scared of being Entrepreneur though they wanted to be Entrepreneurs before studying
the course. In short, none of them wanted to start their own business immediately after
the graduation.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
38
To sum up, basically they think the course is good but it does not offer them enough for
becoming Entrepreneurs even though they know there are more than just economic
Entrepreneurs in the world. In addition, most of the students think that the aim of the
course which only provides theories is not so practical.
For the students, those “magic and fashionable” terms such as “innovation, strategy and
leadership” are not taught here being skills; however, the knowledge about the terms
can be found.
Most of them showed that it is good to know more knowledge about Entrepreneur, but
what they got from the course is too general. A few of them think that it is not necessary
to attend a course. However, more people think that the course is good because it may
tell them the directions in the future or the theories in the course can be used as a guide
rule in the future. Improvements should be putting the theories into practices, or a
combination of theories and work experience learning, or at least the theories should be
those that can be applied in practice.
All in all, from the interview of the students, generally, those students were with various
experiences before joining the course, and they did not know much about Entrepreneur
or Entrepreneurial courses before studying the area. They expected it to be about
starting a business or something related to business world. After studying the
Entrepreneurial course they found the change of their minds regarding the
understanding of Entrepreneur or starting their own business as an Entrepreneur in the
future to different extent. The change cannot help them being Entrepreneurs. Most of
them showed that it is interesting to know more knowledge or theories about
Entrepreneur; however, they are more eager into practical theories or practical
knowledge.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
39
CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the paper aims at analyzing the empirical data together with the EECM
model. The paper discussion therefore follows the model flow together with the analysis
of the information obtained from the interviews with Peter Vaigur and Karin Berglund
or the paper refers to as the academic personals and then the finding from students.
Please not that the analysis will not be done following the order regarding the
interviews that are presented in the chapter 5, Empirical findings. However, the paper
integrates relevant empirical data to the order of the model. Below represents the flow
of the discussion.
The discussion starts by first understanding different perspectives on the term
Entrepreneur possessed by both actors who are involved in Entrepreneur program at
MDH, that is, the academic personals and the students. This is important because the
literature review in the paper presents the idea that perspective is related to shifting on
the objectives of Entrepreneur Education, for instance, the course objectives and
structure as in the case of Swedish shifting of emphasis from skills to competency.
(Swedish Government’s Proposition 2005 and Berglund and Holmgren 2008). For
students, their perspectives can in turn be related to their objectives towards the
Entrepreneur course. Finally, comparison of students’ objectives before and after taking
the Entrepreneur Course can be done with the teaching approach in Competency theory
to answer the question whether Entrepreneur Course provides competency to become an
entrepreneur?
6.1 Different Perspectives on Entrepreneur
From the empirical data, it is clear that at the initial stage, meaning before attending
Entrepreneur Course at MDH, the respondents, both the academics and the students
possess different perspectives on Entrepreneur.
From the empirical data, both Berglund and Vaigur work in the field of Entrepreneur,
may it be the lecturers or the researchers. Therefore, the academics being familiar with
research and study of Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education have broader
perspectives compared with the students. Together with that, they are often skeptical to
the term within economic dimension.
To begin, Vaigur is an ex-student of Entrepreneur program, a full time researcher and a
part time lecturer of Entrepreneur Course. Therefore, it is perceived that he is more
involved within the field and has more ideas about Entrepreneur. For instance, Vaigur
thinks that Entrepreneur definition is not confined to the meaning of being the owner of
a business as projected by most of media nowadays but can appear in other context as
well, for instance, as discussed in the literature review, the Ecopreneurs from Pastakia
(1998) and the Corporate Entrepreneurship from Burns (2005).
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
40
Not only that, through the in-depth interview, it is perceived that Vaigur is skeptical
about the Entrepreneurship in economic context. He perceives that the economic
Entrepreneur is nowadays a fashion in Sweden. He believes that the Swedish people are
being exposed to the Entrepreneur terms in their everyday life, for instance, in the news,
in books and magazines. He perceives that such Entrepreneur often has positive
meaning attached to it, for instance, entrepreneur is said to be economically productive
and contributes a lot to the society and therefore the Government is trying to provide
support to enhance Entrepreneurship. He knows that for example that the Swedish
government has launched many actions to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation in
Sweden, both on the national and the regional basis. This data is in line with the
evidence from Gwynne (2008) about Government’s budget increased to support
Entrepreneur. Apparently, he perceives that it is his job as a researcher to be curious and
to question the term Entrepreneur within economic context so to broaden up the
entrepreneur term to other dimensions.
“I would be able to give you 2 days lectures on rather what an entrepreneur is not!”
(Peter Vaigur, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship Course)
Similar to Vaigur, Berglund who is an active researcher within Entrepreneur field and a
co-founder of Entrepreneur program at MDH, believes that social network is also
important when it comes to Entrepreneur. This is of course different when we refer back
to entrepreneur definition in earlier age where entrepreneur is often a businessman with
certain skills, for instance, innovative, creative and risk- taking (European Commission
2004b ,Berglund and Holmgren 2008).
On the other hand, the focus group where none of the students were Entrepreneur before
joining the course suggests that students mainly acquire perspectives of Entrepreneur
through media and that mainly involve the term within economic sense.
From the groups that consist of students with varying types of experiences, for instance,
students who have experience working as employees in both private and public
companies, students with experience in running their own company and students with
no working experience at all, it is found that before joining the course, they often
understand the term Entrepreneur that is rooted from economic context. For instance,
Entrepreneur is the business owner. This is in line with the Entrepreneur definition by
Carland, 1984 in the literature review section. It says that Entrepreneur is about an
individual who establishes and manages a business for the principal purposes of profit
and growth (Carland, 1984). All in all, the students’ perspective connoted the idea about
Entrepreneur in economic sense as suggested in literature review about Entrepreneur
definition in the earlier age or what we referred to as the mainstream (Hjorth, 2003).
Therefore, unlike the academic personals who gain the perspective through their
expertise within Entrepreneur area, the students gain information of entrepreneur
through various media, for instance television, radio and magazines. The media is
perceived to suggest the economic side of entrepreneur. Therefore, such information
influences students and perceives entrepreneur within the economic arena.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
41
“Entrepreneurs are those who can take the risk to start up his own business” (Male
student, worked as a Senior Account Executive in a Shipping Company, India)
“For me, entrepreneur, at that time before I learnt is a person who has a lot of money
and open the company and the company is big.” (Female student, worked as a legal
personal in Chinese Law Company)
“Entrepreneurs are those who do business.” (Male student, no experience in working,
Spain)
However, there are minority of students who before joining the course have no idea
about the exact definition of Entrepreneur. Some of them confuse the Entrepreneur term
with that of manager.
Thus, from the Entrepreneur perspective model (please refer chapter 4, see Figure 2:
Entrepreneur perspective model, page 29), it is clear that people who are more familiar
with the field which in this case are Vaigur and Berglund will have broader perspectives
on the terms and are more skeptical towards entrepreneur within the mainstream side.
Therefore, they possess non-economic perspectives on Entrepreneur. On the other hand,
students who we consider here as a general people and are not familiar with the other
value of Entrepreneur but the mainstream value which is economic, understand that
entrepreneur is a businessman. This fits in with the economic perspective of the model.
In the next section, we will make a discussion on the impact of perspectives on
Entrepreneur to the objectives of Entrepreneur Course in the university which in this
case is Mälardalen University.
6.2 Impact of Perspectives on Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur Course
objectives
The change in Entrepreneur perspectives affects Entrepreneur Education. This aligns
with the literature review section on Entrepreneur Education. In the past, Entrepreneur
Education around the world had the objective of teaching skills (Gibbs, 1993) but
nowadays, Entrepreneur Education, especially in Sweden, is shifting the objective from
skills to competency. As suggested by Berglund and Holmgren (2008) who argues that
it is better to observe what people really do when they are doing Entrepreneurship.
So instead of skills, Berglund presents Competency for the action of “what
Entrepreneurs do”.
From the empirical data through face to face interview with Berglund, who is a
researcher in the field of Entrepreneur Education and Entrepreneurship focuses on
Entrepreneur Education in Sweden, through the project EDU07 which focuses mainly
on the earlier stages of the educational system, we have learnt that nowadays, in
Sweden, Entrepreneur Education is changing from skills to competency. Berglund
confirms that and according to her, skills are more about psychological which people
are born with and can’t be taught whereas competency is more about social interaction
and can be taught.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
42
“The entrepreneurial skills inside individuals instead of that are related to whom I
meet, and in what situation I am. You see the problem, it’s kind of related to
psychological”. (Karin Berglund, co-founder of Entrepreneur Course at MDH)
The finding can be integrated to the Entrepreneur Education model. The Entrepreneur
Education approach has two main perspectives which are Skills and Competency; for
the first one, it is the approach which the Entrepreneur Education has focused on the last
decades. On the other hand, it is the competency. This approach is new, and it is not
totally established (please refer chapter 4, see Figure 3: Entrepreneur Education
model, page 30)
Besides, this view is similar to Vaigur and Carina’s. They both are aware of the shift
from skills to competency in Sweden as they have similar perception about skills that
are related to the individuals and can not be taught. However, when referring back to the
literature review, we can find the relevant information about competency is provided.
Competency model shows that there are three different elements that can be taught,
namely, Skills, Experience and Knowledge; these three elements respectively have a
different way of teaching (please refer chapter 4, see Figure 4: Competency model,
page 31).
The academics’ non economic perspective towards Entrepreneur influences the way
Entrepreneur Course is structured at MDH. According to the course structure, the main
objective of Entrepreneurship course is to introduce students to the Entrepreneur terms
in non-economic contexts. According to the course lecturer, the Entrepreneur Course at
MDH is unique in the sense that it does not aim at enhancing Entrepreneur from
economic context, for instance, writing business plan, teaching students how to get
funds, but aims at deconstructing the term Entrepreneurship and broadening it to some
other dimensions which they believe can create more opportunities and in turn
contribute to the society.
Therefore, their objectives are to teach students to think critically about the term
Entrepreneur in some other contexts rather than typical male business owner (Burns
2005).
“If through Entrepreneur Education, we can learn that women can become
entrepreneur, immigrant can, young people can, then that open up more opportunity
and can contribute to society.”(Peter Vaigur, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship Course)
Refer back to different perspectives mentioned in the above section; the objective of the
students is different from the academic personals. In addition to the economic
perspective of Entrepreneur, the majority of students who enrolled in the
entrepreneurship program want to become entrepreneurs – they want to be the owner
and start their own business. Therefore, the majority of students expect the course to
provide knowledge about the start-up of business which includes knowledge about
management, innovation, risk taking and capital flow. This is reflected from the skills
they often associated with entrepreneur in economic terms. Therefore, the objective of
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
43
the course for the students is not to broaden perspective about Entrepreneur but to gain
skills for starting their own business.
Besides affecting the course objectives amongst the academics and students,
perspectives on Entrepreneur also influence objectives of teaching approach. To fulfill
the course objectives, the academics establish the course structure by emphasizing
mainly on competency through teaching theories. Theories are believed by the
academics to be able to enhance critical skills. (Fiet 2001) By this, MDH’s objective of
Entrepreneur Course is to broaden perspectives of non-economic Entrepreneur as well
as enhance critical thinking amongst the students through theory-based teaching
approach.
Whilst for the students, as their objective is to gain skills to establish business. They
expect to learn some methods through hands on approach, for instance, experiential and
practice based learning, for instance, case studies and task assignments in other word,
anything that is not theory. Together with that, theory is being perceived as not
important when it comes to Entrepreneur Education.
“I expect to learn cases of successful entrepreneur to make you make right decision
when you have your own company” (Female student, Accountant, China)
“In real life we don’t use theory. My mom never uses theory she learnt in school to run
the business.” (Female student, owner of a business in Thailand)
“I don’t think entrepreneur is about study theory and you become entrepreneur, I
already know that. You need to practice” (Female student, no experience in working,
China)
To project the analysis in the model (please see Figure 5: EECM in MDH and
Students, page 45), the depiction is clear that due to different perspectives, the
academics personals and the students possess different objectives towards Entrepreneur
course structure and the teaching approach. While the red arrows clearly show that
academics personals on having non-academic perspective towards entrepreneur
undertake the knowledge element of competency through the theory-based learning
approach as they believe that entrepreneur is not about business practice but involves
other dimensions. Therefore, the course mainly aims at broadening students’
perspective on Entrepreneur. However, the other side of the model, the green arrows
shows students’ perception of Entrepreneur and their objective of the course that is
totally opposite to that of the academics persons. Students believe in mainstream
entrepreneur which is rooted in economic sense. Therefore, their objective of the course
is the start-up of the business. Therefore, they expect to learn skills as shown by the
arrow through practice based approach.
Therefore, from the model it would be clear that due to different perspectives, different
objectives towards the course are created amongst respondents. From the model itself,
we can point out that the majority of the students are not satisfied with the course and
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
44
believe that the course does not provide enough competency for becoming entrepreneur
as it is not mainly about how to start a business, that is to say, the skills of the
entrepreneurs.
Due to the fact that the result above was evaluated based on students’ perceptions before
attending the course, interesting result is discovered when exploring the students’
perception after the course has been taken.
While the majority of the students who strongly hold the mainstream perspective about
Entrepreneur and personally want to become Entrepreneur/business owner are still
dissatisfy with the course due to the similar objective they hold before attending the
course, the minority of students change their perception after the course. They comply
with the objectives of MDH’s Entrepreneurship course and believe that there are many
perspectives on entrepreneur. The interesting part is that, these students perceive that the
course aspire them to become Entrepreneur from the other context that is not a
businessman as rooted in economic dimension.
“I came to know many things about what entrepreneurship can be and it’s better I
think, we have Entrepreneur Education in different views of entrepreneur. I can now
become social entrepreneur in the future if I want to” (Male student, Logistic staff,
Vietnam).
This result reflects the power of perception towards the objective of the course. Here, it
is clear that the course has succeeded in broadening up the perspective of Entrepreneur
to students. All students are aware that the Entrepreneur is not necessarily based on the
mainstream perspectives or rooted in economic arena. Thus, we see that theory based
learning helps broadening the perspectives. Due to the fact that the students’ perspective
has been broadened, the objective has been changed. Therefore, we see that the minority
of students see the usefulness of the program and divert their objective from becoming a
businessman like Entrepreneur to some other type of Entrepreneur. It should however
be noted that this affect only exhibits amongst students who have unclear idea about
Entrepreneur at initial stage meaning they do not clearly understand the term
Entrepreneur before attending the course. (Please see the figure below)
To conclude, we learn from the model that perception has strong influence on the
objective of the course (both the structure and the content). While strong perception on
Entrepreneur term is difficult to change that is the evident of the majority of students
who do not change their objective of wanting to learn a start-up course both before and
after the enrollment of the Entrepreneur program. Weak or unclear perception about
Entrepreneur definition can alter the initial objectives.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
45
Analysis of EECM in MDH
Figure 5: EECM in MDH and Students
C
h
a
n
g
e
i
n
s
t
u
d
e
n
t
s
´
p
e
r
s
p
e
c
t
i
v
e
s
a
f
t
e
r
t
h
e
c
o
u
r
s
e
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
46
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
To conclude, the paper has fulfilled the research purpose by first establishing
relationship between perspectives on Entrepreneur to Course objectives. Through
analysis, it is found that perspectives on Entrepreneur affect Entrepreneur Education’s
objectives amongst different respondents. Therefore, the perspectives are the key
criteria by which Entrepreneur course is judged and subsequently decides whether the
course provide competency in becoming an Entrepreneur. The answers to the question
does Entrepreneur Course provide competency to become Entrepreneur appear to be a
two sided coin answer.
The first side is “no”. From the analysis, we see that majority of students are more
familiar with the mainstream perspective of Entrepreneur and have the background of
wanting to becoming such entrepreneurs. Therefore, they expect to be taught an
economic related entrepreneurship course, for instance, a start up course that emphasize
on practice based learning. So, they perceive the competency which is provided through
theory based learning does not provide them the competency to become entrepreneur in
starting their own business.
However, after a thorough exploration, the “yes” does appear amongst minority of
students after the course is taken where they see the course as being useful in
broadening their perspectives about Entrepreneur. They see more importunity in
becoming some other types of Entrepreneurs rather than the mainstream economic
Entrepreneur. This offers them more alternatives and therefore is perceived to have
enhanced competency in providing them with knowledge in becoming entrepreneur
other than starting up their own business.
As a summary the answers to the research question would depend on how a person
perceive the term Entrepreneur. If people perceive it more to be into business dimension
which in this case majority of the students do, they would perhaps see more about the
negative side of the answer, which is “no”, the course does not provide competency to
become an Entrepreneur. However, if people have broader views of the term, which
means they perceive it is not only to be into business dimension, they would see the
positive side of the answer, which is “yes” and believe that they gain competency to
become an Entrepreneur. In our point of view, it is really important that how people
treat and perceive the term “Entrepreneur”.
Therefore, the information obtained from this study has help identify the key criteria for
course judgement both prior and after attending the course. It is the fact that all students
have least idea about Entrepreneur before they join the course. This is because through
media, they tend to be familiar to the economic views of Entrepreneur than the non
economic ones. Therefore, there exists expectation about teaching of skills and
knowledge that involves in the mainstream perspective. And despite reading the course
objective from the university’s website, majority of students still have the perception
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
47
that the course is about a start up course and perceive that theory-based learning is
useless.
Therefore, the first recommendation for the personals responsible in structuring the
programme is to take a step back and to look at the structure and the objectives of the
course. It is true that the perspective of Entrepreneur is shifting from economic
perspective to the non-economic which in turns impact the objective of Entrepreneur
Education from skills towards competency. However, from the theory, it suggests that
skill is still treated as one of the competency’s elements. Therefore, the elements of
competency besides knowledge through theory based learning should be considered. As
suggested by the Director of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College that “there are
two ways to ruin an Entrepreneurship course. The first way is to have it consist entirely
of the practical application and analysis of cases. The second way is to have it be
entirely theory”. Therefore, there should be a balance amongst all elements of
competency. The decision on the course structure using balanced elements of
competency and their teaching methods could possibly attract more candidates.
As proved by the paper that theory based learning has succeeded in broadened up
students’ perspective towards the term Entrepreneur, the last recommendation would be
about the course improvement on the course advertisement. The university should
develop strategic communication to educate students about benefit of theory based
learning and other perspectives of Entrepreneur and the benefit of knowing more about
Entrepreneur beyond economic boarder. This would help create an urge to learn
amongst future candidates. Finally, the university could reduce unclear perspective on
Entrepreneur prior the course and thus reduce bad judgement once the course is
completed.
7.1 Implications
The implication mainly is applicable to the main target of the thesis, that is, traditional
audiences.
The implication for the traditional audiences, the result of this thesis could help support
University’s decision regarding Entrepreneur course structure involving both course
objectives and teaching methods as mentioned by the recommendation.
For the students, the implication of the research is that perhaps they should gain more
information about Entrepreneur in other values rather than pure economic perspective
before approaching the Entrepreneurial field because that would open them to more
opportunity. Also, hey should take caution in studying thoroughly about the university’s
course objectives before joining so as to avoid false perception and judgment.
As for further research for both academic personnel’s and universities, there is a missing
part that should be considered, namely the timeliness and the weighting.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
48
From the paper, we learnt that all elements of competency are important and that all
elements, namely, skills, knowledge and experience need to be balanced. The next
question is what is considered to be a balance. This is one of the questions that are
worth exploring.
The second question that needs to be considered is about the Timelines. From the study,
the result might be negative now, at least amongst majority of students who perceived to
be unsatisfied with the program as it offers different objectives than they expect. But
what about in the future? Questions like, do students go back to their previous
knowledge they received from entrepreneurship course at later stage? should be
considered as there exhibits the idea from students that they might as well go back to
the knowledge they received from their master degree in the future, when they are ready
to become entrepreneur.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
49
REFERENCES
Albanese, R., 1989. Competency-based mangement education, Journal of
Management Development. Vol: 8 pp: 66-76.
Andresen, L., Boud, D. and Cohen, R., Experienced- based Learning. In Foley, G.
(Ed),Understanding Adult Education and Training. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 207-
215 (1995).
Anon 2007 Cited on 2008 May 18th from:
Anonymous. 2007 ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION Profit. Toronto:. Vol. 26,
pg. 61.
Austin, J .E., Leonard, H., Reficco, E., and Wei-Skillern, J ., 2004. Corporate social
entrepreneurship: A new vision of CSR. Harvard Business School Working Paper
No. 05-021. Boston: Harvard Business School.
Bartlett, C.A. and Ghoshal, S., 1997. The myth of the generic manager: new
personal competencies for new management roles. California Management Review.
Vol. 40 pp. 92-116.
Baumol, W. J ., 1993. Entrepreneurship, Management and the Structure of Payoffs.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bechard, J . and Toulouse, J .M., 1998. Validation of a didactic model for the
analysis of raining objectives in entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing.
Vol. 13 pp. 317-332.
Berglund K. and Holmgren C., 2006. At the Intersection of entrepreneurship
education policy and practice. Proceedings from the 14th NCSB Conference in
Stockholm, Sweden, pp1-23.
Berglund, K. Holmgren, C., 2008. ‘What do teachers do when they do
entrepreneurship education? … and How can we ask about it?’, Int. J. Business and
Globalisation, Vol. 2 pp.354–372.
Burns, P., 2005. Corporate entrepreneurship: Building an entrepreneurial
organization, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Calvin A.K., 1990. Entrepreneurship Education: Current Developments, Future
Directions, Greenwood Publishing Group.
Cantillon, R., 1755. Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général
Carlan, J .W. Hoy,F. Boulton, W.R.; Carland, J .A.C., 1984. Differentiating
Entrepreneurs from Small Business Owners. Academy of Management Review, Vol:
9, pp: 354-359.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
50
Casson, M., 1982. The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory, Robertson, Oxford,
Casson, M., 2005. Entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm. Journal of Economic
Behavior & Organization, Vol: 58, pp: 327-348.
Chia, R. (1996), “Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: university
business schools and the Entrepreneurial imagination”, J ournal of Management
Studies, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 409-28.
Colin, J . and J ack, E. 2004 “A contemporary approach to Entrepreneurship
education” Education & Training Vol 46 Pages 416-423
Cooper, S., Bottomley, C. and Gordon, J . (2004), “Stepping out of the classroom
and up the ladder of learning: an experiential learning approach to Entrepreneurship
education”, Industry & Higher Education, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 11-22.
Deakins, D. and Freel, M., 1998. Entrepreneurial Learning and the Growth Process
in SMEs. The Learning Organization: An International Journal, Vol: 5, pp: 144-
155.
Dean's Office 2007 Lund University Cited on May 16th from:http://www.ehl.lu.se/en/education/programmes/masters?pid=12
Dees, J .G. and Anderson, B.B., 2003. For-profit social ventures. International
Journal of Entrepreneurship Education ( special issue on social entrepreneurship).
Vol:2 pp1– 26.
Dees, J .G., 1998. The meaning of "social entrepreneurship." Comments and
suggestions contributed from the Social Entrepreneurship Founders Working Group.
Draganidis, F. and Mentaz, G., 2006. Competency based management: a review of
systems and approaches. Information Management & Computer Security. Vol. 14 pp.
51-64.
ELIN@. From:http://elin.lub.lu.se/elin?
func=loadTempl&templ=home&lang=en
Emerson, J . and Twersky, F., 1996. New social entrepreneurs: The success,
challenge and lessons of non-profit enterprise creation. San Francisco: Roberts
Foundation, Homeless Economic Development Fund.
Erikson T., 2003. Towards a taxonomy of Entrepreneurial learning experiences
among potential Entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development. Vol 10 pp: 106-112
European Commission. 2003. Green paper: entrepreneurship in Europe. European
Commission.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
51
European Commission. 2004b. Helping to Create an Entrepreneurial Culture a
Guide on Good Practices in Promoting Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Skills
Through Education, European Commission, Brussels.
Fiet J . O., 2001. The pedagogical side of Entrepreneurship theory. Journal of
Business Venturing. Vol: 16 pp: 101-117
Future 2007 School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology
Malardalen university refering on 18th April 2008 from: Galloway L, Anderson M,
Brown W, Wilson L. 2005 Enterprise skills for the economy. J ournal: Education +
Training. Vol: 47, pp: 7 – 17.
Galloway L., Anderson M., Brown W, and Wilson L., 2005. Enterprise skills for the
economy. Education & Training. Vol 47 pp: 7-17
Galunic, D.C. and Roden S., 1998. Resource Recombination in the Firm:
Knowledge and Potential for Schumpeterian Innovation, Strategic Management
Journal, Vol: 19, pp: 1193–1201.
Gartner, William B., 1988. Who Is an Entrepreneur? Is the Wrong Question.
American Journal of Small Business, Vol: 12, pp: 11-32.
Ghauri, P.N. and Gronhaug, K., 2002. Research Methods in Business Studies: A
Practical Guide, 2nd ed., Financial Times Prentice-Hall, London.
Gibb, A. A. (1993), `The Enterprise Culture and Education: Understanding
Enterprise Education and its Links with Small business, Entrepreneurship and Wider
Educational
Gorman G., Hanlon D, King W., 1997. Some research perspectives on
entrepreneurship education, enterprise education and education for small business
management: a ten-year literature review. International Small Business Journal, vol
15 pp: 56(22)
Gottleib, E. and Ross, J .A. (1997), “Made not born: HBS courses and
Entrepreneurial management”, Harvard Business School Bulletin, Vol. 73 February,
pp. 41-5.
Gray B.P., 2006. Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? FSB : Fortune Small Business.
Vol. 16 pp. 34, 9.
Gwynne P., 2008. More schools teaching entrepreneurship. Research Technology
Management Arlington: Vol:51, pp 6.
Hannon, P. (2006), “Teaching pigeons to dance: sense and meaning in
Entrepreneurship education”, Education +Training, Vol. 48 No. 5, pp. 296-308.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
52
Harold P. Welsch 2001 in Robert H. Brockhaus Gerald E. Hills Heinz Klandt &Harold
P. Welsch Entrepreneurship Education A global view Chapter: C, page 167-170
Hebert, R.F. and Link, A.N., 1988. The Entrepreneur: Mainstream Views and
Radical Critiques. New York: Praeger, 2nd edition.
Hjorth, D., 2003. Rewriting Entrepreneurship. Liber, Malmö.
Hornby?D. and Thomas, R., 1989. Towards a better standard of management.
Personnel Management. Vol:21 pp: 52-55.
J ohnson, S and Winterton, J ., 1999. Management skills, Skills Task Force Research
Paper Draganidis, F. and Mentaz, G., 2006. Competency based management: a review
of systems and approaches. Information Management & Computer Security. Vol. 14
pp. 51-64.
J ones-Evans, D., Williams W. and Deacon J ., 2000. Developing entrepreneurial
graduates: An action-learning approach. Education & Training. Vol. 42 pp. 282, 7.
Kirby, D.A. and Mullen, D., 1990. Developing enterprising graduates. Journal of
European Industrial Training, Vol. 14 pp. 27-32.
Kirzner, I., 1973. Competition and Entrepreneurship.
Knight, F.H., 1921/61. Risk uncertainty and profit. Kelley, 2nd edition.
Kourilsky, M.L. (1995), Entrepreneurship Education: Opportunity in Search of
Curriculum, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation, Kansas City, MO
Kuratko D. F., 2005. The Emergence of Entrepreneurship Education: Development,
Trends, and Challenges. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Vol. 29, pg. 577.
Lichtenstein, G. A., and Lyons, T.S. (1996). Incubating New Enterprises: A Guide
to Successful Practice. Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute.
Lord, M. (1999), “Attention, aspiring capitalists: B-school students are studying
Entrepreneurship”, US News Online,available at: www.usnews.com
Louw, L., Eeden, S.M., Bosch, J .K., Venter, D.J .L., 2003. Entrepreneurial traits of
undergraduate students at selected South African tertiary institutions, International
Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol: 9, pp.5-26.
Lundström, A. (2005) Creating Opportunities for Young Entrepreneurship – Nordic
Examples and Experiences, FSF, Örebro.
Lyons, T. S., 2002. The Entrepreneurial League System: Transforming Your
Community’s Economy Through Enterprise Development. Washington, DC: The
Appalachian Regional Commission.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
53
Lyons, T. S., 2003. Policies for Creating an Entrepreneurial Region. In Main Streets
of Tomorrow: Growing and Financing Rural Entrepreneurs. Center for the Study of
Rural America: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pp. 97-105.
Man T.W.Y., 2006. Exploring the behavioural patterns of Entrepreneurial learning,
Education & Training. Vol: 48 pp: 309-321.
Man W.Y.T. and Lau, T., 2005. The context of Entrepreneurship in Hong Kong: An
investigation through the patterns of Entrepreneurial competencies in contrasting
industrial environments. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Vol:12 pp: 464-481.
Marshall, T.H., 1964. Class, Citizenship, and Social Development. Doubleday,
Garden City, New York.
Matlay, H. (2005), “Entrepreneurship education in UK higher education institutes: a
longitudinal approach”, WP 14/05, Global Independent Research, Coventry.
McDermott, K.J ., Göl, Ö. and Nafalski, A., Considerations on experience-based
learning. Proc. 4th UICEE Annual Conf. on Engng. Educ., Vol 6 pp 219-222
(2001).
McMullan,W.E and Gillin,L.M. in Robert H. Brockhaus et. Entrepreneurship
Education a global view 2001 chapter 3 pp57-58
MDH 2007 cited on May 18th from:http://www.mdh.se/studieinformation/VisaKursplan?termin=20081&sprak=en&kurs
kod=EFO512
Morgan D.L., 1998. The focus group guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications.
Myers, M. (2000). Qualitative research and the generalizability question: Standing
firm with Proteus. The Qualitative Report, 4(3/4). From:http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR4-3/myers.html
Nab, J ., Pilot, A., Brinkkemper, S. and Berge, H. 2007. Authentic competence-based
learning in university education in Entrepreneurship. In Conference Proceedings
IntEnt2007 . Gdansk: University of Technology.
North, D., 1993. Applying the competences approach to management: the
employment service’s experience. Revue europeenne de Psychologie.
Parry, S.B., 1998. J ust what is a competency? (and why should you care?). Training.
Vol. 35, pp. 58-61.
Pastakia, A., 1998. Grassroots ecopreneurs: change agents for a sustainable society.
Journal of Organizational Change Management. Vol: 11 pp: 157-173.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
54
Penrose, E., 1995 [1959]. The Theory of the growth of the Firm, Oxford University
Press.
Pyysiäinen J , Anderson A, McElwee G, Vesala K,. 2006. Developing the
entrepreneurial skills of farmers: some myths explored. International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol: 12, pp: 21 – 39.
Reis, T., 1999. Unleashing the new resources and entrepreneurship for the common
good: A scan, synthesis and scenario for action. Battle Creek, MI : W.K. Kellogg
Foundation.
Robert H.Brockhaus Gerald E. Hills Heinz Klandt Harold P. Welsch
Entrepreneurship education a global view 2001.
Shane, S. (2003), A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual –
Opportunity Nexus, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.
Shane, S.A, Venkataraman, S,. 2000, The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of
research, Academy of Management review, Vol: 25, pp: 217-226.
Smilor, R.W. (1997), “Entrepreneurship: reflections on a subversive activity”,
Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 12 No. 5, pp. 341-6.
Smith L. W., Schallenkamp K. and Eichholz E.D., 2007. Entrepreneurial skills
assessment: an exploratory study, International Journal of Management and
Enterprise Development, Vol: 2, pp:179 – 201.
Stevenson, H.H. & J arillo, J .C., 1991. A new entrepreneurial paradigm.
Socioeconomics: Toward a new synthesis. pp: 185–208.
Steyaert, C. and Hjorth, D., 2004. Narrative and Discursive Approaches in
Entrepreneurship: A Second Movements in Entrepreneurship Book, Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham.
Swedberg, R., 2000. Entrepreneurship: the social science view. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Sweden Career Guide 2006: Small Business / Entrepreneurship / Start-Ups
Employment Trends GoingGlobal. Going Global Career Guides. Sweden. Mobile:
2006. pg. 1, 4
Swedish Government’s Proposition 2003-2004 Knowledge and Quality-Eleven
Steps to Develop the Upper Secondary School, Stockholm, pp140
Vesper, K.H., & Gartner, W.B. (1997). Measuring progress in entrepreneurship
education. Journal of Business Venturing, Vol: 12, pp: 403-421.
Wallace, J ., 1998. The impact of small business courses on competencies. 22
nd
National Small Business Consulting Conference, Santa Fe, NM, 4-7 February.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
55
Weinrauch, J .D. 1984. Educating the entrepreneur: understanding adult learning
behaviour. Journal of Small Business Management. Vol. 22 pp. 32-37
William L. Smith, Ken Schallenkamp, Douglas E. Eichholz,. 2007. Entrepreneurial
skills assessment: an exploratory study, International Journal of Management and
Enterprise Development, Vol: 2, pp:179 – 201.
Wood, R. and Bandura, A., (1989), "Social cognitive theory of organisational
management", Academy of Management Review, Vol. 14 pp.361-84.
Zadek, S. and Thake, S., 1997. Send in the social entrepreneurs. New Statesman.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
56
APPENDIX A
25
th
April 2008
Interview Discussion Guide
for Academics (1 HOUR)
N.B. This guide is intended as a ‘checklist’ for the interviewer. He/She will treat
this as a menu from which to select areas and guide the general flow of discussion.
The guide will thus be a springboard for discussion; participants’ responses may
often lead the discussion in new directions or change the order of topics. Some
questions or issues may be skipped if issues have already been sufficiently
covered at an earlier stage.
Material Required
A tape recorder
A table mentioned in sec2
1. Introduction (5 / 5 min)
Respondents Introduction
- Name
- Age
- J ob title
- How many years in the school
- Responsibility
Introduce the interviewer
Explain detail of the interview.
- Thesis background
- Purpose
- Research questions
- methodology
2. Perception towards Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education (EE)(15 / 20 mins)
This section aims at exploring respondent’s perception towards Entrepreneur and EE
to spot their thinking towards the elements important for it
In your opinion, what is an Entrepreneur?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
57
Which are the skills important for it?
- Where does this perception come from?
- Can it be taught? Why? Why not?
What about EE?
- How do you think about the debate ‘Is the entrepreneur born or made?
Who do you think would be interested in it?
Why does it need to be taught?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
What skills/elemets are important to it? Where does this perception come from?
What about EE in Europe VS any other part of the world? Is it the same? Why?
Why not?
3. Understanding the formation of the course at Malardalen University (15 / 35 mins)
This section aims to gain insight on how the course was created on which foundations.
What about the Entrepreneurship course at Malardalen?
- When was it created?
- Why was it created?
- Why combine it with the International business course?
How was the course created? Base on which perception, theory, and structure?
Why were such perception, theory, and structure?
What are the aims and objectives of the course? Why?
What is your expectation towards the course?
4. Definition Clarification (5 min/ 40min)
You mentioned the skills taught by the school in the last section and because
different people interpret such skills differently, what is the definition of this skills
defined by the program?
5. Thesis Evaluation (15 min/ 55min)
SHOW THE Model and EXPLAIN ABOUT IT
How relevant are the models mentioned…
- In the Entrepreneur section
- In the EE section
5. Conclusion and Recommendation (5 min/ 60min)
Interviewer check if there is further opinions from the respondents
- END -
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
58
25
th
April 2008
Focus Group Discussion Guide
For Students (1 HOUR)
N.B. This guide is intended as a ‘checklist’ for the interviewer. He/She will treat
this as a menu from which to select areas and guide the general flow of discussion.
The guide will thus be a springboard for discussion; participants’ responses may
often lead the discussion in new directions or change the order of topics. Some
questions or issues may be skipped if issues have already been sufficiently
covered at an earlier stage.
Material Required
A tape recorder
A table mentioned in sec2
1. Introduction (5 / 5 min)
Respondents Introduction
- Name
- Age
- J ob title
Introduce the interviewer
Explain detail of the interview.
- Thesis background
- Purpose
- Research questions
- methodology
2. Perception towards Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur Education (EE)(20 / 25 mins)
This section aims at exploring respondent’s perception towards Entrepreneur to
spot their thinking towards elements important to it
Before the course, in your opinion, what is an Entrepreneur?
Where did you get such idea?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
Which are the elements/characteristics important for it?
- Where does this perception come from?
- Can it be taught? Why? Why not?
What about after the course, what is your perception towards entrepreneur?
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
59
3. Understanding the EE and their objective to course at Malardalen University (25 / 50
mins)
What about EE?
- How do you think about the debate ‘Is the entrepreneur born or made?
Who do you think would be interested in it?
Why does it need to be taught?
How do you see it today?
Has it been changed from the past? Why? Why not?
Why do you choose this course?
Did you apply anywhere else? Why? Why not?
What is your expectation towards the course? Why?
After attending the course, what do you think about it?
- The course content
- The teaching method
3. Conclusion and Recommendation (10 min/ 60min)
What if you are the founder of the programme? What would you have done to the
programme structure?
Interviewer check if there is further opinions from the respondents
- END -
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
60
APPENDIX B
The program Entrepreneurship in Lund University
“The basis of the programme is the belief that Entrepreneurship cannot be taught only
by traditional forms of instructions but has to be assimilated and reinforced through real
experiences. As such, the programme will provide students with a thorough grounding
in theories related to the Entrepreneurial process, while at the same time encouraging
their development and use of knowledge and skills in practice. This programme aims to
provide students with a range of valuable skills and knowledge for recognizing and
exploiting lucrative business opportunities with growth potential. It will provide
students with a thorough grounding in theories related to the Entrepreneurial process,
while at the same time encouraging their development and use of knowledge and skills
in practice. The programme is characterized by an action-oriented pedagogy where
students will initiate and carry out genuine Entrepreneurial projects with the goal of
forming companies at the end of their master year. In developing their Entrepreneurial
project students will get to meet and interact with qualified actors from both academia
and industry. The knowledge and skills gained from this programme will be particularly
useful for individuals interested in learning how to start up and manage their own new
ventures. In addition, the program will provide valuable knowledge and skills for
individuals interested in working with new venture projects (for example as
development managers in established firms) as well as for individuals who will work
close to new and small ventures (business advisors, consultants, TTO-managers etc). ”
(Dean´s Office 2007 Lund )
Entrepreneur Course syllabus in Malardalen University
Objectives
The course Organization theory and Entrepreneurship aims at providing a deeper
knowledge and understanding of Entrepreneurship and organizations from an
Entrepreneurial perspective. Emphasis is put on the interplay of Entrepreneurship,
organization and institutional conditions. The course aim is also to test different
scientific perspectives on the empirical phenomena and to give an understanding of the
perspectives effect on the knowledge produced. (MDH 2007)
Learning objectives
By the completion of the course the student shall have demonstrated:
- the ability to give interpretation and explanation of Entrepreneurship, theoretically and
empirically, from actor-oriented-, organizational- as well as institutional perspective.
Master Thesis International Business and Entrepreneurship Group 2015
61
- the ability to design research studies autonomously, including gathering and
interpretation of qualitative data and presentation of results that give contribution to
knowledge of the relationships between Entrepreneurship and organisation.
- the ability to analyse and come to conclusions regarding theoretical as well as
empirical issues.
- the ability to apply knowledge and understanding in relation to professional vocations
regarding organization, management and change.
Course content
The role of Entrepreneurship and innovation in different organizational contexts is
considered as pivotal in relation to economic, social, environmental and organizational
change. The content of this course focus on Entrepreneurship, and the interrelationships
between Entrepreneurship, organisations and institutions on the basis of theory and
research in this area. The course comprise of task assignments that develops knowledge
and skills in undertaking research as well as a professional approach in relation to
vocational issues (MDH 2007).
doc_583787154.pdf