Description
In such a brief criteria with regards to entrepreneurship international entrepreneurship education.
International Entrepreneurship Education
International
Entrepreneurship
Education
Issues and Newness
Edited by
Alain Fayolle
EM Lyon and CERAG Laboratory, France, and Solvay Business
School, Belgium
Heinz Klandt
European Business School, Germany
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
© Alain Fayolle and Heinz Klandt, 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Glensanda House
Montpellier Parade
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 1UA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
136 West Street
Suite 202
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
International entrepreneurship education: issues and newness/edited by
Alain Fayolle, Heinz Klandt.
p. cm.
Selections from the proceedings of the 2003 INET conference in Grenoble.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Business education—Congresses. 2. Business education—Cross-cultural
studies—Congresses. 3. Entrepreneurship—Study and teaching—Congresses.
4. Entrepreneurship—Cross-cultural studies—Congresses. I. Title:
Entrepreneurship education. II. Fayolle, Alain. III. Klandt, Heinz.
HF1102.I585 2006
650.071’1—dc22
2005052825
ISBN-13: 978 1 84542 179 3
ISBN-10: 1 84542 179 5
Typeset by Manton Typesetters, Louth, Lincolnshire, UK
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
v
Contents
Contributors vii
Foreword by Allan Gibb ix
1 Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education: new
lenses for new practical and academic questions 1
Alain Fayolle and Heinz Klandt
PART ONE KEY ISSUES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
2 Learning and teaching entrepreneurship: dilemmas, refections
and strategies 21
Per Blenker, Poul Dreisler, Helle M. Færgeman and John Kjeldsen
3 Entrepreneurship education: can business schools meet the
challenge? 35
David A. Kirby
4 To support the emergence of academic entrepreneurs: the role of
business plan competitions 55
Lorella Cannavacciuolo, Guido Capaldo, Gianluca Esposito, Luca
Iandoli and Mario Raffa
5 Attitudes, intentions and behaviour: new approaches to evaluating
entrepreneurship education 74
Alain Fayolle and Jean Michel Degeorge
PART TWO ABOUT THE NEWNESS IN METHODOLOGICAL
APPROACHES TO TEACH ENTREPRENEURSHIP
6 The continental and Anglo-American approaches to
entrepreneurship education – differences and bridges 93
Paula Kyrö
7 Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 112
Asko Miettinen
vi Contents
8 Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? An
empirical evaluation of business plan competitions 133
Benoît Gailly
9 Skills demonstrations: a possibility for meaningful co-operation
with work-life in internationalizing vocational education 155
Seija Mahlamäki-Kultanen
10 Pathways to new business opportunities: innovations and
strategies for the entrepreneurial classroom 168
Jill Kickul
PART THREE DIFFUSING AND PROMOTING
ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE AND
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL POTENTIAL
11 Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering college
students: what are the educational factors? 191
Caroline Verzat and Rémi Bachelet
12 Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs: a
comparative study between Italy and Argentina 218
Sergio Postigo, Donato Iacobucci and María Fernanda Tamborini
13 Entrepreneurship education among students at a Canadian
university: an extensive empirical study of students’
entrepreneurial preferences and intentions 241
Yvon Gasse and Maripier Tremblay
14 Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action: a
study of French PhD students 263
Jean-Pierre Boissin, Jean-Claude Castagnos and Bérangère
Deschamps
15 Entrepreneurship education for the African informal sector 277
Hanas A. Cader and David W. Norman
Index 297
vii
Contributors
Rémi Bachelet, Ecole Centrale de Lille, France
Per Blenker, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Jean-Pierre Boissin, Université Pierre Mendès France, CERAG, Grenoble,
France
Hanas A. Cader, South Carolina State University, USA
Lorella Cannavacciuolo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Guido Capaldo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Jean-Claude Castagnos, Université Pierre Mendès France, CERAG, Grenoble,
France
Jean Michel Degeorge, ESC Saint-Etienne, France
Bérangère Deschamps, Université Pierre Mendès France, CERAG, Grenoble,
France
Poul Dreisler, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Gianluca Esposito, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Helle M. Færgeman, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Alain Fayolle, EM Lyon and CERAG Laboratory, France, and Solvay Business
School, Belgium
Benoît Gailly, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Yvon Gasse, Laval University, Canada
Allan Gibb, University of Durham, Foundation for SME Development,
England
Donato Iacobucci, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy
Luca Iandoli, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Jill Kickul, Simmons School of Management, USA
David A. Kirby, University of Surrey, England
viii Contributors
John Kjeldsen, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Heinz Klandt, European Business School, Germany
Paula Kyrö, University of Tampere, Finland
Seija Mahlamäki-Kultanen, University of Tampere, Finland
Asko Miettinen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
David W. Norman, Kansas State University, USA
Sergio Postigo, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina
Mario Raffa, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
María Fernanda Tamborini, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina
Maripier Tremblay, Laval University, Canada
Caroline Verzat, Ecole Centrale de Lille, France
ix
Foreword
Allan Gibb
I have had the privilege to be in touch with the Internationalizing Entrepreneur-
ship Education and Training (IntEnt) conference initiative since its inception
and have been lucky enough to participate in many of its workshops. Like most
small enterprises it arose from slender beginnings, driven by an entrepreneur
with the vision, Heinz Klandt. It has gained in conceptual and pragmatic
strength, and in numbers, over the years. Most importantly, in my view, it has
served to create a wider view of the concept of entrepreneurship education,
challenging in some respects the dominant US paradigm. As international inter-
est in entrepreneurship education has grown, so, appropriately, has the dynamic
of the contributions.
This volume, selected from the proceedings of the 2003 Conference in Gre-
noble, marks another distinctive step. The overall theme is one of challenge to
the knowledge conventions, the context, the location and pedagogy of entrepre-
neurship education. Alongside several contributions from distinguished authors
in the feld, there are relative newcomers with insights to challenge the reader,
both empirical and conceptual.
IntEnt has always been driven by the desire to make sense of things to the
teacher and policy-maker in the entrepreneurship feld. It never has been an
empty vessel to be flled with purely academic papers in the traditional research
conference single disciplinary mode. It draws from many different conceptual
frames and is unafraid to embrace creative pragmatism. This volume is no ex-
ception and as such is always stimulating.
1
1. Issues and newness in the feld of
entrepreneurship education: new
lenses for new practical and academic
questions
Alain Fayolle and Heinz Klandt
Following a trend initiated in the USA in the 1970s (Fiet, 2001), the number of
public and private initiatives to train and educate people to be more entrepre-
neurial have multiplied on both sides of the Atlantic (see, for example, Fayolle,
2000; Klandt, 2004). Those entrepreneurship education programmes respond
to, on the one hand, an increasing interest from students about entrepreneurial
careers (Brenner et al., 1991; Fleming, 1994; Hart and Harrison, 1992; Kolv-
ereid, 1996) and, on the other hand, an increasing awareness from public
authorities about the importance of entrepreneurship as a contributor to eco-
nomic development (Hytti and Kuopusjärvi, 2004).
In the context of this book we defne entrepreneurship education in a wide
sense as any pedagogical programme or process of education for entrepreneurial
attitudes and skills, which involves developing certain personal qualities. It is
therefore not exclusively focused on the immediate creation of new businesses.
Hence this defnition covers a wide variety of situations, aims, methods and
teaching approaches.
The introductory chapter pursues two objectives. First, we would like to
highlight some changes in the paradigmatic approach of entrepreneurship educa-
tion and their consequences on research in the feld. Secondly, we provide an
overview of the book through a presentation of the chapters.
TOWARDS A CHANGE OF PARADIGM IN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION?
Entrepreneurship education is becoming a great focal point of interest for re-
searchers since a dedicated conference
1
to that topic appeared in the scientifc
world at the beginning of the 1990s. As the entrepreneurship concept itself is
2 International entrepreneurship education
diffcult to defne, there is no strong agreement on what entrepreneurship educa-
tion is and how it could be taught. A broad variety of researchers, practitioners
and teachers see entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education from different
angles and through specifc lenses (see, for example, Bouchikhi, 2003; Fayolle,
2004). For us (Fayolle, 2004; Fayolle and Senicourt, 2005), entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurship education can be seen (and defned?) at different levels:
l Entrepreneurship is a matter of culture (institutional point of view) or a
matter of state of mind (individual point of view). That means that entre-
preneurship education is helpful to create an entrepreneurial culture
within countries, societies, frms, associations, and so on, and/or to change
the mindset of individuals. Culture and state of mind could be mainly
approached in terms of values, beliefs and attitudes.
l Entrepreneurship is also a matter of behaviours. Organizations and indi-
viduals can develop entrepreneurial behaviours such as, for example,
those described by Stevenson (opportunity orientation, commitment to
opportunity orientation, commitment of resources, and so on)
2
or those
suggested through the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (Lumpkin
and Dess, 1996).
l Finally, entrepreneurship is a matter of specifc situations (new frm crea-
tion, corporate venturing, acquiring existing businesses, and so on)
including change, uncertainty, complexity and requiring entrepreneurial
behaviours such as those previously exposed and entrepreneurial compe-
tencies in relation to the features of these specifc situations.
Both individual and organizational dimensions have to be considered at each
level.
As Kirby (forthcoming) suggests, the traditional entrepreneurship education
paradigm has focused on new venture creation, the objective being: ‘To generate
more quickly a greater variety of different ideas for how to exploit a business
opportunity and … project a more extensive sequence of actions for entering
business’ (Vesper and McMullen, 1988: 9). This assertion is fully relevant with
the current contents of the most worldwide diffused textbooks in entrepreneur-
ship. In this paradigm the aim of entrepreneurship education is about teaching
students to start their own businesses. This is a concept of teaching entrepreneur-
ship which mainly focuses on the third level (specifc situations).
Gibb (2002; 2004a; 2004b) alternatively proposes a ‘modern’ paradigm in
entrepreneurship education which deals more with the frst (culture, state of mind)
and the second (behaviours) levels. Gibb’s departure point is to consider that the
considerable and growing interest in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship edu-
cation is related to a change of perceptions, coming from the globalization
phenomena, characterized by an increasing degree of environment complexity
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 3
and uncertainty. Governments, institutions (such as universities and schools),
organizations and frms, individuals are changing their perceptions of the world
and facing both the complexity and the uncertainty of that new world.
Nowadays, increasingly, each of us has to live with, deal with, create and
enjoy uncertainty and complexity (Gibb, 2004a). As Gibb states, there is a need
to move away from the traditional focus of entrepreneurship education on new
venture management, business plans, growth and innovation, to a broader con-
cept based on an understanding of the way that entrepreneurs live and learn.
Table 1.1 highlights the implications for entrepreneurship education and for
research in entrepreneurship education depending on the level considered (cul-
ture/behaviour/specifc situation) for positioning entrepreneurship.
To provide the reader with a good understanding of what our contribution is
and is not, let us briefy underline a couple of limits and precisions.
First, our approach to identify these implications was not exhaustive and,
obviously, Table 1.1 could be completed and considerably enriched.
Secondly, the proposed framework does not consider how the different levels
(culture/behaviour/specifc situation) and how the two dimensions (collective/
individual) relate to each other. Certainly, one can fnd at the crossroads and in
the interactions between these key elements new research issues and new en-
trepreneurship education questions.
Finally, we think that the modern paradigm is a new focus on other elements
(culture and behaviours), but it does not mean the traditional focus on new
venture creation and on entrepreneurial situations is neglected. From our point
of view, the modern paradigm is not an alternative to the past and ought not to
be seen as a substitute, but it is much more an extension of the traditional para-
digm. As the complexity of the world increases, the complexity of the
entrepreneurship education model has to increase too, through the inclusion of
new variables and new levels of conception.
Clearly, that change of paradigm and thoughts of what entrepreneurship edu-
cation is or should be, leads us as researchers in the feld to ask new research
questions which complete the old ones. However, old research questions remain,
as we shall see.
Classical research questions in the feld of entrepreneurship education mainly
revolve around the audiences, their needs, the educators, the contents and the
methods, and the actions. Brockhaus (1993) suggests a research agenda in en-
trepreneurship education. First, he thought we need to develop research
methodology for measuring entrepreneurial education. For instance, our current
research programme goes hand in hand with this objective (see Fayolle, 2005;
Fayolle and Gailly, 2004; Fayolle et al., 2005; Chapter 5 in this book). Particu-
larly, we try to take into consideration in our research methodology the main
elements. Brockhaus stated: ‘The student, the student needs, the type of instruc-
tor, the format and different outcomes over points in time’ (1993: 4).
4
T
a
b
l
e
1
.
1
F
r
o
m
a
t
r
a
d
i
t
i
o
n
a
l
t
o
a
m
o
d
e
r
n
p
a
r
a
d
i
g
m
i
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
:
s
o
m
e
i
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
e
d
u
c
a
t
o
r
s
,
p
r
a
c
t
i
t
i
o
n
e
r
s
a
n
d
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
e
r
s
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
a
s
a
m
a
t
t
e
r
o
f
…
C
u
l
t
u
r
e
o
r
s
t
a
t
e
o
f
m
i
n
d
B
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
S
p
e
c
i
f
c
s
i
t
u
a
t
i
o
n
s
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
o
f
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
a
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
b
e
c
r
e
a
t
e
d
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
d
e
s
i
g
n
a
n
d
s
e
t
u
p
a
f
a
v
o
u
r
a
b
l
e
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
t
o
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
p
o
l
i
t
i
c
i
a
n
s
a
n
d
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
e
r
s
t
o
h
e
l
p
t
h
e
m
i
n
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
i
n
g
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
o
r
i
e
n
t
a
t
i
o
n
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
s
k
i
l
l
s
a
n
d
c
o
m
p
e
t
e
n
c
i
e
s
i
n
r
e
l
a
t
i
o
n
t
o
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
r
e
l
a
t
e
t
h
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
t
o
o
t
h
e
r
s
s
u
c
h
a
s
s
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
c
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
o
r
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
?
C
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
v
e
l
e
v
e
l
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
(
c
o
n
t
e
n
t
s
a
n
d
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
)
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
v
a
l
u
e
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
p
o
s
i
t
i
v
e
a
t
t
i
t
u
d
e
s
t
o
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
b
e
s
t
c
o
n
t
e
n
t
s
a
n
d
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
t
o
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
i
n
d
e
p
e
n
d
e
n
t
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
(
m
a
i
n
l
y
n
e
w
v
e
n
t
u
r
e
c
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
)
?
W
h
o
c
a
n
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
t
o
r
e
a
c
h
t
h
e
o
b
j
e
c
t
i
v
e
s
?
I
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
l
e
v
e
l
5
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
i
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
i
z
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
d
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
b
e
t
w
e
e
n
c
o
u
n
t
r
i
e
s
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
i
n
f
u
e
n
c
e
s
o
f
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
,
p
r
o
f
e
s
s
i
o
n
a
l
a
n
d
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
i
d
e
n
t
i
t
i
e
s
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
W
h
a
t
d
o
e
s
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
m
e
a
n
(
w
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
k
e
y
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
s
)
?
A
r
e
t
h
e
r
e
o
r
g
a
n
i
z
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
f
r
a
m
e
w
o
r
k
s
o
r
c
o
n
d
i
t
i
o
n
s
m
o
r
e
f
a
v
o
u
r
a
b
l
e
t
h
a
n
o
t
h
e
r
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
i
z
e
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
b
u
i
l
d
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
b
r
i
d
g
e
s
b
e
t
w
e
e
n
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
a
n
d
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
A
r
e
t
h
e
r
e
s
p
e
c
i
f
c
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
a
n
d
c
o
n
t
e
n
t
s
t
o
t
e
a
c
h
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
C
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
v
e
l
e
v
e
l
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
i
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
i
z
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
m
e
a
s
u
r
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
t
h
e
e
f
f
e
c
t
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
t
h
e
e
f
f
e
c
t
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
n
i
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
f
a
c
t
o
r
s
w
h
i
c
h
c
o
u
l
d
h
a
v
e
a
n
i
n
f
u
e
n
c
e
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
t
h
e
e
f
f
e
c
t
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
n
t
h
e
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
t
h
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
e
v
e
n
t
a
n
d
t
h
e
d
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
t
s
t
a
g
e
s
o
f
t
h
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
p
r
o
c
e
s
s
?
I
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
l
e
v
e
l
6 International entrepreneurship education
Brockhaus also stated that we should examine what is taught to the audiences:
‘Do they need management education? Do they need information on entrepre-
neurial processes? Do they need technical skills? Do they need to be more highly
motivated?’ (1992: 4).
‘Who does the teaching?’ is also a research need underlined by Brockhaus.
In this way, ‘research should attempt to evaluate which ones are the most effec-
tive in which situation?’ (ibid., 1992: 4). Who are the ‘best’ teachers? Those
who have no formal education in entrepreneurship or those with advanced de-
grees? Those who have experienced entrepreneurship or those who have not?
Are entrepreneurs better teachers than non-entrepreneurs?
The last research need in Brockhaus’s research agenda is in relation to the
learning style perspective. Is there a specifc learning style with which to teach
entrepreneurship? As entrepreneurs seem to think and act differently from
managers, the format in which they learn most effectively should attract the at-
tention of researchers.
Table 1.1 shows us that traditional research questions remain in the modern
paradigm. They are completed by a growing interest in new research objects
such as entrepreneurial culture, entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial orienta-
tion, entrepreneurial potential, and so on. These new research objects need frst
to be defned and conceptualized, and then approached within the diversity of
pedagogical contexts and learning situations.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK: NEW LOOKS ON NEW
ISSUES
The chapters of this book certainly refect this change in paradigm and empha-
size the need to address both traditional and new research questions.
The authors come from 10 countries and three continents. All of them are
experienced in the feld of entrepreneurship education and have a good academic
practice. We see in this group some diversity in relation to the scope of the na-
tional cultures that are represented and homogeneity coming from a community
of practice. Both diversity and homogeneity are strongly evident in this edited
work.
The book includes three parts dealing with the new research questions in rela-
tion to entrepreneurship education and research. The frst addresses key issues
in relation to defnitional, evaluative and institutional questions. The second part
is dedicated to the methodological aspects approached through different con-
texts. The third part focuses on culture in a broad sense and on the new teaching
approaches of enterprising individuals.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 7
PART ONE: KEY ISSUES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION
The chapters which are included in this frst part of the book address both
traditional and new questions. The question of how to learn and teach entrepre-
neurship is at the heart of Chapter 2. It is probably one of the oldest questions
in the feld of entrepreneurship education. The collective dimension appears
strongly in Chapter 3 where the author is wondering about the capacity of some
institutions such as business schools to develop in the right way entrepreneurship
education. Chapter 4 exposes a review of existing approaches to support aca-
demic spin-offs and draws implications for the design of most effective frames
and tools. Finally, Chapter 5 deals with the assessment issue and elaborates on
a theoretical and methodological framework based on the theory of planned
behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) to measure the impact of entrepreneurship education
programmes on attitudes and behaviours of students. But let us have a look at
the chapters of the frst part in more detail.
Chapter 2 (by Blenker, Dreisler, Færgeman and Kjeldsen), ‘Learning and
teaching entrepreneurship: dilemmas, refections and strategies’, is centred on
a basic set of questions.
The question as to whether entrepreneurship could be learned, and whether
it should be taught as part of university studies in general and, more particularly,
as part of business studies, has been discussed for a number of years. The most
widespread answer today seems to be positive: yes, entrepreneurship can be
learned and should be taught.
For the authors, a major problem is that the traditional forms of teaching at
universities and business schools have shown themselves to be inappropriate for
enhancing the motivation and competencies of students towards innovation and
entrepreneurship. This phenomenon holds several dilemmas which are described
and discussed in the chapter. Most of these dilemmas are related to the relation-
ship between learning and teaching entrepreneurship, and to the question of
whether entrepreneurship or enterprising behaviour is to be promoted.
One dilemma is whether teaching should be for entrepreneurship or about
entrepreneurship, and another concerns the foundation of teaching; whether it
should be based on management theories or on some not-as-yet-defned theory
of entrepreneurship. A third dilemma concerns the situating of this education;
should it be placed within the secure context of the university auditorium or in
small frms – or perhaps somewhere in between academia and practice. A fourth
dilemma is whether students should work individually or in teams, and a ffth
is the question of how the substance of what is taught is formulated; whether
entrepreneurship is conceptualized as an art or a science.
To answer the fundamental questions they have identifed, the authors tran-
scend traditional ways of asking questions about how to teach entrepreneurship,
8 International entrepreneurship education
particularly by introducing three different, but related, levels of educational
decisions that a university should decide on when choosing entrepreneurship
education strategy.
Chapter 3 (by Kirby), ‘Entrepreneurship education: can business schools meet
the challenge?’ offers an original view on the institutional and educational
conditions which have been gathered to develop entrepreneurial culture and
entrepreneurial behaviours within business schools.
This chapter examines the characteristics and role of the entrepreneur and
the challenges for business schools posed by the need to develop more enterpris-
ing individuals. It argues that the traditional education system stultifes rather
than develops the requisite attributes and skills to produce entrepreneurs, and
proposes that, if entrepreneurs are to be developed, considerable changes are
required in both the content and process of learning. In particular the chapter
suggests that there needs to be a shift in the emphasis in learning from educating
‘about’ entrepreneurship to educating ‘for’ it. Equally it stresses that entrepre-
neurship should not be equated with new venture creation nor small business
management but with creativity and change. In this context it proposes that edu-
cational institutions need to change the process of learning to enable their
students to develop their right-brain entrepreneurial capabilities as well as their
left-brain analytical skills. Borrowing ideas from Chia (1996), the author argues
that business schools need to weaken the thought processes so as to encourage
and stimulate the entrepreneurial imagination.
Chapter 4 (by Cannavacciuolo, Capaldo, Esposito, Iandoli and Raffa), ‘To
support the emergence of academic entrepreneurs: the role of business plan
competitions’ is interested in reviewing and analysing existing approaches to
encourage academic spin-offs.
Therefore this chapter focuses on the academic spin-off creation process. More
specifcally, it analyses such process in its early stages. The successful implemen-
tation of academic spin-off programmes is hindered by cultural, organizational,
legal and fnancial barriers. To begin with, this chapter analyses barriers prevent-
ing academic spin-offs from being created. Secondly, the authors present an
overview of supports instrumental in overcoming such barriers. Thirdly, they
classify the key features of academic entrepreneurs. These aspects are then uti-
lized in order to identify some basic principles focused on the creation of effective
policies facilitating the establishment of academic spin-offs in areas that do not
excel in transforming research output into business-related activities.
More specifcally, the research work presented in this chapter analyses an
academic spin-off support programme implemented in Italy by the University
of Naples Federico II. The programme does not take into account all the phases
of the entrepreneurial process but only focuses on the frst phase of the academic
spin-off creation process. This phase is mainly aimed at facilitating the emer-
gence of new business ideas.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 9
To end the frst part of the book, Chapter 5 (by Fayolle and Degeorge), ‘Atti-
tudes, intentions and behaviors: new approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship
education’ deals with the key questions of ‘what should we measure?’ and ‘how
do we assess the impact of entrepreneurship education?’
Entrepreneurship teaching programmes and initiatives in educating people
towards entrepreneurship are growing throughout the world. In relation to this
development some practical and research key issues are rising. Among them,
the question of entrepreneurship teaching programmes assessment is probably
one of the most crucial both at a social and at a research level.
As the chapter shows, some research has been undertaken on this topic and
the greater part of it clearly underlines the complexity of the assessment ques-
tion, mainly in terms of indicator choice and because the measure itself is very
complicated due to the existence of late effects. Moreover, the feld of the en-
trepreneurship education is diversifed and heterogeneous, depending on the
teaching objectives, the audiences, the contents, the teacher profles, the peda-
gogical methods and approaches, and so on.
Based on this complex reality, the aim of the chapter is to show that it is pos-
sible to avoid some of these diffculties by reconsidering and reformulating the
assessment question. It seems to the authors that the most important result of
entrepreneurship education is not necessarily the creation of start-ups, but could
be, among educated students, mindset changes, attitude changes and the devel-
opment of an entrepreneurial orientation, measured through intentions. The
chapter is thus proposing a conceptual framework in assessing the entrepreneur-
ship education programme. This framework uses the theory of planned
behaviour elaborated by Ajzen (1991). Under the infuences of independent
variables related to entrepreneurship education programmes, the theory of
planned behaviour is a powerful tool to measure attitudes change towards en-
trepreneurial behaviour, changes in subjective norms, changes of perceived
entrepreneurial behaviour control and, fnally, changes in entrepreneurial inten-
tions. The main research idea in this chapter is to consider whether it is expected
and feasible to design a dynamic tool using the theory of planned behaviour to
assess the entrepreneurship education programmes and so to measure variations
on entrepreneurial intention throughout the education process.
PART TWO: ABOUT THE NEWNESS IN
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO TEACH
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
This second part of the book includes fve chapters which try to bring new views
and insights on the pedagogical concepts and practices. Here the question is not
only how to teach students to design and start a new business (that is, the tradi-
10 International entrepreneurship education
tional approach in the feld), but increasingly the focus is on how to help students
to develop entrepreneurial behaviours and entrepreneurial attitudes throughout
innovative methods in the classroom or outside.
In a teaching community such as ours, the questions around pedagogy and
learning methods are of the frst importance. Following an overview of entre-
preneurship pedagogy (Chapter 6), the authors explore the pedagogical ways
of mentoring (Chapter 7), business planning (Chapter 8), skills demonstration
in a specifc context (Chapter 8) and new business opportunities (Chapter 9).
Chapter 6 (by Kyrö), ‘The continental and Anglo-American approaches to
entrepreneurship education differences and bridges’ is clearly centred on entre-
preneurship pedagogy and compares Europe and North America to highlight
some expectations for the future.
From the author’s point of view, the discussion between entrepreneurship and
education has become more evident since the end of the twentieth century due
to the increasing impact of entrepreneurship and small business phenomena on
countries. As entrepreneurship in a broad sense relates to a strong social demand,
it is obvious that the debate of how to learn entrepreneurship and how to develop
successful pedagogies is a priority both for practitioners and decision-makers.
So far the focus has changed from the innate perspective (entrepreneurs are
born, not made) to the current educative perspective (people are educated to
become entrepreneurs). This education-orientated focus has, however, generated
studies in entrepreneurship research rather than attracted researchers in educa-
tion sciences. The chapter suggests that this fact appears to be due to an apparent
shortage of pedagogical discussion. In order to encourage a scientifc debate as
an interplay between entrepreneurship and education, the research delineates
the basis for entrepreneurial pedagogy.
Chapter 7 (by Miettinen), ‘Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an educational
intervention’, is studying a very interesting notion, ‘mentoring’, which is very
close to ‘coaching’, the latter probably more often used in other countries (as
is the case, for instance, in France where the word ‘mentoring’ is replaced in
the literature and in practice by the word ‘coaching’). Mentoring and coaching
are relatively new concepts which have been insuffciently studied in the feld
of entrepreneurship.
In this chapter, a regionally based mentoring programme in Finland is ex-
plored at the end of its frst decade of running. The empirical part consists of
two surveys, one focusing on the experiences of the mentees (n = 57) and the
other on the experiences of the mentors (n = 20). The results are mostly positive
and encouraging: the mentees feel they have benefted from the programme and
the mentors have found it rewarding by providing learning opportunities for
them, too. In this research, mentoring activities are considered to be informal
training and education efforts that supplement more formal education and train-
ing for entrepreneurs. Mentoring activities are defned as an intervention
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 11
categorized broadly into feedback of data, agenda-setting interventions and
coaching or counselling individuals. The educational role of mentoring is further
discussed through the concepts of experience and refection.
Chapter 8 (by Gailly), ‘Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business
plans? An empirical evaluation of business plan competitions’ is focusing on a
well-known tool in the classroom and also in the entrepreneurship literature.
But the issues raised by the author have considerable implications both at the
pedagogical and the research levels. We have here a good example of how an
old question is seen through new lenses.
The aim of this chapter is to provide empirical evidence on the effciency (do
they help the right business?) and effectiveness (do they provide relevant sup-
port?) of business plan competitions, through the analysis of data from a
business plan competition organized annually since 2000 in four European
countries. In this work the author analyses the data from the evaluation, by ex-
ternal experts, of the business plans submitted to the business plan competition,
the evolution of those evaluations as the ventures receive support and the sub-
sequent outcome of those ventures, in particular whether they led to the creation
of actual businesses.
The conclusions are that the business plan competition approach to select
potential ventures based on their business plan only (excluding interviews of
the entrepreneur) appears relatively effcient, in the sense that this process helps
to select the right business. However the effectiveness of the expert support and
training provided to the entrepreneurs appears not to be effective, in the sense
that it does not signifcantly increase the probability of success of the venture.
On the other hand, anecdotal evidence gathered from participants indicate that
the business plan competition is very effective in providing support to the en-
trepreneur in terms of networking, in particular through contacts with other
prospective entrepreneurs and with the experts involved in the process.
Chapter 9 (by Mahlamäki-Kultanen) ‘Skill demonstrations: a possibility for
meaningful co-operation with work-life in the internationalizing vocational
education’ exposes an experience initiated by the Finnish government and based
on the implementation of national skills demonstrations in initial vocational
secondary-level education.
In this context, the chapter presents an example of theoretically and practi-
cally justifed assessment of the core processes of entrepreneurship in home
economics. It describes and analyses the development project of the national
skills demonstration material created for the vocational degree of entrepreneurs
in home economics.
The author analyses data from this experience and other similar experiences.
The results show us that there is an entrepreneurial cultural transformation going
on through this experimentation. The raising of entrepreneurial intention of
young vocational students is also a key outcome. Finally, it appears that effcient
12 International entrepreneurship education
practical skills and customer orientation are seen as the most important compe-
tences in initial entrepreneurial education.
Chapter 10 (by Kickul) ‘Pathways to new business opportunities: innovations
and strategies for the entrepreneurial classroom’ ends the second part of the
book, exposing new approaches and original thoughts about how entrepreneur-
ship could be taught.
The purpose of this chapter is therefore to highlight a new entrepreneurship
course that focuses on new opportunity initiation and creation. This course ex-
amines the critical factors involved in the conception, initiation and development
of new and existing business ventures. The author’s position is based on the
belief that entrepreneurship is more than a set of tools and techniques for starting
and growing a business: it is a mindset, a way of looking at things that is op-
portunity focused and creative. To a few examples, some of the topics covered
by this new course include: (1) identifying new ideas and opportunities; (2)
market potential analysis for products and/or services; and (3) initial fnancing
and organizing of the business opportunity.
We clearly fnd in this chapter ideas and suggestions to teach entrepreneurship
in the new paradigm. We are not only in the ‘how to start a business’ approach
but much more in the ‘how to develop enterprising qualities’ approach.
PART THREE: DIFFUSING AND PROMOTING
ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE AND DEVELOPING
ENTREPRENEURIAL POTENTIAL
The fnal part of the book includes fve chapters which deal with the broad
concept of culture. Entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial spirit and entre-
preneurial potential grow in a favourable culture and context. To highlight the
importance of culture at the national level, the chapters expose more or less
directly the cultural specifcities of a set of countries and continents, including
Africa, Argentina, Canada, France and Italy. This part gives us the opportunity
to learn from other cultures and, in so doing, to improve our understanding on
how an entrepreneurial culture could be created and developed. At the individual
level, useful insights show us some ways to make progress in our knowledge of
key notions such as entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial intention and entre-
preneurial potential.
Chapter 11 (by Verzat and Bachelet), ‘Developing an entrepreneurial spirit
among engineering college students: what are the educational factors?’ is cen-
tred on the concept of entrepreneurial spirit.
The purpose of the chapter is to further the exploration of this concept of en-
trepreneurial spirit, which, as a label, has been widely used, while poorly defned
in the relevant literature. The chapter also considers the way it builds up and in
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 13
which specifc aspects the various teaching activities may be infuential. One
important objective of the authors is therefore to design a model of the way in
which to build up an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students and
young engineers. This model is based on a double – psychological and socio-
logical – theoretical source, but also on the observations carried out by the
authors throughout their own experiences in a leading French engineering
school.
In their research work, Verzat and Bachelet are dealing with key questions
such as: (1) How may the entrepreneurial spirit be seen in relation to the inten-
tion of setting up a new business? (2) How can we analyse the emergence
process of an enterprising mind with engineering students, within their own
identity-building process? (3) What is the impact of the various awareness-rais-
ing/facilitating/training means on attitudes, beliefs and self-effcacy making up
the entrepreneurial spirit?
As we can see these key research questions are at the heart of the new para-
digm in entrepreneurship education.
Chapter 12 (by Postigo, Iacobucci and Tamborini), ‘Undergraduate students
as source of potential entrepreneurs: a comparative study between Italy and
Argentina’, uses an international comparison to increase knowledge about
some essential reasons and conditions which lead students to become
entrepreneurs.
There is a growing consensus that ‘information society’ education is one of
the key factors for the emergence of new frms and their development prospects.
In this context new ventures created by graduates are expected to play a critical
role, especially for the emergence of knowledge- and technology-based frms.
The main aim of this chapter is to analyse the infuence of different contexts
– developed (Italy) and developing (Argentina) countries – on: (1) the percep-
tions students hold about entrepreneurs; (2) the infuence of social background
on the motivation to become an entrepreneur; and (3) the perception about what
positive or negative factors affect the creation of new ventures.
The results of the study show overall there are more similarities than differ-
ences between Argentinean and Italian students in their perception of
entrepreneurship and in their attitude to starting up their own frm. However,
the social background of the students plays a major role. Although this can be
considered an exploratory and preliminary study, it offers interesting indications
for the design of entrepreneurship programmes orientated to university
students.
Chapter 13 (by Gasse and Tremblay), ‘Entrepreneurship among students at
a Canadian university: an extensive empirical study of students’ entrepreneurial
preferences and intentions’, offers a study carried out in North America and
designed around the concept of entrepreneurial potential. This concept, much
less developed in the entrepreneurship literature, appears to us to be of the frst
14 International entrepreneurship education
importance in relation to a good understanding of how the skills and abilities
to perform an entrepreneurial behaviour can be increased.
The study carried out at Laval University is helpful to determine the entre-
preneurial potential on the campus and, at the same time, provides us with a
better understanding of the students’ needs and expectations with regard to en-
trepreneurship. The students have been selected randomly from a complete list
of Laval University students. A total of 600 students have been interviewed.
The author attempts to see, through this research, how the students’ values,
attitudes and behaviour, that is, their entrepreneurial potential, could predispose
them to found a company, create their own job or have the intention to do so.
According to the data, approximately 3.2 per cent of the students are currently
involved in starting up a business. Moreover, it would seem that 32.5 per cent
of the students have already thought of starting up a business or one day being
self-employed. Among these, 43 per cent planned to do so more than fve years
after their studies, whereas 7.9 per cent intended to do so during their studies.
The research also aims at determining the role that Laval University should
play in supporting entrepreneurial students. Moreover, the results show that the
respondents prefer certain methods for teaching entrepreneurship. Furthermore,
the motivations behind wanting to start up a business are the desire to become
their own boss (30 per cent), followed by the wish to be self-suffcient and in-
dependent (14 per cent).
Chapter 14 (by Boissin, Castagnos and Deschamps), ‘Motivations and draw-
backs concerning entrepreneurial action: a study of French PhD students’, is
one more attempt to measure the entrepreneurial intention among students.
Clearly the research tries to explore the effect of entrepreneurship education on
students’ entrepreneurial intentions.
The study is based on an initial sample of 74 PhD students and aims at un-
derstanding their entrepreneurial intentions and their perceptions about
entrepreneurship. The authors analyse the data with statistical tools and try to
categorize the students depending on their perceived motivations and drawbacks
to starting a business.
Even though the research is in a preliminary stage, the results exposed in this
chapter are very encouraging and should lead us in designing longitudinal re-
search based on building up student databases aimed at following them inside
and just outside their curriculum.
The third part and the book itself end with Chapter 15 (by Cader and
Norman), ‘Entrepreneurial education for the African informal sector’. Africa is
well known for the economic role of the informal sector which provides particu-
larly would-be entrepreneurs with key advice and resources. Developed
countries could be inspired to obtain more knowledge about the rules and func-
tioning of this informal sector, and trying, transferring or adapting some of these
informal practices.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 15
In this chapter, the authors show us that the informal sector in Africa has a
potential for entrepreneurship education and training. Lack of focus on potential
entrepreneurs, such as adults with lower educational attainment, in the imple-
mentation of any entrepreneurial educational strategy could be a drawback.
Entrepreneurial activity can only be planned and organized by entrepreneurs
themselves. This chapter therefore proposes an alternative, and practical, edu-
cational and training methodology, in the context of the African informal sector.
In this specifc context, the authors offer an interesting view on how adults learn
from their peers and why practising teachers are the best masters. A strong
conclusion is that mentoring is one of the alternatives to promote entrepreneur-
ship among the rural adult and, at this level, local entrepreneurs play a critical
role as mentors.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this introductory chapter we have attempted to propose and discuss paradig-
matic changes in the feld of entrepreneurship education. These changes come
from the emergence of new objects and focus on both the research and educa-
tional levels, in relation to economic, politic and social needs. These movements
in the feld lead us to ask new questions and to use new pedagogical approaches.
We hope we have brought, with all the chapters briefy presented in this intro-
duction, a piece of useful knowledge aimed at opening our eyes and our minds
to this moving world and to the necessity of renewing the contents and the
methods used in our classrooms to teach entrepreneurship. We are conscious
that the step we have just taken in this book is a small one and that a lot more
research is required. More than ever, research in the feld of entrepreneurship
education has to be encouraged and facilitated. More than ever, research must
go on and should drive the activity of entrepreneurship teachers.
NOTES
1. The IntEnt (Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Training) conference. See also
the research work from Bechard and Gregoire (2005) which is proposing an interesting frame-
work for research in entrepreneurship education.
2. See for more details Stevenson and Sahlmann (1987).
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I. (1991), ‘The theory of planned behaviour’, Organizational Behavior and Hu-
man Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.
16 International entrepreneurship education
Bechard, J.P. and D. Gregoire (2005), ‘Entrepreneurship education research revisited:
the case of higher education’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4
(1), 22–43.
Bouchikhi, H. (2003), ‘Entrepreneurship professors and their constituencies: manifest
for a plural professional identity’, guest lecture at the 2003 IntEnt Conference, Gre-
noble, France.
Brenner, O.C., C.D. Pringle and J.H. Greenhaus (1991), ‘Perceived fulflment of organi-
zational employment versus entrepreneurship: work values and career intentions of
business college graduates’, Journal of Small Business Management, 29 (3), 62–74.
Brockhaus, R.H. (1993), ‘Entrepreneurship education: a research agenda’, in H. Klandt
and D. Müller-Böling (eds), Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Train-
ing, proceedings of the IntEnt92 Conference, Dortmund, 23–26 June, FGF-Verlag,
Köln-Dortmund, Germany.
Chia, R. (1996), ‘Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: university busi-
ness schools and the entrepreneurial imagination’, Journal of Management Studies,
33 (4), 40.
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat dans le système éducatif
supérieur: un regard sur la situation actuelle’, Revue Gestion 2000, no. 3, 77–95.
Fayolle, A. (2004), ‘“Entrepreneuriat”, de quoi parlons-nous?’, L’Expansion Manage-
ment Review, no. 114, 67–74.
Fayolle, A. (2005), ‘Evaluation of entrepreneurship education: behaviour performing or
intention increasing’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business,
2 (1), 89–98.
Fayolle, A. and B. Gailly (2004), ‘Using the theory of planned behaviour to assess en-
trepreneurship teaching programs: a frst experimentation’, paper presented at the
IntEnt 2004 Conference, Napoli, Italy, 4–7 July.
Fayolle, A. and P. Senicourt (2005), ‘Peut-on former des entrepreneurs?’, L’Expansion
Management Review, no. 116, 34–41.
Fayolle, A., B. Gailly, J. Kikul, N. Lassas-Clerc and L. Whitcanack (2005), ‘Capturing
variations in attitudes and intentions: a longitudinal study to assess the pedagogical
effectiveness of entrepreneurship teaching programs’, paper presented at the 50th
ICSB Conference, Washington, 15–18 June.
Fiet, J.O. (2001), ‘The pedagogical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16 (2), 101–17.
Fleming, P. (1994), ‘The role of structured interventions in shaping graduate entrepre-
neurship’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 15, 146–57.
Gibb, A.A. (2002), ‘In pursuit of a new enterprise and entrepreneurship paradigm for
learning: creative destruction, new values, new ways of doing things and new combi-
nations of knowledge’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 4 (3),
233–69.
Gibb, A.A. (2004a), ‘Creating conducive environments for learning and entrepreneur-
ship’, paper presented at the 14th Annual IntEnt Conference, University of Napoli
Federico II, 4–7 July.
Gibb, A.A. (2004b), ‘Creative destruction, new values of doing things and new combina-
tions of knowledge’, paper presented at the 14th Annual IntEnt Conference, University
of Napoli Federico II, 4–7 July.
Hart, M. and R. Harrison (1992), ‘Encouraging enterprise in Northern Ireland: constraints
and opportunities’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 13, 104–16.
Hytti, U. and P. Kuopusjärvi (2004), ‘Evaluating and measuring entrepreneurship and
enterprise education: methods, tools and practices’, www.entreva.net.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 17
Kirby, D. (forthcoming), ‘Changing the entrepreneurship education paradigm’, in A.
Fayolle (ed.), Handbook of Research in Entrepreneurship Education, Cheltenham,
UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
Klandt, H. (2004), ‘Entrepreneurship education and research in German-speaking Eu-
rope’, Academy of Management, Learning and Education, 3 (3), 293–301.
Kolvereid, L. (1996), ‘Prediction of employment status choice intentions’, Entrepreneur-
ship Theory and Practice, 20 (3), 47–57.
Lumpkin, G.T. and G.G. Dess (1996), ‘Clarifying the entrepreneurial orientation con-
struct and linking it to performance’, Academy of Management Review, 21 (1),
135–72.
Stevenson, H.H. and W. Sahlmann (1987), ‘Entrepreneurship: a process not a person’,
working paper, Harvard Business School.
Vesper, K.H., and W.E. McMullen (1988), ‘Entrepreneurship: today courses, tomorrow
degrees?’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 13 (1), 7–13.
PART ONE
Key Issues in Entrepreneurship Education
21
2. Learning and teaching
entrepreneurship: dilemmas,
refections and strategies
Per Blenker, Poul Dreisler, Helle M. Færgeman
and John Kjeldsen
1
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ASSUMPTIONS
Over the past few decades, there has been some discussion about whether or
not – and, if positive, to what extent – certain people are born as entrepreneurs.
Thus, from birth entrepreneurs seem to have competencies and skills that cannot
be taught. We shall not enter this discussion, but rely on the general assumption
that at least some personal characteristics, competencies and skills can be nur-
tured and trained in the entrepreneur’s interplay with the environment, including
the interplay with the educational system.
Our basic assumption is thus that entrepreneurship or enterprising behaviour
can be learned and that, as such, it should be taught. Entrepreneurship education,
however, requires thorough refection on the connection between action and
theory and between learning and doing. This is primarily because of the multi-
faceted nature of the entrepreneurial phenomenon, which makes it diffcult to
encompass and thus to teach and learn.
Based on this assumption we further assume that the public sector, including
the educational system and the universities, should refect how it could contrib-
ute to the stimulation of an enterprising mindset among students. The number
of academic institutions teaching entrepreneurship seems to be increasing (Jack
and Anderson, 1999; Katz, 2003).
One problem is that traditional forms of teaching at universities and business
schools have shown themselves quite inappropriate with respect to enhancement
of motivation and competencies among students towards innovation and entre-
preneurship. This phenomenon is dealt with increasingly in the literature (Gibb,
2002; Swedberg, 2000; the proceedings of IntEnt conferences), leading to spe-
cial issues of journals (for example, special issue of Academy of Management,
Learning and Education, 3 (3), in 2004, focusing on entrepreneurship educa-
tion), annual workshops on entrepreneurship teaching (IntEnt and ESPRI) and
22 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
even an academic journal (International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education)
dedicated solely to the study of this phenomenon.
Research on teaching entrepreneurship is thus perhaps no longer sparse, but
there is still a lack of generally accepted approaches and paradigms. Instead,
there seems to be a large variation in teaching approaches. In this chapter, we
attempt to demonstrate that this area holds a number of dilemmas and that the
large variety of approaches can be related to the question of how teachers try to
overcome these dilemmas.
Figure 2.1 shows the structure of the chapter. First a number of dilemmas
observed in entrepreneurship programmes are shown. These dilemmas are
condensed into three fundamental dimensions that should be refected in actors
involved in entrepreneurship education. Based on these refections, it is argued
that universities wishing to develop entrepreneurial education should decide on
three groups of strategic questions.
SOME DILEMMAS OF TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The discussion on how to teach and learn entrepreneurship holds several dilem-
mas. Through examining the literature on teaching and training entrepreneurship
and the literature on entrepreneurial learning, we have identifed fve fundamen-
tal dilemmas expressed in a larger number of texts:
l Whether teaching should be for entrepreneurship or about entrepreneur-
ship.
3 groups of strategic
questions
l University role in its
context and
institutional norms.
l The portfolio of
courses and the target
group for
entrepreneurial
education.
l The purpose of
teaching and the
learning process of
each entrepreneurial
course.
Figure 2.1 The structure of the chapter
5 dilemmas in
entrepreneurship
education:
l For or about
entrepreneurship?
l Management or
entrepreneurship
theory?
l At the university
or elsewhere?
l Individually or
collectively?
l Art or science?
3 key dimensions of
refection:
l Ivory tower or
entrepreneurial
university?
l Learning or
teaching?
l Entrepreneurship
or enterprising
behaviour?
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 23
l The foundation of teaching – whether it should be based on management
theories or on some not-as-yet-defned theory of entrepreneurship and
intrapreneurship.
l The situating of the education – should it be placed within the secure
context of the university auditorium or in small frms, or somewhere in
between academia and practice.
l Whether students should work individually (the heroic Schumpeterian
entrepreneur) or collectively (the entrepreneurial network entrepre-
neur).
l How the substance of what is taught is formulated – whether entrepreneur-
ship is conceptualized as an art or a science.
As we shall see at the end of the chapter, most of these dilemmas concern the
way the university relates to its context, the relationship between learning and
teaching entrepreneurship as well as the question of whether we seek enterpris-
ing behaviour or entrepreneurship.
For or About Entrepreneurship
There are several reasons why students might want to study entrepreneurship
(Jack and Anderson, 1999); they may want to start up a business of their own,
but they may also be interested in acquiring and developing general knowledge
about entrepreneurship based on an intellectual ambition.
The decision about whether to teach for entrepreneurship or about entrepre-
neurship is closely related to the question of whether education seeks to improve
the student’s ability to perform entrepreneurial action as a practical activity, on
the one hand, or to learn about entrepreneurship as an academic subject, on the
other (Gibb, 2002; Laukkanen, 1998).
Teaching for entrepreneurship is often centred on improving the student’s
ability to write a business plan. Students are taught to see the formulation of
their potential business idea as sequential by going through a number of phases
such as problem recognition (including problem description, information gather-
ing and problem analysis), formulation and evaluation of alternatives as well as
implementation. In the business plan courses, the students thus describe and
defne their business, describe their management team and frm structure, de-
scribe the market, decide on a marketing plan and a business system, and choose
how to implement their business idea with respect to fnance, risks and cash
fow.
To gain insight into the different elements of the business plan, entrepreneur-
ship education seeking to improve the student’s ability to perform entrepreneurial
action often involves a number of functional specialization courses. Similar to
traditional management education, courses on marketing, organization, fnance
24 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
and accounting are given. These courses usually differ from the traditional func-
tional specialization courses only in the way that they are taught ‘with a twist’ of
entrepreneurship.
When the aim of entrepreneurship education is primarily to increase the stu-
dent’s general knowledge about entrepreneurship, courses on the history of
entrepreneurship theory dominate. Students are introduced to the classics of
entrepreneurship theory. These courses typically have three key elements. One
is about Schumpeter (1934), Kirzner (1973) and other pioneers of Austrian
economics focusing on creative destruction and on the entrepreneur as the crea-
tor of societal innovation. Another element of these courses, with a more
psychological and sociological focus, is the personal traits approach. Students
are introduced to Weber (1905 [2001]) and the spirit of capitalism, and to Mc-
Clelland’s (1961) theories of the entrepreneur as an individual with a strong
need for achievement and high internal beliefs of control. Finally, these courses
introduce the students to more contemporary theories of entrepreneurship, for
example, theories focusing on the relationship between the entrepreneur and
situations that hold opportunities, in order to identify how the entrepreneur
identifes or creates opportunities (Eckhardt and Shane, 2003; Shane and Venka-
taraman, 2000)
The distinction between courses for and about entrepreneurship outlined
above is, of course, simplistic. Improving the ability to act entrepreneurially
will support the academic competencies of entrepreneurship, and knowledge
about entrepreneurship will improve practical competencies, but there is little
doubt that some programmes stress practical application while others seek a
more conceptual development (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994).
Management or Entrepreneurship Theories
Generally there is a lack of clear defnitions of the concept of entrepreneurship,
leading to the lack of a clear boundary for the academic feld of entrepreneur-
ship. Jack and Anderson (1999) indicated that the term covers different felds,
ranging from small business operations via new venture creation to a broader
meaning of general innovation and individualism.
Whether or not teaching is for or about entrepreneurship, some sort of theo-
retical foundation is needed. A key question, therefore, is, which theories to
build upon? Entrepreneurship theories can be seen as a means of helping po-
tential entrepreneurs to understand the future and the consequences of their
actions. Drawn to its extreme, this line of thinking may even see theory as a
way of providing the ‘ought’ in entrepreneurial action (Fiet, 2000; Gibb, 2002).
Such an approach, however, tends to create too much generalization and too
little contextualization (Laukkanen, 1998). As indicated in the paragraph above
on the dilemma of ‘for or about’, entrepreneurship education seems to build on
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 25
two different kinds of intellectual heritage: the institutional heritage from busi-
ness schools and the theoretical heritage from entrepreneurship theory. At the
business schools, entrepreneurship courses are usually taught by teachers who
are primarily educated in economics and management. This leads to a very
strong emphasis on management theories as the fundamental theoretical back-
ground in entrepreneurship education.
When performing entrepreneurship, fundamental business knowledge and
skills are required. Fundamental entrepreneurial problems such as how to dis-
cover opportunities, how to evaluate the attractiveness of industries, how to
marshal resources and how to create a competitive advantage may be explained
by more general economics and management theories such as network theory,
consumer behaviour theory, industrial organization theory, game theory, agency
theory, transactions cost theory or resource-based theory (Fiet, 2000).
Thus, teaching entrepreneurship often seems to group together a large number
of areas and topics from traditional management education (Fiet, 2000), but often
without a thorough conceptual foundation relating it to entrepreneurship.
The strong theoretical heritage from entrepreneurship theory is another infu-
ence. The theories of entrepreneurship are, however, primarily descriptive. A
problem of using entrepreneurship theory in entrepreneurship education is thus
that it has little to say with respect to the question of teaching ‘for’
entrepreneurship.
As argued by Jack and Anderson (1999), each entrepreneurial event is unique
and idiosyncratic, and the entrepreneurial process is a result of complex and
contingent variables. The essence of the entrepreneur lies in his or her ability
to go beyond the diffculties that others have had in foreseeing the opportunity.
This involves uniqueness, sensitivity and ability to cope with the unknowable
in the sense that no formal correct procedure exists for decisions. Instead, en-
trepreneurial actions seem explicitly to involve an anti-positivistic, subjective
and judgemental approach to problems based on personal knowledge.
These problems could lead to the development of a more action-orientated
theory as inspired by Austrian economics (Jakobsen, 1992). However, little has
been achieved so far in the attempt to explicitly combine such an approach with
more formal entrepreneurship education.
University – Small Firms or Elsewhere
Factual knowledge and skills can be taught in the classroom, but the entrepre-
neurial event is also dependent on individual and contextual knowledge. This
sort of knowledge primarily stems from personal experience.
The lack of entrepreneurial experience among university staff, combined with
the general lack of entrepreneurial experience among students (Jack and An-
derson, 1999), tends to produce classroom situations which focus heavily on
26 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
what the participants feel comfortable with: theory, either normative manage-
ment theory adjusted to give advice for entrepreneurship and small business, or
descriptive entrepreneurship theory explaining societal innovation by the emer-
gence of entrepreneurs and their personal traits.
Since it would probably be quite diffcult to change both the population of
teachers and the population of students, the experience aspect has to be brought
in from elsewhere. One way is in the form of guest lecturers from the ‘real world’,
serving as the case study input which conventional pedagogy is familiar with.
These kinds of case stories, however, do not transcend the traditional pedagogy.
Still, enterprising behaviour cannot be created in a contextual vacuum. To
enhance this behaviour, universities have to open doors – both within the uni-
versity to create networks between faculties and departments and to the outside
in order to create networks with industry and government in the environment.
This is not an easy task. Institutional norms, incitement systems and general
prejudices hinder fruitful experiments on these matters.
Individually or Collectively
Most approaches to entrepreneurial education adopt an individually centred
approach. This individualism can be expressed in two ways: the entrepreneur-
ship content and the educational context (Laukkanen, 1998: 2–3).
The entrepreneurship content focuses on the individual. An example is the
heroic entrepreneur, who (as an alert individual) identifes opportunities and
marshals resources in order to start his own frm. It is rarely recognized that this
economic process is also an organization of social processes (Johannisson and
Lundberg, 2002) where the actions of other people are infuenced and
co-ordinated.
In a similar way, the educational context focuses on the individual. Conven-
tional university teaching is dominated by the idea of transferring knowledge
from one individual to another. One could thus argue that the pedagogical con-
text does little to improve the student’s ability to organize the social processes,
which a large part of entrepreneurial action is about.
Alternative learning processes may, however, take place in groups or com-
munities which do not have learning, but some sort of enterprising behaviour
as its primary goal. Teamwork among students or collaboration with other
members of the community with different experiences has the potential for
creating entrepreneurial behaviour among students.
Art or Science
Within the university context, we tend to think of entrepreneurship as a theoreti-
cal discipline. A central problem is, however, that we cannot theoretically
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 27
replicate the experiences of successful entrepreneurs (Jack and Anderson,
1999).
Some of the keywords related to entrepreneurship seem to be ‘experimenta-
tion’, ‘novelty’, ‘innovation’, ‘creativity’, ‘fexibility’, ‘uniqueness’, ‘autonomy’,
‘self-direction’ and ‘self-expression’ (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994; Jack and
Anderson, 1999). These words are often associated with artists. From this point
of view entrepreneurship may also be characterized as an economic art form,
where the entrepreneur creates something that did not exist before (Jack and
Anderson; 1999).
On the one hand, entrepreneurship can thus be seen as an art form because it
is ‘generative proactive’ and not just a ‘passive, descriptive and contemplative’
theoretical discipline trying to describe and analyse entrepreneurial situations
(Cockx et al., 2000). The art of entrepreneurship can be understood as an ability
or mastery that may be based on profound theoretical knowledge, but where the
essence of the art form is the person’s ‘ability to apply it creatively and with ini-
tiative in practice’ (Cockx et al., 2000: 22).
From this point of view the person him or herself must generate the skills of
thinking entrepreneurially, probably through personal learning processes. This
is quite different from more theoretical approaches trying to analyse the entre-
preneurial situation. It is probably easier to train someone on the basis of
‘situation centred’ skills than to train them on the basis of ‘personal centred’
skills (Cockx et al., 2000).
REFLECTIONS ON REPHRASING THE DILEMMAS
So far a number of dilemmas involved in teaching and training people in entre-
preneurship have been juxtaposed. The central question of this chapter has been,
how can entrepreneurship be learned and how can it be taught?
In an attempt to answer this question, we recognize that it is impossible to
reconcile these different demands when dealing with the dilemmas mentioned
above. It is not possible to choose between the questions since they involve deci-
sions at many different levels of education planning. The challenge is thus not
to choose one or the other position of the dilemma, but to transcend the dilem-
mas by rephrasing them.
In order to design the university’s entrepreneurial strategy, the mix of entre-
preneurship-related courses and the single entrepreneurship course, the involved
teachers and university management should refect on these dilemmas in order
to fnd out how they in particular will seek to overcome them.
In order to transcend the dilemmas, we refect on three broader strands of
discourse that have emerged within the entrepreneurship literature during the
past decade.
28 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
The frst is inspired by the more general debate on the learning organization
and organizational learning that has established itself as a dominant theme of
the 1990s. It has roots in the search for individual self-development within a
continuously self-transforming organization, based on both individual and or-
ganizational development. This personal and organizational self-renewal of the
learning organization is seen as the key to unlocking a source of competitive
advantage, hereby re-creating the world.
The second is inspired by the discussions on entrepreneurship or enterprising
behaviour and relates to the question of to what kind of behaviour education
seeks to promote.
A third discourse concerns a more general transformation of the university
system. Under the headings of ‘The entrepreneurial university’ and ‘Triple helix’
new relationships between the university and its context have been discussed.
Learning or Teaching
The disagreement as to whether someone can be educated to be an entrepreneur
seems to be strongly related to the question of learning and teaching. Garavan
and O’Cinneide (1994) argue that there is agreement that one can teach entre-
preneurship, while Jonsson and Jonsson (2002) argue that the belief that one
can educate someone to be an entrepreneur is wrong; entrepreneurship is not a
cognitive issue, but something else.
Traditionally universities have focused on teaching students what the univer-
sity fnds necessary. If entrepreneurship has been part of the study programme,
it has usually been rather isolated and part of separate courses. A broader focus
on both learning and enterprising behaviour is, however, necessary if the ambi-
tion is to improve alertness and encourage the ability to deal with opportunities
among students, teachers and central actors in the university environment.
The traditional university has been distributing knowledge based on a teach-
ing approach. For the entrepreneurial university, the ambition is to integrate
knowledge of opportunities in a continuous learning process in order to create
refexive action. This calls for experiments in relation to the pedagogical ap-
proach with respect to both courses as well as other study activities at the
university and in the university environment. While teaching focuses on knowl-
edge transfer, it focuses less on the personal development of the student.
The words ‘learning’ and ‘teaching’ were previously used to describe the role
of the student and the teacher, respectively, but as many new learning theories
emerge it is clearly not this simple anymore.
‘Learning’ is connected to approaches according to which the student or
learner is invited to become an active and equal partner in the learning process.
Theoretically it is related to constructivist, experiential, existential and socially
orientated theories. Practically and methodically learning is associated with
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 29
phrases like ‘taking responsibility for one’s own learning’ and ‘learning to
learn’. This approach also offers a more holistic view of education: the focus is
not entirely on cognitive development, but affective and connotative purposes
are also taken into consideration.
The word ‘teaching’ is still closely connected with what the teacher is doing
because students – or perhaps better, ‘pupils’ – are seen as relatively passive
receivers of knowledge and skills in this approach. This is why related pedagogi-
cal theories and strategies concentrate on fnding the best ways for teachers to
present the content so that the pupils can easily digest and afterwards – if rele-
vant – practise it. Generally speaking, the approach could be labelled
instructionism and consists primarily of cognitive and behavioural pedagogical
theories.
When we see enterprising behaviour as a prerequisite for entrepreneurship,
we need primarily to adopt a learning approach. The main reason for this is that
we relate entrepreneurial behaviour to some personal characteristics. These
characteristics are not very likely to be infuenced by teaching, which is often
exemplifed by lectures and so on, unless manipulation is perceived as a special
kind of teaching.
However, entrepreneurship itself may be seen as a learning process, or at least
learning is closely related to entrepreneurship. Most theories of entrepreneurship
are built on the idea that the entrepreneur only holds his or her title as an entre-
preneur as long as he or she performs the renewal function of opportunity
identifcation. Thus, an entrepreneur could also be defned as a person that keeps
learning in order to identify new opportunities.
Entrepreneurship or Enterprising Behaviour
In the literature there is some confusion over what kind of behaviour should be
taught, related to even more confusion over the concepts of small business, en-
trepreneurship and enterprising behaviour. If these concepts are not well defned,
there can be little agreement about the appropriate content and the pedagogical
processes of education programmes directed towards these areas (Gibb,
2002).
Small business education is thus understood as providing management tools
for small business owners who may not be innovative, but often suffer from the
lack of a number of traditional management resources. Teaching small business
management is probably to a large extent possible within a conventional peda-
gogic paradigm (Jack and Anderson, 1999).
Entrepreneurship is traditionally associated with a particular form of business
activity, the creation of a frm. Entrepreneurship education is therefore directed
towards stimulating entrepreneurship in the form of new venture creation, and
the focus is on business renewal in an economic sense.
30 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Contrary to these concepts, enterprising behaviour is a broader concept and
the educational effort is directed towards developing self-reliant and enterprising
people (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994). Enterprising behaviour thus seems to
involve a more creative and dynamic approach to problem-solving compared
with the more ‘mundane’ (Gibb, 2002: 238) versions related to small business
management.
Next we shall focus primarily on enterprising behaviour, which we see as
distinct from the two other concepts. Enterprising behaviour is a broader con-
cept, which has been given a number of defnitions, but generally seems to relate
to personal characteristics such as willingness to change, fexibility, creativity,
and so on. Enterprising behaviour may take place in other contexts than the
economic world and may take other forms than the entrepreneurial creation of
a frm. As argued by Gibb (2002), complexity and uncertainty necessitating an
entrepreneurial response affect all people in many different aspects of life, not
just when they are involved in creating a business.
From this point of view, enterprising behaviour resembles what Spinosa et
al. (1997) have called the ability to ‘disclose new worlds’ and may best be un-
derstood as a prerequisite for entrepreneurship. This prerequisite may be
described as an ability to see the anomalies of everyday life and use them as a
foundation for understanding the world and changing it. In this way, frms are
created, societies changed and history made (Spinosa et al., 1997).
Ivory Tower or Entrepreneurial University
Other problems seem to relate to the role of the university. Traditionally the
university is involved in studying entrepreneurship and subsequently in teaching
it. In both cases entrepreneurship takes place in another system, decoupled from
the university system.
A more radical viewpoint could be that the responsibility for entrepreneurial
performance is part of university obligations, and the responsibility for teaching
entrepreneurs cannot be left entirely to the educational world (Garavan and
O’Cinneide, 1994).
Recent approaches such as triple helix (Matlay and Mitra, 2002) or the en-
trepreneurial university (Etzkowitz et al., 2000; Nelson, 2001) argue for a more
complicated view, where the university is seen as a societal subsystem in which
education takes place through enterprise. Johannisson and Lundberg (2002)
even speak of the university context as the innovative context. The concepts of
triple helix and the entrepreneurial university are used to express the university’s
relation to its environment, as part of an innovation system or as a regional or
national growth generator.
Another understanding of the ‘modern university’ seems to emerge. In this
alternative understanding, the modern university is to be understood as a social
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 31
system that itself becomes entrepreneurial as its members of faculty, students
and employees turn themselves somehow into entrepreneurs. By their interaction
with the environment, the coupling between university and region follows en-
trepreneurial patterns (Clark, 1998; Röpke, 1998).
REFLECTIONS ON UNIVERSITY STRATEGIES
Above we have discussed some of the dilemmas observed in the entrepreneur-
ship education community. These dilemmas are real in the sense that no single
formula for learning enterprising behaviour can be prescribed. But, as shown
above, the dilemmas might best be dealt with by rephrasing the old dilemmas
into new ones. We have suggested the juxtaposition of learning or teaching and
entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial behaviour as more fruitful reformulations
of the key problems of establishing education within this area.
Some parts of the dilemmas question the overall strategy of the university,
others question the mix or curriculum of entrepreneurship courses, while other
questions relate to the design of a single entrepreneurship course.
From a more pragmatic and strategic point of view, it may thus be argued that
teaching entrepreneurship or stimulating enterprising behaviour at universities
involves institutional questions about the norms of the university and how the
university relates to its context. It involves different groups of students, who
have several different needs, and it seems that these needs can be met by a vari-
ety of pedagogical approaches.
Figure 2.2 organizes these questions and relates them to the old dilemmas.
Figure 2.2 can thus be understood as a scheme for refection on goals and ap-
proaches for people and organizations working with entrepreneurship education
and training.
For
or
about
Management or
entrepreneurship
theory
Art
or
science
University
or
elsewhere
Individually
or
collectively
Learning or
teaching
Pedagogical decisions on both the
general portfolio of entrepreneurial
courses and each entrepreneurial
course
Institutional and
contextual decisions on
university norms,
structures and external
relationships
Entrepreneurship
or enterprising
behaviour
Didactical decisions on both the
general portfolio of entrepreneurial
courses and each entrepreneurial
course
Figure 2.2 The central strategic decisions of entrepreneurship education
32 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
A similar point is made by Gibb (2002), who argues for a better segmentation
of clients and needs, and by Laukannen (1998), who argues that there is a lack
of explicit goals in terms of learning targets, system objectives, priorities and
sequences of education.
The conceptual framework for refections on teaching entrepreneurship, il-
lustrated in Figure 2.1, should enable us to refect on how we plan courses for
potential entrepreneurs. The courses should help students to cope better with
the practical problems of starting a business. But our conceptual framework
should also make us refect on how other courses can assist the learning proc-
esses of people who more generally want to develop their ability to act, create
and enjoy the uncertainty and complexity of life when it is best (Gibb, 2002;
Spinosa et al., 1997).
Following these more general refections, institutions of entrepreneurial edu-
cation should probably undergo more detailed analysis. For this purpose, we
shall propose three levels of analysis:
l The university itself, its identity, strategy, academic norms and structures
– we see this as a contextual question of how a university pursues its en-
trepreneurial activities with respect to the environment. For each
university, this is a question of commitment to an entrepreneurial strategy.
It must refect on its identity, strategy, academic norms and structures in
the sense that the university must decide on the general strategy to pursue
with respect to target groups and purpose of entrepreneurship teaching.
This involves questions of how its entrepreneurial activities relate to its
environment.
l The teaching or learning processes used in various forms of entrepreneur-
ship education – we see this as a question of identifying the right course
content and pedagogical approach with respect to the portfolio of courses
or other study activities belonging to the university’s entrepreneurship
study programme.
l The target group and the purpose of teaching infuence the content and
form of each entrepreneurial education element – we see this as a question
of deciding on central didactic and pedagogical questions for each entre-
preneurship course offered at a university.
There is an interdependence between these three elements. All three are equally
important, and changes in one element must be balanced by changes in the other
two. By refecting on these questions, teachers and university management may
be able to transcend the traditional ways of asking questions about how to teach
entrepreneurship.
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 33
CONCLUSION
The world of entrepreneurial education is flled with dilemmas; not primarily
theoretical dilemmas, but very real dilemmas facing everyone involved in entre-
preneurship teaching or in developing entrepreneurship oriented universities.
Some questions are didactical. The entrepreneurship theory resolving the di-
lemmas of ‘for or about’ or ‘art or science’ is still to be formed, and the theories
borrowed from management may do more harm than good.
Other questions are pedagogical. The entrepreneurial learning concept show-
ing new roles, processes and structures of entrepreneurial education is still to
be developed.
Further, institutional problems are to be solved. The entrepreneurial university
that may bridge the university and its context as well as resolve the individual
and collective dilemma is also still to be invented.
In the mean time, we will have to deal pragmatically with setting entrepre-
neurial university strategies, developing innovative curricula and teaching
various forms of entrepreneurship courses. To do so, we need frameworks for
organization of our refections on these themes. In this chapter, a framework for
integrating the three groups of strategic questions in entrepreneurship education
has been established.
NOTE
1. The authors would like to thank the Danish Agency for Trade and Industry for fnancial support
and an anonymous referee for a number of constructive comments.
REFERENCES
Clark, Burton R. (1998), Creating Entrepreneurial Universities – Organizational Path-
ways of Transformation, Oxford: Elsevier Science.
Cockx, Raphael, Sven De Vocht, Jan Heylen and Tom Van Bockstaele (2000), Encourag-
ing Entrepreneurship in Europe: A Comparative Study Focused on Education,
Antwerpen: UFSIA – University of Antwerp.
Eckhardt, J. and S. Shane (2003), ‘Opportunities and entrepreneurship’, Journal of
Management, 29 (3), 333–49.
Etzkowitz, Henry, Andrew Webster, Christiane Gebhardt, Branca Regina and Cantisano
Terra (2000), ‘The future of the university and the university of the future: evolution
of ivory tower to entrepreneurial paradigm’, Research Policy, 29, 313–30.
Fiet, J.O. (2000), ‘The theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Business
Venturing, 16, 1–24.
Garavan, T.N. and B. O’Cinneide (1994), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training
programmes: a review and evaluation – part 1’, Journal of European Industrial Train-
ing, 18 (8), 3–12.
34 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Gibb, A. (2002), ‘In pursuit of a new “enterprise” and “entrepreneurship” paradigm for
learning: creative deconstruction, new values, new ways of doing things and new
combinations of knowledge’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 4 (3),
213–31.
Jack, S.L. and A.R. Anderson (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship education within the enterprise
culture’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, 5 (3),
110.
Jakobsen, R. (1992), ‘The “Austrian” School of Strategy’, Academy of Management
Review, 17 (4), 782–807.
Johannisson, Bengt and Hans Lundberg (2002), Entrepreneurship as Breaking and Mak-
ing Sense – Learning Beyond Boundaries, RENT XVI – Research in Entrepreneurship
and Small Business, Barcelona, Spain.
Jonsson, C. and T. Jonsson (2002), ‘Entrepreneurial learning: an informed way of learn-
ing – the case of enterprising and business development’, working paper, Växjö
University.
Katz, Jerome A. (2003), ‘The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American entre-
preneurship education 1876–1999’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18 (2), 283–300.
Kirzner, Israel (1973), Competition and Entrepreneurship, Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.
Laukkanen, Mauri (1998), ‘Exploring alternative approaches in high-level entrepreneur-
ship education’, paper presented at the 10th Nordic Conference on Small Business
Research, 14–16 June, Wäxjö.
Matlay, Harry and Jay Mitra (2002), ‘Entrepreneurship and learning: the double act in
the triple helix’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 3 (1),
7–16.
McClelland, David C. (1961), The Achieving Society, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Nelson, Lita (2001), ‘The entrepreneurial university’, in Albert H. Teich, Stephen D.
Nelson, Ceilia McEnaney and Stephen J. Lita (eds), AAAS Science and Technology
Policy Yearbook 2001, Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement
of Science, pp. 279–85.
Röpke, Jochen (1998), The Entrepreneurial University – Innovation, Academic Knowl-
edge Creation and Regional Development in Globalized Economy, Marburg:
Phillips-Universität.
Schumpeter Joseph A. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development, Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Shane, Scott and Sankaran Venkataraman (2000), ‘The promise of entrepreneurship as
a feld of research’, Academy of Management Review, 25, 217–26.
Spinosa, C., F. Flores and H.L. Dreyfus (1997), Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneur-
ship, Democratic Action and the Cultivation of Solidarity, Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Swedberg, Richard (2000), ‘The social science view of entrepreneurship: introduction
and practical applications’, in Richard Swedberg (ed.), Entrepreneurship, the Social
Science View, Oxford Management Readers, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
pp. 7–44.
Weber, Max (1905), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 2001 edn, London:
Routledge Classics.
35
3. Entrepreneurship education: can
business schools meet the challenge?
David A. Kirby
INTRODUCTION
According to Brockhaus (2001: xiv) ‘one of the frst courses [in entrepreneur-
ship or small business] was offered at the Harvard Business School in 1947.
Peter Drucker taught another early course at New York University in 1953’.
However, it was only in the last two decades of the twentieth century that any
considerable attention was paid by academia to the role of higher education in
the creation of graduate entrepreneurs (Hills, 1986; Scott and Twomey, 1988).
With the publication of Birch’s (1979) fndings on the role of new small busi-
nesses in the creation of employment opportunities in the USA, and the advent
of governments in America and Great Britain that focused on reducing the level
of state intervention and increasing individual responsibility, governments
around the world became interested in the creation of cultures that would pro-
mote enterprise and create new ventures. Subsequently, education systems have
been charged, in varying degrees, with bringing this about. Nowhere has this
been demonstrated more clearly than in the UK. In 1997, the National Commit-
tee of Inquiry into Higher Education (1997: 201) recommended universities to
‘consider the scope for encouraging entrepreneurship through innovative ap-
proaches to programme design’, and by 2000 business and entrepreneurial
development had been listed as one of four strategic goals for British universities
(Universities UK, 2000).
Despite such external infuences, there has been considerable debate within
the academic community over whether universities in general and business
schools in particular can or should contribute. To some, entrepreneurs are born
not bred, while to others: ‘to teach individuals to become not only more enter-
prising but businessmen as well … is an undertaking that in both time and scope
is beyond the capabilities of an academic business school’ (Johannisson, 1991:
79).
Interestingly, a UK survey by the Small Business Research Trust (1988) in-
dicated that only 13 per cent of the survey sample believed that entrepreneurial
skills could not be acquired by a process of learning. Hence, this chapter argues
36 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
that universities and business schools can develop entrepreneurs but that, as
Chia (1996: 410–11) has suggested: ‘a radical change in intellectual and edu-
cational priorities is needed’. In so doing, the chapter frst addresses what is
meant by the term ‘entrepreneur’, before going on to consider why entrepreneurs
are so important to society and how entrepreneurs (or intrapreneurs as they are
known in large organizations) can be developed. The premise is that once it is
known what is needed, and why, it should be possible to determine how it can
be produced!
ENTREPRENEURIAL ATTRIBUTES
Often, the term ‘entrepreneur’ is equated with small business (Gibb, 1996) and
the concepts of owner-management and self-employment. However, this is to
oversimplify the concept. The term is much broader than these concepts would
suggest. Not all owner-managers are entrepreneurs, nor are all small businesses
entrepreneurial, and not all large businesses are unenterprising.
Unfortunately, though, there remains no agreed defnition of what consti-
tutes an entrepreneur. Writing in 1986, Brockhaus and Howitz recognized
that: ‘the literature appears to support the argument that there is no generic
defnition of the entrepreneur’. Subsequently Chell et al. (1991: 1) have sug-
gested that: ‘the problem of identifcation of an entrepreneur has been
confounded by the fact that there is still no standard, universally accepted
defnition of entrepreneurship’.
While there remains no uniform standardized defnition, one is needed and
for this it is necessary to go back to the origins of the term, which stems from
the French verb, entreprendre – to undertake. Thus, the entrepreneur is an un-
dertaker – someone who undertakes to make things happen, and does. As a
consequence, he or she disturbs the status quo and may thus be regarded as a
change agent. In such a capacity, he or she does not just work for him or herself
in a small frm but may be employed in a large organization. Frequently such
organizations are in the private sector but, increasingly, in the public and vol-
untary sectors, also (Kirby et al., 1991). Hence it is possible to agree with
Timmons (1989: 1) that: ‘Entrepreneurship is the ability to create and build
something from practically nothing. It is initiating, doing, achieving, and build-
ing an enterprise or organization, rather than just watching, analysing or
describing one. It is the knack for sensing an opportunity where others see chaos,
contradiction and confusion.’
It would seem, then, that although it may not be possible to defne, precisely,
what an entrepreneur is, it is possible to identify one. Indeed, if the argument
of Lessem (1986) is adopted, in all probability there is no such thing as an ar-
chetypal entrepreneur – no single individual who displays, in equal degree, the
Can business schools meet the challenge? 37
Table 3.1 Entrepreneurship type, personality and attributes
Entrepreneurship Personality
type type Attributes
Innovator Imagination Originality, inspiration, love,
transformation
New designer/ enabler Intuition Evolution, development, symbiosis,
connection
Leader Authority Direction, responsibility, structure,
control
New entrepreneur Will Achievement, opportunity, risk-
taking, power
Animateur Sociability Informality, shared values, community,
culture
Adventurer Energy Movement, work, health, activity
Source: after Lessem (1986).
full range of entrepreneurial attributes. Rather, it is more likely that there are
different types of entrepreneur, each with a different personality type and set of
attributes and behaviours (Table 3.1).
The work of Lessem is important but all too frequently ignored in the litera-
ture. It is important for several reasons. First, it reasserts that entrepreneurs can
be found in large as well as small frms, second it moves away from the over-
simplistic notion of a single entrepreneurial type and, thirdly, it focuses attention
on the attributes of the entrepreneur – very different attributes from those tradi-
tionally developed in business schools. Clearly Lessem was not the frst to do
this. Although no longer in vogue, the psychological literature suggests that
entrepreneurs possess certain characteristics or traits, such as:
l Risk-taking ability. Classic economic theory suggests that entrepreneurs
are risk-takers. By the very nature of their activities and roles in the econo-
my and society, it is clear that entrepreneurs cannot be averse to risk.
However, there is no apparent consensus with respect to risk-taking, and
the prevailing belief appears to be that entrepreneurs are more predisposed
to taking calculated risks than are other sectors of society (Caird, 1991;
Cromie and O’Donoghue, 1992), and that they are more able to cope with
the consequent ambiguity and uncertainty than are non-entrepreneurs (Koh,
1996). Interestingly, the work of Busenitz (1999) indicates that entrepre-
neurs are more confdent than managers in large organizations and, as a
consequence, tend to distort their perceptions of risk. This introduces a
38 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
further concept, that of self-confdence, which Koh (1996) believes to be a
prerequisite of successful entrepreneurship and Ho and Koh (1992) regard
as being linked to both a tolerance for ambiguity and creativity.
l Need for achievement (nAch). First propounded by McClelland in 1961,
this suggests that entrepreneurs have a high need for achievement, and
achievers will choose situations that are characterized by:
– individual responsibility
– moderate (not high) risk-taking
– knowledge of results of decisions
– novel instrumental activity
– anticipation of future possibilities.
It is the prospect of achievement (not money) that motivates them. Once
again, empirical research support for McClelland’s theory of nAch has
been somewhat conficting and it is generally held that ‘although people
with a strong need to achieve might well act entrepreneurially, there are
problems with elevating nAch to a central position in explaining entre-
preneurial motivation’ (Cromie, 2000: 17).
l Locus of control. This is based on the work of Rotter (1966). Entrepre-
neurs are believed to possess a high internal locus of control and believe
that the achievement of a goal is dependent on their own behaviour or
individual characteristics. However, the results of empirical research into
this are again inconclusive. Some (Cromie, 1987; Cromie and Johns,
1983) have found signifcantly higher ‘internal’ scores compared to ex-
perienced managers, while others (Brockhaus and Nord, 1979; Cromie
et al., 1992) have found no differences between the scores of these two
groups. Additionally, it has been suggested, as Cromie (2000) has recog-
nized, that high achievers will also exhibit these behaviours, and there is
conficting evidence (Chen, et al., 1998; Hull, et al., 1980) about whether
locus of control or need for achievement is the more fundamental entre-
preneurial attribute.
l Desire for autonomy. Entrepreneurs want to be in control – hence they
have been found to have a higher need for autonomy and a greater fear
of external control than many other occupational groups (Caird, 1991;
Cromie and O’Donoghue, 1992). They value individualism and freedom
more than do either the general public or managers and they have a dislike
of rules, procedures and social norms. As a consequence they have diff-
culty functioning in constraining environments that stife creativity, and
can experience diffculty relating to others. As Cromie (2000) observes,
some are even regarded as deviants.
l Deviancy. This is based on the work of Kets de Vries (1977) who argues
that entrepreneurial behaviour is the result of negative characteristics and
Can business schools meet the challenge? 39
drives, and its fnancial benefts and drives do not always lead to personal
satisfaction and happiness. According to him, an entrepreneur is ‘an
anxious individual, a non-conformist poorly organized and not a stranger
to self-destructive behaviour’ (ibid.: 41). Such behaviour, he asserts, is
the result of a troublesome and very disturbed childhood where the father
is often absent. As a consequence the entrepreneur becomes a person
– with low self-esteem
– who lacks the ability to refect critically
– who dreams of being in total control and independent of everything
and everyone.
This would thus explain why entrepreneurs become engaged in risky ac-
tivities and choose to create their own organizations. However, research
suggests that entrepreneurs are no more troubled than anyone else and
may come from families that are stable fnancially and emotionally.
l Creativity and opportunism. Much of the entrepreneurial literature sug-
gests that entrepreneurs are more creative than others (Timmons, 1989;
Whiting, 1988). Certainly entrepreneurs tend to think in non-conventional
ways, to challenge existing assumptions and to be fexible and adaptable
in their problem-solving. All of these are integral to creativity and the
creative process (Kirton, 1976; Solomon and Winslow, 1988), though
some would argue that entrepreneurs are not so much creative as oppor-
tunistic. Rather than creating the new idea, they see opportunities and
make them happen. Whatever, research by Utsch and Rauch (2000) sug-
gests that there is a powerful link between innovativeness and venture
performance, and that innovativeness is linked to achievement orientation.
Whereas people with a low achievement orientation avoid innovation,
give up quickly, demonstrate little effort and lack self-confdence, entre-
preneurs with high achievement orientation exert considerable effort and
persist in the face of problems and barriers. Hence they conclude that ‘an
entrepreneur need not be high in achievement orientation to be successful,
but it is helpful to be innovative. Especially in fast-growing areas or in
high technology areas … a high achievement orientation is important’
(ibid.: 59).
l Intuition. It has been contested (Carland, 1982) that entrepreneurs are
intuitive rather than rational thinkers. Instead of adopting a structured,
analytical approach to problem-solving, which requires attention to detail,
adherence to rules and systematic investigation, it is believed that they
prefer a more intuitive approach that requires more holism and synthesis,
lateral rather than sequential reasoning and random methods of explora-
tion. However, others contest that although intuition is important, it is
more important for certain situations than for others and for certain types
40 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
of entrepreneur. For example, Olsen (1995) contends that intuition is
important in the invention phase of the entrepreneurial process, while
Miner (1997) suggests that of the four types of entrepreneur he identifes,
intuition is an important characteristic of just one, the ‘expert idea genera-
tors’. In an interesting piece of research based on the 437 founders of
high-growth companies listed in the role-model publication, Local Heroes
(Scottish Enterprise, 1997), Allinson et al. (2000) compare the 156 re-
sponses to a questionnaire survey with an earlier survey (using the same
questionnaire) of 546 managers from various organizations. The results
reveal that entrepreneurs in high-growth frms are more intuitive than
members of the general population of managers, and middle and junior
managers in particular, but are no different in their cognitive style from
senior managers and executives. While recognizing that this is a pilot in-
vestigation based on a convenience sample, the authors conclude that the
fndings ‘provide empirical support for the widely held view that success-
ful entrepreneurs adopt an intuitive approach to information processing’
(ibid.: 41). At the same time they challenge the view that entrepreneurs
process information differently from all categories of salaried managers,
which is consistent with the view that entrepreneurial behaviour is not
confned to the self-employed.
Over the years, therefore, the psychological literature has identifed various
individual characteristics or traits of the entrepreneur which, it would seem,
appear to occur not so much as individual, dominant characteristics but, as the
work of Lessem (1986) suggests, in combination. This point is reiterated in the
work of Timmons et al. (1985: 153) where they conclude that: ‘we do not believe
that there is any single set of characteristics that every entrepreneur must have’.
Rather, they suggest that there are 15 behaviours that are required by the entre-
preneur, depending upon the situation in which he or she is to be found.
Importantly, they conclude that these can all be learned. They are:
l total commitment, determination and perseverance
l drive to achieve and grow
l orientation to goals and opportunities
l taking initiative and personal responsibility
l veridical awareness and a sense of humour
l seeking and using feedback
l internal locus of control
l tolerance of ambiguity, stress and uncertainty
l calculated risk-taking and risk-sharing
l low need for status and power
l integrity and reliability
Can business schools meet the challenge? 41
l decisiveness, urgency and patience
l learning from failure
l team-builder and hero-maker.
As might be expected, this is not a defnitive listing. For example, Hornaday
(1982) identifes 19 similar but slightly different attributes and behaviours, and
Gibb (1990) identifes 12. For the purpose of this chapter, the precise number
and types of behaviour are unimportant. What is important is the recognition of
the sort of behaviours/attributes that characterize the entrepreneur and the fact
that these characteristics can be acquired and/or developed.
THE NEED FOR ENTREPRENEURS
There are numerous reasons for the contemporary interest in entrepreneurship
and the creation of entrepreneurs. For Gibb (1996) there are essentially three
main reasons, namely:
l job creation and economic development
l strategic adjustment/realignment
l deregulation and the privatization of public utilities and state-owned
enterprises.
However, it may be asserted that these are the manifestations of a more funda-
mental reason.
According to Peters (1987) and others, society is entering an era of unprece-
dented change, a ‘world turned upside down’. This is not new. Change has
always been a part of social and economic evolution. Previously, however,
change was, as Handy (1990: 5) has observed:
more of the same only better. That was incremental change and to be welcomed. To-
day, we know that in many areas of life we cannot guarantee more of the same, be it
work or money, peace or freedom, health or happiness, and cannot even predict with
confdence what will be happening in our own lives.
Under such circumstances, Drucker’s (1989) ‘new realities’ society will need
not only to accommodate change but also to be capable of anticipating and,
more importantly perhaps, initiating it. Indeed, Moss Kanter (1984: 354), writ-
ing two decades ago, suggested that: ‘Today, more than ever, because of
profound transformations in the economic and social environment it should be
a national priority to release and support the skills of men and women who can
envision and push innovations.’
42 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
At the same time, however, there is a somewhat paradoxical set of trends oc-
curring within the world economy. While globalization and the interdependence
of markets have been recognized increasingly in recent years, it has also become
apparent that world citizenry can no longer rely upon ‘they’. Whether ‘they’ are
the wealthy nations of the world, the state or large frms they cannot be relied
upon to provide wealth, jobs, homes, health care, and so on. Increasingly, society
is having to rely upon itself. So, individuals, communities, organizations and,
even, nations are having to be empowered in a way that previously has been
unrecognized. In a global economy, every citizen is interdependent, but increas-
ingly will be required to take ownership of their own destinies – for the beneft
of themselves, their families, their colleagues, their fellow countrymen and
world citizenry. Thus, within individuals, communities, organizations and socie-
ties there needs to develop a greater sense of enterprise and self-help. People
are needed who see opportunity, create and build, initiate and achieve. Hence
it is these entrepreneurial characteristics that need to be developed by business
schools in their students.
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURS
All too frequently, though, it would seem, that ‘education in the sense of a for-
mal academic training dulls the cutting edge of commerce’ (Bartlett, 1988: 26).
Even in the USA, that hotbed of entrepreneurship, courses designed to introduce
students to the principles of business and management have tended to ‘teach
students how to become profcient employees instead of successful business
persons’ (Solomon, 1989). Since these statements were made, numerous entre-
preneurship programmes have been introduced in many parts of the world
(Brockhaus, et al., 2001; Interman, 1991; Vesper and Gartner, 1998). Often such
programmes equate entrepreneurship with new venture creation or/and small
business management and educate about entrepreneurship and enterprise rather
than educating for entrepreneurship. Only rarely, it would seem, is the focus on
developing in their students the skills, attributes and behaviour of the successful
entrepreneur. For example, the comprehensive Interman Directory lists three
types of entrepreneurship programme, namely:
l Entrepreneurship orientation and awareness programmes which focus on
general information about entrepreneurship and encourage participants
to think in terms of entrepreneurship as a career.
l New enterprise creation programmes designed to develop competences
that lead to self-employment, economic self-suffciency or employment
generation.
l Programmes that focus on small business survival and growth.
Can business schools meet the challenge? 43
In the space available here it is not possible to analyse each of the 205 listed
programmes, but clearly it would seem from the category descriptors that the
emphasis in these programmes is on learning about entrepreneurship and how
to manage a small business. As has been argued earlier in this chapter, however,
entrepreneurship is about possessing or acquiring a particular set of attributes,
skills and behaviours.
Again, in his highly acclaimed The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, By-
grave (1994) purports to provide the reader with an insight into: ‘how top
business schools are preparing students to meet the challenges of the entrepre-
neurial-driven business climate of the 1990s and beyond’. In 14 chapters and
450 pages, the student learns about the entrepreneurial process, opportunity
recognition, entry strategies, market opportunities and marketing, creating a
successful business plan, fnancial projections, venture capital, debt and other
forms of fnancing, external assistance for start-ups and small business, legal
and tax issues, intellectual property, franchising, harvesting, entrepreneurship
economics. Clearly it is important that business students understand such prin-
ciples and practices, especially if they are to go on to create their own enterprises
but, knowing about them will not, per se, equip the student ‘to meet the chal-
lenges of the entrepreneurial business climate of the 1990s and beyond’. This
is only one, relatively minor, element in the equation. As has been shown above,
the successful entrepreneur has a set of personal skills, attributes and behaviours
that go beyond the purely commercial. It is these attributes, this way of thinking
and behaving, that needs to be developed in students if their entrepreneurial
capabilities are to be enhanced and they are to be equipped to meet the chal-
lenges of the entrepreneurial climate of the twenty-frst century. This means that
both the content of courses and the process of learning need to change, and it
is possible to agree with Gibb (2004a) that it is important to move away from
‘the current narrow paradigm for entrepreneurship’ that equates it with new
venture creation and the tools to start and run a business.
Proposed Changes to the Content of Courses
As Ray (1997: 199), has suggested: ‘the skills traditionally taught in business
schools are essential but not suffcient to make a successful entrepreneur’. While
students still need to develop their business skills and understanding, more at-
tention needs to be paid to the development of their entrepreneurial skills,
attributes and behaviours. This means introducing modules and courses specif-
cally designed to develop in students the awareness and characteristics of the
entrepreneur. According to Ray (1997), these need to include, among others:
l communication skills, especially persuasion
l creativity skills
44 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
l critical thinking and assessment skills
l leadership skills
l negotiation skills
l problem-solving skills
l social networking skills
l time management skills
In itself, this is not suffcient, however. To succeed it will be necessary to create
a learning environment that changes the way students learn and reinforces the
development of such skills.
Proposed Changes to the Process of Learning
From a neuropsychological perspective (Ornstein, 1986; Sperry, 1968), it would
appear that the brain is divided into two hemispheres.
l The left side handles language, logic and symbols. It processes informa-
tion in a step-by-step fashion. Left-brain thinking is narrowly focused and
systematic, proceeding in a highly logical fashion from one point to the
next.
l The right side takes care of the body’s emotional, intuitive and spatial
functions. It processes information intuitively, relying heavily on images.
Right-brained thinking is lateral, unconventional, unsystematic and un-
structured. It is this right-brained lateral thinking that is at the heart of
the creative process.
According to Lewis (1987: 38–9):
while the left brain requires hard facts before reaching a conclusion, the right is hap-
pier dealing with uncertainties and elusive knowledge. It favours open-ended
questions, problems for which there are many answers rather than a single, correct
solution … The left specializes in precise descriptions and exact explanations; the
right enjoys analogies, similes and metaphors. The left demands structure and cer-
tainty; the right thrives on spontaneity and ambiguity.
Thus, those who have learned to develop their right-brained thinking skills tend
to:
l ask if there is a better way of doing things
l challenge custom, routine and tradition
l be refective – often deep in thought
l play mental games, trying to see an issue from a different perspective
l realize that there may be more than one ‘right’ answer
Can business schools meet the challenge? 45
l see mistakes and failures as pit stops on the route to success
l relate seemingly unrelated ideas to a problem to generate a solution
l see an issue from a broader perspective, but have the ability to focus on
an area in need of change.
Although the two halves normally complement each other, on occasions they
compete or one half may choose not to participate. Importantly, also, most for-
mal education systems since the time of the ancient Greeks have tended to
develop in their students left-brain capabilities. As Lewis (ibid.: 41) has
recognized
In class, students are expected to acquire knowledge one step at a time, adding me-
thodically to their storehouse of facts until they have suffcient to pass an examination.
This demands left-brain skills. The problems students are given to solve more often
demand an analytical rather than an intuitive approach. This, too … is a task for the
left hemisphere. Written work, by which ability is chiefy evaluated, must be organ-
ized, well argued and logically structured … all left-brain skills. The students
considered most intelligent and successful are those who strive after academic goals,
can control their emotions in class, follow instructions, do not ask awkward questions,
are punctual and hand in class assignments on time. Goal-setting, emotional restraint,
time-keeping and matching your behaviour to other people’s expectations are all
left-brain skills. Children are meant to learn by listening, keeping notes and reading
books. All these, too, of course, are tasks in which the left hemisphere specializes.
Interestingly, preliminary research by Nieuwenhuizen and Groenwald (2004)
in South Africa on the brain preference profles of entrepreneurs appears to
confrm the right-brain thinking preferences of successful entrepreneurs, which
may well explain why so many are known not to have succeeded in the formal
education system and are dyslexic (Kirby, 2003). It may also explain why Gibb
(1987), apparently intuitively, has argued that to develop entrepreneurs or more
enterprising individuals, the focus of the education system needs to be shifted
away from the traditional to what he terms ‘the entrepreneurial’ (Table 3.2).
Thus, the challenge is to develop a system of learning (and assessment) that
complements the traditional and develops in its students the skills, attributes
and behaviours characteristic of the enterprising or entrepreneurial individual.
As observed elsewhere (Kirby, 1992), of particular relevance here are the
proposals of Olsen and Bosserman (1984: 53). They suggest that ‘individuals
will exhibit entrepreneurial behaviour when they possess a combination of three
attributes’, namely:
l role orientation – emphasizing effectiveness
l abilities – to think both intuitively and rationally
l motivation – the driving force behind action.
46 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Table 3.2 The focus of learning
Traditional focus on Entrepreneurial focus on
The past The future
Critical analysis Creativity
Knowledge Insight
Passive understanding Active understanding
Absolute detachment Emotional involvement
Manipulation of symbols Manipulation of events
Written communication and Neutrality Personal communication and
Infuence
Concept Problem or opportunity
Source: Gibb (1987).
To achieve these, it seems necessary to adopt an approach to learning that:
l gives students ownership of their learning, including negotiating with
their tutor their own learning objectives, the resources, activities and
processes required to meet these objectives and, importantly, the way in
which it will be determined whether these objectives have been met (to
stimulate motivation, reduce dependency and provide experience of role
orientation).
l involves students in problem-solving in real-world situations, possibly in
teams (to develop both intuitive and rational thinking, to recognize the
multifaceted nature of problem and solution, and to encourage commu-
nication and co-operation)
l encourages students to formulate decisions on data that are immediate,
incomplete, ‘dubious’ and, as appropriate, personally generated (to stimu-
late effectiveness and the ability to cope with uncertainty)
l provides students with role models who are involved in both the learning
and assessment processes (to demonstrate role orientation, ability and
motivation).
Of the attributes identifed by Olsen and Bosserman, possibly the most diff-
cult to develop from the perspective of the education system in general and
business schools in particular is the ability to think both intuitively and rationally
– to develop what may be termed the ‘balanced brain’. As suggested already,
most education systems tend to adopt left-brain approaches to learning. The
emphasis has been on developing critical or vertical thinking. This is a function
of the left brain – it is objective, analytical and logical, and results in one or, at
Can business schools meet the challenge? 47
most, only a few answers. In contrast, creative thinking is lateral, imaginative
and emotional resulting, through association, in more than one solution (de
Bono, 1970). The two ways of thinking, summarized in Figure 3.1, are clearly
complementary and it is apparent that in order to develop entrepreneurial capa-
bility, both critical and creative thinking are needed. If it is assumed that the
brain is a computer that can be programmed, then presumably the right-brain
functions can be developed. Hence, as with critical thinking, students can be
trained to think creatively and to cope with ambiguity and uncertainty as these
are right-brain functions, as has been pointed out. Indeed, there are many tech-
niques for encouraging people to think laterally and to look at things in new
ways, but perhaps the most important is to maintain at all times an open and
enquiring mind. This should be the role of education but all too frequently it is
not. As Lewis (1987: 240) has recognized: ‘Under the domination of the present
paradigm, schools teach what and how rather than why. Content is all-important,
and the key to success lies in the acquisition of ‘knowledge’ and its accurate
representation to teachers and examiners. Facts are true, truth is sacred and in-
formation lasts a lifetime.’
Sadly this situation pertains not just in schools but in most levels of education,
and business schools are no exception. In an era of very rapid change, where
the life of the existing body of understanding will become increasingly shorter,
this situation is unlikely to continue indefnitely. Change is inevitable. However,
if business schools are to lead the way in creating entrepreneurs, they will need
P
R
O
B
L
E
M
Figure 3.1 Critical and creative thinking
Critical thinking
(Vertical)
Creative thinking
(Lateral)
ANSWER
PROBLEM
A
N
S
W
E
R
S
48 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
to change more rapidly than other sectors of the system. Indeed, it may be ar-
gued that the role of the academic entrepreneur is, in fact, to innovate and bring
about this much needed change.
EXPERIMENT
To test the validity of the concepts put forward in this chapter the entrepre-
neurial tendencies of 76 full- and part-time Master of Business Administration
(MBA) students at the University of Surrey, England, were tested before em-
barking on an entrepreneurship module that adopted the objectives and
techniques espoused here and promulgated in Kirby (2003). The instrument
used to test entrepreneurial tendencies of the students at the beginning and end
of the experiment was the Durham University General Enterprising Tendency
(GET) test, developed from the work of Johnson and Caird (1988) and based
on the psychological trait theories outlined above. According to Cromie (2000)
the GET test is one of the most useful, comprehensive, accessible and easy
tests to administer and score. It is a 54-item questionnaire designed to assess
fve dimensions of personality – Need for Achievement (12 items), Autonomy
(six items), Drive and Determination (12 items), Risk-taking (12 items) and
Creativity (six items). Each item is a statement and participants are required
either to agree or disagree with it. Each dimension receives a score of 0–12
(0–6 for the Autonomy dimension) with a composite score for the test of 0–54.
The complete test takes about 10 minutes to complete and would appear to
have ‘criterion and convergent validity and good internal consistency’ (ibid.,
22). The test, which was administered prior to the students enrolling on a
compulsory entrepreneurship module in the MBA, revealed that when com-
pared with a similarly sized sample of business owners/managers (Caird, 1991),
the students had lower performance scores on all of the measures, suggesting
a somewhat lower propensity to be entrepreneurial. Indeed, their entrepre-
neurial tendencies were found to be even lower than those derived from an
admittedly smaller and somewhat dated sample of lecturers and trainers (Table
3.3), though a more recent study, conducted at approximately the same time
as the student survey, suggests that the students have a slightly higher enterpris-
ing tendency than the academics (Hay et al., 2003). Whatever, the fndings
indicate the challenge facing business schools if they are to create entrepreneurs
as, increasingly, appears to be required. Assuming that the Surrey students are
not atypical of the general MBA cohort, certainly in the UK, it would appear
that MBA students, generally, are less, or only slightly more, entrepreneurial
than the people responsible for teaching and training them. Given the corporate
careers of many MBAs, and the conditioning that undoubtedly will have taken
place both through the education system and in the workplace, perhaps this is
Can business schools meet the challenge? 49
to be expected. However, it does suggest that the challenge facing UK business
schools, at least, will not be easy. While MBA students appear, perhaps some-
what unsurprisingly, to possess a relatively high need for achievement, they
underscore somewhat in terms of their need for autonomy, their belief that they
control their own destinies, their creativity and their preparedness to take risks.
If the arguments put forward in this chapter are accepted, then it must be as-
sumed that all these characteristics or attributes can be developed in them, but
not by using the more traditional, pedagogic teaching methods and styles nor
by teaching the standard functional competences traditionally taught in busi-
ness schools. Neither, it might be added, are they likely to be developed if their
‘role models’ are staff who, themselves, are not enterprising and do not adopt
an entrepreneurial approach to their teaching.
Interestingly, when they were introduced to the content and process of learn-
ing proposed here, the entrepreneurial tendencies of the cohort improved. At
the end of the module the students were re-tested and it was discovered that after
a period of only 12 weeks of exposure to this different process of learning, and
without reinforcement from other programmes that continued to adopt a more
traditional pedagogic approach to teaching and learning, the General Enterpris-
ing Tendency of the 76 Surrey MBA students increased by almost 10 per cent,
with individuals showing much higher (and lower) scores than this. Even more
important, perhaps, students talked about the way the programme had changed
the way they thought and behaved.
Table 3.3 The General Enterprising Tendencies of a sample of MBA
students,
1
business owners/managers and lecturers/trainers
compared
2
(mean scores)
Group Need for
achievement
Autonomy Creativity Calculated
risk-taking
Locus of
control
Total
score
max = 12 max = 6 max = 12 max = 12 max = 12 max = 54
Business
students
9.00 3.4 8.2 8.3 8.5 37.6
Owners/
managers
9.98 4.1 8.7 8.7 9.5 41.0
Lecturers/
trainers
8.90 4.1 8.5 8.6 8.2 38.3
Notes:
1. Source: GET test.
2. Source: Caird (1991).
50 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
CONCLUSION
On the basis of this, admittedly limited, experiment it would seem that, by
adopting the principles espoused here in the way students are educated for en-
trepreneurship, it is possible to increase their entrepreneurial tendencies, both
as a cohort and as individuals. Clearly it is diffcult to comment on the perma-
nency of this change or to state categorically that it results from the changes
introduced. To do this would require not just a longitudinal study with a wider
range of students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) but a controlled experi-
ment with two ‘identical’ cohorts, only one of which was exposed to the changed
pedagogy. However, it would seem that if the education system is to meet the
challenge of developing more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours in its
students, then there does need to be a very signifcant transformation in not only
what is taught but also how it is taught. Developing entrepreneurs in the class-
room, it is contested, is about developing the enterprising environments and
approaches to learning in which entrepreneurial aptitudes and capabilities can
fourish, alongside business acumen and understanding. As Chia (1996: 426)
has argued: ‘The unique contribution university business schools can make to
the business community is not through the vocationalizing of business/manage-
ment education programmes. Rather it is through adopting a deliberate
educational strategy which privileges the “weakening” of thought processes so
as to encourage and stimulate the entrepreneurial imagination.’
At the same time, it must not be assumed that entrepreneurship education is
solely about encouraging ‘students’ to set-up and run their own businesses.
While there is some evidence that experience in a small frm can help the de-
velopment of more enterprising individuals (Kirby and Mullen, 1990),
entrepreneurship should not be equated solely with new venture creation nor
with small business management. Rather, it is, as Kao (1997: 237–8) has rec-
ognized, about ‘making a change’ and: ‘even those who relate entrepreneurship
with business undertakings have noted that only those who innovate and develop
new combinations are entrepreneurs’.
Entrepreneurs can occur in all walks of life and increasingly attention is being
focused not just on business entrepreneurs, but on academic entrepreneurs, civic
entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs and technological entrepreneurs, among
others. Thus, entrepreneurship education is no longer the sole province of the
business school academic, as Welsch and Kickul (2001) have recognized. This
is to be welcomed. However, if business schools are to maintain their leading
role and business school educators are to assist and facilitate this new market
and its support system, then there would appear to be a need for a more innova-
tive and radical approach to entrepreneurship education than appears to have
been evident to date, a point recognized by Gibb (2004b). There are signs of
this occurring, as the essays by DeTienne and Chandler (2004), Honig (2004)
Can business schools meet the challenge? 51
and Shepherd (2004) perhaps indicate. Also, through this publication and the
annual publications of the IntEnt Conference proceedings (www.intent-confer-
ence.com) there appears to be a body of knowledge emerging that is capable,
perhaps, of providing the beginnings of a theoretical framework for the teaching
of entrepreneurship. Even so, ‘very little is still known about effective teaching
techniques for entrepreneurial educators’ (Brockhaus et al., 2001: xiv) and re-
search and knowledge about how to teach entrepreneurship remains relatively
underdeveloped, despite the increasing demand, globally, for more entrepre-
neurially oriented graduates of business schools and universities. It is the
intention that this chapter will provide some insights into how the educational
process might need to change and develop, and will act as a catalyst for research
that will progress the subject and ensure business schools retain their premier
position in the creation of entrepreneurs.
REFERENCES
Allinson, C.W., E. Chell, and J. Hayes (2000), ‘Intuition and entrepreneurial behaviour’,
European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1), 31–43.
Bartlett, A.F. (1988), Profle of the Entrepreneur or Machiavellian Management, Leath-
erhead: Ashford Press.
Birch, D. (1979), The Job Generation Process, Cambridge, MA: MIT Program on
Neighbourhood and Regional Change.
Brockhaus, R.H. (2001), ‘Foreword’, in R.H Brockhaus, G.E Hills, H. Klandt and H.P.
Welsch (eds), Entrepreneurship Education: A Global View, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Brockhaus, R.H. and P.S. Horwitz (1986), ‘The psychology of the entrepreneur’, in D.L.
Sexton and R.W. Smilor (eds), The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, Cambridge:
Ballinger.
Brockhaus, R.H. and W.R. Nord (1979), ‘An exploration of factors affecting the entre-
preneurial decision: personal characteristics versus environmental conditions’,
Proceedings of the Academy of Management, 10, 509–20.
Brockhaus, R.H., G.E. Hills, H. Klandt and H.P. Welsch (2001), Entrepreneurship Edu-
cation: A Global View, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Busenitz, L.W. (1999), ‘Entrepreneurial risk and strategic decision-making: it’s a matter
of perspective’, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 35 (3), 325–40.
Bygrave, W.D. (1994), The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, Chichester: John
Wiley.
Caird, S. (1991), ‘The enterprising tendency of occupational groups’, International Small
Business Journal, 9 (4), 75–81.
Carland, J.W. (1982), ‘Entrepreneurship in a small business setting: an exploratory
study’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
Chell, E., J. Haworth and S. Brearley (1991), The Entrepreneurial Personality: Concepts,
Cases and Categories, London: Routledge.
Chen, P.C., P.G. Greene and A. Crick (1998), ‘Does entrepreneurial self effcacy distin-
guish entrepreneurs from managers?’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13, 295–316.
Chia, R. (1996), ‘Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: university busi-
52 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
ness schools and the entrepreneurial imagination’, Journal of Management Studies,
33 (4), 40.
Cromie, S. (1987), ‘Motivations of aspiring male and female entrepreneurs’, Journal of
Organisational Behaviour, 8, 251–61.
Cromie, S. (2000), ‘Assessing entrepreneurial implications: some approaches and empiri-
cal evidence’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1),
7–30.
Cromie, S. and S. Johns (1983), ‘Irish entrepreneurs: some personal characteristics’,
Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 4, 317–24.
Cromie, S. and J. O’Donoghue (1992), ‘Assessing entrepreneurial inclinations’, Inter-
national Small Business Journal, 10 (2), 66–73.
Cromie, S., I. Callaghan and M. Jansen (1992), ‘The entrepreneurial tendencies of man-
agers: a research note’, British Journal of Management, 3, 1–5.
de Bono, E. (1970), Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step-by-Step, New York: Harper and
Row.
DeTienne, D.R and G.N. Chandler (2004), ‘Opportunity identifcation and its role in the
entrepreneurial classroom: a pedagogical approach and empirical test’, Academy of
Management Learning and Education, 3 (3), 242–57.
Drucker, P.F. (1989), The New Realities, London: Heinemann.
Gibb, A.A. (1987), ‘Enterprise culture – its meaning and implications for education and
training’, Journal of European Industrial Training, 11 (2), 3–38.
Gibb, A.A. (1990), ‘Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship – exploring the differences’,
in R. Donckels and A. Miettinen (eds), New Findings and Perspectives in Entrepre-
neurship, Aldershot: Gower.
Gibb, A.A. (1996), ‘Entrepreneurship and small business management: can we afford to
neglect them in the twenty-frst century business school?’, British Journal of Manage-
ment, 7 (4), 309–24.
Gibb, A.A. (2004a), ‘Creating conducive environments for learning and entrepreneur-
ship’, paper presented at the Internationalising Entrepreneurship Education and
Training Conference (IntEnt 2004), Naples, July.
Gibb, A.A. (2004b), ‘Creative destruction, new values, new ways of doing things and
new combinations of knowledge’, paper presented at the Internationalising Entrepre-
neurship Education and Training Conference (IntEnt 2004), Naples, July.
Handy, C. (1990), The Age of Unreason, London: Random Century.
Hay, D.B., F. Butt and D.A. Kirby (2003), ‘Academics as entrepreneurs’, in G. Williams
(ed.), The Enterprising University: Reform, Excellence and Equity, Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Hills, G.E. (1986), ‘Entrepreneurship behavioural intentions and student independence,
characteristics and experience’, in R. Ronstadt, J.A. Hornaday, R. Peterson and K.H.
Vesper (eds), Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual
Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Babson Park, MA: Babson
College, pp. 173–6.
Ho, T.S. and H.C. Koh (1992), ‘Differences in psychological characteristics between
entrepreneurially accounting graduates in Singapore’, Entrepreneurship, Innovation
and Change, 1, 243–54.
Honig, B. (2004), ‘Entrepreneurship education: toward a model of contingency-based
business planning’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3 (3),
258–73.
Hornaday, J.A. (1982), ‘Research about living entrepreneurs’, in C.A. Kent, D.L. Sexton
Can business schools meet the challenge? 53
and K.L. Vesper (eds), Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Hull, D.L., J.J. Bosley and G.G. Udell (1980), ‘Renewing the hunt for the heffalump:
identifying potential entrepreneurs by personality characteristics’, Journal of Small
Business, 18, 11–18.
Interman (1991), Profles of Entrepreneurship Development Programmes, Geneva: In-
ternational Labour Offce.
Johannisson, B. (1991), ‘University training for entrepreneurship: Swedish approaches’,
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 3 (1), 67–82.
Johnson, C. and S. Caird (1988), The Measurement of General Enterprising Tendency,
Durham: Durham University Business School.
Kao, R.W. (1997), An Entrepreneurial Approach to Corporate Management, London:
Prentice Hall.
Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (1977), ‘The entrepreneurial personality: a person at the cross-
roads’, Journal of Management Studies, February, 34–57.
Kirby, D.A. (1992), ‘Developing graduate entrepreneurs: the U.K. Graduate Enterprise
Programme’, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Change, 1 (2), 165–75.
Kirby, D.A. (2003), Entrepreneurship, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
Kirby, D.A. and D. Mullen (1990), ‘Developing enterprising undergraduates’, Journal
of European Industrial Training, 14 (2), 27–32.
Kirby, D.A., P. Livett and J. Rindl (1991), Innovations in Service, Luton: Local Govern-
ment Training Board.
Kirton, M. (1976), ‘Adaptors and innovators: a description and measure’, Journal of
Applied Psychology, October, 622–9.
Koh, H.C. (1996), ‘Testing hypotheses of entrepreneurial characteristics’, Journal of
Managerial Psychology, 11, 12–25.
Lessem, R. (1986), Enterprise Development, Aldershot: Gower.
Lewis, D. (1987), Mind Skills: Giving Your Child a Brighter Future, London: Souvenir
Press.
McClelland, D.C. (1961), The Achieving Society, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Miner, J.B. (1997), A Psychological Typology of Successful Entrepreneurs, London:
Quorum Books.
Moss Kanter, R. (1984), The Change Masters: Corporate Entrepreneurs at Work, Lon-
don: Unwin.
National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (1997), Higher Education in the
Learning Society: Report of the National Committee, London: HMSO.
Nieuwenhuizen, C. and D. Groenwald (2004), ‘Entrepreneurship training and education
needs as determined by the brain preference profles of successful, established entre-
preneurs’, paper presented at the Internationalising Entrepreneurship Education and
Training Conference (IntEnt 2004). Naples, July.
Olsen, P.D. (1995), ‘Entrepreneurship: process and abilities’, Entrepreneurship Theory
and Practice, 10 (1), 25–32.
Olsen, P. and D. Bosserman (1984), ‘Attributes of the entrepreneurial type’, Business
Horizons, May–June, 53–6.
Ornstein, R. (1986), The Psychology of Consciousness, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Peters, T. (1987), Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution, London:
Pan Books.
Ray, D.M. (1997), ‘Teaching entrepreneurship in Asia: impact of a pedagogical innova-
tion’, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Change, 6 (3), 193–227.
54 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Rotter, J.B. (1966), ‘Generalised expectancies for internal versus external control of re-
inforcement’, Psychological Monographs, 609 (80), 1.
Scott, M.G. and D.F. Twomey (1988), ‘The long-term supply of entrepreneurs: students’
career aspirations in relation to entrepreneurship’, Journal of Small Business Manage-
ment, 26 (4), 5–13.
Scottish Enterprise (1997), Local Heroes, Edinburgh: Insider Group.
Shepherd, D.A. (2004), ‘Educating entrepreneurship students about emotion and learning
from failure’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3 (3), 274–87.
Small Business Research Trust (1988), Entrepreneurship, Milton Keynes: Open
University.
Solomon, G. (1989), ‘Youth: tomorrow’s entrepreneurs’, ICSB Bulletin, 26 (5), 1–2.
Solomon, G.T. and E. Winslow (1988), ‘Towards a descriptive profle of the entrepre-
neur’, Journal of Creative Behaviour, L22, 162–71.
Sperry, R.W. (1968), ‘Hemisphere deconnection and unity in conscious awareness’,
American Psychologist, 23, 723–33.
Timmons, J.A. (1989), The Entrepreneurial Mind, Andover, MA: Brick House.
Timmons, J.A., L.E Smollen and A.L.M. Dingee (1985), New Venture Creation, Home-
wood, IL: Irwin.
Universities UK (2000), A Forward Look – Highlights of our Corporate Plan, 2001–
2004, London: Universities UK.
Utsch, A. and A. Rauch (2000), ‘Innovativeness and initiative as mediators between
achievement orientation and venture performance’, European Journal of Work and
Organisational Psychology, 9 (1), 45–62.
Vesper, K. and W. Gartner (1998), University Entrepreneurship Programmes Worldwide,
Los Angeles, CA: University of South Carolina.
Welsch, H.P. and J.R. Kickul (2001), ‘Training for successful entrepreneurship careers
in the creative arts’, in R.H. Brockhaus, G.E. Hills, H. Klandt and H.P. Welsch (eds),
Entrepreneurship Education: A Global View, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Whiting, B.G. (1988), ‘Creativity and entrepreneurship: how do they relate?’, Journal
of Creative Behaviour, 22 (3), 178–83.
55
4. To support the emergence of academic
entrepreneurs: the role of business
plan competitions
Lorella Cannavacciuolo,
1
Guido Capaldo,
Gianluca Esposito, Luca Iandoli and Mario
Raffa
INTRODUCTION
Besides mainstream literature, this chapter builds on previous empirical re-
searches implemented by some of the authors of this work (Capaldo et al., 1997;
Capaldo and Fontes, 2001; Capaldo et al., 2002; Raffa and Zollo, 2000). In
particular, the research presented in this chapter has been carried out following
three different steps:
1. To present an overview of the main defnitions of academic spin-off (AS)
and analyse barriers preventing the creation of such spin-offs (the second
and third sections). The label ‘barrier’ refers to legal, organizational, cul-
tural and fnancial obstacles preventing research output from being
transformed into business opportunities throughout the academic spin-off
creation process (BenDaniel and Szafara, 1998).
2. To present an overview of the most commonly used supports for the creation
of academic spin-off (the fourth and ffth sections). Previous researches
have proved that the effective creation of such spin-offs is constrained if
universities take advantage of a limited number of supports. Conversely,
the creation of academic spin-offs benefts from a valuable combination of
both formal and informal supports (Capaldo and Fontes, 2001).
3. To analyse the role played by academic spin-off support programmes in
facilitating the emergence and the exploitation of new-business ideas within
universities and research centres.
56 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS OF ACADEMIC SPIN-OFF
Building on the academic spin-off’s literature, this paragraph is aimed at de-
scribing the key features of academic entrepreneurs. In order to describe such
features, it is necessary to identify a clear-cut defnition of academic spin-off.
In this respect, there is a vast literature providing a huge variety of different
defnitions. This phase is not aimed at identifying the best defnition. On the
contrary, this paragraph is targetted at showing that defnitions proposed by the
mainstream literature address many different academic spin-off related aspects.
According to Gibson and Smilor (1991), the conceptual underpinning of aca-
demic spin-off relies on at least one of the following conditions:
1. The entrepreneur promoting the creation of an academic spin-off must be
either an academic-staff member or a student who has almost completed
his studies.
2. The new frm must take advantage of either a new idea or a cutting-age
technology. Both should have been developed within university laborato-
ries.
Similarly, the academic spin-off-defnition of Stankiewicz (1986) encompasses
every frm created either by students who have almost completed their studies
or by people working for universities. Moreover, such defnition includes frms
promoted by people working for public founded research centres. A more gen-
eral defnition is provided by Formica (1993) who makes a distinction among
three different types of academic spin-offs:
l spin-offs promoted by researchers working for universities, and both
public and private research centres
l spin-offs promoted by students
l spin-offs promoted by people who work neither for universities nor for
research centres, but want to take advantage of ideas developed within
academic-related environments.
The defnition carried out by Jones-Evans (1997) is primarily focused on the
key features of entrepreneurs promoting academic spin-offs. More specifcally,
this author makes a distinction among four different types of entrepreneurs:
l the research-technical entrepreneur, who is characterized by relevant
scientifc and technological competencies, but inadequate managerial
skills
l the production-technical entrepreneur, whose technical skills are coupled
with managerial ones
The role of business plan competitions 57
l the production-user technical entrepreneur, whose competencies are
primarily managerial ones
l the opportunist-technical entrepreneur, who is able to identify and exploit
a huge variety of opportunities taking advantage of other people’s
competencies.
Contrary to Jones-Evans, Clarysse et al. (2000) focus their defnition of aca-
demic spin-off on the key features of academic spin-off frms. In particular, they
identify three different types of academic spin-offs:
1. Technological small and medium enterprises (SMEs), that are primarily
focused on research and development (R&D) activities. Although such frms
are short in fnancial resources they rely on highly qualifed people who
take advantage of an academic background in cutting-edge technologies.
2. ‘Looking for gold’ SMEs that are primarily focused on identifying either
products or services that can eventually guarantee high growth rates. These
frms are usually created by academic-background people who are charac-
terized by high networking capabilities. Such capabilities play a crucial role
in fnding fnancial resources.
3. Venture-capital supported SMEs that are able to fnance their activities
taking advantage of fnancial resources provided by venture capitalists. The
frst step in the creation of such frms is characterized by a so-called ‘incu-
bation period’. This period is crucial for testing the ability of potential
academic spin-offs to deal with market forces.
In this chapter we take advantage of a rather broad defnition of academic
spin-off. More specifcally, in our view the creation of academic spin-offs is not
necessarily related to the exploitation of research-related ideas. Therefore, our
defnition of academic spin-off encompasses any frm based on ideas promoted
by people working for both universities and research centres (that is, under-
graduate, graduate and PhD students, professors, university-staff employees).
Therefore, one of the key features of such spin-offs is related to a cultural envi-
ronment which is not naturally biased towards entrepreneurship. Such defnition
includes a huge variety of people. Nevertheless, taking advantage of previous
scientifc publications, it is possible to identify some key features characterizing
academic entrepreneurs (BenDaniel and Szafara, 1998; Capaldo et al., 2002).
The competence-based approach (Boyatzis, 1982; Capaldo et al., 2002;
Spencer and Spencer, 1993) shows that the competence profle of the academic
entrepreneur is usually characterized by a lack of skills that are strictly related
to entrepreneurship. BenDaniel and Szafara (1998) point out that the cultural
differences between entrepreneurs and academics seem to play a major role.
Entrepreneurs are strongly business committed. Rather, people working for
58 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
academia are more focused on scientifc tasks. Therefore, academic entrepre-
neurs are characterized by a cognitive profle made up by particular attitudes,
values and beliefs. This cognitive profle is rather different from the one that
usually characterizes entrepreneurs. It goes without saying that elements such
as a lack of business awareness, low commitment, motivations driven by intel-
lectual curiosity coupled with organizational, legal and fnancial barriers, may
put a serious constraint on the growth of academic individuals willing to exploit
their ideas on the market.
The key features mentioned above are mostly related to people involved in
research activities. Nevertheless, being both risk adverse and not biased towards
entrepreneurship are elements that usually characterize those people who work
for universities and research centres.
BARRIERS HINDERING ACADEMIC SPIN-OFF CREATION
This paragraph is devoted to the analysis of barriers hindering the creation of
academic spin-offs. BenDaniel and Szafara (1998) have focused their attention
on the key features that characterize cultural backgrounds of ‘technical profes-
sors’. Moreover, they have studied the way two strongly research-orientated
universities (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell) are struc-
tured. Both aspects are taken into account in order to identify factors
infuencing the creation of academic spin-offs. More specifcally, the ethno-
graphic study this chapter refers to, classifes such factors in four different
typologies:
1. Attitudes. This aspect refers to the way ‘technical professors’ depict their
jobs. According to such professors, their main task is disseminating knowl-
edge. This element is in contrast with the way entrepreneurs picture their
job. In fact, entrepreneurs are primarily focused on exploiting rather than
disseminating knowledge.
2. Organizational aspects. This point refers to formal and informal rules that
characterize universities. Moreover, this element encompasses organiza-
tional support for people implementing research-related activities who want
to create a new venture.
3. Motivation and de-motivations. This aspect refers to the elements that could
either encourage or discourage people implementing research-related activi-
ties from becoming entrepreneurs.
4. Scientifc paradigm. According to some authors (Brown, 1985; Etzkowitz,
1989; McMillan et al., 2000), the so-called scientifc paradigm is exclu-
sively focused on the knowledge-increasing process. In this respect,
research-related results are considered to be ‘public goods’ (Bok, 1990;
The role of business plan competitions 59
Callon, 1994; Etzkowitz, 1998; Geisler, 1993). On the contrary, according
to the entrepreneurial view such results are not to be disclosed.
It is possible to identify a huge variety of barriers that prevent both the emer-
gence and the exploitation of new business ideas within universities and research
centres. The origin of such barriers could be related to cultural, organizational,
fnancial and legal aspects. Whoever works for universities and research centres
will be forced to face such barriers if he or she wants to implement an entrepre-
neurial activity. However, the impact of each barrier differs as regards the
typology of the university-related actor involved in the creation of a new venture.
The following list is devoted to the analysis of four different types of barriers.
1. Cultural barriers. This barrier represents a major obstacle in particular for
professors. Such actors depict the business start-up process taking advan-
tage of their cultural background. More specifcally, they picture such a
process as the way to produce and disseminate knowledge. Therefore, the
great majority of professors see the creation of academic spin-offs creation
as a continuation of their main task, that is, spreading knowledge and con-
trolling their discoveries. More specifcally, a professor is satisfed when
he or she is able to provide the best explanation of an event, while an en-
trepreneur is satisfed when he or she achieves market-related success. In
brief, professors are interested in the dissemination of their ideas, while
entrepreneurs’ concern is the retention of relevant knowledge. Last but not
least, professors’ time horizons are focused on long-term periods. Con-
versely, entrepreneurs’ activities are focused on short term periods.
2. Organizational barriers. This aspect refers to the lack of structural and
systematic support for business-orientated activities such as patent requests,
incubation of new start-ups, and procedural support for business creation.
Such barriers prevent any university actor (professors, PhD students, uni-
versity staff members, and so on) from implementing entrepreneurial
activities.
3. Legal barriers. Such barriers represent an obstacle for those who want to
take advantage of research-related results for implementing entrepreneurial
activities. More specifcally, legal barriers refer to policies aimed at regulat-
ing activities of professors involved in business tasks. In particular such a
barrier encompasses laws regulating intellectual property rights, patents,
conficts of interests, and so on.
4. Financial barriers. This aspect refers to diffculties in fnding and managing
fnancial resources. Whoever works for universities and research centres
will be forced to face such barriers if he or she wants to implement an en-
trepreneurial activity.
60 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
In this list we have identifed four different types of barriers that hinder the
emergence of new business ideas and put a serious constraint on the creation of
new academic spin-offs. Therefore, the existence of these obstacles makes it
necessary to create supports aimed at facilitating the emergence of such spin-
offs. The next section is devoted to the analysis of such supports.
SUPPORTS FOR THE CREATION OF ACADEMIC
SPIN-OFFS
It is possible to make a distinction between research and entrepreneurial activi-
ties. More specifcally, the former could be defned as an exploration process
while the latter is considered an exploitation process (Chiesa and Piccaluga,
1996). In the lights of such distinction, the transformation process of research
output into new frms is neither simple nor instantaneous. In fact, despite strong
motivations, a huge variety of cultural, organizational, legal and fnancial bar-
riers hinder such a transformation process. Besides people involved in
research-related activities, such barriers may prevent whoever works for uni-
versities and research centres from creating a new venture. Therefore, a wide
spectrum of both formal and informal supports aimed at overcoming such bar-
riers is required. These supports stimulate the creation of new academic spin-offs
(Van Alstè and Van der Sijde, 1998; Varaldo and Piccaluga, 1994). This para-
graph focuses on the analysis of both formal and informal supports for the
academic spin-off creation process.
To begin with, formal supports could be defned as institutional tools that
provide academic spin-offs with infrastructure, fnancial resources, cultural,
legal and organizational supports (Table 4.1). Direct fnancial contribution as
well as indirect ones – tax incentives, favourable loans, and so on – are particu-
larly important mechanisms in promoting entrepreneurship among young people
with limited resources (that is, undergraduate students, graduate students, PhD
students). Moreover, it is necessary to provide academic entrepreneurs with
other fnancial supports that are geared to their needs. A case in point is repre-
sented by venture capital. According to Capaldo and Fontes (2001) academic
entrepreneurs do not consider formal supports other than fnancial ones as cru-
cial. This is due to the fact that most of the times such supports are not tailored
to the needs of the business area academic entrepreneurs are dealing with.
Informal supports could be described as a network made up by different rela-
tionships each entrepreneur relies on (Table 4.2). Such a network plays a crucial
role for entrepreneurs. It provides them with vital pieces of information and
business-related opportunities. Academic entrepreneurs take advantage of such
a network in order to compensate for their weaknesses. Informal supports are
vital for overcoming diffculties that are ineffectively faced by formal supports.
The role of business plan competitions 61
Table 4.1 Typology of formal support obtained by frms
Typology of formal support
Financial subsidies for investments
Financial contributions to R&D activities
Financial contributions to operational costs
Favourable loans
Tax exemptions
Training courses on business plan preparation
Business training courses
Management consultancy activities
Access to database
Information on new market opportunities
Information on technological opportunities
Assistance in the establishment of contacts with other frms for commercial
purpose
Equipment maintenance assistance
Source: Capaldo and Fontes (2001).
Table 4.2 Typologies of informal support obtained by the frms
Typology of formal support
Informal family support
Informal support from academics and researchers
Informal support from customers
Informal support from consultants
Source: Capaldo and Fontes (2001).
In this respect, the support offered by relatives and friends together with informal
relationships with customers can facilitate the early-stage activities of academic
entrepreneurs. In fact, the support network represents the key link between such
entrepreneurs and the market they operate in (Bellini et al., 1996; Capaldo et al.,
1997; Johannisson, 1998; Monsted, 1998; Mustar, 1994). Moreover, it provides
these entrepreneurs with vital competencies for successfully implementing their
business ideas. Therefore, the presence of a network represents an always avail-
able support that can be exploited by academic entrepreneurs.
Formal and informal supports are complementary tools that facilitate the
emergence of new business ideas and lay the foundation for the creation of new
62 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Table 4.3 The impact of different supports on barriers hindering the
creation of academic spin-offs
Barriers Supports Impact
Cultural Formal:
– Business plan preparation courses
– Business training courses
– Start-up and ‘business fertilization’
activities
Informal:
– Participation in conferences and
university seminars on
entrepreneurship
– Favourable academic culture biased
towards entrepreneurship
– Networks with local frms
To develop
entrepreneurial culture
within universities
To support the transition
from the exploration to
the exploitation of
scientifc related topics
To expand the
knowledge of the
scientifc results that
can be commercialized
Organizational Formal:
– Management consultancy activities
– Information on new market
opportunities
– Information on technological
opportunities
– Support for the establishment of
contacts with other frms for
commercial purposes
– Support for the equipment
maintenance
Informal:
– Informal support from customers
– Informal support from consultants
– Informal family support
To provide new
ventures with
organizational tools and
managerial
competencies
Legal Formal:
– To manage the patent application
process
– To deal with legal problems related
to the compatibility of university-
related activities and
entrepreneurial-related activities
To change rules
regulating the business
exploitation of research
output
Financial Formal:
– Financial subsidies for investments
– Financial contribution to R&D
activities
– Financial contribution to operational
costs
– Favourable-condition loans
– Tax exemptions
To provide new
ventures with fnancial
resources
The role of business plan competitions 63
ventures. Formal supports provide potential new ventures with standard tools.
More specifcally, such tools do not take into account the specifc features of
the frms utilizing them. In other words, formal supports are not tailored to the
individual needs of new ventures. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate such
supports with informal ones. The latter category provides start-up frms with a
network of both direct and indirect relationships that are somehow related to
the specifc needs of new ventures (that is, vertical markets; sources of
competencies).
To sum up, both supports are crucial in fostering the creation of new frms.
On the one hand, formal supports facilitate the transformation of innovative
ideas into business ideas that lay the foundation for the creation of new ventures.
On the other hand, informal supports help potential new ventures bridge the gap
with market-related agents (that is, customers, suppliers, and so on). Table 4.3
shows the impact of formal and informal supports on obstacles preventing the
creation of academic spin-offs.
FORMAL AND INFORMAL SUPPORTS FACILITATING
THE EMERGENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL
BEHAVIOURS
In order to take full advantage of such supports it is not suffcient to evaluate
the nature of the barriers mentioned previously in this chapter. The implementa-
tion of effective policies supporting the creation of academic spin-offs should
take into account the key features of academic entrepreneurs. More specifcally,
it is necessary for such budding entrepreneurs to develop some specifc behav-
iours that generally characterize entrepreneurs.
As regards academic entrepreneurs’ characteristics, bridging the gap with the
market they operate in means taking advantage of three different entrepreneurial
behaviours that usually do not coexist in university-related actors. Such behav-
iours are rational, empirical and cognitive ones (Marchini, 1995). In order to
achieve a predefned result, rational entrepreneurs analyse different pieces of
information and take into account every possible alternative. Empirical entre-
preneurs’ behaviours are based on previous experiences and routines. Last but
not least, cognitive entrepreneurs create new knowledge building on information
and know-how resources they can incorporate by exploiting preferential links
with universities and market forces.
To begin with, in order to transform an innovative idea into a business-exploit-
able one, it is necessary to strengthen the rational behaviour of academic
entrepreneurs. On average, academic entrepreneurs are not short in the skills of
gathering and analysing information. However, supports are needed in order to
tailor such skills to the needs of the business community. In this phase, formal
64
T
a
b
l
e
4
.
4
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
a
n
d
r
e
l
a
t
e
d
s
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
D
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
s
t
y
l
e
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
-
t
o
o
l
s
R
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
S
i
m
o
n
,
1
9
5
9
;
M
a
r
c
h
a
n
d
S
i
m
o
n
,
1
9
5
8
I
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
-
b
a
s
e
d
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
T
o
g
a
t
h
e
r
a
n
d
a
n
a
l
y
s
e
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
T
o
e
v
a
l
u
a
t
e
e
v
e
r
y
p
o
s
s
i
b
l
e
a
l
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
v
e
T
o
m
a
k
e
a
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
t
a
k
i
n
g
a
d
v
a
n
t
a
g
e
o
f
r
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
a
s
s
u
m
p
t
i
o
n
s
.
T
r
a
d
i
t
i
o
n
a
l
f
o
r
m
a
l
t
r
a
i
n
i
n
g
f
a
c
i
l
i
t
a
t
i
n
g
l
S
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
c
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
l
C
o
s
t
/
b
e
n
e
f
t
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
l
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
p
l
a
n
c
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
E
m
p
i
r
i
c
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
B
e
r
g
e
r
a
n
d
L
u
c
k
m
a
n
n
,
1
9
6
6
;
C
o
h
e
n
a
n
d
M
a
r
c
h
,
1
9
7
4
;
N
e
l
s
o
n
a
n
d
W
i
n
t
e
r
,
1
9
8
2
;
P
e
n
r
o
s
e
,
1
9
5
9
E
x
p
e
r
i
e
n
c
e
-
b
a
s
e
d
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
T
o
c
r
e
a
t
e
a
n
d
i
m
p
l
e
m
e
n
t
r
o
u
t
i
n
e
s
F
o
r
m
a
l
a
n
d
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
l
s
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
f
a
c
i
l
i
t
a
t
i
n
g
l
T
a
c
i
t
k
n
o
w
l
e
d
g
e
t
r
a
n
s
f
e
r
l
I
m
i
t
a
t
i
o
n
a
n
d
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
o
f
b
e
s
t
p
r
a
c
t
i
c
e
s
a
n
d
c
a
s
e
s
t
u
d
i
e
s
l
L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g
b
y
d
o
i
n
g
l
P
r
e
v
i
o
u
s
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
t
r
a
d
i
t
i
o
n
s
l
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
r
e
l
a
t
e
d
t
o
s
p
e
c
i
f
c
t
e
r
r
i
t
o
r
i
a
l
c
o
n
t
e
x
t
s
C
o
g
n
i
t
i
v
e
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
A
r
g
y
r
i
s
a
n
d
S
c
h
o
n
,
1
9
7
8
;
F
r
a
n
s
m
a
n
,
1
9
9
4
;
P
o
r
a
c
e
t
a
l
.
1
9
8
9
;
S
c
h
e
i
n
,
1
9
7
8
;
W
a
l
s
h
a
n
d
U
n
g
s
o
n
,
1
9
9
1
;
W
e
i
c
k
,
1
9
7
6
E
x
p
e
c
t
a
t
i
o
n
-
b
a
s
e
d
a
n
d
v
i
s
i
o
n
-
c
r
e
a
t
i
n
g
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
T
o
i
m
p
l
e
m
e
n
t
‘
s
e
n
s
e
m
a
k
i
n
g
’
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
.
T
o
e
l
a
b
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
v
i
s
i
o
n
s
F
o
r
m
a
l
a
n
d
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
l
s
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
f
a
c
i
l
i
t
a
t
i
n
g
l
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
a
n
d
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
t
y
m
e
m
b
e
r
s
h
i
p
s
l
C
o
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
n
e
t
w
o
r
k
s
l
D
i
s
s
e
m
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
r
e
s
u
l
t
s
a
n
d
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
s
h
a
r
i
n
g
l
C
o
-
o
p
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
The role of business plan competitions 65
supports such as business plans play a crucial role. Subsequently, it is necessary
to build up academic entrepreneurs’ empirical behaviours. Such behaviours are
experienced based. It goes without saying that academic entrepreneurs are usu-
ally short on business experience and formal supports are not effective in flling
this gap as in the previous case. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen informal
network-based supports that eventually help academic entrepreneurs create and
implement routines throughout tacit knowledge transfer. Finally, academic en-
trepreneurs need to elaborate a safe and sound entrepreneurial vision throughout
reinforcing their cognitive behaviour. Once again, the presence of a well-estab-
lished network plays a crucial role.
Table 4.4 shows the relationships between different entrepreneurial styles and
supports that could foster the development of the associated decision-making
styles.
The analysis presented above shows that both the number and the quality of
academic spin-offs could be increased by taking advantage of adequate support
policies. More specifcally, such policies should be aimed at overcoming cul-
tural, organizational, legal and fnancial barriers preventing the creation of
academic spin-offs. In this respect, universities seem to play a key role in getting
around cultural barriers. In doing so, universities should take into account the
key features of academic entrepreneurs. Therefore, support policies should be
aimed at providing academic entrepreneurs with competencies they are usually
short of. Moreover, universities play a vital role in strengthening the links be-
tween knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting centres. In doing
so, they create a network that provides academic entrepreneurs with crucial in-
formal supports.
Building on such assumptions, the next section is devoted to the analysis of
the conceptual framework that is helping the University of Naples Federico II
lay the foundation for the creation of a new academic spin-off-promotion
programme.
THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN FACILITATING THE
DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC SPIN-OFFS: THE CASE
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NAPLES FEDERICO II
Ultimately the importance of European programmes promoting academic
spin-offs has considerably increased. In this respect, universities play a key
role in both overcoming cultural barriers and strengthening the links between
knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting centres.
As regards the frst aspect, professors and researchers usually do not recognize
that scientifc output contains valuable solutions for entrepreneurs. Moreover,
most of the time they are not eager to exploit research results in order to create
66 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
academic spin-offs. Similarly, entrepreneurs do not recognize that their competi-
tive weaknesses could be overcome taking advantage of scientifc output.
Universities that want to promote academic spin-offs cannot operate eff-
ciently by simply pushing professors and researchers towards the creation of
new ventures. Rather, it is necessary to create a new organizational structure
aimed at bridging cultural divides between universities and market forces. Such
a structure should be aimed primarily at sowing the seeds for an entrepreneurial
culture to emerge among university employees. In doing so, the key features of
academic entrepreneurs should be taken into account.
Besides formal supports, this chapter has underlined the importance of infor-
mal supports. The latter could be described as a network made up of different
relationships each entrepreneur relies on. Universities should take the lead in
promoting such networks. More specifcally, throughout the implementation of
AS-promotion programmes they could eventually strengthen the links between
knowledge-producing centres (universities, innovative large frms, research
centres) and knowledge-exploiting entities (start-up frms, small and medium
enterprises [SMEs], local public administrations). This is crucial for an area
such as Southern Italy that suffers from feeble relationships between the busi-
ness community and other key elements in the environment (Cappellin, 1996).
More specifcally, Southern Italy regions are characterized by weak links be-
tween knowledge-producing and knowledge-exploiting entities (Corti, 1997).
The lack of these links puts a serious constraint on the development of innova-
tive SMEs. In fact, as many authors point out (Oakey, 1984; OECD, 1982; Raffa
and Zollo, 1994; Rothwell, 1984), the development of such frms depends on
the possibility of exploiting local knowledge-producing centre resources.
The remaining part of this chapter focuses on the analysis of an academic
spin-off promotion policy (Federico II Start Cup) implemented by the University
of Naples Federico II. This policy is primarily focused on overcoming cultural
barriers and strengthening the links between knowledge-producing centres and
knowledge-exploiting centres.
As regards methodological aspects, the authors are implementing a longitu-
dinal case study focused on the different phases of the academic spin-off
creation process: that is, the emergence of business-related ideas; the transfor-
mation of such ideas into business plans; the exploitation of business plans in
order to create new frms; the capability of new ventures to overcome the incu-
bation phase. As Federico II Start Cup is a newly implemented policy, this work
focuses only on the frst two phases. Subsequently the case study will be com-
pleted taking a close look at the creation of new academic spin-offs and
implementing a cost–beneft analysis of such policy.
Federico II Start Cup provides potential ‘academic entrepreneurs’ with sup-
ports aimed at overcoming cultural barriers. It positively affects the relationship
between knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting entities as
The role of business plan competitions 67
well. In doing so, it sows the seeds for a technological environment (Stauden-
maier, 1985) to emerge. Such environment plays a crucial role in sustaining
innovative capabilities of SMEs (Meyer and Roberts, 1986; Raffa and Zollo,
1994).
To begin with, Federico II Start Cup is a competition involving all the em-
ployees of the University of Naples Federico II who have implemented an
innovative idea. Federico II Start Cup provides university employees with sup-
ports aimed at overcoming cultural barriers preventing ground-breaking ideas
from being transformed into business plans. Thereafter, the University of Na-
ples Federico II takes the lead in bridging the gap with knowledge-exploiting
entities that may eventually be interested in transforming business plans into
ASs.
Table 4.5 Formal and informal supports provided by Federico II Start Cup
The emergence
of business-ideas
The development
of business plans
The creation
of start-ups
Formal supports Early-stage
consulting
training
Business plan
consulting
training
Incubator’s
infrastructure
Informal supports Mentoring
Networking
Mentoring
Networking
Mentoring
Networking
As regards supports (Table 4.5), Federico II Start Cup helps participants build
on their innovative ideas taking advantage of the so-called ‘information-based
decision-making tools’ (strategic analysis; costs–benefts analysis; business
plan). In doing so, participants are able to strengthen their rational behaviours
that represent (together with empirical and cognitive ones) one of the key fea-
tures of entrepreneurs. Moreover, Federico II Start Cup provides participants
with informal supports as well. More specifcally, taking advantage of market
mentors, the competition help participants lay the foundation for empirical be-
haviours to emerge. In other words, building up on consultants’ experience,
Federico II Start Cup allows potential entrepreneurs to speed up the creation
and implementation of frm-orientated organizational routines (tacit-knowledge
transformation processes, imitation processes, learn by doing processes, and so
on).
Taking advantage of a preliminary data analysis, it is possible to outline some
key features of people participating in the competition:
68 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Source: University of Naples Federico II.
Figure 4.1 Participants’ faculties in Federico II Start Cup 2003
Table 4.6 People participating in Federico II Start Cup 2003
Typology Percentage of total
Professors 11
PhD students 12
Graduate students 26
Undergraduate students 47
University staff employees 4
Total 100
Engineering (31%)
Economics (12%)
Architecture (12%)
Law (9%)
Science
(Mathematics, Physics,
Natural Science)
(8%)
Medicine (6%)
Literature and Philosophy
(6%)
Sociology (5%)
Veterinary (5%)
Agrarian (4%)
Political Science (1%)
Biotechnology (1%)
1. Federico II Start Cup involves people who play different roles within the
University of Naples (Table 4.6).
2. Participants belong to a huge variety of faculties (Figure 4.1).
3. Participants have developed business ideas in a wide spectrum of business
felds (Table 4.7).
The role of business plan competitions 69
That 93 groups (300 people) are participating in such a competition demon-
strates that within the University of Naples the interest in entrepreneurship is
higher than expected. Moreover, such interest is not just related to faculties that
are usually biased towards entrepreneurship. In fact, data shows that humanistic
faculties are also participating in the competition (Figure 4.1).
Last but not least, the emergence of highly differentiated business ideas is a
case in point for demonstrating that the creation of new ASs is not exclusively
related to the exploitation of scientifc research results (Table 4.7).
Besides providing potential ‘academic entrepreneurs’ with such supports,
Federico II Start Cup also aims at bridging the gap with knowledge-exploiting
entities that may eventually be interested in transforming business plans into
academic spin-offs. In fact, those who win the competition can lay the founda-
tion of a new frm taking advantage of an incubator located in Naples (Business
Innovation Centre promoted by ‘Città della Scienza’). Besides providing infra-
structure-based supports, such an environment strengthens the cognitive skills
of potential entrepreneurs. More specifcally, taking advantage of the business
community gravitating around the Business Innovation Centre, university em-
ployees could build on their entrepreneurial vision. In conclusion, at the end of
such a process, rational, empirical and cognitive behaviours of university em-
ployees will be strengthened. This in turn will ease cultural barriers that prevent
such employees from becoming entrepreneurs. Moreover, for those who are
interested in pushing further the transformation process of an innovative idea
into a new frm, Federico II Start Cup makes it possible to take advantage of a
Table 4.7 Fields in which the participants have developed their business
ideas
Business idea felds
Products and services for industrial-related activities
Products and services based on information and communication technologies
Food products
Organic products
Biomedical products
Fishing and farming related products
Services for both tourists and frms operating in such sector
Environment-related services
News-media related services
Energy-sector related services
Consultancy services for frms
Non-proft related activities
70 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Neapolitan-based incubator. In doing so, not only does the programme provide
potential entrepreneurs with an infrastructure, it also strengthens the relationship
between knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting entities.
Therefore, Federico II Start Cup sows the seeds for a technological environment
to emerge.
CONCLUSIONS
Both the analysis of the literature and the early stage results of the AS strategy
being implemented by the University of Naples Federico II make it possible to
draw some preliminary fndings as regards the academic spin-off support pro-
grammes. Such fndings could eventually be taken into account in designing
effective tools supporting the creation of ASs.
To begin with, there is widespread consensus over the role played by universi-
ties in promoting economic development. However, in particular with regard to
areas that do not excel in transforming research output into business-exploitable
ideas, such a role should not be overstretched. Therefore, at least initially, uni-
versities could operate effectively even if they limit their action to overcome
cultural barriers preventing new business ideas from coming through. In doing
so, universities sow the seeds for the emergence of entrepreneurial activities in
environments that are not naturally biased towards entrepreneurship. However,
through a combination of formal and informal supports, universities can extend
their reach, laying the foundation for the emergence of new ventures. More
specifcally, such a combination makes it possible to overcome the remaining
barriers that prevent the creation of ASs (that is, organizational, fnancial, legal
barriers). Secondly, it is not necessary for AS support programmes to be nar-
rowly focused on research-producing actors (professors, PhD students, and so
on). Such programmes can encompass a huge variety of university-related ac-
tors. In doing so, they can demonstrate that even environments that are not
naturally biased towards business activities can prove to be a ‘hidden source’
of entrepreneurship.
This chapter represents the frst step of a wider research project. Further re-
searches will be aimed at:
l developing a better understanding of the combined effect of formal and
informal supports on extending the reach of universities in promoting
ASs
l completing the longitudinal case study taking into account the creation
of new ventures and their ability to gain market shares.
The role of business plan competitions 71
NOTE
1. Although the chapter is the result of the collaboration of all the authors, in this version, ‘Barriers
hindering accademic spin-off creation’ is by Luca Iandoli, ‘Supports for the creation of aca-
demic spin-offs’ by Lorella Cannavacciuolo, ‘Formal and informal supports facilitating the
emergence of entrepreneurial behavious’ by Guido Capaldo, ‘The role of universities in facili-
tating the development of academic spin-offs: the case of the University of Naples Frederico
II’ by Gianluca Esposito, and remaining sections are the fruit of collaborative work.
REFERENCES
Argyris, C. and D.A. Schon (1978), Organizational Learning. A Theory of Action Per-
spective, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Bellini, E., G. Capaldo, A. Coppola and G. Zollo (1996), ‘Problemi di acquisizione e
sviluppo delle competenze delle piccole e medie imprese operanti nel Mezzogiorno’,
L’Industria, 4, 749–66.
BenDaniel, D.J. and K. Szafara (1998), ‘What aspects of the culture of technical profes-
sors and the structure of research universities help or hinder the transfer of technology’,
report of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Kauffman Foundation, Cornell
University.
Berger, L. and T. Luckmann (1966), The Social Construction of the Reality, Harmonds-
worth: Penguin.
Bok, D. (1990), Universities and the Future of America, Durham, NC: Duke University
Press.
Boyatzis, R.E. (1982), The Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance,
New York: Wiley.
Brown, W.S. (1985), ‘A proposed mechanism for commercializing university technolo-
gy’, Technovation, 3, 19–25.
Callon, M. (1994), ‘Is science a public good?’, Science, Technology and Human Values,
19 (4), 395–424.
Capaldo, G. and M. Fontes (2001), ‘Support for graduate entrepreneurs in new technol-
ogy-based frms: an exploratory study from Southern Europe’, Enterprise and
Innovation Management Studies, 2 (1), 65–78.
Capaldo, G., E. Corti and O. Greco (1997), ‘A coordinated network of different actors
to offer services for innovation to develop local SMEs inside areas with a delay of
development’, paper presented at 37th European ERSA (European Science Associa-
tion) Congress, Rome, 26–29 August.
Capaldo, G., L. Iandoli, M. Raffa and G. Zollo (2002), ‘The role of academic spin-offs
in connecting local knowledge’, in F. Belussi, G. Gottardi and E. Rullani (eds), Knowl-
edge Creation, Collective Learning and Variety of Institutional Arrangements,
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Cappellin, R. (1996), ‘Una politica per il Mezzogiorno orientata al mercato e la proposta
di un Progetto dalla Calabria’, in D. Cersosimo (a cura di), Una Politica Economica
per la Calabria, Soneria Mannelli (Catanzaro): Rubbettino Editore.
Chiesa, V. and A. Piccaluga (1996), ‘Le imprese Spin-off nella ricerca in Italia e
all’estero’, Quaderni della fondazione Piaggio, 3, 177–95.
Clarysse, B., J. Degroof and A. Heirman (2001), ‘Analysis of the typical growth pattern
of technology-based companies in life sciences and information technology and the
72 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
role of different source of innovation fnancing’, report to European Commission,
D.G. Enterprise, EIMS, September.
Cohen, M.D. and J.G. March (1974), Leadership and Ambiguity: The American College
President, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Corti, E. (1997), ‘Il Parco Tecnologico come strumento per lo sviluppo delle economie
locali’, paper presented at 1997 TII Annual Conference, Napoli, 28–29 Aprile.
Etzkowitz, H. (1989), ‘Entrepreneurial science in the academy: a case of the transforma-
tions of norms’, Social Problems, 36 (1), 14–27.
Etzkowitz, H. (1998), ‘The norms of entrepreneurial science: cognitive effects of the
new university–industry linkages’, Research Policy, 27 (8), 823–33.
Formica, P. (1993), ‘Gli spin-off aziendali’, Zenit, 3.
Fransman, M. (1994), ‘Information, knowledge, vision and theories of the frm’, Indus-
trial and Corporate Change, 3 (2), 1–45.
Geisler, R.L. (1993), Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities
since World War II, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gibson, D. and V.D. Smilor (1991), ‘Key variables in technology transfer: a feld study
based empirical analysis’, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 8
(3/4), 287–312.
Johannisson, B. (1998), ‘Personal networks in emerging knowledge-based frms: spatial
and functional patterns’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 10 (4),
297–312.
Jones-Evans, D. (1997), ‘Technical entrepreneurship, experience and the management
of small technology-based frms’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 9 (1),
65–90.
March, J.G. and H. Simon (1958), Organizations, New York: Wiley.
Marchini, I. (1995), Il governo della piccola impresa, Voll. I e II, Urbino: Aspi/
InsEdit.
McMillan, G.S., F. Narin and D.L. Dedes (2000), ‘An analysis of the critical role of
public science in innovation: the case of biotechnology’, Research policy, 29 (1),
1–8.
Meyer, M.H. and E.B. Roberts (1986), ‘New product strategy in small technology-based
frms: a pilot study’, Management Science, 32 (7), 806–21.
Monsted, M. (1998), ‘Strategic alliances as an analytical perspective for innovative
SMEs’, in R. Oakey and W. During (eds), New Technology-Based Firms in the 1990s,
London: Paul Chapman, pp. 99–111.
Mustar, P. (1994), ‘Organisations, Technologies et Marchés en Création: La Genese des
PME High-Tech’, Revue d’Economie Industrielle, 67, 156–74.
Nelson, R.R. and S.G. Winter (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change,
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Oakey, R. (1984), High Technology Small Firms, London: Frances Pinter.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1982), Innovation
in Small and Medium Firms, Paris: OECD.
Penrose, E.T. (1959), The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Porac, J.F., T. Howard and C. Baden-Fuller (1989), ‘Competitive groups as cognitive
communities: the case of Scottish knitwear manufacturers’, Journal of Management
Studies, 26 (4), 397–416.
Raffa, M. and G. Zollo (1994), ‘The role of professionals in small Italian software frms’,
Journal of Systems Software, 26 (3), 19–30.
Raffa, M. and G. Zollo (2000), Economia del Software, Napoli: Edizioni Scientifche
Italiane.
The role of business plan competitions 73
Rothwell, R. (1984), ‘The role of small frms in the emergence of new technologies’,
Omega, 1 (1), 19–29.
Schein, E.H. (1978), Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs,
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Simon, H.A (1959), ‘Theories of decision making in economics and behavioral science’,
American Economic Review, 49, 253–83.
Spencer, L.M. and S.M. Spencer (1993), Competence at Work. Models for Superior
Performance, New York: Wiley.
Stankiewicz, R. (1986), Academics and Entrepreneurs. Developing University–Industry
Relations, London: Frances Pinter.
Staudenmaier, J.M. (1985), Technology’s Storytellers: Reweaving the Human Fabric,
Cambridge: Society for the History of Technology and MIT Press.
Van Alstè, J.A. and P.C. Van der Sijde (eds) (1998), The Role of the University in Regional
Development, Enschede: Twente University Press.
Varaldo, R. and A. Piccaluga (1994), ‘Un ponte tra industria e università per rilanciare
la ricerca’, L’impresa, 9.
Walsh, J.P. and G.R. Ungson (1991), ‘Organizational memory’, Academy of Management
Review, 16 (1), 57–91.
Weick, K.E. (1976), The Social Psychology of Organization, 2nd edn, Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
74
5. Attitudes, intentions and behaviour:
new approaches to evaluating
entrepreneurship education
Alain Fayolle and Jean Michel Degeorge
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, entrepreneurship education has been developing steadily but
unevenly in most countries. In the USA, for example, which has been a trail-
blazer and leader in the feld, the past decade has been described as an important
era, with a signifcant increase in student interest (Fiet, 2001a). The fgures tend
to support this statement. In 1971, only 16 colleges and universities in the USA
offered entrepreneurship education programmes, while today there are more
than 800. More American students are showing an interest in venture creation
and independent employment, and are seriously considering entrepreneurship
as a career option. They are therefore looking for and choosing entrepreneurship
programmes. In 1996, for example, roughly 45 per cent
1
of frst-year students
in Northwestern University’s management programme said they wanted to
specialize in entrepreneurship (Fiet, 2001a). During the same period, entrepre-
neurship teachers began to meet regularly at conferences to discuss recent
developments and compare their educational practices and methods (Fiet,
2001b). In France, entrepreneurship education has spread considerably over the
past few years, and is currently in a structural phase (Fayolle, 2000a; 2003).
Two recent initiatives clearly illustrate the process: frst, the creation in 1998 of
the ‘Academie de l’Entrepreneuriat’, a French association of entrepreneurship
teachers and trainers from the secondary and higher education levels; and sec-
ond, the creation in 2001 of the ‘Observatoire des Pratiques Pédagogiques en
Entrepreneuriat’, a joint initiative involving three government departments
whose primary mission is to identify entrepreneurship teaching and training
activities throughout France.
Although entrepreneurship education is fourishing, a large number of ques-
tions, some of them important, have yet to be answered or clarifed. They include
the question of evaluating entrepreneurship programmes and training (Bechard
and Toulouse, 1998). This is certainly a diffcult and complex issue. While the
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 75
impact of the programme or session on the trainees, students and other partici-
pants may be an acceptable evaluation criterion, the problem of how to measure
it still remains. What indicators should be used, and how should they be meas-
ured? How can you measure a change in someone’s state of mind or behaviour?
How can the importance of the time factor be taken into account? And how can
factors relating to education, teaching and training be separated from all the
other factors that have an impact on the decision to choose a specifc career path
or profession?
It is not our intention here to try to answer all these questions. We will, how-
ever, attempt to show the potential utility of the theory of planned behaviour in
addressing the complex problems encountered in the evaluation process. The
next section of the chapter will identify some of the major issues affecting the
evaluation of entrepreneurship education programmes, while the third section
summarizes prior research on the evaluation and impact of entrepreneurship
programmes, and the fourth presents models of intention and the theory of
planned behaviour as they apply to entrepreneurship. A fnal section sets out
our research approach and presents the overlying conceptual framework.
SOME QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE EVALUATION OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
In a recent paper, Vesper and Gartner (1997) listed 18 criteria for evaluating
entrepreneurship education programmes, ranked in order of importance by ex-
pert respondents. The top fve criteria were:
l the number of courses offered
l publications by teachers
l impacts on the community
l venture creation by students and young graduates
l resulting innovations.
Two observations are in order here. First, the above classifcation was produced
by academics, not by venture-creation professionals or economic and political
decision-makers. Second, the paper does not say how the selected indicators
can be measured. Measurement is often extremely diffcult. As shown by Block
and Stumpf (1992) and summarized in Table 5.1, indicators can often produce
delayed effects. For example ‘venture creation’ cannot possibly be measured
during or immediately after training, since the venture-creation process takes
time – sometimes a great deal of time. And the more delayed the measurement,
the harder it is to isolate the role played by a given factor from the potential
impacts of other variables on the venture-creation act.
76 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Table 5.1 Evaluation indicators and measurement times
Measurement period or time Criteria
Same time as the courses Number of students enrolled
Number of courses
General awareness of and/or interest in
entrepreneurship
A short time after the
courses end
Intention to act
Acquisition of knowledge and know-how
Development of entrepreneurial self-diagnosis
abilities
Between 0 and 5 years after
the courses
Number of ventures created
Number of buyouts
Number of entrepreneurial positions sought
and obtained
Between 3 and 10 years
after the courses
Sustainability and reputation of the frms
Level of innovation and capacity for change
exhibited by the frms
More than 10 years after the
courses
Contribution to society and the economy
Business performance
Level of satisfaction with career
Source: based on Block and Stumpf (1992).
Educational institutions also offer a wide range of entrepreneurship awareness
and training activities (Fayolle, 2003; Gartner and Vesper, 1994). Given that the
goal of entrepreneurship education is not necessarily for all participants to
launch businesses or for businesses to be launched immediately, the simplest
and most obvious indicators are not generally the most appropriate. The worst-
case scenario would be to evaluate a programme by counting only the number
of businesses launched by trainees or the number of jobs generated. This is es-
pecially true because, given the inherent risks and difficulties of the
venture-creation process, it is often unwise to push students too hard, or to take
an evangelical approach. Students are young, easily infuenced and often looking
for models. Evaluation should always be adjusted to the educational level, the
goals of the training and the target clientele, all of which need to be clearly
identifed (Bechard and Toulouse, 1998). The range of possible learning situa-
tions is clearly illustrated by Johannisson’s (1991) taxonomical approach, which
proposes fve levels of learning designed to develop the attitudes, skills, tools
and knowledge required for entrepreneurship.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 77
Precisely what, then, should be evaluated? When should the evaluation take
place? As with any educational programme, it is possible to evaluate the knowl-
edge acquired and measure how well students have understood the key
techniques and mechanisms. Student interest, awareness and intention can also
be measured. Attendance rates, participation and student motivation are the
classical criteria for measuring satisfaction, and evaluations or measurements
taken during and shortly after the training are also important, in that they can
help identify variations and progress in performance levels (project manage-
ment, teamwork, creative capacity, and so on). For the purposes of this research,
we have limited the analysis period or measurement time to the frst two catego-
ries in Table 5.1.
THE EFFECTS AND IMPACTS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
Throughout the world, student interest in entrepreneurship as a career choice is
growing (Brenner et al., 1991; Fleming, 1994; Hart and Harrison, 1992; Kolv-
ereid, 1996a), while interest in traditional professional employment in big
business is gradually declining (Kolvereid, 1996a). The orientations and behav-
iours of students and young graduates are infuenced by a number of personal
and environmental factors (Lüthje and Kranke, 2003). Empirical research has
shown that the presence of entrepreneurship education programmes and a posi-
tive image of entrepreneurs within the university are both incentives for students
to choose an entrepreneurial career. For example, Johannisson (1991) and Autio
et al. (1997) underscored the positive impact of students’ perceptions of entre-
preneurship as a career choice, along with the role played by the resources and
other support mechanisms available in the university environment. Other re-
search has shown the importance of the social status of entrepreneurial activities
and situations (Begley et al., 1997) and the statistical link between the level of
entrepreneurial intention and the number of management courses taken by stu-
dents enrolled in other programmes (Chen et al., 1998).
Entrepreneurship education and training infuence both current behaviour and
future intentions (Fayolle, 2002; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999; Kolvereid and
Moen, 1997). In other words, there are signifcant differences between students
who have taken entrepreneurship courses and those who have not. But can the
causal relationship between the educational variables (course content, teaching
methods, teacher profle, resources and support, and so on) and the direct inten-
tional and/or behavioural antecedents (attitudes, values, knowledge, and so on)
really be explained in detail? Some researchers have attempted to do this and
their fndings are summarized below, but we believe there is still a need for fur-
ther conceptualization and testing.
78 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Attempts have been made to compare the intentions and/or behaviours of
students from different groups. For example, Varela and Jimenez (2001), in a
longitudinal study, chose groups of students from fve programmes in three
universities in Columbia. They found that the highest entrepreneurship rates
were achieved in the universities that had invested the most in entrepreneurship
guidance and training for their students.
Noel (2001) looked specifcally at the impact of entrepreneurship training on
the development of entrepreneurial intention and the perception of self-effcacy.
The students in the sample had all taken an entrepreneurship education pro-
gramme and were graduates in entrepreneurship, management or another
discipline. Noel’s fndings at least partially confrmed the assumption that the
entrepreneurship graduates were more likely to launch businesses and had a
higher level of intention and a more developed perception of self-effcacy than
students in the other two groups.
Other researchers have tried to explain the relationship between entrepreneur-
ship programmes and characteristics such as need for achievement and locus of
control (Hansemark, 1998) or the perception of self-effcacy (Ehrlich et al.,
2000). They found that entrepreneurship education had a positive impact, en-
hancing these characteristics and the likelihood of action at some point in the
future.
However, less attention appears to have been paid to educational variables.
Dilts and Fowler (1999) tried to show that certain teaching methods (traineeships
and feld learning) are more successful than others at preparing students for an
entrepreneurial career, while Lüthje and Kranke (2003) mentioned the impor-
tance of certain contextual factors within the university environment in hindering
or facilitating access by technical students to entrepreneurial behaviours. Their
fndings confrm those of Autio et al. (1997) and Fayolle (1996), obtained using
similar samples.
THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR AND ITS
UTILITY IN THE FIELD OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The theory of planned behaviour is based on the theory of reasoned action
(Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). It was developed by Ajzen (1991) and has recently
been reformulated (Ajzen, 2002). Basically, the concept of intention plays a
central and overriding role in predicting and explaining a planned human be-
haviour that is controlled entirely by will and is not dependent on factors outside
the control of the person concerned. This clearly limits the utility of the theory,
since situations that satisfy all these conditions are rare. The limitation relates
principally to the automatic nature of the relationship between intention and
behaviour. Although in certain conditions intention is a good predictor of be-
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 79
haviour, it is by no means true that behaviour will automatically follow on from
intention. It all depends on the type of behaviour. The examples cited by Ajzen
(1991) are mostly behaviours that can be controlled by the individuals con-
cerned, in which will plays a major role – for instance, the decision to stop
smoking, short-term elective preferences or the choice of how to feed a baby
(breast or bottle feeding). Although we are convinced of both the interest and
the utility of the theory of planned behaviour in the feld of entrepreneurship,
we also believe entrepreneurial behaviour is more complex (and thus, perhaps,
less easy to predict from intention) than the cases cited above.
In the theory of planned behaviour, intentions are formed over time as a result
of three principal factors whose relative importance depends on the specifc
case. The frst of these is the attitude towards the behaviour, derived from per-
ceptions of the behaviour’s consequences and the value ascribed to those
consequences. The second is awareness of social standards and pressure, result-
ing from a perception of what other people (of importance) think should be done
and the reasons for submitting to their expectations. The third is the perception
of behavioural control, determined frst by the subject’s perception of the op-
portunities and resources required to achieve the behaviour, and second by a
belief that it will in fact be possible to obtain those resources. The underlying
basis of intention and the determinants of behaviour are therefore perceptions,
which are developed gradually from beliefs.
The theory of planned behaviour is part of the larger family of intentional
models, created principally to try to explain the emergence of entrepreneurial
behaviour. In the view of many authors (Autio et al., 1997; Bird, 1989; Krueger
and Carsrud, 1993; Shapero and Sokol, 1982; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999),
venture creation is a planned and hence an intentional behaviour. Intention
therefore appears to be a better predictor of behaviour than attitudes, beliefs or
other psychological or sociological variables (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993).
Krueger and Carsrud (1993) were the frst to apply the theory of planned be-
haviour to the feld of entrepreneurship by trying to make Ajzen’s (1991) model
compatible with other theoretical frameworks, especially that of Shapero and
Sokol (1982). Their fnal model (Figure 5.1) is the result of this approach.
The three antecedents of intention in this model are:
1. Perceived attractiveness of entrepreneurial behaviour. This factor corre-
sponds to the attitude towards the behaviour, and is dependent on beliefs
relating to the behaviour’s positive or negative impacts. It encompasses the
notion of perceived desirability (or lack thereof), which is one of the com-
ponents of Shapero and Sokol’s model (1982).
2. Perceived social norms about entrepreneurial behaviours. This factor in-
cludes perceptions of what important people or groups (peer pressure,
friends’ wishes, family wishes, and so on) think of the target behaviour.
80 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
These perceptions are infuenced by normative beliefs and are of less rele-
vance for individuals with a strong internal locus of control (Ajzen, 1987)
than for those with a strong action orientation (Bagozzi et al., 1992). The
factor covers the notions of desirability and feasibility from Shapero and
Sokol’s model (1982).
3. Perceived self-effcacy/control for entrepreneurial behaviours. This factor
is as important in this model as in that of Ajzen (1991). It relates to percep-
tions of the behaviour’s feasibility, which are an essential predictor of the
behaviour. Individuals usually elect to work towards behaviours they think
they will be able to control and master. The perceived behavioural control
factor in Ajzen’s model (1991) is very similar to the self-effcacy notion
constructed by Bandura (1986), which has been used in numerous studies
of entrepreneurship, although not enough according to certain authors:
‘Self-effcacy should be a particularly useful tool in the researcher’s reper-
Source: Krueger and Carsrud (1993: 323).
Figure 5.1 Intentions towards entrepreneurial behaviour: the theory of
planned behaviour
Perceived
attractiveness of
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Perceived social
norms about
entrepreneurial
behaviours
Target
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Intentions towards
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Perceived self-
effcacy/control
for
entrepreneurial
behaviours
Hypothesized exogenous
precipitating, facilitating,
or inhibiting infuences
H
y
p
o
t
h
e
s
i
z
e
d
e
x
o
g
e
n
o
u
s
i
n
f
u
e
n
c
e
s
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 81
toire and entrepreneurship researchers seeking a psychological explanation
for organizational emergence should examine the role of perceived self-ef-
fcacy’ (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993: 325).
Their model remains open to the infuence of exogenous variables that may play
a role in the development of beliefs and attitudes. It also uses some of the con-
ceptual contributions of Shapero and Sokol (1982), including the notion of an
external trigger, to explain the shift from intention to behaviour.
The implications and applications of the theory of planned behaviour in the
feld of entrepreneurship are numerous and extremely promising. Some of the
theory’s implications are related to education and training. Since the early 1980s,
researchers have been able to identify the role played by education and teaching
variables in the development of perceptions about the desirability and feasibility
of entrepreneurial behaviour (Shapero and Sokol, 1982). In other words, a train-
ing programme can have an impact on the antecedents of intention in the theory
of planned behaviour (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). As an example, Krueger
and Carsrud (1993: 326) state that ‘Perceived self-effcacy/control for entrepre-
neurial behaviours’ is infuenced by the acquisition of management tools and
exposure to entrepreneurial situations. They go on to say, ‘Teaching people
about the realities of entrepreneurship may increase their entrepreneurial self-
effcacy, but simultaneously decrease the perceived desirability of starting a
business’ (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993: 327).
In conclusion, and based upon the observations of Krueger and Carsrud, we
will make a number of recommendations concerning the use of the theory of
planned behaviour as an instrument for evaluating entrepreneurship education.
With regard to the teaching aspect, it would, for example, be useful to try to
understand the process by which entrepreneurial intentions are formed, to situate
the respective roles of intentional antecedents and to explore the confgurations
that generate high, stable intentions in different entrepreneurial situations.
Teachers could also try to use the model to improve their understanding of their
students’ motivations and intentions, and then adjust their programmes accord-
ingly. With regard to research, the theory of planned behaviour could be used
to analyse how and in what conditions a business plan preparation process within
an educational programme affects entrepreneurial intentions.
PREPARING AN EVALUATION FRAMEWORK FOR
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
USING THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR
As we saw in the second section, it is diffcult to use the venture-creation act as
the sole criterion for evaluating a programme’s impact. However, it may be
82 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
easier and equally appropriate to use criteria related to entrepreneurial intention
or change of attitude towards entrepreneurial behaviour. The likelihood of en-
gaging in entrepreneurial behaviour, or entrepreneurial intention, could therefore
be used to measure the impacts of a training programme, even though intending
to launch a business is not the same as actually doing so.
The purpose of this section of the chapter is to construct a dynamic tool for
evaluating awareness activities, training programmes and courses in the feld
of entrepreneurship. The tool should, to a certain extent, permit us to penetrate
entrepreneurship education’s ‘black box’ – in other words, to understand the
impact of specifc ‘educational’ variables on changes of attitude and the de-
velopment of entrepreneurial intention. The instrument is inspired directly by
the theory of planned behaviour, and is presented in diagram form in Figure
5.2.
It now remains for us to defne our concepts, the model’s variables and a
framework for their use. Our general framework is designed to evaluate aware-
ness activities, training programmes and support programmes for students and
other types of learners. It should be capable of being transformed into hypotheti-
cal/deductive models appropriate to the situations in which it is used. As we
mentioned earlier, awareness activities and educational programmes differ
widely in terms of their actions, teaching strategies and resources, duration and
the types of people involved. In this chapter, we use the term ‘entrepreneurship
education programme’ to refer to all awareness, teaching, training and support
activities in the feld of entrepreneurship, including their environment, content,
teaching approaches, resources, teachers and other players. The measurement
and analysis period begins slightly before the programme and ends a short time
afterwards. We do have a strong interest in intentional stability, however, and
may decide to extend the observation period at a later date. In such a case, the
same indicators would be used.
The Model’s Independent Variables
In our model, the variables relating to training and the educational environment
are independent variables designed to explain the dependent variables (attitudes
towards entrepreneurial behaviour and entrepreneurial intention).
Figure 5.2 The general model underlying the evaluation tool
Variables related to
the training and the
educational
environment
Variables related to
attitudes towards
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Entrepreneurial
intentions
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 83
In an entrepreneurship education programme, depending on its type and na-
ture, students and learners must deal with one or more learning processes and
an institutional environment that conveys a positive or negative image of entre-
preneurship and offers variable amounts of resources. At frst glance, these three
families of variables (learning process, institutional environment and resources)
appear to constitute a satisfactory point of departure. We will examine them in-
dividually, in more detail, below. Although the latter two have been identifed
and incorporated into the work of other researchers, the frst does not appear to
have been used very much.
Learning processes
Learning processes can be broken down into teaching objectives, types of stu-
dents and disciplines, content, duration, intensity, frequency, teaching methods
and approaches, and teacher numbers and profles. Potentially, all these aspects
could be independent variables with individual and collective impacts on attitudes
and intentions. For example, a study by Fayolle (2000b) revealed the importance
of the teaching objectives assigned to entrepreneurship education programmes.
With regard to content, the balance and range of knowledge are important features
of such programmes (Gasse, 1992; Ghosh and Block, 1993; Gibb, 1988; Wyck-
ham, 1989). Johannisson (1991) identifed fve content levels for the development
of entrepreneurial knowledge: the know-why (attitudes, values, motivations), the
know-how (abilities), the know-who (short and long-term social skills), the know-
when (intuition) and the know-what (knowledge).
Teaching approaches and methods can be divided into content strategies, re-
lationship strategies and acquisition strategies (Develay, 1992). They may
involve ‘learning by doing’, immersion in real-life situations, case studies and
talks by entrepreneurs, or more didactical and conventional procedures. For
example, would the fact of asking students to develop a business plan based on
their own ideas and/or projects, have a different impact on their attitudes and
intention than the fact of working on a case study or attending a traditional
classroom lecture? The purpose of our study is to test all these possibilities, a
task that may well involve incursions into the feld of educational science.
Institutional environment
Not all educational institutions (universities, management schools, business
schools and so on) offer the same political, social and cultural environments.
Research in France has shown the important impact of the course or programme
on the students’ choice of career (Safavian-Martinon, 1998). An institutional
environment that accepts and values entrepreneurial behaviour and employment
in small and medium-sized enterprises may have an impact on the entrepre-
neurial intentions of students. Through its policies, incentives and behaviours,
an institution can encourage its students to take the initiative and engage in
84 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
venture creation, and can also convey a positive image of entrepreneurship as
a career choice (Autio et al., 1997).
Resources
Resources may be material, fnancial and intellectual in nature. Examples in-
clude the availability of funds to help fnance venture creation projects by
students, support networks for entrepreneurial initiatives (professionals and
businesses), entrepreneurship centres, business incubators, a broad supply of
entrepreneurship programmes, entrepreneurship institutes and specialized
libraries.
The Model’s Dependent Variables
Before addressing the dependent variables – attitudes and intention – we will
frst discuss what we mean by ‘entrepreneurial behaviour’ and how we have
used the concept in our research. The term ‘entrepreneurial behaviour’ refers
back to the defnition of entrepreneurship itself, on which there is no real con-
sensus. We therefore propose to replace this somewhat generic term by a series
of more precise terms applicable to different entrepreneurial situations. These
include ‘venture creation’ – although here again we would need to specify the
type of creation (technological, innovative, craft, industrial, tertiary, agricultural,
and so on). Individual buy-outs of problem frms could also be included, as
could certain instances of corporate entrepreneurship (innovative activities
within a large frm), provided they are clearly defned to avoid any possible
ambiguities.
Attitudes
The various types of ‘entrepreneurial’ attitudes are derived directly from the
theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) applied to the feld of entrepreneur-
ship (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). Kolvereid (1996b), in subsequent empirical
research, proposed a series of indicators designed to operationalize the attitude
variables (attitude towards action, subjective norms, perceived behavioural
control).
Intention
Kolvereid (1996b) used a three-part indicator to measure an individual’s inten-
tion to create a business.
The attitude and intention variables are measured using Likert-type scales as
opposed to a binary system, so that they can be graded by intensity.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 85
Measurements
The proposed evaluation tool is dynamic; in other words, the most important
element is its development over time, rather than the value of a given variable
at a given time. The goal is to capture changes of attitude and changes of inten-
tion. There is therefore a need for different measurements at different times – for
example, at the beginning and end of the programme, with one or two intermedi-
ate measurements in the case of long-term programmes.
For the independent variables, the measurements can be binary in some cases
(for example, ‘exists’ or ‘does not exist’ for resources), or they may estimate
the interest or relevance of a given strategy or the progression of learning.
Given that we are concerned with intention and not with the behaviour itself,
we may, to obtain a proper evaluation, need to try and measure intentional sta-
bility over time, and this may involve adding measurements one or two years
after the end of the programme.
CONCLUSION
The evaluation of entrepreneurship education programmes is currently attracting
a lot of interest from researchers. Numerous initiatives have been launched or
are under way, and the social demand is always as strong with regard to venture
creation, job creation and widespread development of the entrepreneurial spirit
and associated behaviours. All this has triggered a need for evaluation, in that
the governments, regional communities and socio-economic partners providing
the funding need to know the results of their contributions. The information they
want relates basically to venture creation and the creation of direct and indirect
jobs, and these factors have therefore become the most important evaluation
criteria. The most surprising element here is that this particular conception of
the role and issues of entrepreneurship education has been taken up by the edu-
cational community in general, which also tends to use the venture-creation and
job-creation indicators to prove the relevance, quality and effectiveness of its
educational programmes. This raises a dual question. First, as we have shown
in this chapter, these particular indicators produce signifcant delayed effects,
so that it is diffcult, if not impossible, to use and measure them objectively and
reliably within an acceptable time frame. Second, the focus on these indicators
to the exclusion of all others tends to minimize the existence and importance of
other indicators. It would be equally relevant to examine pedagogical criteria
such as knowledge acquisition and the relevance and effectiveness of a given
teaching strategy, not to mention indicators such as awareness of an area of
economic or social life or the development of an entrepreneurial mindset and
entrepreneurial intention.
86 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
The basic contribution of our research is to show that the theory of planned
behaviour and models of intention can be used to evaluate entrepreneurship
education programmes. The development of and changes to entrepreneurial in-
tention are therefore core elements in our approach. In the theory of planned
behaviour, intention is a good predictor of certain types of human behaviour.
Intention is developed as part of a process and is subject to changes of attitude.
Three types of attitudes are relevant to entrepreneurial behaviour, namely, atti-
tudes towards the behaviour, attitudes subject to social pressures and subjective
norms, and attitudes towards the control and mastery of the behaviour. Our
proposed evaluation framework includes a generic model comprising a number
of independent variables related to the education programme and its environ-
ment, which infuence the dependent variables (the three types of attitudes listed
above, and entrepreneurial intention). The framework opens up a broad feld of
research covering the objectives, assumptions and independent variables to be
included in the model. Hypothetical-deductive type research can be used to test
the impacts of a wide range of variables and variable confgurations. Another
feature of the framework relates to the type of research. We feel it is extremely
important to work longitudinally throughout the duration of a training process,
and to take several measurements at different times both during the programme
and afterwards.
We believe our work has many implications, primarily for researchers. The
framework opens up numerous avenues for future research to understand the
infuence and impacts of entrepreneurship education programmes on student
attitudes, intensions and mindsets. Ultimately, it could help improve knowledge
of intentional models. It also has implications for teachers, trainers and political
and economic decision-makers. For example, teachers and trainers may ulti-
mately be able to adjust their programmes by reformulating and clarifying their
objectives as a result of this study and future extensions of it. Political and eco-
nomic decision-makers, for their part, may be able to reconsider their vision of
the evaluation issue and reorient their policies and practices accordingly.
NOTE
1. This fgure can be compared with others: 30 per cent in 1995, 12 per cent in 1994 and 7 per
cent in 1993.
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I. (1991), ‘The theory of planned behaviour’, Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 87
Ajzen, I. (2002), ‘Perceived behavioral control, self-effcacy, locus of control, and the
theory of planned behavior’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1–20.
Ajzen, I. and M. Fishbein (1980), Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Be-
haviour, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Autio, E., R.H. Keeley, M. Klofsten and T. Ulfstedt (1997), ‘Entrepreneurial intent among
students: testing an intent model in Asia, Scandinavia and USA’, Frontiers of Entre-
preneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer.
Bagozzi, R., H. Baumgartner and Y. Yi (1992), ‘State versus action orientation and the
theory of reasoned action: an application to coupon usage’, Journal of Consumer Re-
search, 18, 505–18.
Bandura, A. (1986), The Social Foundations of Thought and Action, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bechard, J.P. and J.M. Toulouse (1998), ‘Validation of a didactic model for the analysis
of training objectives in entrepreneurship’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13 (4),
317–32.
Begley, T.M., W.L. Tan, A.B. Larasati, A. Rab, E. Zamora and G. Nanayakkara (1997),
‘The relationship between socio-cultural dimensions and interest in starting a business:
a multi-country study’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference
Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer.
Bird, B. (1989), ‘Implementing entrepreneurial ideas: the case for intentions’, Academy
of Management Review, 13, 442–54.
Block, Z. and S.A. Stumpf (1992), ‘Entrepreneurship education research: experience
and challenge’, in D.L. Sexton and J.D. Kasarda (eds), The State of the Art of Entre-
preneurship, Boston, MA: PWS-Kent, pp. 17–45.
Brenner, O.C., C.D. Pringle and J.H. Greenhaus (1991), ‘Perceived fulflment of organi-
zational employment versus entrepreneurship: work values and career intentions of
business college graduates’, Journal of Small Business Management, 29 (3), 62–74.
Chen, C.C., P.G. Greene and A. Crick (1998), ‘Does entrepreneurial self-effcacy distin-
guish entrepreneurs from managers?’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13, (4),
295–316.
Develay, M. (1992), De l’apprentissage à l’enseignement, Paris: ESF Editeur.
Dilts, J.C. and S.M. Fowler (1999), ‘Internships: preparing students for an entrepreneurial
career’, Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 11, (1), 51–63.
Ehrlich, S.B., A.F. De Noble, D. Jung and D. Pearson (2000),’The impact of entrepre-
neurship training programs on an individual’s entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, Frontiers
of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.babson.edu/
entrep/fer.
Fayolle, A. (1996), ‘Contribution à l’étude des comportements entrepreneuriaux des in-
génieurs français’, thèse de doctorat en sciences de gestion, université Jean Moulin
de Lyon.
Fayolle, A. (2000a), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat dans le système éducatif
supérieur: un regard sur la situation actuelle’, Revue Gestion 2000, no. 3, 77–95.
Fayolle, A. (2000b), ‘Exploratory study to assess the effects of entrepreneurship pro-
grams on student entrepreneurial behaviours’, Journal of Enterprising Culture, 8, (2),
169–84.
Fayolle, A. (2002), ‘Les déterminants de l’acte entrepreneurial chez les étudiants et les
jeunes diplômés de l’enseignement supérieur français’, Revue Gestion 2000, no. 4,
61–77.
Fayolle, A. (2003), Le métier de créateur d’entreprise, Paris : Editions d’Organisation.
88 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Fiet, J.O. (2001a), ‘The pedagogical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16, (2), 101–17.
Fiet, J.O. (2001b), ‘The theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16, (1), 1–24.
Fleming, P. (1994), ‘The role of structured interventions in shaping graduate entrepre-
neurship’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 15, 146–57.
Gartner, W.B. and K.H. Vesper (1994), ‘Experiments in entrepreneurship education:
successes and failures’, Journal of Business Venturing, 9, (2), 179–87.
Gasse, Y. (1992), ‘Pour une éducation plus entrepreneuriale. Quelques voies et moyens’,
Colloque l’Education et l’Entrepreneuriat, Centre d’Entrepreneuriat du cœur du
Québec, Trois-Rivières, mai.
Ghosh, A. and Z. Block (1993), ‘Audiences for entrepreneurship education: character-
istics and needs’, paper presented at the Project for Excellence in Entrepreneurship
Education, Baldwin Wallace College, Cleveland, Ohio.
Gibb, A.A. (1988), Stimulating Entrepreneurship and New Business Development, Ge-
neva: International Labour Offce, 73.
Hansemark, O.C. (1998), ‘The effects of an entrepreneurship program on need for
achievement and locus of control of reinforcement’, International Journal of Entre-
preneurial Behaviour and Research, 4, (1), 28–50.
Hart, M. and R. Harrison (1992), ‘Encouraging enterprise in Northern Ireland: constraints
and opportunities’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 13, 104–16.
Johannisson, B. (1991), ‘University training for entrepreneurship: a Swedish approach’,
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 3, (1), 67–82.
Kolvereid, L. (1996a), ‘Prediction of employment status choice intentions’, Entrepre-
neurship Theory and Practice, 20, (3), 45–57.
Kolvereid, L. (1996b), ‘Organisational employment versus self-employment: reasons
for career choice intentions’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 20, (3), 23–31.
Kolvereid L. and O. Moen (1997), ‘Entrepreneurship among business graduates: does a
major in entrepreneurship make a difference?’, Journal of European Industrial Train-
ing, 21, (4), 154–60.
Krueger, N.F. and A.L. Carsrud (1993), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions: applying the theory
of planned behaviour’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 5, 315–30.
Lüthje, C. and N. Kranke (2003), ‘The making of an entrepreneur: testing a model of
entrepreneurial intent among engineering students at MIT’, R&D Management, 33,
(2), 135–47.
Noel, T.W. (2001), ‘Effects of entrepreneurial education on intent to open a business’,
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.
babson.edu/entrep/fer.
Safavian-Martinon, M. (1998), ‘Le lien entre le diplôme et la logique d’acteur relative
à la carrière : une explication du rôle du diplôme dans la carrière des jeunes cadres
issus des grandes écoles de gestion’, thèse pour le doctorat en sciences de gestion,
université Paris I.
Shapero, A. and L. Sokol (1982), ‘The social dimensions of entrepreneurship’, in C.
Kent, D. Sexton and K. Vesper (eds), The Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 72–90.
Tkachev, A. and L. Kolvereid (1999), ‘Self-employment intentions among Russian stu-
dents’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 11 (3), 269–80.
Varela R. and J.E. Jimenez (2001), ‘The effect of entrepreneurship education in the uni-
versities of Cali’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference
Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 89
Vesper, K.H. and W.B. Gartner (1997), ‘Measuring progress in entrepreneurship educa-
tion’, Journal of Business Venturing, 12, (4), 403–21.
Wyckham, R.G. (1989), ‘Measuring the effects of entrepreneurial education programs:
Canada and Latin America’, in G. Robert, W. Wyckham and C. Wedley (eds), Educat-
ing the Entrepreneurs, Colombie-Britannique: Faculté d’administration, université
Simon Fraser, pp. 1–16.
PART TWO
About the Newness in Methodological
Approaches to Teach Entrepreneurship
93
6. The continental and Anglo-American
approaches to entrepreneurship
education – differences and bridges
Paula Kyrö
The discussion between entrepreneurship and education has strengthened to-
wards the end of the twentieth century. However, the discussion of the dynamics
of learning entrepreneurship has taken only very preliminary steps. So far the
focus has changed from the trait theories of biological heritage, that is, assuming
that we are born to be entrepreneurs, towards the belief that we learn to be en-
trepreneurs and that we learn how to behave like entrepreneurs. This
education-orientated focus has, however, generated studies and courses in the
felds of business and engineering rather than attracted researchers and educators
in educational disciplines and institutions. This study suggests that the lack of
this contribution appears as an apparent shortage of advancing conceptual dis-
cussion of entrepreneurship education. Furthermore, it is argued that the
confusion related to entrepreneurship education and its neighbouring concepts
does not only refect the current state of research, but also the cultural differ-
ences in the meanings of the basic educational concepts of pedagogy and
didactics. In order to encourage the conceptual debate on entrepreneurship edu-
cation as an interplay between education and entrepreneurship research, this
study delineates the conceptual bases and elements for this interplay by employ-
ing a descriptive interpretative concept method.
INCREASING DEMAND FOR CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDING ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION
1
Entrepreneurship education has slightly less than a 30-year history in science
(for example, Alberti, 1999). Three fndings have stimulated its development
since the 1970s. The frst of these is the fact that small businesses and organiza-
tions, rather than large frms and institutions, created new work (Drucker, 1986).
Second is the perception that entrepreneurship is more an educational than bio-
94 Newness in methodological approaches
logical issue and, the third, that the growth in number of small businesses and
entrepreneurial behaviour in organizations has deeper cultural roots than previ-
ously thought (Fayolle et al., 2005).
These fndings have, however, generated studies in entrepreneurship, rather
than attracted education researchers. The frst scientifc journal in this feld,
Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, published its frst issue only in 1997.
Perhaps this is due to the tendency to perceive entrepreneurship as an individual
and business-orientated rather than an educational and social-orientated phe-
nomenon (for example, Grant, 1998; Scott et al., 1998). Also, research on
entrepreneurship education has focused more on curriculum and content ques-
tions than on the dynamics of learning. Only recently the need to combine
educational studies with entrepreneurial processes has started to attract academ-
ics (for example, Gorman and Hanlon, 1997; Grant, 1998; Scott et al., 1998).
Still, the problem is that the contribution of educators in this debate is marginal.
Scott et al. (1998) suggest, though, that so far we have only gathered experiences
of various case studies and now there is a need to focus on basic dimensions
and concepts. The frst PhD or licenciate level thesis on entrepreneurship educa-
tion emerged only at the end of the 1990s. Among those we can identify is the
Finnish contribution (Erkkilä, 2000; Kyrö, 1997; Leskinen, 1999; Nevanperä,
2003; Pihkala, 1998; Remes, 2003; Soininen, 2000). However, due to the lan-
guage barrier, its contribution in the international arena is hard to identify. This
might be the case also with other less well known languages.
Along with this development, the number of institutions offering entrepre-
neurship courses has risen in many Western countries (for example, Menzies
and Gasse, 1999; Vesper and Gartner, 1999). Several international studies have
reported an increase in the supply of university-level courses. For example,
Vesper and Gartner’s study from 1999 found that the number of universities
offering entrepreneurship courses in the USA had increased from 85 in the
1970s to 383 by the end of the 1990s. Studies from Canada and France have
reported similar trends (Fayolle, 2000; Menzies and Gasse, 1999). The content
of the courses included such topics as new business foundation, business plans,
small business management and project management. A similar study of Finnish
universities revealed that in 1996/97 18 universities out of 21 offered entrepre-
neurship courses as a major, or part of a major, in management or engineering
and as a minor or separate course also in other felds. The contents were similar
to those in other countries. Considering this supply, we face the same problem
as in research, namely, the marginal contribution of educational institutions and
courses’ contents. Also, a recently published report on entrepreneurship educa-
tion in the European Union revealed that entrepreneurship education was
primarily available in business disciplines (European Commission, 2002).
The report also indicated considerable differences between countries related
to the position of entrepreneurship education in national educational systems
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 95
ending up to recommend that the importance of entrepreneurship teaching
should be acknowledged in the national curriculum as well as in the curriculum
for each level of the educational system (European Commission, 2002). This
was also recommended as one of the key qualitative indicators for entrepreneur-
ship education. In this respect, for example, only Finland has extensively
included it in the curriculum of primary and secondary levels, as well as in initial
vocational training. Yet 10 out of 16 member countries recognized considerable
national policy commitment to promote entrepreneurship in education.
All three perspectives on entrepreneurship education – the development of the
number and content of courses, the recent emergence of educational research and
the current state in educational system – refect an apparent consensus in the need
to supply entrepreneurship education. However, on the one hand, its short history
and, on the other hand, the marginal contribution of the science of education in-
dicate that it is not possible to share mutual collective insights, understanding
and knowledge on its basic elements and concepts. The European Commission’s
recent report also identifed this as a diffculty in international co-operation and
comparisons. The report concluded that most of the education related to entre-
preneurship education had, in fact, taken place under some other title (European
Commission, 2002). This perception summarizes the conceptual confusion that
characterizes the current state of the debate on entrepreneurship education.
All these aspects encourage me to suggest that, in order to advance educa-
tional debate on entrepreneurship education, there is a need to address more
attention to its basic elements and the dynamics between them. Thus, following
Scott et al.’s (1998) recommendation, the aim of this chapter is, on the one hand,
to delineate the basic conceptual elements of entrepreneurship education and,
on the other hand, to approach their dynamics through two basic concepts of
education, namely, pedagogy and didactics, assuming that this might advance
the educational debate on conceptualizing entrepreneurship education and raise
some expectations for future developments.
THE ROLE OF CONCEPTS IN UNDERSTANDING
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
The understanding and further refection of the concepts of pedagogy and di-
dactics in entrepreneurship education is not possible unless we are able to
understand their history and relationship to each other. As Richards (1995) ex-
presses while introducing the core of Böhm’s (1995) extensive study on ‘theory
and practice’:
Educational concepts make presuppositions about the nature of reality and that which
constitutes legitimate academic study. To understand these educational concepts
96 Newness in methodological approaches
across different cultures requires more than a dictionary of educational terms. There
needs to be a reaching out to participate in the international dialogue. By examining
the differences in our basic concepts we can begin to ask what might be missing in
our own perspective.
Furthermore, since most of the joint international discussion on entrepreneurship
education takes place in the English language and in the feld of entrepreneur-
ship, the continental conceptual infuence of education on this debate can be
assumed to be minor. This challenges us to open up not only the concepts as
such, but also the differences in conceptual understanding of pedagogy and di-
dactics in the feld of education and to refect these differences in the ideas of
entrepreneurship education. These points of departure guide the methodological
choices of this study.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Methodologically, this study belongs to the feld of interpretative concept re-
search and, more specifcally, it applies the descriptive interpretative method
introduced by Lämsä and Takala (2001). Conceptual methodology consists of
two basic branches – analytical and interpretative. Contextuality and theoretical
thematization distinguish the interpretative branch from the analytical study,
and justify it as a methodological alternative in human sciences. The interpreta-
tive branch aims to fnd meanings included in concepts and their defnitions in
order to expand the understanding of the concepts. The interpretation is linked
with contextual factors. Contextuality in this study emerges in two respects:
frst, the elements of entrepreneurship are anchored to, and guided by, the en-
trepreneurship debate and, secondly, the concepts of pedagogy and didactics
are anchored to their cultural and historical contexts.
Among its four categories, that is, heuristic, theory bounded, descriptive and
critical, the descriptive method aims to increase the understanding of a concept
by fnding, describing and interpreting the entity of meanings and possible
changed meanings while compiling a comprehensive overview of the concept
(Lämsä and Takala, 2001). It emphasizes further development of the concepts
and their defnitions. Lämsä and Takala (2001) suggest that, at its best, descrip-
tive conceptual study might provide ‘a fertile re-interpretation from a new
completely a new perspective’. In this study, the focus is on searching for a new
angle for conceptualizing problems of entrepreneurship education rather than
providing a completely new perspective by employing educational pedagogy
and didactics.
Lämsä and Takala (2001) argue that the validity of this method is analogous
to the adopted assumption of reality at a particular time, since the use of the
method always includes a set of commitments from the philosophy of science.
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 97
The concepts and their meanings must be seen as ever-changing, dynamic proc-
esses. They are ambiguous, changing, as well as socially and culturally
constructed. Therefore, the interpretative study of concepts commits itself to
basic assumptions at the very beginning, and always gives us information in
limited frames. This is the guiding presumption of this study, suggesting that
the concept of entrepreneurship education and the concepts of pedagogy and
didactics are culturally constructed and changing phenomena.
Consequently, this study consists of fve phases. Phase 1 identifes the ele-
ments of entrepreneurship education in entrepreneurship studies and phase 2
describes the concepts of pedagogy and didactics in their historical contexts.
Phase 3 summarizes their essential features and differences, phase 4 compares
these to the elements of entrepreneurship education and phase 5 refects these
fndings to the aims of this study and to the future needs in the interplay between
research on entrepreneurship and education.
ELEMENTS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
Identifying the elements of entrepreneurship education starts by looking at the
terms used for it. A study conducted in 1989 by the Durham University Business
School identifed differences between terms in the USA, Canada, UK and other
European countries. The term ‘entrepreneurship education’ was familiar in the
USA and Canada whereas the term ‘enterprise education’ was used in the UK.
In the UK, the focus was on ‘an entrepreneur’. Also, Erkkilä’s dissertation, En-
trepreneurial Education, studying these concepts in the USA, the UK and
Finland, revealed differences in terms (Erkkilä, 2000). In order to avoid con-
ceptual confusion Erkkilä suggests that we should use a single concept of
‘entrepreneurial education’. Allan Gibb poses that there is a substantial syno-
nymity between entrepreneurial and enterprising behaviours. The only major
distinction that can be made is that an entrepreneur actor is traditionally associ-
ated with business activity (Gibb, 1993). In his later writings Gibb (2001) has
started to use these terms synonymously.
Thus, in identifying the elements of this phenomenon, we have to lean mostly
on Anglo-American terminology that focuses on the terms ‘entrepreneurship’,
‘enterprise’, ‘enterprising’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘entrepreneur’.
Conceptually, it is easy to argue that these terms are not comparable, but
rather focus on different elements of the phenomenon. Each of these poses a
different question in education. The question of who is supposed to learn, gets
the answer – an entrepreneur. The questions of what is the target of our learning,
gives us the terms ‘enterprise’ or ‘entrepreneurship’, and what kind of a learner
or learning we refer to, gives us the answer ‘enterprising’ or ‘entrepreneurial’.
Consequently, in defning our concept we have to choose between two terms
98 Newness in methodological approaches
for our phenomenon and two terms for the qualities of that phenomenon. Thus,
we ask the question: is our phenomenon an enterprise or an entrepreneurship?
In this respect, I believe there is a consensus that it is entrepreneurship rather
than an enterprise (for example, Gartner, 1990). Thus, from the perspective of
education, these questions have actually identifed the basic elements and phe-
nomenon. This is delineated in Figure 6.1.
Therefore, it is possible to suggest that entrepreneurship education concerns
entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial/enterprising processes and, as an outcome, the
enterprise of whatever context or conceptual content it relates to as well as the
dynamics between them. Consequently, revising the terminology of entrepre-
neurship education from the perspective of education, it is possible to focus the
debate on its core elements and identify its key dimensions as Scott et al. (1998)
recommend. Taking the entrepreneur as a point of departure, the key dimensions
concern the interplay between the actor, the process and the outcome. Consider-
ing what to learn refers to the substance of entrepreneurship education, that is,
the whole phenomenon or some of its parts or aspects, including the process it-
self, and considering how to learn refers to the behavioural aspects of the actor,
the entrepreneur and his or her experiences, that is, the actor learns about en-
trepreneurship through entrepreneurial processes. Thus, we can say that the key
dimensions of entrepreneurship education refer to what to learn and how to
learn, and the qualities of the three elements relate to the phenomena the feld
of entrepreneurship studies is gathered around. These focus on such phenomena
as opportunity recognition, new venture creation, risk and acquisition, and al-
location of resources in order to make things happen in different contexts, levels
and perspectives (for example Brush, 1992; Carland and Carland, 1991; Davids-
son et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997).
Figure 6.1 The framework for the elements of entrepreneurship education
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
ENTREPRENEUR ENTERPRISE
Qualities
Entrepreneurial
Enterprising
PROCESS
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 99
Consequently, entrepreneurship education can be approached from each of
these or from the dynamics between them. However, this does not mean that all
have an equal or similar role in education. Next, I will briefy elaborate these
roles in education and refect them to the conceptual debate on entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurship education.
THE ROLE OF THE HUMAN BEING AND ACTION IN THE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEBATE
We can argue that both education and entrepreneurship are human sciences or
felds of science and, thus, the human being, the entrepreneur and his or her
behaviour, are the points of departure and the centre of the education. If we
forget this, we lose our phenomenon and the whole debate on entrepreneurship
education becomes useless. This is not, however, always obvious in the concep-
tual debate on entrepreneurship.
Considering human action, we can identify two different dialogues in the
contemporary conceptual debate on entrepreneurship. On the one hand, the in-
dividual, entrepreneur-orientated discussion has left behind the biological
interpretations and, through behavioural theories, has started to inquire into
education as a discussion for supporting entrepreneurial behaviour (Gibb, 1993).
Yet, a major part of the biological explanations focus on human features and
qualifcations. This indicates that human behaviour is at the core of entrepre-
neurship in both of these dialogues.
On the other hand, the dialogue between business and innovations has in-
troduced the concept of new economic activity as a defnition for the
entrepreneurship (for example, Davidsson et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997).
A point of departure and focus of this defnition is activity, not the actor.
Growth is often combined with the debate on newness or is taken as a measure
for it (for example, Davidsson et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997). For example,
Davidsson et al. (2002) pose the question whether entrepreneurship is growth
or growth is entrepreneurship. They come to the conclusion that growth relates
to entrepreneurship even though not all growth is entrepreneurial. Basically,
the focus in this debate is on the dialogue between innovation, growth and
business. Identifying new economic activities is emphasized and those creating
them are less focused on. This view, however, has also been challenged by
Carland and Carland (1991). They suggest that it is, indeed, diffcult to defne
entrepreneurship without entrepreneurs.
The essential role of the human actor and his or her behaviour is also evident
in Barreto’s (1989) historical analyses of the writings of the early contributors
on entrepreneurship research. Barreto claims that entrepreneurship disappeared
from microeconomic theories by drawing lines between entrepreneurship re-
100 Newness in methodological approaches
search and microeconomic theories through the disappearance of the role of an
entrepreneur.
Also a cultural approach to the history of entrepreneurship reveals that the
role of human beings has been essential. The scientifc descriptions of entrepre-
neurship were born in France during the Enlightenment. At the end of the
Middle Ages in France, two institutions, feudalism and the crafts system, were
coming to an end. The roots of this broader approach to science can be found
from the ideas of the French physiocrats during the eighteenth century. They
opposed mercantilism, feudalism and the craft system. For them entrepreneur-
ship referred to a farmer and farming in free circumstances (Hamilton, 1999).
Instead of the hereditary system, privileges and institutions, citizens started to
demand freedom for trade and industry: in general, freedom to decide how to
earn their living (Dillard, 1967; Lindeqvist, 1905). Thus, the early contributors
of entrepreneurship focused on the right and ability of free human beings to
create their own welfare and living. This was supposed to be achieved through
creative human action by combining resources in a novel way, applying new
knowledge and taking risks in this process. This was often described as a special
kind of management and ownership combined in the same entity. These early
discussions were then addressed to different contexts. First, they were attached
to the dynamics between an individual and society, then to small businesses and,
fnally, to larger organizations (Kyrö, 2000). As an outcome, these practices
broke old systems and hierarchies and created new practices. The qualities used
in these early discussions have also been used in the contemporary debate on
the defnitions in entrepreneurship. They are gathered around such phenomena
as opportunity recognition, new venture creation, growth, risk and acquisition,
and allocation of resources in order to make things happen (for example, Brush,
1992; Carland and Carland, 1991; Davidsson et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997).
Consequently it is possible to argue that, in its current state, there are different
forms or contexts of entrepreneurship referring to an individual, business and
organization. We can include the whole of society as an organization. Thus,
entrepreneurial activities can create different outcomes, that is, enterprises, be
they entrepreneurial individuals, businesses, micro organizations or whole
societies.
Differences in these conceptualizing efforts seem to fall on the essence and
nature of the human actor, which from the perspective of education defne the
conceptions of learning and teaching. Yet, this ‘chicken and egg’ dialogue in-
dicates that problematizing the nature and role of a human being is, and has
been, an essential part of the entrepreneurship debate. On the other hand, the
qualities related to the three elements of entrepreneurship education might get
their content from the historical grounding of entrepreneurship.
The role of the process referring to action and its nature and dynamics, even
though being a part of the entrepreneurship education research, varies consider-
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 101
ably between studies. For example, in Gibb’s earlier and later articles it is one
of the guiding themes, whereas Alberti (1999) divides studies according to their
focus into three categories: course contents and their appropriateness; screening
on possible course concepts and their usefulness; and the effciency of pedagogi-
cal techniques and learning environments. Scott et al. (1998), on their behalf,
divide research on entrepreneurship education into three categories: education
about, through and for enterprise. The conclusion of the article studying the
educational contribution on the debate of entrepreneurship education was that
the dynamics of learning processes are understood as different techniques and
models of learning rather than complex dynamics of the various elements in the
learning process (Kyrö, 1999).
These perceptions of the central elements and their role in discourses of en-
trepreneurship and entrepreneurship education seem to indicate that, even
though they are an essential part of that debate, a conceptual approach has not
been found that would allow them to advance the discourses on the dynamics
of these elements. Thus, employing educational concepts of pedagogy and di-
dactics might give some new angles to that problem.
TWO DIFFERENT ROUTES FOR EDUCATIONAL
CONCEPTS
In their early days, there was no difference between pedagogy and didactics but
rather a holistic view to education linked with organic holism and Naturphiloso-
phie. According to the Holistic school of science, man must be educated to see
nature as a complete integrated, purposeful system with himself an integral part
of it. Furthermore, this non-dualistic approach made no difference between the
body and the mind (Bowen, 1981). Thus, considering the history of entrepre-
neurship we can see that both education and entrepreneurship have their roots
in the same schools of science.
The very frst meaning of Didaktik was about the same as the art of teaching
or Lehrkunst. Kansanen (1995) identifes Wolfgang Ratke and Johan Amos
Comenius (1592–1670) at the beginning of the seventeenth century as the found-
ers of the German Didaktik (didactica). The idea was to develop a general
teaching method compared to the logical method, which at that time was thought
to be the best way to present the teaching content in order to bring about learn-
ing. The position of Didaktik with regard to pedagogics (Pädagogik) changed
during the next centuries. Die Didaktik was gradually taken into more general
use alongside die Pädagogik or dedagogics, but its use was limited to German-
speaking countries or to countries having cultural relations with Germany.
The results of these early developments are evident in the contemporary use
of the concepts of pedagogy and didactics. According to Kansanen, by nature,
102 Newness in methodological approaches
die Didaktik in Germany has always been philosophical thinking, theorizing,
and construction of theoretical models. Didaktik is nowadays in use in Central
European and Scandinavian countries, but it is practically unknown in English
or French-speaking countries in the feld of education.
According to a well-known German example, within the three common basic
problem areas of education, which are education in general, psychology of edu-
cation and sociology of education, general education consists of pedagogics and
didactics (Pädagogik und Didaktik), and the latter is usually seen as a subdisci-
pline concentrating on the questions of teaching (Röhrs, 1969). In German
literature, Didaktik and educational psychology are clearly separate felds with
different representatives. The situation in Great Britain and the USA is quite
the contrary (Kansanen, 1995).
A hallmark of education as a discipline or as a feld of science, as it is re-
garded in British educational literature, is the frst independent chair of education
at the University of Halle in 1779. The frst professor of education, Ernst Chris-
tian Trapp’s (1745–1818) idea in ‘Versuch einer Pädagogik’ was to no longer
base education on philosophy and theology but on the nature of man and on
contemporary society. It took about 100 years before independent professorships
were established in England, Scotland and the USA. By the end of the nineteenth
century, American educational research had many contacts with German re-
search, however, these soon ruptured. Accordingly, the conceptualization took
different routes leading to quite different understandings of the basic concepts
of education (Kansanen, 1995).
The differences between Anglo-American and continental approaches became
evident in the interpretation and application of Herbartian thoughts. According
to Bowen (1981: 366–74), Charles de Garmo brought German educational
thought to America at the end of the nineteenth century and in the writings of
McMurry these thoughts moulded into a new form. At that time, American edu-
cational research had many contacts with German research. These contacts
suddenly ended at the beginning of the twentieth century. Bowen suggests that
one can identify two fundamental differences between Herbart’s ideas and their
American adaptation.
2
Whereas Herbart’s doctrine was ‘conceived within the
holist view that man is a part of nature and learns by organic interrelationship’,
McMurry, instead, accepted, without critical analysis, the separation of man and
nature as well as mind and body. He also stated that ‘all the forces and bounties
of nature are to be made serviceable to man’. These ideas became the corner-
stones of positivistic tradition of the educational psychology in the USA.
Education became known as a science of instruction with pedagogy as its tech-
nology. It narrowed Herbartian pedagogy to a fve-step teaching model deduced
from fve basic laws.
This made it unnecessary to have an own concept for focus on learning, its
bases and processes. Hamilton (1999: 135) arrived at a similar conclusion in
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 103
his article ‘The pedagogic paradox – why no didactics in England?’. He claims
that due to an instructional change the focus turned to teaching rather than
learning. Consequently, the European discourse on didactics became very close
to the Anglo-American discourse on pedagogics. Pedagogy, on the other hand,
was sometimes taken as a synonym for the science of education (for example,
Moss, 2002).
This new ‘scientifc’ pedagogy did not gain dominance without challenge.
On the contrary, at the beginning of the twentieth century, progressive move-
ments both in Europe and the USA tried to fnd solutions to the unsolved
problem of dualism. In Europe, perhaps the most prominent representative was
Maria Montessori, who, infuenced by Pestalozzi, Froebel and Rousseau, created
holist, child-centred pedagogy that was based on the European cultural tradition
that assumed the goal of all educational procedures was a cultivated adult (Bo-
wen, 1995: 397–407).
In the USA, pragmatism represented the progressive movement especially in
the works of Charles S. Pierce (1839–1914), William James (1842–1910) and
John Dewey (1859–1952). Their efforts were fundamentally different, compared
with their European counterparts, in two respects. First, they were more infuenced
by the British empiricism and Francis Bacon than continental Naturphilosophers
and, second, they contradicted Plato’s defnition of knowledge as a well-justifed
true belief assuming that truth is stable, independent of time, based on empiricism
or rationalism. Instead of defning the subject, content and object of knowledge
as the elements of a process, they focused on the process itself. They strove to
understand reality through action. For them, truth was an acquired quality. For
Dewey (1951), it is something that is happening to an idea while verifying it,
while for James (1913), it is the same as a process of verifcation. At that time
pragmatism did not gain a foothold in the dominating discussion, but was criti-
cized from two directions. On the one hand, it was regarded as too eclectic and,
on the other hand, its idea of ‘usefulness as a criteria of truth’ was critiqued.
The consequences of these developments emerged as the disappearance of
the term ‘didactics’ in the American tradition. Kansanen (1995) noted that
in British, as well as in American, educational literature, the sub-area of Didaktik
seems to be lacking. Much of its content belongs to educational psychology. In the
American literature of research on teaching, the problems of teaching and learning
in general are usually held together without any theoretical model building. Attention
is paid to the methodological problems, and there the various background principles
can be seen … The predominant approach to the problems of teaching has been re-
search on teacher and teaching effectiveness. Along these lines there has been a series
of model building … The purpose of this kind of thinking has been an attempt to fnd
those teachers who could attain the best possible results and to determine those factors
which are crucial in planning and acting in the teaching process. On the theoretical
level, the development of theoretical models has concentrated on empirical research
and on testing these in real situations. (Kansanen, 1995)
104 Newness in methodological approaches
This might be one of the reasons for the dominant position of cases in studies
of entrepreneurship education. Böhm (1995) suggests that returning to philo-
sophical questions might be a solution to this problem.
The era of scientifc positivism, as Bowen (1981: 529) describes it, which
brought along ‘the concept of education as an investment and, human capital’,
burgeoned in the early 1960s. It was followed by such ideas as, for example,
that education is an industry enhancing economic growth (Bowen, 1981: 530–
31). This era belongs to a larger modern time period, when entrepreneurship
was not valued and its infuence on the success of society was marginal (Kyrö,
2002). Towards the 1970s the situation changed in some respects. Bowen (1981:
543) claims that Illich’s Deschooling Society, published in 1971, was responsi-
ble for making educators in the early 1970s look more closely at their arguments
about school and its practices and move towards improvement. Illich’s argument
for ‘deschooling’ society deserves to be considered as a signifcant innovation
in Western educational thought, even though we still lack any reasonable histori-
cal perspective in which to assess it. It is possible, though, to combine the idea
of the deschooling society with the postmodern transition, when we have also
experienced a re-emergence of entrepreneurship and the new phenomenon of
entrepreneurship education.
Both education and entrepreneurship experienced fundamental changes dur-
ing the Enlightenment and again during the current, postmodern transition.
Between these transitions the Anglo-American and continental debates on edu-
cation parted. Consequently, the core concepts have different, culture-bound
meanings in contemporary debates even though they once used to have a close
interplay with each other.
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN AND CONTINENTAL
APPROACHES TO CONCEPTUALIZATION
Combining the different routes of educational concepts with the debate on en-
trepreneurship education provides two different approaches.
The concepts dealing with the philosophical bases are ontology, axiology and
epistemology. Etymologically, ‘logos’ refers to ‘explanation’ or ‘the word by
which the inward thought is expressed, the inward thought itself’ (Audi, 1995;
McKechnie, 1977). In Greek philosophy, it took on the meaning of ‘reason,
thought of as constituting the controlling principle of the universe and as being
manifested by speech’ (McKechnie, 1977: 1250). The ‘-logy’ refers to a specifc
kind of speaking like a doctrine, science, theory of, and ‘onto-’ in Greek means
existence or being. Ontology originally referred to the branch of metaphysics
dealing with the nature of being and reality (for example, McKechnie, 1977).
In short, ontology refers to our ideas of reality and how it is constituted.
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 105
Epistemology, in turn, is interested in how we can acquire knowledge about
that reality. The Greek word, ‘episteme’, refers to knowledge (for example,
McKechnie, 1977). Epistemologists try to identify the essential, defning com-
ponents of knowledge (Audi, 1995). Thus, both of these provide bases for
learning and teaching, and they appear in learning theories and/or, vice versa,
what we understand by learning and teaching leads to ontological and episte-
mological assumptions.
Epistemology is sometimes discussed in entrepreneurship education context,
but ontology as a concept is still rare. For example, Alberti (1999) considers
knowledge creation to be a core of his concept of entrepreneurship education.
An example of ontological consideration and its relationship to epistemology
can be found in methodological discussion of entrepreneurship, from Hill and
Wright’s (2000) article, ‘A qualitative research agenda for small to medium-
sized enterprises’.
In addition to ontology and epistemology, there is a third concept of axiology
that relates to value theories (Audi, 1995: 830–31). It considers the values re-
lated to both ontology and epistemology. In its broad sense in the context of
ontology, it addresses questions such as what is considered valuable in our world
and our existence in it. Further, in the context of epistemology, it addresses the
question of what is valuable knowledge in that world and what means are valued
in order to gain that knowledge. Thus, it brings the moral aspect to scientifc
discourse. Explicit axiological discussion is quite unknown in debates of entre-
preneurship education. The situation is quite the opposite in educational debates.
For example, Böhm (1995) points out that ethical questions are the very base
of all educational discourses, be they theoretical or practical. Education is so-
ciety’s media for manifesting its ideas (Bowen, 1981). The ideas educational
systems adopt refect what society regards as valuable for its success and
welfare.
Considering the two basic dimensions of how and what to learn (see ‘Ele-
ments of entrepreneurship education’ section), axiology and its interplay
between ontology and epistemology offers a third dimension, which focuses on
the question of why learn. This brings along the question of whether it is possi-
ble to advance the conceptual debate or debates unless we explicate our implicit
assumptions underlying the elements of entrepreneurship education. In order
to understand the concepts and their differences, we ultimately, implicitly or
explicitly, turn to the interplay between ontology, axiology and epistemology.
This short review of the history of education revealed that the continental
approach of education as a science focuses explicitly on the dynamics of this
interplay and furthermore explicates in the context of pedagogy and didactics
its contribution to learning and teaching. The Anglo-American approach, on the
other hand, takes, as a point of departure, educational practices and, as Kansanen
(1995) described it, at the theoretical level focuses on model construction, ef-
106 Newness in methodological approaches
fective teaching practices and consequently concentrates on empirical research
and on testing these in real situations. Thus, the points of departure, the focus
and the direction to proceed are different in these traditions. Consequently, the
Anglo-American approach puts more stress on what and how questions, whereas
the continental approach deduce its bases from why questions. These percep-
tions and conclusions are summarised in Figure 6.2.
These historical differences give a reason to suggest that the interplay between
what, how and why questions might give some ideas for revising the concept
of entrepreneurship education. It might also sow some seeds for reuniting the
Anglo-American and the continental conceptual debates on entrepreneurship
education, thus making a contribution to both felds of science – entrepreneur-
ship and education.
Figure 6.2 The Anglo-American and the continental approaches to
education
CONTINENTAL
APPROACH
Ontology
Axiology
Epistemology
Theories of learning
and teaching
Pedagogy and
didactics
Learning and
teaching practices
Explicit focus
ANGLO-AMERICAN
APPROACH
Ontology
Axiology
Epistemology
Models of learning
and teaching
Pedagogy
Learning and
teaching practices
Implicit focus
W
H
Y
W
H
A
T
&
H
O
W
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 107
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this study was, on the one hand, to delineate the basic conceptual
elements of entrepreneurship education and, on the other hand, to approach their
dynamics through the concepts of pedagogy and didactics. This was assumed
to advance the educational debate on conceptualizing entrepreneurship educa-
tion and raise some expectations for future developments.
Identifying three basic elements of entrepreneurship education through its
terminology organized the conceptual frame of the entrepreneur, the process
and the enterprise, that further focused on two dimensions – what and how to
learn. Refecting these fndings on the debates of entrepreneurship and entre-
preneurship education indicated that it was hard to fnd a conceptual approach
that would allow advancing the discourses on the dynamics of these
elements.
Employing educational concepts revealed cultural differences between the
Anglo-American and the continental debates and brought along a third dimen-
sion of entrepreneurship education, namely, the question of why learn, which
offers some ideas for revising the concept of entrepreneurship education. Thus,
the assumption that the interplay between two felds of science – entrepreneur-
ship and education – would advance the conceptualization seems to be
valid.
When evaluating the results of this study from a methodological perspective
it is possible to argue that the adopted descriptive, interpretative concept method
was valid as well, since its aim to further develop the concepts and their defni-
tions turned out to be possible. Efforts to fnd a new angle for conceptualizing
problems of entrepreneurship education provided insights to further develop-
ments of conceptualization in entrepreneurship education.
Even though this study succeeded in its basic tasks, it is a very preliminary
effort and many of its aspects are disputable, waiting for further studies, which
provides expectations for the future.
The brief historical overview left too many options in the shadows. In this
respect there is a need to conduct more thorough studies in this feld for really
advancing the conceptual debate. Also, these might reveal interesting differences
between countries and cultures.
Considering the educational discussion on entrepreneurship, the rough outline
here is far too simplistic and narrow, and needs to be further studied and re-
fected on both theoretically and empirically. This requires a more careful and
extensive study within existing literature on both entrepreneurship and entre-
preneurship education than was possible in this study.
108 Newness in methodological approaches
IMPLICATIONS AND SOME FUTURE EXPECTATIONS
The question of what kind of future expectations for conceptual development
this study offers can be approached through its theoretical and practical
implications.
The cultural differences in educational concepts invite us to study whether
similar differences occur in the literature of entrepreneurship education. This
would contribute to both felds of science – entrepreneurship and education.
Assuming that conceptual differences appear in learning practices, this would
also have practical implications.
Also, combining philosophical bases with conceptualization brings along the
question of whether it is possible to advance the conceptual debate or debates
unless we explicate our implicit assumptions underlying the concepts. It might
also sow some seeds for reuniting the Anglo-American and the continental
conceptual debates on education.
From a practical perspective this indicates how important it is in every study
to explicate and refect on the philosophical bases of the concepts that we use.
The history of education indicates how the conceptual debate has experienced
fundamental changes that can be identifed as a development before and after
the positivistic, technology-orientated era as Bowen named it. During the transi-
tion towards this era, the continental and Anglo-American debates were not
parted.
Considering the relationship between educational concepts and entrepreneur-
ship education, we can notice that, at the moment, we are experiencing a new
transition that is trying to unite educational and entrepreneurship debates.
The most promising expectation for the future concerns the interplay between
different felds of science not only through books, but also through human be-
ings and institutions. We can learn from history that when human chains
between researchers separated, the scientifc discussions separated as well. This
modest conceptual study indicates that Richards’s (1995) words were more than
needed. We do need international dialogue, and by examining the differences
in our basic concepts we can begin to ask what might be missing in our own
perspective.
NOTES
1. I use the term ‘entrepreneurship’ as a general term being aware that it is disputable. Alberti
(1999) solved a similar terminological problem by applying the term ‘e-EDU’ while defning
it.
2. Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841) was a German philosopher and educator at the University
of Göttingen and is considered among the founders of modern scientifc pedagogy.
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 109
REFERENCES
Alberti, F. (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship education: scope and theory’, in Entrepreneurial
Knowledge and Learning: Conceptual Advances and Directions for Future Research,
JIBS Research report no. 1999–6, pp. 64–84, Jönköping.
Audi, R. (gen. ed.) (1995), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Barreto, H. (1989), The Entrepreneur in Microeconomic Theory: Disappearance and
Explanation, London and New York: Routledge.
Bowen, J. (1995), A History of Western Education. The Modern West, Europe and the
New World, vol. 3, 1st edn 1981, London: Methuen.
Böhm, W. (1995), Theory, Practice and the Education of the Person, OEA/Coleccion,
Washington, DC: Interramer.
Brush, C.G. (1992), ‘Research on women business owners: past trends, a new perspective
and future directions’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 16 (4), 5–30.
Carland, J.A.C. and J.W. Carland (1991), ‘The empirical investigation into the distinc-
tions between male and female entrepreneurs and managers’, International Small
Business Journal, 9 (3), 62–72.
Davidsson, P., F. Delmar and J. Wiklund (2002), ‘Entrepreneurship as growth: growth
as entrepreneurship’, in M. Hilt and D. Ireland (eds), Strategic Entrepreneurship,
Oxford: Blackwell.
Dewey, J. (1951), Experience and Education, 13th edn, New York: Macmillan.
Dillard, D. (1967), Economic Development of the North Atlantic Community: Historical
Introduction to Modern Economics, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Drucker, P.F. (1986), Innovation and Entrepreneurship, London: Heinemann.
Erkkilä, K. (2000), Entrepreneurial Education, New York: Carland.
European Commission (2002), Final Report of the Expert Group ‘Best Procedure’ Project
on Education and Training for Entrepreneurship, November, European Commission,
Enterprise Directorate General.
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘Setting up a favourable environmental framework to promote and
develop entrepreneurship education’, paper presented at the ICSB World Conference,
7–10 June, Brisbane.
Fayolle, A., P. Kyrö and J. Uljin (eds) (2005), Entrepreneurship Research in Europe:
Perspectives and Outcomes, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Gartner, W.B. (1990), ‘What are we talking about when we talk about entrepreneurship?’,
Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 15–28.
Gibb, A. (1993), ‘The enterprise culture and education: understanding enterprise educa-
tion and its links with small business, entrepreneurship and wider educational goals’,
International Small Business Journal, 11 (3), 11–24.
Gibb, A. (2001), ‘Creating conducive environments for learning and entrepreneurship:
living with, dealing with, creating and enjoying uncertainty and complexity’, paper
presented at the First Conference of the Entrepreneurship Forum Entrepreneurship
and Learning, Naples, 21–24 June.
Gorman, G. and D. Hanlon (1997), ‘Some research perspectives on entrepreneurship
education, enterprise education and education for small business management: a ten-
year literature review’, International Small Business Journal, 15/3, 56–77.
Grant, Alan (1998), ‘Entrepreneurship – the major academic discipline for the business
education curriculum for the 21st century’, in M.G. Scott, P. Rosa and H. Klandt (eds),
Educating Entrepreneurs for Wealth Creation, Lyme, USA: Ashgate, pp. 16–28.
Hamilton, D. (1999), ‘The pedagogic paradox – why no didactics in England?’, Peda-
110 Newness in methodological approaches
gogy, Culture and Society, 7 (1), 135–51, www.mtsu.edu~^ tvs2/quesnay.html, 24
March 1999.
Hill, J. and L. Wright (2000), ‘A qualitative research agenda for small to medium-sized
enterprises’, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 19 (6/7), 432–43.
James, W. (1913), Pragmatismi, Helsinki: Otava.
Kansanen, P. (1995), Discussion on Some Educational Issues, research report 145, De-
partment of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki,http://www.helsinki.
fi/~pkansane/deutsche.html, 22 February 2005.
Kyrö, P. (1997), Yrittäjyyden muodot ja tehtävä ajan murroksissa, Jyväskylä Studies in
Computer Science and Economics and Statistics nr. 38, University of Jyväskylä.
Kyrö, P. (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship and education search for each other in the postmodern
transition’, in Sigvart Tosse, Pia Falkencrone, Arja Puurula and Bosse Bergstedt (eds),
Challenges and Development: Adult Education Research in Nordic Countries, Trond-
heim: Tapir Academic Press, pp. 69–98.
Kyrö, P. (2000), ‘Entrepreneurship in the post modern society’, Wirtschafts Politiche
Blätter, 47, Jahrgang, Wien: Wirtschaftskammer Österreich.
Kyrö, Paula (2002), ‘The transitional development of entrepreneurship in Finland’, in
G. Braun and Chr. Diensberg (Hg), Entrepreneurship im Ostseeraum. Unternehmertum
als Motor von Wachstum und Integration, Germany: Sigma 2002.
Lämsä A.-M. and T. Takala (2001), ‘Interpretative study of concepts’, www.metodix.
com, 24 February 2001.
Leskinen, P.-L. (1999), ‘Yrittäjällä on koko elämä kiinni yrityksessä – Opiskelijoiden
yrittäjyyskäsitykset ja niiden muutokset yritysprojektin aikana’, Acta Wasaensia No
71, Liiketaloustiede 27, Johtaminen ja organisaatio, Vaasan yliopisto.
Lindeqvist, K.O. (1905), Yleinen historia, Porvoo: Uusi Aika, WSOY.
McKechnie, J.L. (ed.) (1977), Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 2nd
edn, Cleveland: Collins.
Menzies, T. and Y. Gasse (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship and the Canadian universities’, report
of a National Study of Entrepreneurship Education, Canada.
Moss, G. (2002), ‘Critical pedagogy: translation for education that is multicultural’, in
F. Schultz (ed.), Annual Editions: Multicultural Education 03/04, 10th edn, Guilford,
CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, pp. 74–84.
Nevanperä, E. (2003), Yrittäjyys Suupohjan opiskelijanuorten ajattelussa. Tutkimus
Suupohjan seudun nuorisoasteen opiskelijoiden yrittäjyysnäkemyksistä sekä yrittä-
jyysopetuksen opetussuunnitelman kehittämispyrkimyksissä, published in series of
Jyväskylä studies, Business and Economics no. 24, Jyväskylä: University of
Jyväskylä.
Pihkala, J. (1998), Yrittäjyyskasvatus koulussa – näkökulmana Suomen ja Englannin
koulujärjestelmien yrittäjyyshankkeet sekä suomalaisten opiskelijoiden yrittäjäorien-
taatio, Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.
Remes, L. (2003), Yrittäjyyskasvatuksen kolme diskurssia. Studies in Education, Psychol-
ogy and Social Research no.213, Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.
Richards, A. (1995), ‘Introduction’, in W. Böhm, Theory, Practice and the Education of
the Person, OEA/Coleccion, Washington, DC: Interramer, www.iacd.oas.org/Intera-
mer/Interamerhtml/bohmhtml/Bohm_Intro.htm, 22 February 2005.
Röhrs, H. (1969), Allemaine Erziehungswissenshaft, Bltz: Weinhamn.
Scott, M.G., P. Rosa and H. Klandt (1998), ‘Educating entrepreneurs for wealth creation’,
in M.G. Scott, P. Rosa and H. Klandt (eds), Educating Entrepreneurs for Wealth Crea-
tion, Lyme, USA: Ashgate.
Soininen, L. (2000), Yrittäjyyskasvatuksen juurilla – yrittäjyyskasvatuksen kriittinen
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 111
analyysi ammatillisen peruskoulutuksen näkökulmasta, University of Jyväskylä,
Faculty of Education.
Venkataraman, S. (1997), ‘The instinctive domain of entrepreneurship research’, in J.A.
Katz (ed.), Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence and Growth, vol. 3, Lon-
don: JAI Press, pp. 119–38.
Vesper, K.H. and W.B. Gartner (1999), University Entrepreneurship Programmes 1999,
Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Southern California.
112
7. Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an
education intervention
Asko Miettinen
INTRODUCTION
The roots of the mentoring programmes for entrepreneurs in Finland date back
to 1993, when the country was recovering from the deep economic recession
of the early 1990s. A year earlier the Prime Minister’s Offce published a report
by a working group consisting of eminent industrialists for industrial investment,
development and operational environment: ‘Finland needs a programme for
reindustrialization’. Based on this report, the mentor programme was launched
to council entrepreneurial enterprises having growth potential (Järvinen, 1998).
This programme started simultaneously in two regions: in the Greater Helsinki
area, where the focus was on a selected group of small high-technology entre-
preneurs into rapid global growth (www.innopoli.f/english/mentor.htm) and in
the Pirkanmaa region (about 100 miles north-west of Helsinki), where the selec-
tion criteria were less exclusive. This chapter explores the latter mentoring
programme.
There is also a third effort organized by the Association of Finnish Local and
Regional Authorities. This mentor programme started in 1996 and is based on
tripartite principle (municipality, enterprise and mentor) and aims to promote
the economic life of local communities. The mentor (often a senior or retired
executive having roots or a summer cottage in the municipality) functions typi-
cally as a sparring partner, coach or adviser. The mentors form a network making
it possible to beneft from the many-sided experience represented by the men-
tors. The focus is on the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector.
Improving regional and industry co-operation is one of the goals of this pro-
gramme. It operates free of charge for the mentee enterprise and local business
communities, as do the two other mentoring programmes mentioned above
(www.kuntaliitto.f/yrityskummit, in Finnish).
This programme became a registered association named ‘Corporate Mentors’
in 2001 to continue the activities already started The new association has almost
400 mentors and more than a third of municipalities in Finland (totalling 442)
and some institutional actors are its members.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 113
In addition to the above three programmes there are several programmes in
companies and a few initiated by professional organizations. Some of these are
focused on a special group such as female managers or women entrepreneurs.
At least one of them is operating across borders: the Nordic women entrepre-
neurs have started a mentoring programme for their colleagues in the Baltic
countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
THE MANY FACES OF MENTORING
Mentoring is generally defned as a developmentally orientated relationship
between a senior and junior or peers that involves advising, role-modelling,
sharing contacts and giving general support. Mentoring relationships always
begin from the needs of a mentee and aims to develop him or her (Greer, 2001;
Gómez-Mejía et al., 2001). The roots of mentoring are actually in ancient
Greece, with Socrates and Plato as examples (Lindgren, 2000). Another well-
known if mythical mentor–protégé relationship was between conjurer Merlin
and young King Arthur (Savidge, 1993).
The medieval apprentice–master relationship and its modernized version
in our apprenticeship training systems recommended by the European Union
(EU) follow the same tradition. Within companies, senior mentoring pro-
grammes are supporting programmes in which senior managers identify
promising employees (and women and minority employees underrepresented
in managerial and executive ranks) and play an important role in nurturing
their career progress and professional growth. Mentoring can be either vol-
untary or involuntary. Informal mentoring (close to informal giving and
receiving help in one’s job) is considered to be more effective than mentoring
done solely as a formal responsibility, though there are situations in which a
formal mentoring programme may be the better choice (Gómez-Mejía et al.,
2001).
Wunsch (1994) and Kerry and Shelton Mayes (Shaw, 1995) have remarked
that mentoring is used in various contexts. There are common elements, how-
ever, whether the term used is ‘mentoring’ or ‘supervising’ and used in business
life, schools or social and health care. An essential working tool is a discussion
between the mentor and mentee. Mentoring means a purposeful, fexible learn-
ing process and is usually a rewarding experience for both sides (Shaw, 1995).
The fact that both individuals, the mentee and the mentor, can beneft from the
relationship makes it vital and signifcant.
In contrast to expectations, mentoring activity tends to increase during times
of enterprise stress, such as economic decline or downsizing. This is because,
for the mentor, the activity provides a source of esteem perhaps not otherwise
available owing to curtailed opportunities for advancement, and the like (Kram
114 Newness in methodological approaches
and Hall, 1989). The situational determinants for using mentoring should be
further explored.
A mentor relationship has the potential to enhance professional development
and psychosocial development of both the mentee and the mentor. Through en-
trepreneurial career functions, including sponsorship, coaching, protection,
exposure and visibility, and challenging business opportunities, an entrepreneur
is assisted in learning the running of a business under competitive conditions.
Through psychosocial functions including role-modelling, acceptance and
confrmation, and counselling, an entrepreneur is supported in developing a
better sense of competence, confdence and effectiveness in his or her entrepre-
neurial and managerial roles.
Kram (1983) has empirically built a model that illustrates how a mentor re-
lationship moves through the phases of initiation, cultivation, separation and
redefnition. Each phase, although not entirely distinct, is characterized by par-
ticular affective experiences, developmental functions, and interaction patterns
that are shaped by individual’s needs and surrounding organizational circum-
stances. During the initiation phase the relationship starts; in the cultivation
phase the range of functions expand to maximum; in the separation phase the
established nature of the relationship is substantially altered by structural
changes in the enterprise or organizational context and/or by psychological
changes within one or both individuals involved in the mentoring process. Last
but not least, in the redefnition phase the relationship evolves a new form that
is signifcantly different from the past, or the relationship ends entirely.
The initial organizing categories in the mentoring relationship are level of
commitment, intensity of relationship, issues worked on and needs satisfed
(Kram and Isabella, 1985). Among the primary functions of the relationship,
information sharing, job-related feedback, emotional support and confrmation
have been demonstrated to be important. On the other hand, mentoring relation-
ship involves a one-way helping dynamic. Conventionally, mentors are most
important in the early life of a new venture. Considerable shifts in some relation-
ships may occur over time but there may be little change in others.
Mentors are supposed to be able to occupy multiple roles such as:
l catalyst
l visionary forecaster
l technology strategist
l expert in contract law
l expert in internationalization
l expert in fnancing
l marketing specialist
l expert in patenting
l developer of organization and organizational processes
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 115
l management developer
l human resource management expert
l attitude educator
l idea generator
l network builder
l coach
l councillor
l and so on.
Nobody can master all these multiple roles, and it may not be easy to achieve
role clarity and role consensus. The relationship between mentor and mentee
also changes during the process calling for role fexibility from both sides. Hav-
ing more than one mentor, or having an opportunity to get a new mentor when
the situation changes, provides more fexibility from the point of view of an
enterprise with the mentor programme.
MENTORING AS INTERVENTION
Mentoring is a special kind of helping relationship. Like process consultation
(Schein, 1999), the ultimate goal of mentoring is the establishment of an effec-
tive helping relationship. Generally, consultation and helping processes can be
distinguished by analysing the tacit assumptions they make about the client, the
nature of help, the role of the consultant and the nature of the ultimate reality
in which the helping relationship operates. In the mentoring process, the mentor
is supposed to choose from one moment to the next which role to be in or which
model of helping to use.
Mentoring efforts are always interventions. To intervene means to enter into
an ongoing system of relationships or objects for the purpose of helping. There
is an implicit assumption in this defnition: the system exists independently of
the intervener (Argyris, 1983). Taking the situation and expectations into ac-
count, virtually everything the mentor does is an intervention. There is no such
thing as pure diagnosis or business analysis. If diagnosis involves any contact
with the client system, the intervention process has actually begun. Thus, how
to go about diagnosis should be considered from the point of view of what pos-
sible consequences the diagnostic interventions conducted will have (Schein,
1999).
The interdependencies between the mentor and mentee should be acknowl-
edged but at the same time should focus on how to maintain, or increase, the
mentee’s autonomy to take his or her own decisions; how to differentiate the
boundaries between the client system and the intervener. This view values the
client system as an ongoing, self-responsible unity that has an obligation to be
116 Newness in methodological approaches
in control over its own destiny. Thus, an intervener tends to assist a system to
become more effective in problem-solving, decision-making and decision im-
plementation in such a way that the system can continue to be increasingly
effective in these activities and actually have a decreasing need for the
intervener.
According to Argyris (1983), there are some basic or necessary processes
that must be fulflled regardless of the substantive issues involved. One condition
is the generation of valid information. Without valid information, it would be
diffcult for the mentee to learn and for the mentor to help. A second condition
is that intervention activity should be so designed and executed that the client
system can maintain its discreteness and autonomy. That is, free, informed
choice is a vital process in effective intervention activity. Thirdly, the client’s
commitment to learning, choices and change to be made has to be more than
temporary. Valid information, free choice and internal commitment are generic
parts of any intervention activity, no matter what the substantive objectives
worked on are. Argyris calls these processes ‘the primary intervention tasks’.
In addition to these primary intervention tasks there is the question of the
depth of intervention. Depth here means the extent to which the change target
is the formal system (such as goals, procedures, structures, tasks, rules and
policies), the informal system or the self. There is a continuum of intervention
in terms of their depth based on accessibility and individuality. Accessibility
means the degree to which the data are more or less public versus being hidden
or private, and the ease with which the intervention skills can be learned. Indi-
viduality means the closeness to the person’s perceptions of self and the degree
to which the effects of an intervention are in the individual in contrast to being
in the enterprise. It can be assumed that the closer one moves on this continuum
to the sense of self, the more inherent processes have to do with emotions, values
and hidden matters and, consequently, the more potent they are to do either good
or harm. It requires careful consideration to determine that these interventions
are appropriate and relevant. If they are inappropriate they may be destructive
or, at a minimum, will be unacceptable to the client.
To minimize these kind of risks, Harrison (1983) has suggested two criteria
for determining the appropriate depth of intervention. First, to intervene at a
level no deeper than that required to produce enduring solutions to the problems
at hand and, second, to intervene at a level no deeper than that at which the en-
ergy and resources of the client can be committed to problem-solving and to
change. These criteria actually require that the interventionist proceeds no faster
or deeper than the legitimization he or she obtains from the client system culture
and that he or she stays at the level of consciously felt needs.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 117
GOALS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE PIRKANMAA
MENTORING PROGRAMME
The main goal of the Mentor Programme in the Pirkanmaa region is to help se-
lected SMEs to grow and develop through a mentoring process (www.
yrityskummit.net, in Finnish only). Enterprises involved in this programme are
coached by experienced managers and experts free of charge for fve to ten days
each year. The participating enterprises pay a small annual fee of 500 euros to
cover the administrative costs of the programme. The programme started in the
Technology Centre Hermia (a technology centre in the city of Tampere), but
later became an independent registered association.
The central organizing unit of this non-proft programme is a council selecting
the mentor(s) for an enterprise after a screening procedure and monitoring the
work of mentors now totalling about 90 – equal roughly to the member active
frms attending the mentoring programme. The other responsibilities of the
council are to select the mentor(s) for each participating frm, to follow up and
evaluate the work of mentors, to take care that the knowledge and experience
represented in the mentor network are available for each active mentor for the
beneft of each participating enterprise, to deliver information to mentors and
participating frms, and to look for new competent mentors.
The principles of the mentoring programme are as follows:
l The programme helps enterprises when they ask for mentoring.
l The programme offers an experienced ‘sparring partner’ to look for vari-
ous options.
l Co-operation is based largely on reasoning and planning.
l The programme utilizes expertise and experience available in the Pirkan-
maa region.
As ethical principles,
l the mentor tries to be objective and to present his or her view from the
starting points of the mentee based on his or her best knowledge
l the work of the mentor takes place on enterprise’s conditions and abso-
lutely confdentially
l the difference between mentoring and normal commercial consulting is
kept clear.
Typical motives of frms joining the programme are, for example, clarifying
their strategy and business concept, managing growth and going international.
In some cases a mentoring relationship changes to become a formal agreement
of membership on the board of the frm, which is another matter.
118 Newness in methodological approaches
MENTOR PROGRAMME IN ACTION
The mentoring process starts with the screening phase. Potential mentee frms
that have indicated their interest in participating in the programme contact the
management of the programme. Then an event called ‘an enterprise clinic’ is
organized. During the clinic three to fve experienced mentors, selected accord-
ing to the nature and background of the potential mentee, listen to the
presentation of the candidate and interview him or her. Sometimes the manage-
ment group of the candidate’s enterprise is present. The clinic takes about two
hours on average and after the clinic the decision is taken by the council. For
the time being, a majority of the candidates are accepted to attend the mentor
programme. The main reasons for rejections are that the business is still in too
preliminary a phase or there is only a business idea so far, the business is without
any development perspective or potential.
The council also decides who will be recommended to become the mentor
or mentors. This is an important matching task, which has sometimes not
worked for various reasons. The mentor’s background, business experience and
personal attributes are the main selection criteria. The mentee meets the mentor
before the co-operation begins.
The mentor meets the mentee fve to ten times a year, usually in the enterprise
of the mentee. A typical session lasts from two to three hours. The mentee has
prepared reports, memos, issues and questions which he or she has sent the
mentor in advance. Often there is also a plan for a longer period (six months or
one year), which is followed in a fexible way in order to be able to take unex-
pected events or incidents into account. Between the meetings, there are often
email communications and phone calls.
The co-operation continues for as long as it benefts both parties. In some
cases it has lasted only a few meetings, but the longest relationships have lasted
several years. Another development has been that the mentor becomes a board
member (meaning that the relationship changes) or a part-owner of the frm in
the course of time. The board case is more common: some 10 per cent of men-
tors have become board members.
Mentoring activities occur in two basic forms: a single mentor in the feld or
several mentors making up an expert group. In some meetings, additional ex-
perts can be invited to join for specifc issues (such as special technology,
contract law or internationalization questions).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODOLOGY
This chapter is an evaluation study of the results and outcomes of the programme
at the end of the frst decade of its existence (1993–2003). Multiple methods
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 119
have been used to explore the pros and cons of the programme: a survey sent
to the mentors (in 2001), a critical incident-based survey (2003) to the mentees
(managers in mentored enterprises) and participating observation (the author is
an active mentor and a member of the council).
The samples are relatively small (45 responses in the 2001 postal survey from
mentors; 20 personal or phone interviews in the 2003 study). This limits the use
of statistical analysis and emphasizes the qualitative side of the results. Further-
more, they are two separate samples collected at two separate times making it,
unfortunately, not possible to match the responses of the mentors and
mentees.
In the 2001 survey sent only to the mentors, the motives of mentors, benefts
to them, possible experienced disadvantages, orientation to mentoring, their
learnings, transfer of their managerial experience over to the mentees’ enter-
prises and overall satisfaction were explored. The questionnaire was sent to 78
mentors, of which 45 (58 per cent) replied. The age of the respondents varied
from 45 to 70 with an average age of 60 years. Twenty-two respondents were
retired and 23 were still working. They had been active mentors for from two
months to seven years; three years on average. There was only one female men-
tor among the respondents (Tuuri, 2001).
The chairman of the Committee and the Executive Director of the association
selected 20 enterprises for the 2003 study. Thirteen of these were still participat-
ing in the mentor programme and seven had left. A semi-structured interview
questionnaire (there were a number of open questions) consisting of 30 items
was presented in four interviews. The fnalized questionnaire was sent in ad-
vance to the mentees (Maunula, 2003).
All interviewed entrepreneurs represented small and medium-sized enter-
prises. There were four information and communication technology (ICT) frms,
one from the transportation industry, one from the environmental protection
industry and the rest in the sample from the following industries: chemicals,
machinery and equipment, food, electromechanical equipment, metals, furniture-
making and other production. The frms employed from one to 60 with an
average of 14 employees. The range of annual turnover varied from zero to 4.1
million euros. The mean turnover was 1.4 million euros (Maunula, 2003).
A good number of the enterprises in the sample had only been in business
for a few years (Table 7.1). However, number of years participation in the men-
tor programme varied considerably from one year to almost 10 years. The
average length of attendance was 5.4 years (Maunula, 2003).
120 Newness in methodological approaches
RESULTS
The 2001 Survey (Mentors)
The frst item in the survey was a question about the motivation to join the Pir-
kanmaa Mentor Programme. The answers to this open-ended question can be
categorized in six groups:
l invitation (n = 25; 45.5 per cent)
l interest in mentoring (14; 25.5 per cent)
l will to help (7; 12.7 per cent)
l will to transfer own experience (4; 7.3 per cent)
l willing to learn new things (4; 7.3 per cent)
l engaged earlier in the Pirkanmaa Mentor Programme (1; 1.7 per cent).
The message for recruiting new mentors is clear: personal contacts in the busi-
ness community together with personal interest in mentoring activity explain
over 70 per cent of the total variance of the answers. This is important for the
continuation of the mentoring programme, because half of the mentors are al-
ready retired and presumably no longer willing to go on for several years. There
is also a risk of losing an intimate connection with the business world in the
case of most senior mentors.
Respondents’ attitudes towards the need for orientation to mentor activities
and role was asked through three alternatives (I should not have needed orienta-
tion; it had been useful; and it could have been useful in my case). Sixty per
cent of the respondents announced that they should not have needed this, pre-
sumably trusting their long experience in a managerial role. Twenty-two per
cent answered that it had been useful and another 18 per cent that it could have
been of use. In terms of content required in future orientation, the role and tasks
of a mentor was most frequently mentioned (52.6 per cent), followed by a wish
Table 7.1 The age of the enterprises in the 2003 sample
Age of enterprise N %
0–4 years 6 30
5–9 years 4 20
10–14 years 6 30
15+ years 4 20
Total 20 100
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 121
to become acquainted with other mentors (21 per cent), problems of SMEs (16
per cent) and how the Tampere Technology Centre Hermia operates (the Mentor
Programme started in connection with this technology centre).
The mentors had benefted personally in many ways from their mentoring.
The most frequent answers to this item were: receiving new knowledge and
perspectives (25 per cent); maintaining contact with the business world (22 per
cent); contacts with other mentors’ enterprises in the programme (17 per cent);
pleasure from helping (15 per cent); experience of being personally important
and mentally vigorous; and an opportunity to share one’s experiences. The
mentoring programme has clearly provided a socially acceptable and appreci-
ated ‘cooling off’ opportunity for senior executives during the transition period
from managerial lifestyle to senior citizenship. It seems to be a win-win oppor-
tunity as well, because the enterprises engaged in the programme have also
benefted from the co-operation as the results of the 2003 survey to be reported
later in this chapter clearly indicate. As a critical point, however, two mentors
still actively working experienced that there was no point in being a mentor.
On the other side of the same issue, 62 per cent did not experience any harm
or disadvantage from being a mentor. Some negative effects have occurred in
the opinion of some mentors: problems in time management (eight replies), in-
direct loss of earnings (three replies), passiveness and lack of appreciation on
the part of enterprises (two replies), feeling of inadequacy (one reply) and con-
ficts of interest (one reply). Mentoring is a special kind of a helping relationship,
as noted before. About a third had experienced some unexpected or uneasy in-
cidents in their mentoring activity. This may call for some orientation or
exchange of experiences with other mentors before starting. Interestingly
enough, the proportion of the mentors who encountered things mentioned above,
equals the proportion of respondents who had benefted or thought could have
benefted from organized orientation to mentoring activities.
The next item in the questionnaire surveyed the meaning of multiple mentor
practice – whether it had been useful and rewarding or caused various kinds of
problems. About one-ffth did not respond to this question and two of them did
not like it because of lack of time and experienced problems in maintaining the
trust in the mentee enterprise. Anyway, a majority had positive experiences such
as broadening of perspectives (10 replies), benefts for the enterprise (six re-
plies), an opportunity to help the frms (six replies), challenge (four replies),
contacts with other mentors (three replies) and maintaining contact with the
business world (two replies).
Mentoring is supposed to represent a potential transfer of experience from
the mentor to the mentee enterprise. Seventeen respondents did not want to an-
swer this question because of their short period as mentors. Four mentors
presumed that it is better to ask the mentees. Anyway, a good third of the re-
spondents (35.6 per cent) evaluated that the transfer had succeeded well, 15.6
122 Newness in methodological approaches
per cent assessed it to have taken place in a satisfactory way and 8.9 per cent
replied that it varied. A further 11.1 per cent had faced problems in this
process.
Many mentors found it problematic to evaluate what they had learned from
mentoring. Two said that they had learned nothing and another eight did not
want to assess it, mainly because of the short period of their activity as mentors.
The remaining 35 respondents gave fve categories of answers, as follows:
l learning from industry and products (23 replies)
l learning in interaction (eight replies)
l contacts (four replies)
l recognizing the validity of ‘old wisdom’ (three replies)
l new ways of operating and new perspectives (three replies).
A further concluding item was the overall satisfaction with mentoring. The scale
used in this item was from one to 10 (1 meaning ‘I am very dissatisfed’ and 10
‘I am very satisfed’). Forty-one respondents scored 8.1 on average with a mini-
mum of 1 and maximum of 10. The mode was 8 (17 replies)
Table 7.2 Motives for joining the mentoring programme
Motives to join the programme Participating
mentees; no. of
answers
Mentees who left
the programme;
no. of answers
Utilization of experience 7 (31.8%) 1 (12.5%)
Need for an outside adviser 5 (22.7%) —
Interesting idea 3 (13.6%) 1 (12.5%)
Help and advice in acquisitions
and mergers
3 (13.6%) —
Getting customers and co-
operation partners
— 2 (15%)
Guidance for strategic planning 2 (9.1%) —
Need for an outside board 1 (4.6%) —
Need for a ‘sparring partner’ 1 (4.6%) —
Lack of business know-how — 1 (12.5%)
Others’ positive experiences — 1 (12.5%)
Need for a sparring partner for
next generation
— 1 (12.5%)
Request from the mentors — 1 (12.5%)
Total 22 (100%) 8 (100%)
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 123
Table 7.3 Anticipations of mentees towards mentoring
Anticipations Participating
mentees; no. of
answers
Mentees who left
the programme;
no. of answers
Partner for discussions 5 (20.8%) —
No clear anticipations 5 (20.8%) —
Benefting from the views of a
more experienced person
3 (12.5%) 1 (10%)
Benefting from mentor’s
network to get new customers
and partners
— 4 (40%)
Help and support in important
decisions
2 (8.3%) 1 (10%)
Widening one’s perspective 2 (8.3%) —
To get an outside and reliable
board member
2 (8.3%) —
Market and sales information — 2 (20%)
Outsider’s opinion to the next
generation
— 1 (10%)
Clarifying strategy 1 (4.2%) 1 (10%)
Advice concerning general
management
1 (4.2%) —
‘Sparring’ help 1 (4.2%) —
Help in idea generation 1 (4.2%) —
Solving conficts among owners 1 (4.2%) —
Total 24 (100%) 10 (100%)
The 2003 Interviews (Mentees)
The frst few interview questions explored the motives of the mentees for joining
the programme and their expectations of mentoring. Table 7.2 shows what kind
of primary motives were found. The answers are given in two groups of mentees,
those who still participate in it (n = 13) and those who have left the programme
(n = 7). Each comment is included and percentages in relation to the total
number of answers in each group are calculated. Because these results were
obtained by semi-structured interviews classifed by the researcher (Maunula,
2003), the number of observations varies in Tables 7.2–7.4.
Comparisons between the two sub-samples can only be indicative because
of the small number of observations. There is quite a bit of variance, and maybe
124 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 7.4 Fulflment of expectations
Participating mentees Those who left the programme
Well 8 (61.5%) —
Satisfying 2 (15.4%) 1 (14.3%)
Badly 1 (7.7%) 6 (85.7%)
Diffcult to say 2 (15.4%) —
Total 13 (100%) 7 (100%)
the only suggestive notion is the more general character or less specifc nature
of the motivations (‘open mind’ vs, for example, marketing help) shown in the
case of still participating mentees. Same kind of notion (‘not clear anticipa-
tions’) occurs in Table 7.3.
Fulflment of expectations was asked by using four alternatives: well, satisfy-
ing, badly and diffcult to say. The frst alternative was chosen in 62 per cent of
cases; 15 per cent said satisfying; a few (8 per cent) answered badly and another
15 per cent ‘diffcult to say’. Thus, about 80 per cent were satisfed with co-op-
eration with mentors. A clear difference can be seen, however, if those who still
participate in the mentor programme are separated from those who left it (Table
7.4).
One result was that it seems to be very hard to change the mentor and to admit
that it would evidently work better with someone else. The feeling is the same
on both sides indicating the sensitivity of this issue as some kind of losing face.
The programme management could actually add the opportunity to change the
mentor as a normal operating practice and emphasize that this matter is not any
kind of failure.
A typical unsatisfying case was described as follows:
We got ‘a sparring partner’, but no concrete know-how or advice. One crucial point
is that here are no IT specialists among the mentors. Mentors did not have much to
give to the frm. General business know-how is not enough, but knowledge about the
industry sector should have been a requirement. If the mentor does not have this
know-how, that’s it. Mentoring should be based on one’s own solid experience and
if there is none, co-operation cannot continue.
It is worth mentioning that information technology is a rapidly growing business
area in the Pirkanmaa region. But it is also a brand new industry – poorly known
to most senior mentors. As a more serious case there was a mentor who accord-
ing to the mentee only tried to beneft from the mentee enterprise. This
co-operation was quickly ended.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 125
A partly overlapping question is what kind of benefts the mentees have ex-
perienced from the co-operation with their mentor. To summarize, 80 per cent
(16) of the mentees had experienced it as useful and the remaining 20 per cent
(4) not. Out of the four mentees who did not experience any use at all, three
have left the programme and the fourth has just started a new promising mentor-
ing relationship. More specifcally, in the positive cases the benefts were as
shown in Table 7.5.
Table 7.5 The benefts experienced by the mentees
Experienced benefts No. of answers %
Opinions and advice from an experienced senior 5 22.8
New contacts 4 18.3
Mental support 3 13.7
Support in decision-making 3 13.7
Improved board meetings 1 4.5
Computerization of production management 1 4.5
Successful implementation of generation change 1 4.5
Clarifed strategy 1 4.5
Implementation of organization structure change 1 4.5
Improved fnancial reporting 1 4.5
Start-up of a new venture 1 4.5
Total 22 100.0
The most general topic according to the interviews has been strategy. About
a half of the respondents mentioned this theme. Other general topics covered
general management, organization design, marketing and sales. Internationaliza-
tion, fnancing, training and education, production management, R&D and board
issues were mentioned less frequently, only once each.
A great majority (80 per cent) of the interviewed entrepreneurs recommended
mentoring to other similar enterprises, as shown in Table 7.6. This was seen as
most important in the start-up and right after the start-up phase. Both those
mentees who answered ‘probably not’ or ‘absolutely not’ had already left the
programme.
The following were typical additional comments:
If the business channels well and fnds proper people, mentoring can be very useful.
It is really nice that know-how is utilized and shared. Seniors have a huge data bank
from which others may beneft. A small country like Finland cannot afford to keep
her vigorous seniors redundant. This also provides an opportunity for the mentors to
remain active. Able seniors have something to do, because they just can’t be idle.
126 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 7.6 Would you recommend mentoring to a similar enterprise you are
running?
No. of answers %
Absolutely 13 65
I suppose yes 3 15
Diffcult to say 2 10
Probably not 1 5
Absolutely not 1 5
Total 20 100
It depends quite a bit on entrepreneur’s own professional skills how much he or she
can beneft from mentoring. Mentoring cannot worsen activities in an enterprise, but
rather the opposite. Mentoring provides many opportunities. There should be a har-
mony between a mentor and a mentee for the beneft of the entrepreneur.
The entrepreneurs were also asked to describe, what kind of attributes they
expect from a good mentor. The limitations of this approach have already been
noticed in leadership studies over the past few decades, but some descriptive
information was achieved. Generally, a good mentor was expected to be credi-
ble, active and motivated to mentoring. He or she was expected to have broad
experience in general management in order to be able to help the entrepreneur
in many ways. Former SME entrepreneurs were found to be good potential
mentors. Specialists in narrow sectors it was suggested should concentrate on
enterprise clinic activities and multiple-mentor situations to support the mentor
in their own feld in single problematic situations. Some interviewed entrepre-
neurs stated that it would be an asset if mentors were already retired, because
then they have time for mentoring. Others found that mentors would be better
coming from working life with their updated information and knowledge. An-
other source of disagreement was the question of whether the mentor should
know the industry sector or come from outside it. Good social skills and ade-
quate motivation were also mentioned as expected qualities.
The managing director of the programme employed in 1998 (n = 43) and
1999 (n = 57) a survey of the overall satisfaction of the mentees with the men-
toring, using a numerical scale from 1 (very dissatisfed) to 10 (very satisfed).
Only participating mentees were included in this survey. The average in 1998
was 8.4 and in 1999 8.5, respectively. To get further comparative data, the same
item was presented for the participants in the 2003 survey as well. The mean
was 8.3 for those who participated in the programme, but only 6.1 for those who
had left the programme. The same question was presented to the mentors in the
2001 survey, giving the mean 8.1 (n = 41) (Tuuri, 2001). One can conclude that
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 127
the overall satisfaction of the mentees who have stayed in the mentor programme
and that of the mentors have both been maintained at a relatively high level.
As to additional points in the 2003 interview-based survey, information about
the mentoring programme was generally found insuffcient, but well worth im-
provements. By mid-2003, an Internet-based catalogue representing the mentors
and their experience and special know-how was launched. The physical distance
between the residence of the mentor and enterprise was found to be a critical
issue in terms of time and travelling costs. It was stated that the regional idea
is a good one, but the mentoring idea could be extended to become nation-wide.
Networking activities with the more well-known high-tech mentoring pro-
gramme in the Greater Helsinki area was seen as a potentially valuable idea. A
generous promise was also made: some mentees are willing to give a lecture
about their experiences in local universities.
DISCUSSION
During its frst decade the mentor programme has become established and
achieved institutional status. Formal training and education includes structured
and organized forms of learning provided by educational institutes. Those learn-
ing events that are provided by oneself or by others, but do not aim to achieve
any formal degrees, belong to the area of non-formal training and education:
there are no clear boundaries, because they include elements from informal and
formal learning. Informal learning represents learning that takes place in various
everyday situations, such as in one’s own job. It is training that is not systemati-
cally planned nor organized.
Informal learning does not compensate but rather supplements formal training
and education. The problem with most formal learning, from an entrepreneurial
point of view, is that it is insuffcient in that it is based mostly on, and aims to
provide, generative, broad applications where ‘thinking’ tends to dominate over
‘action’. Entrepreneurial work is mostly action orientated. It is also often so
tightly bounded that opportunities to attend formal training and education are
limited. Unlike formal training and education, an entrepreneur’s own activity
context tends to determine his or her learning needs, often relating to informal
learning rather than being dependent on formal training. The problems the en-
treprenur encounters require mostly immediate solutions. Thus, there is no time
to wait for a proper course or other formal training to fnd the key to his or her
problems.
In entrepreneurs’ training and education, learning and work could be in a
continuous interaction. On-the-job learning is based on interaction between the
learner and his or her environment. Even ‘useful’ mistakes can be a source of
learning. A strongly protective and non-experimental attitude can be a bad op-
128 Newness in methodological approaches
Refection included Refection not included
Action included Informal learning Occasional learning
Action not included Formal learning Non-learning
Figure 7.1 Different forms of learning
tion in entrepreneurial life. Ellström (1996) has talked about ‘the learning
potential of a task’ as a concept describing the qualities of task-promoted
learning.
Mentoring belongs clearly to the category ‘informal training and education’
providing informal rather than formal learning. Informal learning is actually a
variant of action learning, where learners seek meaning for things they have
experienced. Entrepreneurs spend the majority of their time in ‘informal
actions’.
Watkins and Marsick (1992) have presented a typology of learning depending
on action orientation and refection (Figure 7.1).
Occasional learning is totally unplanned, unintentional and takes place in
addition to other activities. In can occur unconsciously and sometimes in the
form of ‘serendipity’. The role of refection is more diffcult to evaluate than
the formal–informal dimension in the model. When refecting on one’s experi-
ences, it is possible to become aware of what one learns. Refection can be more
effective by applying concepts to practice. Gerber et al. (1995) have emphasized
that critical refection is needed to discover hidden norms, values and assump-
tions guiding one’s behaviour. It is badly needed in situations deviating from
ordinary routines.
Traditionally, however, the prevailing idea of rigorous professional knowledge
has been based on technical rationality (Schön, 1991). Technical rationality
holds that practitioners are instrumental problem-solvers who select technical
means best suited to particular purposes. Most mentors share this background
in terms of their managerial experience in larger companies. The interviews
actually revealed rather little open and active refection. This may stem from
the fact that part of the interviews were administered by phone instead of in
face-to-face interviews.
On the other hand, based on participating observation in the active mentoring
process by the author, there was more refection than indicated by the results of
the interviews. This observation challenges the educational consciousness of
the mentor emphasizing subjective experience as a base for learning. ‘Pure’
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 129
experience needs refection in order to turn experience into learning. Refection
actually means conscious focus on one’s own associations and thinking in the
context of actual events. Thus, one of the primary tasks of the mentor is to sup-
port and advance the mentee to refect and to explore the meanings he or she
has given to various events and matters. It was Dewey (1951) who described
refection by such descriptions as ‘searching for’, ‘asking’, ‘hunting’ and ‘fnd-
ing material’. Refection comes close to the traditional concept of introspection.
‘Caring’ could be added as a further description of the mentor–mentee relation-
ship. Another notion worth more detailed investigation is to consider the
mentoring process as a ‘quality control’ (Obholzer and Roberts, 1994).
Depending on one’s disciplinary background, organizational role, past history,
interests and political/economic perspectives, problematic situations are framed
in different ways. Furthermore, a problematic situation presents itself as a
unique case. Entrepreneurs in particular have a strong tendency to consider their
problems unique, although there may be general rules to solve them. Some
problematic situations are situations of confict among values, as indicated in
some reported lack of consensus between the mentor and the mentee. Mentors
also face and experience the tension between knowing and not knowing what
to do in a particular situation. This is owing to the fact that the very nature of
entrepreneurial as well as managerial decision-making is that most decisions
are taken under uncertain conditions.
The most common theme in the mentoring situations was strategy followed
by marketing, general management and organization design issues. Lesser, but
to some extent more personal, impressions were debated. In terms of the depth
of interventions made by mentors, they tended to be more organizational and
formal than educational and informal, although it is sometimes diffcult to rec-
ognize any boundary between the two. This may be due to the often lacking
pedagogical skills of the mentors feeling more familiar in their managerially
orientated role. Yet most of the mentors agree with the principle that in a long-
run learning concept emphasizing the autonomy and self-direction of the mentee
is a much better developmental path than to increase his or her dependence on
the mentor.
As indicated earlier, one cannot completely separate the stages of data-gather-
ing and intervention. Both occur simultaneously: how one gathers data
constitutes an intervention, and the kind of intervention one chooses will reveal
new data derived from the reaction to the intervention. Broadly, three kinds of
interventions were employed by the mentors: feedback of presented data,
agenda-setting interventions (such as agenda review and testing procedures;
conceptual inputs) and coaching or counselling of individuals.
A further interesting issue is timing of interventions, the challenge of ‘or-
ganizational entry’. The initiative to start the co-operation always comes from
the mentee. The general guidelines of the mentor programme (also communi-
130 Newness in methodological approaches
cated to the possible participants of the programme) state that the focus is on
relatively small, young frms willing to grow and more established small and
medium-sized enterprises facing major problems. Large companies are outside
the scope of the programme, because they usually have the resources to use
other professional help. According to the mentees, early stages of a frm’s de-
velopment provide a natural arena for mentoring. Context of the development
phase naturally determines the emphasis of the mentoring activity.
In parallel with the development phase of the enterprise, there are phases in
the mentor relationship. In Kram’s (1983) empirically built model, a mentor
relationship moves through the phases of initiation, cultivation, separation and
redefnition. A good start is a matter of a suitable matching process between the
mentor and the mentee. The initiation phase seems to be a fragile one, where
disappointments after an inspiring frst contact may appear, particularly if the
mentee had very specifc ‘functional’ or industry-specifc expectations. Another
problem is that of separation: how to defne when the mentor has given what he
or she can provide and fnish the relationship. Far too often the relationship
seems to last too long and a change of mentor seems to be very diffcult for both
partners. Personal interdependence developed over the menoring period appears
to be strong, although there was no new opening in terms of business issues,
making it diffcult to fnish the relationship. On the other hand, if the separation
stage was well worked through, it could also be a fruitful basis for redefnition
and a start for a new relationship sooner or later, or to stand much more inde-
pendently than at the beginning of the mentoring process.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Any entrepreneur who has started up a venture has likely encountered a variety
of developmental tasks that involved concerns about running the business, or
about self and family. A mentor relationship can signifcantly enhance develop-
ment in the different life cycle phases by facilitating work on these tasks. The
mentor can provide a variety of functions that support, guide and counsel the
entrepreneur.
In the empirical part of this chapter, a great majority (some 80 per cent) of
both mentors and mentees found the mentor relationship very benefcial and
were ready to recommend it to other entrepreneurs and to be extended country-
wide. Mentoring was defned as informal training and education based on
learning in a work context, supplementing formal education. It called for trust
and constructive feedback. Most mentees found the co-operation with an expe-
rienced senior very useful and mentors found it rewarding, although the helping
activities were run free of charge. There were, however, some less successful
cases, where the mentoring relationship ended for various reasons.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 131
Owing to the relatively small samples in the two surveys (2001 and 2003)
reported, the analysis was mainly descriptive with some further insights from
interviews and participation observations employed. Mentoring was also con-
sidered an intervention activity requiring the generation of valid information,
free informed choice and internal commitment to be successful. The nature of
the mentoring relationship as a special kind of helping relationship is one that
deserves further attention. It would be interesting, for example, to delineate how
individual differences in developmental tasks, self-concepts and attitudes to-
wards intimacy and authority, as well as other individual attributes, shape the
nature of the mentoring relationship that is needed and maintained, through
multiple qualitative case studies. The need for longitudinal studies is also
inevitable.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author wishes to thank Ms Pirjo Tuuri (University of Tampere) and Ms Mari
Maunula (Tampere University of Technology) for their contribution in conduct-
ing the feldwork in 2001 and 2003, respectively.
REFERENCES
Argyris, C. (1983), ‘Intervention theory and method’, in W.L. French, C.H. Bell, jr and
R.A. Zawacki (eds), Organization Development: Theory, Practice, Research, Plano,
TX: Business Publications, Inc., pp. 86–9.
Dewey, J. (1951), Experience and Education, New York: Macmillan.
Ellström, P.-E. (1996), ‘Rutin och refektion. Förutsättningar och hinder för lärande i
dagligt arbete’ (in Swedish), in P.-E. Ellström, B. Gustavsson and S. Larsson (eds),
Livslångt lärande, Lund: Studentlitteratur, pp. 142–79.
Gerber, R., C. Lankshear, S. Larsson and L. Svensson (1995), ‘Self-directed learning in
work context’, Education + Training, 37 (8), 26–32.
Gómez-Mejía, L.R., D.B. Balkin and R.L. Cardy (2001), Managing Human Resources,
3rd edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Greer, C.R. (2001), Strategic Human Resource Management: A General Managerial
Approach, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Harrison, Roger (1983), ‘Choosing the depth of the organizational intervention’, in W.L.
French, C.H. Bell, jr and R.A. Zawacki (eds), Organization Development: Theory,
Practice, Research, Plano, TX: Business Publications, Inc., pp. 412–21.
Järvinen, S. (1998), ‘Benefts of mentoring in the international growth of new, technol-
ogy-based companies: case companies from the National Technology Mentor
Programme’, unpublished master’s thesis, Helsinki School of Economics and Business
Administration.
Kerry, T. and A. Shelton Mayes (1995), Issues in Mentoring, London: Routledge and
Open University.
132 Newness in methodological approaches
Kram, K.E. (1983), ‘Phases of the mentor relationship’, Academy of Management Jour-
nal, 26 (4), 608–25.
Kram, K.E. and D.T. Hall (1989), ‘Mentoring as an antidote to stress during corporate
trauma’, Human Resource Management, 28 (4), 493–510.
Kram, K.E. and L.A. Isabella (1985), ‘Mentoring alternatives: the role of peer relation-
ships in career development’, Academy of Management Journal, 28 (1), 110–32.
Lindgren, Ulla (2000), En empirisk studie av mentorskapinom högre utbildning i Sverige.
Innebörd, utformning och effecter (in Swedish), Åbo Akademis förlag, Turku: Åbo
Akademis Tryckeri.
Maunula, Mari (2003), ‘Tutkimus asiakasyritysten kokemuksista Pirkanmaan yritys-
kummitoiminnas- ta’ (in Finnish), unpublished report, Tampere University of
Technology, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.
Obholzer, A. and V.Z. Roberts (eds) (1994), The Unconscious at Work: Individual and
Organizational Stress in the Human Services, New York: Routledge.
Savidge, J. (1993), The Pathmaster Guidebook: New Resources for Mentors, Coaches,
Gurus and Angels, Jyväskylä: Gummerus and the Finnish Academies of Technology.
Schein, E.H. (1999), Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship,
Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Schön, D.A. (1991), Educating the Refective Practitioner, San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Shaw, R. (1995), ‘Mentoring’, in T. Kerry and A.S. Mayes (eds), Issues in Mentoring,
London: Routledge and Open University, pp. 260–67.
Tuuri, P. (2001), ‘Kun antaa niin saa itsekin. Tutkimus mentoreiden kokemuksista Pir-
kanmaan yrityskummitoiminnasta’ (in Finnish), unpublished seminar paper, University
of Tampere.
Watkins, K.E. and V.J. Marsick (1992), ‘Towards a theory of informal and incidental
learning in organizations’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 11 (4),
287–300.
Wunsch, M.A. (1994), ‘Developing mentoring programs: major themes and issues’, in
M.A. Wunsch (ed.), Mentoring Revisited: Making an Impact on Individuals and In-
stitutions, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 57, San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass, pp. 27–34.
133
8. Can you teach entrepreneurs to write
their business plan? An empirical
evaluation of business plan
competitions
Benoît Gailly
INTRODUCTION: THE RELEVANCE OF BUSINESS PLAN
COMPETITIONS
A large diversity of private and public organizations have been put in place to
help prospective entrepreneurs to design and launch new business ventures.
Among those, business plan competitions focus on rewarding promising ven-
tures identifed through the evaluation of their initial business plans and
providing expert advice and training services aimed at teaching them how to
complete/improve those plans. However, there appears to be limited empirical
evidence regarding the impact of business plan competitions.
In this context, the aim of this chapter is to discuss empirical evidence on the
effciency (do they help the right businesses) and effectiveness (do they provide
relevant support) of business plan competitions as a way to teach entrepreneurs
how to write their business plan, based on the empirical analysis of the case of
‘123Go’, a business plan competition organized yearly since 2000 in four Eu-
ropean countries.
1
In particular, we will discuss whether the two aspects of a
business plan competition (selecting ventures based on an initial business plan
and teaching them how to improve it) can actually be justifed from an empirical
point of view, that is, ‘can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan?’
and ‘will that be of any help regarding the success of their venture?’
We will detail frst in the next section from a theoretical perspective the issues
of new venture evaluation, the target public of early-stage ventures and how a
notion of success can be defned for those ventures. We will then present our
hypotheses and methodology and, fnally, discuss our results and their implica-
tions for practitioners and researchers.
134 Newness in methodological approaches
NEW VENTURE EVALUATION
From a theoretical point of view the identifcation of the factors that can be
linked to the emergence of new ventures and therefore that should be taken into
account by entrepreneurship teaching programmes has generated a signifcant
stream of research since entrepreneurship emerged as a relevant research feld
(Bull and Willard, 1993). Among those, many researchers have focused on the
key issue of the characteristics of the entrepreneur and his or her team in terms
of background, experience or profle. Specifc characteristics that have been
analysed include, for example, the entrepreneur’s psychology and personality
(Begley and Boyd, 1987; Hornaday and Wheattley, 1971; Kets de Vries, 1977;
Sexton and Bowman, 1986); his motivation (Dubini, 1989; Durand and Shea,
1974; Smith and Miner, 1984); his risk-taking attitude (Brockhaus, 1980); his
creativity (Bruyat, 1994; Filion, 1991); his training and professional experience
(Hebbar, 2001; Fayolle, 1994; Julien and Marchesnay, 1996; Schefczyk and
Gerpott, 2000) and his personal abilities (Freeman et al., 1983; Timmons, 1999)
in particular in relation with his environment (Aldrich, 1990; Guth, 1991; Van
de Ven, 1984).
On the other hand, several researchers have analysed the decision criteria
used by investors, business angels and/or venture capitalists to screen and/or
evaluate potential investments (Hall and Hofer, 1993; Macmillan et al., 1985;
Tyebjee and Bruno, 1984). Those researchers have highlighted that while the
characteristics of the entrepreneur and his or her team are taken into account by
early-stage investors, other factors also play a signifcant role. According to
those investors the success of a potential new venture appears to be driven not
only by the characteristics of the entrepreneur and/or his or her team but also
by multiple factors linked to the perceived opportunity, including management,
strategy and industrial context (Gartner, 1985). Understanding how the quality
of the perceived opportunity, as can be described in a business plan, can be in-
fuenced by a business plan competition and how it affects the ulterior success
of the venture therefore appears relevant.
Limited evidence is available concerning the link between the characteristics
of the business opportunity, as identifed by the venture team and presented in
their business plan, and the success of the venture, in particular at the seed or
start-up stages. Regarding more mature ventures (beyond start-up stage) several
researches have been completed, mainly using qualitative and quantitative data
through questionnaires. Gartner et al. (1999) have analysed whether the quality
of a new venture as described in the popular press is a good predictor of its
success. Covin and Slevin (1990) found a correlation for new ventures in emerg-
ing industries between performance and both strategic posture (conservative
versus entrepreneurial) and structural form (organic versus mechanistic). Duch-
esneau and Gartner (1990), expanding initial papers from Van de Ven (1984),
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 135
Buzzel and Gale (1987), Sandberg and Hofer (1987) and Timmons (1999),
looked at 26 fresh juice ventures in the USA. They identifed as discriminant
factors between successful and unsuccessful ventures, among others, a clear
broad business idea, broad planning effort (although most frms did not have a
formal business plan) and the use of outside help and advice. An extensive list
of papers regarding the impact of those factors at the start-up stage can be found
in Duchesneau and Gartner (1990).
Regarding the evaluation criteria used to assess the quality of a business plan,
several researchers have, as mentioned above, looked at the decision criteria
used by investors, business angels and/or venture capitalists to screen and/or
evaluate potential investments. Those decision criteria can be grouped in the
following categories (Muzyka et al., 1996):
1. Financials (expected returns, payback, break-even, exit options).
2. Product-market positioning (market growth and attractiveness, product
uniqueness and ft to market).
3. Strategy and competitiveness issues (barriers to entry, competitive
intensity).
4. Investment fund and deal requirements (fund constraints, strategy, location,
deal stage and structure).
5. Management team skills and capabilities (composition, leadership, industry
expertise and track record, functional capabilities).
Among those the most relevant criteria in the context of an early-stage business
plan competition are those related to the categories of criteria 2 and 3, related
respectively to the product-market positioning and to the strategy and competi-
tiveness issues. Indeed, the fourth category (investment fund and deal
requirements) relates to the strategy and positioning of the investor and not di-
rectly to the venture characteristics. Moreover, the ffth category relates to the
management team itself, which is mostly assessed through interviews and not
directly taken into account in most business plan competitions. Finally, regard-
ing the frst category (fnancials), those criteria are often of limited relevance at
the seed stage. Indeed, at the seed or early stages ventures tend to have limited
(if any) formal reporting or are often very reluctant to provide ‘hard’ perform-
ance data (Fiorito and LaForge, 1986). Moreover such ‘hard’ data on small frms
tend to be diffcult to interpret (Cooper, 1979).
Regarding how the notion of success can apply to early-stage ventures, we
defne, for the purpose of this research, ‘success’ as the creation of a viable
commercial activity in the near future, without taking into account actual fnan-
cial performance. This is obviously not a suffcient condition of success from
the point of view of prospective investors. Investors will rather consider as suc-
cessful only ventures whose fnancial returns are satisfying with regard to their
136 Newness in methodological approaches
risk profle and which offer an attractive exit opportunity. However, this defni-
tion of ‘success’ can still be considered a satisfying measure for organizations
interested in teaching entrepreneurship and is at least a necessary condition of
success for investors.
Regarding the type of new ventures considered in the context of a business
plan competition, early or seed stage can be defned as a distinct stage when the
initial opportunity is developed and tested (Carrier, 2000; Fonrouge, 1999; Jeng
and Wells, 2000). Companies at the seed stage are neither organized nor ‘in
business’ (Bachher and Guild, 1996) and fnancing is needed to evaluate the
perceived opportunity, for example, to prove a concept or develop a prototype.
The key issue then for potential investors is to analyse the characteristics of the
proposed venture in order to fnd ways to predict whether a given venture is
worth supporting and/or investing in, as the seed stage is characterized by an
absence of track record and fnancial history.
HYPOTHESES AND METHODOLOGY
Having defned the objectives and theoretical background of this research we
defne hereafter our research hypotheses, related to the effciency and effective-
ness of business plan competitions, and discuss how to test those hypotheses
from an empirical point of view.
Hypothesis 1
The evaluation of the initial business plan of early-stage ventures along the cri-
teria of (1) product-market positioning and (2) strategy and competitiveness are
relevant with respect to the future success of those ventures.
Product-market positioning and strategy and competitiveness are the criteria
that have been identifed in our literature review as relevant in this context. The
effciency of the business plan competition implies a link between the evaluation
criteria used by the competition and its objective – support the creation of viable
businesses. This hypothesis tests whether the evaluation criteria used are relevant
in the sense that the results of the evaluations of the perceived business oppor-
tunity are signifcantly correlated with the a posteriori emergence of a business.
From a practical point of view it tests whether business plan competitions ‘select
the right potential ventures’.
As the support provided by business plan competitions focuses primarily on
improving the quality of the business plans submitted by the entrepreneurs, our
second hypothesis focuses on whether ‘better’ business plans actually lead to
ventures that are more likely to be successful.
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 137
Hypothesis 2
The criteria of product-market positioning and strategy and competitiveness are
valuable indicators of the quality of an early-stage business opportunity, that is,
they can be used to increase signifcantly the probability to select successful
ventures.
This hypothesis which is a refnement of Hypothesis 1 tests whether it is
possible to actually estimate the likelihood of success of a venture based on the
evaluation of its early-stage business plan. If this is the case then improving the
(perceived) quality of a business plan along those criteria – as the support pro-
vided by business plan competition aims at – should increase the probability of
success of an early-stage venture.
Having defned Hypotheses 1 and 2 regarding the link between the evaluation
criteria related to the business opportunity and the likelihood of success, we
present hereafter the sample, evaluation process and measurement of success
that allowed us to collect and use empirical data in the context of this study. We
then present the statistical approach used to test the hypotheses.
We used a sample of 119 business plans that were collected in the context of
‘123Go’, a business plan competition organized in France, Belgium, Germany
and Luxembourg since 2000. All the business plans submitted in the 2000–01
edition of this competition by the voluntary participants were taken into account
in our sample. The criteria for accepting business plans used by the organizers
were the following:
l The project must originate from the local region (including Luxembourg
and the neighbouring regions, that is, the North of France, the South of
Belgium and the South-West of Germany).
l It must be innovative (that is, there is no similar business active in the
considered region).
l It must not yet be fnanced by risk capital.
l It must be economically feasible (there should be a priori a potential
market).
The criteria were frst broadly evaluated by the organizers to eliminate fanciful
projects. The business plans submitted described perceived new venture op-
portunities from the four countries considered and related to a broad range of
sectors (see Table 8.1). We found no systematic bias in our sample between the
sector, the country, the evaluations (detailed hereafter) or the success of the
venture.
The business plans collected were text documents ranging from fve to 25
pages where the participants were required by the organizers to describe their
business model, the value to the prospective customers, the competitive differ-
138 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.1 Number of business plans submitted
Sector Belgium France Germany Luxemburg Total
Biotechnology 1 1 2
Construction 1 2 1 4
Environment 6 3 2 1 12
Finance 1 1 2 4
Food 2 1 3
Health care 3 1 1 1 6
Information technology 6 3 4 5 18
Manufacturing 1 6 3 2 12
Material sciences 1 1 2
Media 1 3 1 1 6
Services 12 7 5 11 35
Telecommunication 1 1 2
Not specifed 6 5 1 1 13
Total 41 31 21 26 119
entiation versus existing offers, the target market and the potential competitors.
No personal details about the venture team members were included in the
plan.
Each business plan was sent by the organizers to experts for evaluation and
feedback on a double-blind basis. At the end of this evaluation process the par-
ticipants were given the results of the evaluations and invited to submit an
improved version of their business plan which would again be evaluated. The
whole process lasted from September 2000 to June 2001 and 63 participants
chose to present a ‘revised’ version of their business plan based on the feedback
they had received. These ‘revised’ versions were then evaluated following the
same process. Hence the sample used for this research included 119 business
plans initially submitted and 63 ‘revised’ ones.
Regarding the evaluation process, the organizers of the business plan competi-
tion had gathered a list of about 250 experts, consultants, bankers, managers or
academics, who volunteered to evaluate business plans relevant to their feld of
expertise. Based on the sector of activity of the venture, each plan was sent by
the organizers as an electronic document to two (in the initial evaluation phase)
or three (for the ‘revised’ versions of the plans) evaluators. The names and
contact details of the entrepreneurs were not transmitted to the evaluators and
the entrepreneurs did not know who would evaluate them. Each evaluator was
required to fll electronically an evaluation form that included seven criteria and
to give for each criteria an evaluation on an 11-point Likert scale ranging from
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 139
0 (worst) to 10 (best) and provide a short written comment. To avoid excessive
bias from severe or generous evaluators and/or differences in discrimination
about what is considered important, a short text indicating the meaning of each
score was provided to the evaluators for each score and for each criterion. The
seven criteria used by the organizers to evaluate each business plan were:
1. Exciting concept: does the business plan introduce an exciting concept for
potential investors?
2. Key issues addressed: are all key issues of the venture addressed in the
business plan?
3. Value to the customers: is the interest of the value proposition for the target
customers demonstrated?
4. Competitive differentiation: is the value proposition clearly differentiated
versus available offers?
5. Attractive market: is the target market attractive in terms of size and/or ex-
pected growth?
6. Competitive intensity: what is the current and expected level of competition
in the target market?
7. Overall quality: what is the overall quality of the business plan?
While the criteria had been selected a priori by the organizers of the competition
on the basis of their personal experience, we can note that criteria 3 to 6 corre-
spond to the ‘business-opportunity’ criteria discussed in our literature review.
In particular criteria 3 and 4 correspond to the categories of criteria related to
the product-market positioning of the venture, and criteria 5 and 6 correspond
to the categories of criteria related to its strategy and competitiveness. The ag-
gregated data from the evaluation process for both the initial and revised samples
of business plans as well as the absolute and relative differences between those
two samples are presented in Table 8.2.
Finally the proxy for success used in the context of this research is the crea-
tion of an actual commercial activity. Among the potential ventures described
in the business plans considered, ‘successful’ ventures were defned as those
that had led to the creation of an actual commercial activity within the time
frame of the analysis, that is, 30 months after the submission of the initial busi-
ness plan. Those therefore considered as ‘unsuccessful’ were all the ventures
that failed to lead to any actual business activity within the considered period.
Using this criterion 20 ‘successful’ ventures were identifed within the ‘initial’
sample of 119 business plans (17 per cent) and 18 within the 63 ventures of the
‘revised’ sample (29 per cent).
140 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.2 Evaluation data
Criterion Initial sample Revised sample Difference
scores scores
(0 to 10 scale) (0 to 10 scale)
Mean Std dev. Mean Std dev. Abs. Rel.
1. Exciting concept 5.04 1.73 6.26 1.39 1.22 24%
2. Key issues covered 4.51 1.85 5.82 1.49 1.31 29%
3. Value to customers 4.88 2.11 6.50 1.39 1.62 33%
4. Competitive diff. 3.45 2.18 5.71 1.63 2.26 65%
5. Attractive market 5.61 1.88 6.63 1.21 1.02 18%
6. Competitive intensity 4.25 1.88 5.26 1.44 1.01 24%
7. Overall quality 4.85 2.07 6.21 1.44 1.35 28%
VALIDATION OF THE HYPOTHESES
To test Hypothesis 1 we used a discriminant univariate analysis comparing the
mean value of the evaluation criteria across the two samples of successful versus
unsuccessful ventures (Duchesneau and Gartner, 1990; Van de Ven 1984). We
computed the 95 per cent confdence interval of the difference between the mean
score of successful versus unsuccessful ventures for each criterion using the
SPSS software package. A given criterion is deemed as relevant (hence Hypoth-
esis 1 is validated for this criterion) if this confdence interval excludes the value
zero.
To confrm those results we also computed the correlation between a binary
‘success’ variable (0 for unsuccessful ventures and 1 for successful ones) and
the scores obtained according to each of the evaluation criteria. A given criterion
is confrmed as relevant if the correlation is signifcant (p < 0.05). Indeed, an
‘irrelevant’ evaluation criteria would lead to scores that are on average not sig-
nifcantly different for successful versus unsuccessful ventures and that show
no signifcant correlation with the binary ‘success’ variable.
To test Hypothesis 2 we computed a binary logistic regression linking the
estimated probability of a given venture to be successful to the scores obtained
according to the experts’ evaluations. Given the limited size and heterogeneity
of the samples considered we used a ‘self-validating’ approach
2
using a classi-
fcation table to test the reliability of our fndings rather than splitting the initial
sample between two ‘estimation’ and ‘validation’ samples. After having checked
any variable correlation and reliability effect we built a ‘frst choice’ subset with
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 141
the ventures whose estimated probability of success was higher than a cut value.
That value was chosen equal to the average success probability of the sample,
17 per cent. The evaluation is deemed as ‘valuable’ (hence Hypothesis 2 is vali-
dated) if the proportion of successful frms among the ‘frst choice’ subset is
signifcantly higher than the average for the whole sample. Indeed, a higher
share of successful frms within the ‘frst choice’ subset indicates that ventures
that are perceived to be better by the evaluators of the competition are actually
more likely to be successful.
We tested the validity of Hypotheses 1 and 2 on both the initial and revised
samples of business plans in order to measure the effect of the evaluation and
support process provided by the business plan competition.
RESULTS FROM THE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
ANALYSIS
The fndings resulting from the validation of Hypotheses 1 and 2 are presented
hereafter, both for the business plans initially submitted (‘initial sample’) and
for those re-submitted after the venture teams had been taught how to improve
their business plan (‘revised sample’). Please note that in addition to the criteria
analysed for the purpose of this research, the organizers of the competition also
used other criteria (criteria 1, 2 and 7) that are mentioned as complementary
information.
Validation of Hypothesis 1 for the Initial Sample
Regarding the validation of Hypothesis 1 for the initial sample Table 8.3
presents, among the business plans initially submitted and for each of the seven
evaluation criteria considered, the difference between the average score for the
two subsets of unsuccessful and successful ventures (‘mean difference’). It then
presents, either or not assuming that the score variances of the two samples are
equal, the standard error and the confdence interval of this difference. Accord-
ing to those results all the evaluation criteria appear relevant except two, which
both include the value zero in the confdence interval of the mean difference.
Those are criteria 5 and 6 relative respectively to the attractiveness and the
competitive intensity of the target market. In other words for those two evalua-
tion criteria there was no signifcant difference between the initial experts’
evaluation of ‘successful’ versus ‘unsuccessful’ ventures.
Table 8.4 presents the results of the correlation analysis for the initial sample
of business plans. For each criterion the correlation between the success variable
and the evaluation score is presented as well as the signifcance level. In this
table if the signifcance level is very small (p < 0.05) this indicates that the two
142 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.3 Mean comparison – initial sample
Criterion Mean Equal Std error 95% CI of the difference
difference variance difference
assumed Lower Upper
1 –0.94 Yes 0.42 –1.77 –0.12
No 0.37 –1.70 –0.18
2 –1.16 Yes 0.44 –2.03 –0.28
No 0.40 –1.98 –0.33
3 –1.61 Yes 0.50 –2.60 –0.63
No 0.40 –2.43 –0.80
4 –1.95 Yes 0.51 –2.95 –0.95
No 0.51 –2.99 –0.91
5 –0.77 Yes 0.46 –1.67 0.13
No 0.40 –1.58 0.03
6 –0.42 Yes 0.46 –1.34 0.49
No 0.52 –1.49 0.64
7 –1.53 Yes 0.49 –2.50 –0.56
No 0.46 –2.47 –0.59
Table 8.4 Correlation – initial sample
Criterion 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Correlation 0.21 0.24 0.29 0.34 0.15 0.09 0.28
Signifcance 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.09 0.36 0.00
variables are signifcantly correlated. The analysis of the correlation confrms
the mean comparison results, that is, that all criteria except criteria 5 and 6 are
relevant as all but those two are signifcantly correlated with the success varia-
ble. In other words, for criteria 5 and 6 success is not linked with higher
evaluation scores. Hence for the initial sample Hypothesis 1 is validated for two
of the four criteria considered. ‘successful’ ventures obtain evaluation scores
that are signifcantly better (higher) than ‘unsuccessful’ ones along the criteria
of ‘value to the customer’ (criteria 3) and ‘competitive offer’ (criteria 4).
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 143
Validation of Hypothesis 1 for the Revised Sample
Regarding the validation of Hypothesis 1 for the revised sample, Table 8.5
presents the same information as Table 8.3 but this time considering the ‘revised’
business plans. According to those results none of the evaluation criteria appear
relevant as all the confdence intervals for the mean differences include the zero
value, which corresponds to an equal average score for successful and unsuc-
cessful frms. Hence, contrary to the initial sample, for the business plans that
were re-submitted after the entrepreneurs had been taught how better to write
them, the successful frms did not obtain signifcantly higher scores than unsuc-
cessful ones along any of the evaluation criteria. In other words, among the
ventures that had received and integrated the support of the business plan com-
petition, while the perceived quality of their business plan did actually improve
(see Table 8.2), there was no longer a link between the perceived quality of their
business plan and the ulterior success of those ventures.
Table 8.5 Mean comparison – revised sample
Criterion Mean Equal Std error 95% CI of the difference
difference variance difference
assumed Lower Upper
1 –0.53 Yes 0.38 –1.30 0.24
No 0.41 –1.38 0.32
2 –0.54 Yes 0.41 –1.36 0.29
No 0.45 –1.45 0.38
3 –0.35 Yes 0.39 –1.13 0.43
No 0.41 –1.20 0.50
4 –0.54 Yes 0.45 –1.44 0.36
No 0.43 –1.42 0.34
5 –0.49 Yes 0.33 –1.16 0.18
No 0.33 –1.15 0.17
6 –0.68 Yes 0.39 –1.47 0.11
No 0.39 –1.48 0.12
7 –0.71 Yes 0.39 –1.50 0.08
No 0.37 –1.46 0.04
Table 8.6 presents the results of the correlation analysis for the revised busi-
ness plans. The analysis of the correlation confrms the mean comparison results,
that is, that none of the evaluation criteria appear signifcantly correlated with
the success variable. Hence, for the revised sample Hypothesis 1 cannot be
144 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.6 Correlation – revised sample
Criterion 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Correlation 0.17 0.16 0.12 0.15 0.18 0.22 0.23
Signifcance 0.18 0.20 0.37 0.24 0.15 0.09 0.08
validated as none of the evaluation criteria considered appears relevant for this
sample. We will discuss in more detail in the following section the implications
of that observation.
Validation of Hypothesis 2
As Hypothesis 1 has been rejected for the revised sample and Hypothesis 2 is
a refnement of Hypothesis 1, we only tested Hypothesis 2 for the initial sample.
The results of the frst iteration of the logistic regression are presented in Table
8.7. Given the results of the validation of Hypothesis 1 for the initial sample
that identifed only criteria 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 as potentially relevant, we computed
the logistic regression using only the variables corresponding to those fve cri-
teria. In this table are included for each criterion and for the constant parameter,
the value of the corresponding coeffcient in the logistic regression (‘coeff-
cient’), its exponential (‘expon.’), the standard error of the coeffcient and the
Wald statistic.
3
For this regression, the Cox and Snell R-square and the
Nagelkerke R-square values (which are proxies for the corresponding R-square
measure used for linear regressions) are respectively 12.4 per cent and 20.8 per
cent.
These frst regression results highlight that the variables corresponding to
criteria 3 and 4 are by a factor of more than 10 the most relevant ones. We
therefore tested a second regression using only those variables. The results of
Table 8.7 First logistic regression (criteria 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7)
Criterion Coeffcient Expon. Standard error Wald
1 –0.04 0.96 0.27 0.02
2 –0.04 0.96 0.27 0.02
3 0.31 1.37 0.24 1.73
4 0.40 1.49 0.22 3.47
7 –0.11 0.89 0.31 0.13
Const. –3.96 0.02 1.03 14.84
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 145
this second logistic regression are presented in Table 8.8. The Cox and Snell
R-square and the Nagelkerke R-square values for this second logistic regression
are respectively 12.2 per cent and 20.4 per cent. The small variation of those
two statistics compared with the frst regression confrms that limited informa-
tion was lost when removing the variables corresponding to criteria 1, 2 and 7
in the regression.
The results of the regression analysis show that an estimate of the probability
of ‘success’ can be computed based on the results of the experts’ evaluations
along criteria 3 and 4. Using this regression formula we then computed the
predicted probability of success of all the projects and produced a classifcation
table using as cut-off value the average success probability of the whole sample
(17 per cent). The results are presented in Table 8.9. This table reveals that a
process selecting potential ventures based on a predicted probability of success
computed using the experts’ evaluation would select 46 ventures out of the 119
available. Of those, 14 or 30 per cent will actually lead to the creation of a busi-
ness. This is nearly twice the success ratio of a random selection within the
initial sample (17 per cent). Hence a selection process using the results of the
evaluation by the experts of the business plans along criteria 3 and 4 would
signifcantly increase its probability to pick successful ventures.
Table 8.9 Classifcation table (cut-off 17 per cent)
Observed Predicted
Failure Success Total
Failure 67 32 99
Success 6 14 20
Total 73 46 119
Table 8.8 Second logistic regression (criteria 3 and 4)
Criterion Coeffcient Expon. Standard error Wald
3 0.22 1.25 0.17 1.66
4 0.33 1.39 0.16 4.42
Const. –4.18 0.02 0.94 19.78
146 Newness in methodological approaches
INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS
Our analysis highlighted that for the set of ‘initial’ business plans there is a
signifcant (positive) correlation between the experts’ evaluations of the initial
business plans and the measure of success considered (Hypothesis 1). In par-
ticular fve of the seven evaluation criteria used (exciting concepts, key issues
addressed, value to the customers, competitive differentiation and overall qual-
ity) were signifcantly correlated with the success variable, while the two
remaining ones (attractive market and competitive intensity) were positively
correlated but not signifcantly.
The relevance of the criteria regarding ‘the idea’, that is, exciting concepts,
key issues addressed and overall quality, confrms that experts are relatively
able to spot whether an idea ‘makes sense’ in a given sector. Indeed, let us
remember that for each venture the evaluators were selected as experts in the
sector of the proposed venture. This corroborates common industry practice
by early-stage venture capitalists and business angels to invest in specifc
sectors (Murray and Marriott, 1998) or geographical areas rather than ‘across
the board’ (Gorman and Sahlman, 1989). In those sectors or geographical ar-
eas they have or can develop market expertise (Bygrave and Timmons, 1992)
allowing them to reduce the cost of informational asymmetries and monitoring
(Amit et al., 1998; Lerner, 1995). This observation is also particularly relevant
for business plan competitions organized within corporations, where the
projects and the evaluators will often come from the same sectors.
The relevance of the criteria regarding ‘product’ issues, that is, the value to
the customers and the competitive differentiation, confrms earlier fndings that
successful entrepreneurs must above all understand their customers and com-
petitors (Gartner et al., 1999). It also confrms earlier fndings that early-stage
investors tend to attach more importance to product uniqueness than later-stage
ones (Elango et al., 1995). It is also a reminder of the importance of a basic rule
of management: that a key success factor for a new business idea is not neces-
sarily to be original or creative but to correspond to (or generate) an unfulflled
market demand.
Finally, the fact that the criteria regarding ‘market issues’, that is, attractive
market and competitive intensity, are not signifcantly relevant seems to
contradict common industry practice, previous studies having identifed high-
growth markets as a key decision criteria for early-stage investors (Elango et
al., 1995). One possible explanation is that the absence of signifcant market
research performed by most of the venture teams at this early stage meant
that they provided limited information about their potential target markets.
Hence this limited information did not allow the evaluators to discriminate
ventures with small and large or high-growth potential markets. In contrast,
the other product- and competitor-related features were by nature better de-
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 147
scribed in the business plans and therefore probably easier for the evaluators
to assess.
Overall those fndings provide an empirical basis for the practice of business
plan competition to select the ventures they support through an evaluation of
their initial business plan. Our preliminary conclusions are therefore that the
business plan competition approach to select potential ventures based only on
their business plan (excluding interviews with the entrepreneur) appears rela-
tively effcient in the sense that this process helps to select the right business to
support. Moreover it would suggest that teaching entrepreneurs how to improve
their business plans along the evaluation criteria considered would increase their
probability of success.
Our analysis of the revised sample addresses this point. It highlights some of
the effects of the support that was provided by the business plan competition to
the participants. While improving the overall ‘quality’ of the plans in terms of
the evaluation criteria (see Table 8.2) this support had the effect of actually
rendering those evaluations irrelevant from the point of view of the future suc-
cess of the venture. Successful ventures became unrecognizable from
unsuccessful ones by the evaluators. In other words, the business plans appear
to have become ‘better’ (according to the evaluation criteria) but the ventures
with a ‘better’ plan are no more likely to be successful. This may indicate that
when venture teams are aware of the evaluation criteria used, such as in the case
of a business plan competition, it can have perverse effects. The teams might
focus on improving their business plan in a way that is consistent with the evalu-
ation criteria, but that does not necessarily improve the probability of success
of their business.
As a consequence, our fndings indicate that the support provided by the
business plan competition (expert support and training) to the entrepreneurs to
teach them to better design their business plan appears not to be effective in the
sense that it does not signifcantly increase the probability of success of the
venture. In other words, with some training many people could probably write
a credible business plan, although (obviously) only a few could probably build
a business. This result also confrms why, as mentioned in our literature review,
business plan-related criteria only come second to management team-related
criteria in the typical due diligence process of early-stage investors. As industry
insiders like to say, ‘I would rather invest in an excellent team with an average
idea than in an average team with an excellent idea’. Moreover, this potential
perverse effect of teaching the entrepreneurs how to write their initial business
plan confrms industry practice where venture capitalists focus on supporting
the entrepreneur in ‘running’ the business once launched (Barney et al., 1996;
Gorman and Sahlman, 1989) rather than evaluating and planning it extensively
upfront. These investors support the venture in, among others, getting access to
a strategic network and developing the management team (Davila et al., 2000;
148 Newness in methodological approaches
Elango et al., 1995; Gulati et al., 2000; Sapienza and Timmons, 1989) rather
than fne-tuning the initial plans.
Finally, regarding the link between business opportunity and ‘success’, our
analysis highlighted that, at least for the frst set of ‘initial’ business plans, the
evaluation of the opportunity could be used to estimate the success probability
of a venture and hence help to pick a priori successful ventures (Hypothesis 2).
More precisely, using those evaluations could nearly double the probability of
picking a venture that will lead to a ‘successful’ business among a similar set
of potential investments. However, the results also indicate that the predictive
power of the initial business plan evaluations remains relatively weak, with
about 32 per cent (32 + 6 out of 119) ventures being ‘mis-classifed’ in our
sample (see Table 8.9). Moreover in a real-life setting one would only have ac-
cess a priori to an estimate of the link between success probability and evaluation
scores, based on historic data from comparable ventures. This would decrease
further the predictive power of estimations based on business plan evaluations
(as in our case the regression was computed a posteriori). The reliability of the
business plan evaluation as a predictor of venture success is therefore as one
would expect, real but limited. This and the potential perverse effects of ‘busi-
ness plan coaching’, highlighted above, confrms observed industry practice
that the evaluation of the business plan should only be a small part of the due
diligence process of early-stage ventures. It must be completed by other factors
such as an evaluation of the management team or a test of the quality of the
product and/or technology proposed (Gorman and Sahlman, 1989).
LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
In this chapter we discussed empirical data regarding the effciency and effec-
tiveness of business plan competitions. We considered the evaluations by experts
of two subsets of early-stage venture business plans along business plan-related
criteria such as product-market positioning as well as strategy and competitive-
ness issues. We analysed whether there was a signifcant relationship between
those evaluations and the a posteriori success of the ventures, defned as the
existence of an actual business activity 30 months after the initial submission
of the business plan.
The frst subset of initial business plans contained the description of 119
perceived business opportunities which were submitted voluntarily and evalu-
ated on a double-blind basis by independent experts. Some of the teams that
had submitted a plan received feedback and some coaching and chose to re-
submit a revised, more complete, version of their business plan. This second
iteration led to a second set of 63 ‘revised’ business plans that were again evalu-
ated and whose evaluation scores were analysed in a similar way.
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 149
For the initial sample of business plans, two of the four business plan evalu-
ation criteria considered were signifcantly correlated with ‘success’ and a
success probability estimate was computed using a logistic regression. A selec-
tion process using this estimate on a similar sample of potential ventures could
nearly double the probability of selecting a priori a ‘successful’ investment. This
indicates that a business plan competition’s approach of selecting ventures based
on an evaluation of their initial business plan is a relatively effcient process.
However, for the revised sample of business plans, those which had received
support from the business plan competition and were hence taught how better
to write their business plan, we found different results. While overall the busi-
ness plans received better evaluations, none of the evaluation criteria were
correlated with success. One possible explanation is that the teams had actually
learnt better to ‘ft’ their business plan along the evaluation criteria rather than
to improve the quality of the venture itself. As a consequence, business plans
with better evaluation scores were not signifcantly more likely to correspond
to ‘successful’ businesses.
Those results should be considered in the light of the study’s inherent limita-
tions, in particular regarding the data sample and the evaluation process.
Regarding the sample of business plans, we were not able to test whether this
sample could be considered representative of the population of early-stage
ventures at the national or international level. Indeed, while our sample size was
relatively large compared with similar researches and represented a wide array
of sectors and four different countries, it cannot necessarily be directly general-
ized to any set of early-stage ventures. In particular, there may be a problem
with response bias, which could not be tested because of the unavailability of
data regarding the characteristics of non-participant ventures. Moreover, the
success rate of our sample (17 per cent) is quite high compared with typical
projects submitted to venture capitalists, who tend to invest in 1 per cent of the
projects submitted to them (Gifford, 1997). However, this comparison must be
considered with caution. Indeed, the success criterion considered here – the ini-
tial business plan led to the creation of an actual business within 30 months – is
much less restrictive than those used by early-stage investors and therefore
should lead to a higher success rate. Early-stage investors obviously expect not
only the ‘birth and survival’ of the business they invest in, but also a signifcant
rate of return for their investments through exit options (Mason and Harrison,
2002).
Regarding the evaluation process, there could be a bias emerging from the
fact that the specifc context of the evaluation – a regional business plan com-
petition – is not the same as the due diligence processes performed in the context
of entrepreneurship teaching programmes. While no systematic bias was ob-
served among evaluators (each plan was evaluated by two or three evaluators
and each evaluator evaluated no more than three business plans), there might
150 Newness in methodological approaches
be an overall bias of giving generous evaluations due to the voluntary dimension
of the evaluation. However, this should affect randomly both successful and
unsuccessful frms and therefore not infuence our conclusions. Moreover it is
clear that the evaluators’ perspective might be different from teachers’ or train-
ers’, as they come from a different background and have different implications
for the projects.
We still believe that, although those limitations are signifcant and should not
be disregarded, this study led to interesting results relative to the effciency and
effectiveness of business plan competitions, and to the design of business plan
teaching programmes in particular. The results therefore have some implications
for entrepreneurship support programmes, seed investors and researchers.
For the sponsors of entrepreneurship support programmes such as business
plan competition or incubators the results have several implications. First, they
validate common practice to select the ventures that will beneft from their sup-
port based on preliminary business plan evaluations, as this analysis confrmed
a signifcant relationship between such evaluations and the a posteriori ‘success’
of the venture. Such an approach appears therefore to be effcient. However, it
also highlighted that the support provided to early-stage ventures can have per-
verse effects, in particular regarding the elaboration of their business plan. Our
research highlighted that while improving the apparent quality of the plan, the
coaching provided to the venture could actually be ineffective.
While this was not the focus of our research, extensive anecdotal evidence
gathered from participants during our research indicates that the business plan
competition is very effective in providing support to the entrepreneur in terms
of networking, in particular through contacts with other prospective entrepre-
neurs and with the experts involved in the process. This opens future research
questions regarding the design, role and effectiveness of teaching programmes
aimed at supporting entrepreneurship.
For investors those results have several implications. First, it confrms indus-
try practice to include the assessment of initial business plans as part – but only
as a small part – of the due diligence process for early-stage venture. Moreover
it provides some indications of the relative value, in terms of contribution to
success rate, of the information that can be extracted from those evaluations. It
can therefore contribute to the inherent problems of balancing the opportunity
cost of due diligence versus the ‘limited attention’ that can be provided by in-
vestors for existing investments (Gifford, 1997) and to consider the risk of
overconfdence arising from the availability of this information (Zacharakis and
Shepherd, 2001).
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 151
CONCLUSIONS
The main contribution of this research has been to provide some empirical evi-
dence on the effciency and effectiveness of business plan competitions, through
a case study based on a competition organized since 2000 in four European
countries. While the business plan evaluation criteria used in those competitions
appear similar to those known to be taken into account by seed investors, they
have received limited empirical validations, in particular by comparison to
management team-related criteria that have been extensively analysed.
Three of the limitations of this research are the potential bias of the sample
of venture analysed versus the population of early-stage ventures, the success
criteria used (survival) and the proxy of the due diligence process adopted
(regional business plan competition). Further research leading to some gener-
alization of the fndings outlined here could allow not only validating
business-plan approaches to entrepreneurship support programmes, but also
potentially improving them. Among other research avenues, the exploitation
of the available data about business plan evaluations through multivariable
approaches such as bootstrapping models could be used as a decision aid
(Shepherd and Zacharakis, 2002) for intermediary organizations facing similar
types of early-stage ventures.
While there is still a long way before we completely understand the process
of emergence of early-stage venture from perceived opportunities and how to
best support it, the author hopes to have contributed, through this discussion, a
small step in the right direction.
NOTES
1. The author would like to thank ‘Business Initiative’, the organizers of this competition, for
their help and support and access to their primary data.
2. Meaning that the regression formula is estimated and tested on the same sample.
3. The Wald statistic is the ratio of the coeffcient to the standard error squared; it is a measure of
the usefulness of the coeffcient.
REFERENCES
Aldrich, H.E. (1990), ‘Using an ecological perspective to study organizational founding
rates’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 14 (3), 7–24.
Amit, R., J. Brander and C. Zott (1998), ‘Why do venture capital frms exist? Theory
and Canadian evidence’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13, 441–66.
Bachher, J. and P. Guild (1996), ‘Financing early-stage technology based companies:
investment criteria used by investors’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1996,
Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
152 Newness in methodological approaches
Barney, J.B., L.W. Busenitz, J.O. Fiet and D.D. Moesel (1996), ‘New venture teams’
assessment of learning assistance from venture capital frms’, Journal of Business
Venturing, 11 (4), 257–72.
Begley, T.M. and D.P. Boyd (1987), ‘Psychological characteristics associated with per-
formance in entrepreneurial frms and smaller businesses’, Journal of Business
Venturing, 2 (1), 79–93.
Brockhaus, R.H. (1980), ‘Risk taking propensity of entrepreneurs’, Academy of Manage-
ment Journal, 23, 509–20.
Bruyat, C. (1994), ‘Contribution épistémiologiques au domaine de l’entrepreneuriat’,
Revue Française de Gestion, Novembre–décembre, 101, 87–99 (in French).
Bull, I. and G. Willard (1993), ‘Towards a theory of entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 8, 183–95.
Buzzel, R.D. and B.T. Gale (1987), The PIMS Principles, New York: Free Press.
Bygrave, W.D. and J.A. Timmons (1992), Venture Capital at the Crossroads, Boston,
MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Carrier, C. (2000), ‘L’exploration d’une idée d’affaires: première stratégie à maîtriser
par le futur entrepreneur’, IX Conférence Internationale de Management Stratégique,
Montpellier (in French), 24–26 May.
Cooper, A.C. (1979), ‘Strategic management: new ventures and small businesses’, in
D.E. Schendel and C.W. Hofer (eds), Strategic Management: A New View of Business
Policy Planning, Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.
Covin, J. and D. Slevin (1990), ‘New venture strategic posture, structure and perform-
ance: an industry life cycle analysis’, Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 123–35.
Davila, A., G. Foster, and M. Gupta (2000), ‘Venture-capital fnancing and the growth
of startup frms’, Stanford University working papers, 43.
Dubini, P. (1989), ‘The infuence of motivations and environment on business start-ups:
some hints for public policies’, Journal of Business Venturing, 4, 11–26.
Duchesneau, D. and W. Gartner (1990), ‘A profle of new venture success and failure in
an emerging industry’, Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 297–312.
Durand, D. and D. Shea (1974), ‘Entrepreneurial activity as a function of achievement
motivation and reinforcement control’, Journal of Psychology, 88, 57–63.
Elango, B., V.H. Fried, R.D. Hisrich and A. Polonchek (1995), ‘How venture capital
frms differ’, Journal of Business Venturing, 10 (2), 157–79.
Fayolle, A. (1994), ‘La trajectoire de l’ingénieur entrepreneur’, Revue Française de
Gestion, Novembre–décembre, 101, 113–25 (in French).
Filion, L.-J. (1991), Vision et relations: clefs du succès de l’entrepreneur, Montréal: Les
éditions de l’entrepreneur (in French).
Fiorito, S.S. and R.W. LaForge (1986), ‘A marketing strategy analysis of small retailers’,
American Journal of Small Businesses, 10, 7–17.
Fonrouge, C. (1999), ‘La question de l’étendue et de la nature des choix stratégiques
d’entrée: le cas des entreprises nouvellement créées’, VIIIème Congrès de l’Associa-
tion Intenationale de Management Stratégique, Paris (in French), 26–28 May.
Freeman, J., G.R. Carroll and M.T. Hannan (1983), ‘ The liabilities of newness: age de-
pendence in organization death rates’, American Sociological Review, 48, 692–710.
Gartner, W.B. (1985), ‘A conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new
creation’, Academy of Management Review, 10 (4) , 696–706.
Gartner, W.B., J.A. Starr and S. Bhat (1999), ‘Predicting new venture survival: an analysis
of “anatomy of a start-up” cases from Inc. Magazine’, Journal of Business Venturing,
14 (2), 215–32.
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 153
Gifford, S. (1997), ‘Limited attention and the role of the venture capitalists’, Journal of
Business Venturing, 12 (6), 459–82.
Gorman, M. and W.A. Sahlman (1989), ‘What do venture capitalists do?’, Journal of
Business Venturing, 4 (4), 231–48.
Gulati, R., N. Nohria and A. Zaheer (2000), ‘Strategic networks’, Strategic Management
Journal, 21 (3), 203–16.
Guth, W.D. (1991), ‘Cognition, enactment and learning in the entrepreneurial process’,
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1991, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Hall, J. and C.W. Hofer (1993), ‘Venture capitalists’ decision criteria in new venture
evaluation’, Journal of Business Venturing, 8 (1), 25–42.
Hebbar, K. (2001), ‘Les compétences clés de l’entrepreneur innovateur: l’infuence de
l’expérience pré-entrepreneuriale’, Xième Conférence de l’Association Internationale
de Management Stratégique, Québec (in French), 13–15 June.
Hornaday, R.W. and W.J. Wheattley (1971), ‘Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs’,
Personnel Psychology, 24 (2), 141–53.
Jeng, L. and P. Wells (2000), ‘The determinants of venture capital funding: evidence
across countries’, Journal of Corporate Finance, 6, 241–89.
Julien, P.A. and M. Marchesnay (1996), L’entrepreneuriat, Economica, Paris (in
French).
Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (1977), ‘The entrepreneurial personality: a person at the cross-
roads’, Journal of Management Studies, 14 (1), 34–57.
Lerner, J. (1995), ‘Venture capitalists and the oversight of private frms’, Journal of Fi-
nance, 50, 301–18.
Macmillan, I., R. Siegel and P.N. Subba Narasimha (1985), ‘Criteria used by venture
capitalists to evaluate new venture proposals’, Journal of Business Venturing, 1,
119–28.
Mason, C.M. and R.T. Harrison (2002), ‘Is it worth it? The rates of return from informal
venture capital investments’, Journal of Business Venturing, 17 (3), 211–36.
Murray, G. and R. Marriott (1998), ‘Why has the investment performance of technology-
specialist, European venture capital funds been so poor’, Research Policy, 27,
947–76.
Muzyka, D., S. Birley and B. Leleux (1996), ‘Trade-offs in the investment decisions of
European venture capitalists’, Journal of Business Venturing, 11 (4), 273–87.
Sandberg, W. and C. Hofer (1987), ‘Improving new venture performance: The role of
strategy, industry structure and the entrepreneur’, Journal of Business Venturing, 2,
5–28.
Sapienza, H.J. and J.A. Timmons (1989), ‘The role of the venture capitalist in new ven-
tures: what determines their importance?’, Academy of Management Best Paper
Proceedings, Pace University, NY, 74–8.
Schefczyk, M. and T. Gerpott (2000), ‘Qualifcation and turnover of managers and
venture-capital-fnanced frm performance: an empirical study of German VC invest-
ments’, Journal of Business Venturing, 16, 145–63.
Sexton, D.L. and N.B. Bowman (1986), ‘Validation of a personality index’, Frontiers of
Entrepreneurship Research 1986, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Shepherd, D.A. and A. Zacharakis (2002), ‘Venture capitalists’ expertise: a call for re-
search into decision aids and cognitive feedback’, Journal of Business Venturing, 17
(1), 1–20.
Smith, N.R. and J.B. Miner (1984), ‘Motivational considerations in the success of tech-
nologically innovative entrepreneurs’, Wellesley, MA: Frontiers of Entrepreneurship
Research 1984.
154 Newness in methodological approaches
Timmons, J.A. (1999), New Venture Creation, McGraw-Hill: Boston.
Tyebjee, T.T. and A.V. Bruno (1984), ‘A model for venture capitalist investment activity’,
Management Science, 30 (9), 1051–66.
Van de Ven, A.H. (1984), ‘Designing new business startups: entrepreneurial, organiza-
tional, and ecological considerations’, Journal of Management Studies, 10 (1),
87–107.
Zacharakis, A.L. and D.A. Shepherd (2001), ‘The nature of information and overconf-
dence on venture capitalists’ decision-making’, Journal of Business Venturing, 16 (4),
311–32.
155
9. Skills demonstrations: a possibility for
meaningful co-operation with work-
life in internationalizing vocational
education
Seija Mahlamäki-Kultanen
INTRODUCTION
Three succeeding Finnish governments, the governments of Lipponen, Jäätten-
mäki and Vanhanen, have decided to implement national skills demonstrations
in initial vocational secondary level education after pilot projects and careful
examination of the possible system. Based on a common agreement on the main
principles, 59 development projects have been conducted, the frst of them start-
ing in 2000. National material for the skills demonstrations is produced in
co-operation with vocational institutions, teacher education polytechnics, labour
unions and educational authorities under the governance of the National Board
of Education in Finland. They have been funded by the European Social Fund
and the Finnish Ministry of Education. A lot of information about the initiative
and the projects on it can be found on the Internet page of the National Board of
Education (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt, 2005).
The educational administration authorities and politicians have agreed on
the Act on Skills Demonstrations, mainly because of differing opinions about the
share of duties and the funding of the system. After much experience from the
pilot projects it can be concluded that students, business owners and other rep-
resentatives of working life and educational institutions fnd the system very
useful, but also demanding (Nyyssölä, 2002; 2003). This chapter is based on
the mid-term reports of the development projects and one case example, in
which skills demonstrations were tested and material for national purposes was
developed. Three reports about the projects have already been published
(Nyyssölä, 2002; 2003; Suursalmi, 2003). The author is now responsible for
fourth and ffth reports on the skills demonstration projects going on during
2004; reports by Hakala and Nyyssölä are still in progress. The report by
Nyyssölä analyses the results of the pilot projects and the report by Hakala
156 Newness in methodological approaches
analyses how the skills demonstrations will change learning and teaching meth-
ods in vocational institutions.
The experiences and exemplar material will hopefully illustrate the ways by
which small and medium-sized entrepreneurial ventures can work co-operatively
with educational institutions despite signifcant differences in their perspectives.
To put the system into a real-life context, both the process and experiences of
material development and some illustrative material and insights into an entre-
preneurial culture in one, fairly new, entrepreneurial feld (home economics)
are presented.
WHY SKILLS DEMONSTRATIONS?
‘Skills demonstrations’ has been adopted as the offcial English translation for
the Finnish word ‘näyttö’. The emphasis in assessing is on the practical skills
required by work-life and business owners. The purpose of the new concept is
to make a difference between adult education (competence-based assessment)
and the education of young people (skills demonstrations). In skills demonstra-
tions, the emphasis is on the assessment of both the process and results of
learning, while in competence-based assessment it is more on the learning
results.
The targets of the new accountability system – skills demonstrations – are
based on the Copenhagen Declaration convened by the European ministers of
Vocational Education and Training. The declaration calls for a more European
dimension, transparency, comparability, recognition of competences and/or
qualifcations, and quality assurance in vocational education (Copenhagen
Declaration, 2002). Demonstrating vocational skills in working life before get-
ting the diploma from vocational institutions can be regarded as a natural
extension of the recent trend towards more workplace learning and regular co-
operation between vocational institutions and small and medium-sized
entrepreneurial ventures. In Finland, where vocational education has previously
been largely institutionalized and has included only a few weeks of on-the-job
training, this is a challenge. The change is not an easy task anywhere else either.
In an attempt to compare the systems of England and Holland, Van de Stege
(2003) suggests that England has a fairly complicated system of qualifcations
and related methods of accreditation, assessment and verifcation, which for-
eigners especially fnd diffcult to understand. It is diffcult to increase the
mobility of a workforce without a transparent, common competence system.
Marja-Liisa Stenström and European colleagues are now searching for a coher-
ent analysis of the systems to assess learning outcomes and the quality of
work-based learning in Europe in a Leonardo da Vinci project (QUAL PRAXIS,
2005).
Skills demonstrations 157
More accountability for vocational education has been sought in the USA
and Australia. For example, an American school district developed a system, in
which an entrepreneur can, without any cost, send an employee back to the vo-
cational institution to study more if she or he is not performing according to the
vocational diploma from the skills tests (Husain, 1998).
DIFFERENT INTERESTS HAVE TO MEET IN
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
The educational core values of our country refect humanism. Every individual
with her or his specifc needs is provided with a vocational secondary level edu-
cation and given the necessary support. It is necessary to take into account
individual learning styles and students with special needs. At the same time,
each vocational degree should provide the prerequisites for independent busi-
ness-ownership (Vocational Education Act and Decree 630/98, 1998). The
development principles established for the skills demonstration material given
by the National Board of Education state that the students’ skills have to be
demonstrated as large work-processes in authentic work environments and not
as separate skills. Every student must also demonstrate the necessary skills for
entrepreneurship before receiving a diploma. The skills to be demonstrated
should include only the critical competence areas, which should and have been
defned by representatives of work-life (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt,
2005). For an individual vocational institution and teacher, skills demonstrations
are a challenge because they force the system to meet all these specifcations
and still speak the language of entrepreneurs.
The pilot projects have discovered that the perspectives of entrepreneurs,
students, teachers and administration staff in vocational institutions and national
educational authorities are, and will remain, rather different (Nyyssölä, 2002;
2003). Even the entrepreneurs themselves do not all share the same point of
view. There are also differences between business sectors, and entrepreneurs do
not share common attitudes and opinions about students and vocational educa-
tion (Mahlamäki-Kultanen, 2005).
The assessment should be carried out as a tripartite co-work between the
employee, employer and the vocational educational institution (Figure 9.1) The
student should also contribute to the assessment and make his or her own
self-evaluation.
The leading principle behind the tripartite assessment in vocational education
is seen as only partially fulflling (Suursalmi, 2003). When it comes to a typical
Finnish entrepreneur or a small business owner as a partner and participant in
the students’ learning and skills demonstration environment, her or his reality
is sometimes quite different from the educational plans. A typical situation is
158 Newness in methodological approaches
that the entrepreneur is the one and only busy person, who is both the employer
and employee trying to fnd a proftable market segment in a sector of low
prestige and low proft. That is why the entrepreneur in practice is often both
the tutor of the student and the assessor of the competence gained. The respon-
sibility of the student to be a self-evaluator of her or his own competence should
be partially supplementing for the missing third partner, especially where a feld
demanding self-supportiveness and self-criticism is concerned. There is no room
for an objective committee in a small enterprise.
360-DEGREE ASSESSMENT ALLOWS FOR DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES
Because of the somewhat differing perspectives of entrepreneurs, developers in
the feld, educators, authorities and vocational students, a 360-degree assessment
methodology was adopted for our development pilot, the case briefy presented
in this chapter. The 360-degree assessment is based on the idea of differences
as a fruitful ground for future development. The 360-degree assessment has
been used in business life, typically in performance appraisal and staff develop-
ment (Wilson, 1997). In the skills demonstration procedure we recommend it
to facilitate objective evaluation, but also to enhance the student’s vocational
and personal growth and to guide the growth process throughout her or his
studies (cf. Armstrong et al., 2000; Brown, 1997; Fletcher, 1997; Funderburg
and Levy, 1997).
The advantage of the 360-degree assessment is that it is possible to evaluate
a person or a process and use several targets, criteria and evaluators in it. This
increases the reliability of the evaluation (Wilson, 1997). To identify your own
competence and development needs it is crucial to know how others view you
(Milliman and Zawacki, 1994; Ward, 1995). It is necessary to instruct the stu-
dents to ask for feedback and to make use of it (Funderburg and Levy, 1997).
Figure 9.1 Tripartite assessment
Representative of the
employer
Representative of the
vocational institution
Representative of the
employee
Skills demonstrations 159
This competence area is also emphasized in the vocational degree (Opetushal-
litus, 2000). In the customer and service-orientated sectors the evaluation and
concepts are always highly personal. The 360-degree assessment makes the
evaluation of abstract and personal issues more coherent (Antonioni, 1996). It
is necessary to remind the evaluators about the importance of critical feedback,
because otherwise it can be left out (Goodge, 2000: 2). In testing the material,
the workplace tutors were happy with the ready-made verbal expressions of
poor performance, which they felt made their task easier.
The scientifc concepts of inner entrepreneurship proved to be particularly
diffcult to express in everyday language and to defne the practical criteria for
different competence levels. However, a reasonable number of evaluators, clear
roles and transparent concepts and criteria are essential to guaranteeing the va-
lidity of evaluation (Milliman and Zawacki, 1994). A compact format, brief
texts with simple illustrations and the opportunity to briefy describe and justify
the numerical ratings were appreciated by the entrepreneurs interviewed in our
project, as well as by Milliman and Zawacki (1994).
SKILLS DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE FIELD OF
HOUSEHOLD AND CONSUMER SERVICES
As a practical case I present some examples from the national skills demonstra-
tion material created for the Vocational Qualifcation in Household and
Consumers Services; the certifcate being Household Services Entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship in the feld of home economics is fairly new. It emerges from
the service needs of modern busy people and from the restructuring of what
were previously mainly public welfare services. The feld is growing rapidly in
Finland and elsewhere in Europe, and there are many possibilities for segmenta-
tion. In Finland, this kind of entrepreneurship is now supported by the state,
with many initiatives and a tax reduction system for the customers who buy
services under certain conditions.
The entrepreneurs in this feld have not organized themselves into any perma-
nent union, although various networks have been created in an effort to enhance
this kind of entrepreneurship. The national core curriculum was published in
2000 (Opetushallitus, 2000). The frst students received their certifcates in the
spring of 2003. The Certifcate of Household Services Entrepreneur indicates
that graduating students have the ability to market, plan and sell household
services. The Certifcate of Consumer Adviser indicates that graduating students
are able to plan and organize information and presentation events for customers
in accordance with a company’s business plan and to present and sell consumer
goods. The study programme includes 90 credits of vocational studies, of which
20 credits are in on-the-job learning, 20 credits are in core subjects and 10 credits
160 Newness in methodological approaches
are in elective studies. The upper secondary vocational qualifcation falls within
level 3 of the European Commission classifcation.
The entrepreneurs in home economics, according to an earlier study, generally
do not hold common values, as some of them nurture effciency and economy
as frst priorities at the same time and many of them share too humble an attitude
to business. The study on entrepreneurial culture showed that there is an entre-
preneurial cultural transformation going on and also remarkable diversity in the
opinions of entrepreneurs. There is a diversity of opinions about the ability of
young vocational students to become entrepreneurs in this feld at all, and also
a lot of hesitation; they are only expecting effcient practical skills (Mahlamäki-
Kultanen, 2005.)
PRODUCTION OF THE MATERIAL
Projects in all subject areas and also the case of the Vocational Qualifcation in
Household and Consumers Services started their work based on common de-
velopment principles and a common general structure for the materials, as
required by the National Board of Education (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit.
Näytöt, 2005). The targets evaluated in skills demonstrations are the same in
every degree:
1. Command of working methods, tools and material.
2. Command of work processes (includes planning, performing, evaluating
and developing the work).
3. Command of the knowledge that forms the foundation for work.
4. Occupational safety.
5. Core competence (one or more of the following, depending on the module
of the programme: learning skills, problem-solving skills, interaction and
communication skills, co-operation skills, ethical, aesthetic and emotional
skills).
6. Common emphasis (one or more of the following, depending on the module
of the programme: internationality, promotion of sustainable development,
utilization of technology and information technology, entrepreneurship,
high-quality and customer-focused activity, consumer skills, management
of occupational health and safety).
The targets have to be defned and demonstrated in a context- and subject-spe-
cifc way after consultation and negotiation with representatives of working life
and entrepreneurs.
The process for the production of the material is presented in the Figure 9.2
and further clarifed in the following section.
Skills demonstrations 161
Figure 9.2 The process of skills demonstration material production
Analysis of core work processes
Interviews (entrepreneurs)
National curriculum, Vocational qualifcation in
Household and Consumer Services
Teams of vocational
teachers from other
vocational institutions
give feedback
Teams of vocational
teachers and home
economics
entrepreneurs
Team of a researcher
and vocational teacher
Tests in three vocational institutions
Vocational students demonstrate their skills
in enterprises and use the material in practice
Feedback from entrepreneurs, teachers and
students
National quality assurance made by
the National Board of Education
National skills demonstration
material
Skills demonstration materials for each
vocational module
Core work processes written in the language of vocational education
Analysis of critical work processes in real working life
Interpretation into the language of practice in the enterprises
162 Newness in methodological approaches
The individual projects have been allowed to organize their work as they wish
but transparency, quality systems, testing the material in two independent vo-
cational institutions, and internal and external evaluation of the project were
required in all cases. All the plans, transcribed interviews with the entrepreneurs,
analysis of the modules of the national curriculum, manuscripts from each phase
of the production, memos from meetings and seminars, completed testing ques-
tionnaires and other feedback from the production and testing process had to
be documented. The data concerning the process of material production have
been exposed twice to internal and to external auditing. The Vocational Teacher
Education College of the Häme Polytechnic is responsible for the auditing. All
the parts of the material have been tested in three vocational institutions with
three student groups. Two of the colleges are independent. Feedback has been
requested from workplace tutors and entrepreneurs, students and teachers. Ir-
respective of the material, the biggest challenge has been the language; that is,
how to write understandable yet technically precise texts that fulfl the needs of
all parties?
Because of our earlier experience with busy entrepreneurs, the project was
organized to minimize their time and effort and to focus on the most important
issues. The project was organized as four teams of two or three teachers and
two to four consulting entrepreneurs for each vocational subject area. The au-
thor, with a project worker, co-ordinated the work, edited the texts, wrote the
general guidelines, and was responsible for the fulflment of the common
principles.
As a starting point for production of the materials, three teachers interviewed
nine entrepreneurs using a fairly open, qualitative methodology to clarify com-
petence needs, entrepreneurial culture and expectations for the future. The
national vocational curriculum was also presented to them and they were asked
for their opinions about the core work and entrepreneurial processes in it. The
results were then provided to teachers from 28 other vocational institutions, in
which entrepreneurs in home economics were educated, with a request for their
comments on how the data should inform the skills demonstration material
production process.
The work processes of the vocational curriculum were then analysed once
again. The processes were presented to selected entrepreneurs without any
comment or quality grading. The purpose was to ask for their translation of the
processes into practical working language and the reality of their enterprises.
After the meetings, the teachers’ memos were edited for the frst drafts of the
skills demonstration material. They included descriptions of work environments
and practical procedures in skills demonstrations, the quality criteria for the ar-
rangements, the targets and criteria for assessment for the modules of the
vocational curriculum. The materials were tested in skills demonstrations at
enterprises and other workplace learning environments. The students’, teachers’
Skills demonstrations 163
and entrepreneurs’ opinions of these materials were asked before and after test-
ing. The materials were developed using the feedback from all the stakeholders,
including educational authorities. The materials are delivered freely to other
vocational institutions via the Internet (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt,
2005).
EXAMPLES OF SKILLS DEMONSTRATION MATERIAL
To make the differing perspectives of the entrepreneurs, work colleagues, teach-
ers and students visible a 360-degree assessment circle was introduced and
tested in all the skills demonstrations. An example is presented in Figure 9.3.
To make the evaluation feasible and the 360-degree evaluation process visible,
the same visual model is used for all skills demonstrations. The form is com-
pleted by marking the relevant scores of each evaluator, and drawing a line
connecting them if desired. The differences between the scores of each evaluator
should form the starting point for developing a feedback discussion and not be
a question of only averaging the means. The model has received very favourable
feedback from workplace tutors, entrepreneurs, students and teachers because
of its clarity and ease of use.
A big challenge in implementing a new evaluation system, the national skills
demonstrations is to educate and initiate the entrepreneurs and solve the problem
of sharing duties and responsibilities locally. The illustrative division of labour
between teachers from the vocational institutions and workplace tutors tested
in our project is presented in Table 9.1. It was negotiated with a number of rep-
resentatives from both parties to match the needs and realities of vocational
institutions and entrepreneurs. The principles behind this division of duties and
tasks are to stress the objective and individual treatment of each student as well
as to meet the demands and possibilities of individual enterprises.
FINAL REMARKS
Because of the somewhat mixed political situation, results and fnal conclusions
about the new system cannot be presented and the discussion is far more tenta-
tive. Thus, all the material presented is preliminary, refecting the experiences
and result from the projects to date.
Although we are still witnessing a period of development and waiting for
the actual implementation of skills tests, it is already clear that skills demon-
strations will not be ‘only’ an assessment system. They will also bring a
remarkable cultural change into the co-operation between work-life and voca-
tional education. They will defnitely make it more meaningful and add to the
164
F
i
g
u
r
e
9
.
3
A
3
6
0
-
d
e
g
r
e
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
m
e
n
t
t
o
o
l
4
.
O
c
c
u
p
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
s
a
f
e
t
y
6
.
C
o
m
m
o
n
e
m
p
h
a
s
i
s
(
l
i
k
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
,
h
i
g
h
-
q
u
a
l
i
t
y
a
n
d
c
u
s
t
o
m
e
r
-
f
o
c
u
s
e
d
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
)
1
.
C
o
m
m
a
n
d
o
f
w
o
r
k
i
n
g
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
,
t
o
o
l
s
a
n
d
m
a
t
e
r
i
a
l
s
5
.
C
o
r
e
c
o
m
p
e
t
e
n
c
e
s
(
l
i
k
e
p
r
o
b
l
e
m
-
s
o
l
v
i
n
g
s
k
i
l
l
s
)
2
.
C
o
m
m
a
n
d
o
f
w
o
r
k
p
r
o
c
e
s
s
e
s
(
p
l
a
n
n
i
n
g
,
p
e
r
f
o
r
m
i
n
g
,
e
v
a
l
u
a
t
i
n
g
a
n
d
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
i
n
g
t
h
e
w
o
r
k
)
3
.
C
o
m
m
a
n
d
o
f
t
h
e
k
n
o
w
l
e
d
g
e
t
h
a
t
f
o
r
m
s
t
h
e
f
o
u
n
d
a
t
i
o
n
f
o
r
w
o
r
k
5
5
5
5
5
5
3
3
3
3
3
3
Skills demonstrations 165
Table 9.1 The duties of the teacher responsible for skills demonstrations
and the workplace tutor
Duties of the vocational teacher Duties of the workplace tutor in
enterprises
To master the skills demonstration plan
offcially approved by the tripartite
committee for each student group
To plan the individual skills demonstra-
tion tasks according to the national
material
To initiate the students before the skills
demonstration and to tutor them
after
To approve each student’s individual
skills demonstration plan and to
decide whether she or he is compe-
tent enough to go further in the
procedure and to apply the plan in
the workplace
To organize skills demonstration
environments for each student in
enterprises, or in the vocational
institution in some relevant cases
To master the occupational safety
issues and arrangements
To organize the revised skills demon-
stration when necessary
To initiate the workplace tutors into
their duties and tasks
To make the drafts for documents used
in the skills demonstrations based on
the national material
To organize the assessment as a co-
operative process between the
student, workplace tutor and teacher
To collect and analyse feedback from
students, workplace tutors, other
teachers and the tripartite committee
To develop skills demonstrations,
curriculum and teaching based on
the analysed feedback
To make drafts for the students’ skills
demonstration diplomas.
To deliver the information necessary
about the skills demonstration
procedures to the other people (staff,
customers) at the workplace
To master the individual skills demon-
stration material (description of the
possible environments and tasks, the
forms to record observations), to
mark the fnal ratings and to give
feedback, the evaluation criteria on
each competence level
To provide the student with the relevant
tasks for each skills demonstration
To guarantee the occupational health
issues for the individual workplace
To approve each student’s fnal skills
demonstration plan, to check that it
fts the conditions in the workplace
and is realistic, and to guide the
student to complement it if
necessary
To document and evaluate the skills
demonstration procedure for each
student
To follow the student in the course of
the skills demonstration and to guide
him or her if necessary and docu-
ment the guidance given.
To interrupt the procedure if necessary,
when the safety of the student,
customer or staff in the workplace
cannot be guaranteed or when it is
self-evident that the student will not
be able to perform the skills
demonstration
To provide each student with numerical
and verbal remarks and oral feed-
back in the evaluation discussion
between the student, responsible
teacher and tutor in the workplace
after the skills demonstration.
166 Newness in methodological approaches
value already obtained from workplace learning. The positive qualitative feed-
back and increased motivation of students show that there is no reason for
vocational institutions to be afraid of opening the doors for more co-operation
with entrepreneurs (Nyyssölä, 2002; 2003). The 360-degree assessment model
makes it possible to solve the problem of differing priorities, but it is not a
quick fx. There can sometimes be cases where the teacher from the vocational
institution is more entrepreneurial than the business owner who is the work-
place tutor in this feld. The testing of material has shown that one of the real
challenges for the educational system in future co-operation is deceptively
simple: the teachers need to learn to use language that is more understandable
and appealing to entrepreneurs.
The targets of the Copenhagen Declaration, especially transparency of voca-
tional competence, will also become more meaningful year by year. The
mobility of Finnish vocational students and its labour force is very limited. Only
2.8 per cent of vocational students, altogether around 4 000 students, annually
train abroad for a short period. At the same time, around 2000 students come
to Finland to study. The number of Finnish students training abroad has been
about the same during the years 1999–2003, while the number of foreign stu-
dents coming to Finland to study is growing slightly every year. The
internationalizing process is progressing in all vocational institutions (Mahla-
mäki-Kultanen, 2003; Virtanen and Janhola, 2004). Still, taking part in the
common European initiative will inevitably mean us Finns also achieving
meaningful development and an improvement in the quality of vocational
education.
REFERENCES
Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt (2005), www.oph.f/ammatillinenesr, 29 March.
(Vocational Development Projects funded by the European Social Fund.)
Antonioni, D. (1996), ‘Designing an effective 360-degree appraisal feedback process’,
Organizational Dynamics, 25 (2), 24–39.
Armstrong, T., S.Y. Blake and C. Pitrowski (2000), ‘The application of a 360-degree
feedback managerial development program in higher education: the Florida model’,
Education, 120 (4), 691–5.
Brown, A. (1997), ‘All-round, all-purpose feedback for the future’, People Management,
3 (20), 59–61.
Copenhagen Declaration (2002), ‘Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational
Education and Training, and the European Commission, convened in Copenhagen on
29 and 30 November 2002, on enhanced European co-operation in vocational educa-
tion and training’.
Fletcher, C. (1997), ‘The dangers of judging managers by their peers’, People Manage-
ment, 3 (17), 50–51.
Funderburg, S.A. and P.E. Levy (1997) ‘The infuence of individual and contextual
Skills demonstrations 167
variables on 360-degree feedback system attitudes’, Group and Organization Man-
agement, 22 (2), 210–33.
Goodge, P. (2000), ‘How to manage 360-degree feedback’, People Management, 6 (4),
50–52.
Husain, D.D. (1998), ‘Accounting for results’, Techniques: Making Education and Career
Connections, 73 (7), 30–33.
Mahlamäki-Kultanen, Seija (2003), ‘Leonardo da Vinci. Ohjelman 1 vaiheen pitkän aika-
välin vaikuttavuuden arviointi. Ohjelman toisen vaiheen väliarviointi’, Opetusministeriön
julkaisuja 2003:43. (Evaluation of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. Ministry of
Education.)
Mahlamäki-Kultanen, Seija (2005), ‘Gender and sector effect on Finnish rural entrepre-
neurs’ culture: some educational implications’, in Alain Fayolle, Paula Kyrö and Jan
Ulijn (eds), Entrepreneurship Research in Europe: Outcomes and Perspectives, Chel-
tenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 292–312.
Milliman, J.F. and R.A. Zawacki (1994), ‘Companies evaluate employees from all per-
spectives’, Personnel Journal, 73 (11), 99–103.
Nyyssölä, Niina (2002), ‘Näytöt ammatillisessa peruskoulutuksessa. Väliraportti näyt-
töprojektien toiminnasta vuosina 2000 ja 2001’, Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (Skills
demonstrations in the vocational education. Report on the development projects during
the years 2000 and 2001.)
Nyyssölä, Niina (2003), ‘Näytöt ammatillisessa peruskoulutuksessa 2002. Väliraportti
näyttöprojektien toiminnasta’, Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (Skills demonstrations in the
vocational education. Report on the development projects.)
Opetushallitus (2000), ‘Kotitalous- ja kuluttajapalvelujen perustutkinto. Ammatillisen
peruskoulutuksen opetussuunnitelman ja näyttötutkinnon perusteet’. (National Board
of Education. Core curriculum. The Vocational Qualifcation in Household and Con-
sumers Services.)
QUAL PRAXIS (2005), ‘Quality assurance and practice-oriented assessment in voca-
tional education and training’, www.pedanet/veraja/qualpraxis, 29 March.
Suursalmi, Pentti (2003), ‘Kolmikantaperiaatteen toteutuminen ammatillisen peruskou-
lutuksen näytöissä’, Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (Fulflment of the tripartite principle in
the skills demonstrations.)
Vocational Education Act and Decree 630/98 (1998).
Van de Stege, C. (2003), ‘The work-based learning route in Netherlands and in England:
comparing ideas and meanings’, Compare, 33 (4), 483–95.
Virtanen, Terttu and Laura Janhola (2004), ‘Selvitys valtion tuen vaikutuksesta amma-
tillisen peruskoulutuksen kansainvälistymiseen, Hanketoiminta vuosina 2000–2003’,
Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (The impacts of the government subsidy on the development
of international activities of vocational upper secondary education and training in
Finland during the years 2000–2003.)
Ward, P. (1995), ‘A 360 degree turn for the better’, People Management, 1 (3), 20–22.
Wilson, J.L. (1997), ‘360 appraisal’, Training and Development, 51 (6), 44–5.
168
10. Pathways to new business
opportunities: innovations and
strategies for the entrepreneurial
classroom
Jill Kickul
At the forefront of adaptation and growth of new markets, entrepreneurship has
always been a vibrant force in the global economy. The current business envi-
ronment is continually searching for new innovative models that deal with frm
organization, production and overall market institutions. To prepare for future
opportunities and technological advancements, entrepreneurs need fully to un-
derstand their business and operating environment in order to develop and
capitalize on emerging ideas and opportunities.
The overall purpose of this chapter is to highlight a new entrepreneurship
course, ‘Contemporary entrepreneurial opportunities’. This course focuses
on new opportunity initiation and creation along with the critical factors in-
volved in the conception and development of new business ventures. The
introduction and framework of the course is based on the belief that entre-
preneurship is more than a set of tools and techniques for starting and growing
a business: it is a mindset, a way of looking at things that is opportunity fo-
cused and creative. In addition to discussing and profling this course, we
also begin to examine why this type of entrepreneurship course is essential
to building the skills and abilities, specifcally the self-effcacy, of future
entrepreneurs.
More specifcally, within the development and framework of this course, we
wanted to explore the role that entrepreneurial self-effcacy and alertness have
on a student’s ability to conceive, initiate and develop ideas and innovations for
a new venture. Many entrepreneurial models describing the contexts of entre-
preneurial intentionality can be revised and strengthened by including the
concept of self-effcacy as a means of explaining both the development of en-
trepreneurial intentions and the conditions under which these intentions may be
translated into actions. That is, the individual who has identifed key effcacy
perceptions about starting a business may set higher personal goals and may be
Pathways to new business opportunities 169
more persistent in overcoming entrepreneurial challenges and obstacles, par-
ticularly early on in the launch of the venture.
THE BEGINNINGS OF A NEW COURSE:
CONTEMPORARY ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Some of the topics covered within this new entrepreneurship course include:
(1) identifying new ideas and innovations, (2) market potential analysis for
products and/or services, and (3) initial fnancing and organizing of the business
opportunity. Figure 10.1 displays the ‘Contemporary entrepreneurial opportuni-
ties’ model that emphasizes both the recognition and evaluation of new
opportunities and innovations.
During the duration of the course, students conduct a knowledge of industry
check (KIC) that allows them to examine and understand a chosen industry (for
example, students review an industry’s recent performance, its current status
and the outlook for the future).
When their KIC is completed, students then develop an opportunity organi-
zational proposal (OOPs) that specifes how they will exploit an opportunity
uncovered after they have analysed their industry. Students discuss their organi-
zational description (the management team, key roles), market and competitor
analysis (which stems from the KIC), market, product, manufacturing descrip-
Figure 10.1 Contemporary entrepreneurial opportunities model
Asymmetries in knowledge,
awareness and information
Opportunity recognition Opportunity evaluation
Opportunity surplus and
resource scarcity
Industry
needs
170
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
0
.
2
F
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
R
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
a
n
d
G
u
i
d
e
s
o
n
B
l
a
c
k
b
o
a
r
d
,
f
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
o
v
e
r
v
i
e
w
,
e
v
a
l
u
a
t
i
o
n
(
p
d
f
f
l
e
)
M
a
r
k
e
t
,
p
r
o
d
u
c
t
a
n
d
m
a
n
u
f
a
c
t
u
r
i
n
g
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
o
n
M
a
r
k
e
t
s
e
r
v
e
d
(
i
.
e
,
d
e
m
o
g
r
a
p
h
i
c
s
a
n
d
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
/
s
e
r
v
i
c
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
(
R
&
D
,
p
r
o
p
r
i
e
t
a
r
y
f
e
a
t
u
r
e
s
,
a
n
d
t
h
e
v
a
l
u
e
a
d
d
e
d
b
y
y
o
u
r
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
)
O
p
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
s
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
o
n
O
O
P
s
…
d
e
t
e
r
m
i
n
i
n
g
t
h
e
f
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
F
i
n
a
n
c
i
a
l
A
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
o
f
s
t
a
r
t
-
u
p
c
o
s
t
s
(
i
n
v
e
s
t
i
g
a
t
e
s
i
m
i
l
a
r
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
e
s
)
F
i
n
a
n
c
i
n
g
a
l
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
v
e
s
(
d
e
b
t
/
e
q
u
i
t
y
f
n
a
n
c
i
n
g
,
l
i
s
t
i
n
g
o
f
p
o
s
s
i
b
l
e
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
)
C
o
m
p
a
n
y
D
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
o
n
O
v
e
r
v
i
e
w
a
n
d
p
h
i
l
o
s
o
p
h
y
o
f
c
o
m
p
a
n
y
O
v
e
r
a
l
l
m
i
s
s
i
o
n
a
n
d
s
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
c
i
n
t
e
n
t
M
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
t
e
a
m
K
n
o
w
l
e
d
g
e
,
S
k
i
l
l
s
a
n
d
A
b
i
l
i
t
i
e
s
(
K
S
A
s
)
s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h
s
,
e
x
p
e
r
i
e
n
c
e
O
r
g
a
n
i
z
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
s
t
r
u
c
t
u
r
e
(
h
o
w
w
i
l
l
r
e
s
p
o
n
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
i
e
s
b
e
d
i
v
i
d
e
d
?
)
M
a
r
k
e
t
a
n
d
C
o
m
p
e
t
i
t
o
r
A
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
M
a
r
k
e
t
g
r
o
w
t
h
I
n
d
u
s
t
r
y
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
K
e
y
c
o
m
p
e
t
i
t
o
r
s
,
s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h
s
a
n
d
w
e
a
k
n
e
s
s
e
s
o
f
e
a
c
h
I
d
e
a
Pathways to new business opportunities 171
tion and fnancial analysis (for example, start-up costs; possible fnancing
alternatives). All components of this course are designed to assist new and future
entrepreneurs in fnding creative ways to explore and discover new opportunities
as they introduce and continually redesign their products, services and processes
for their respective industries (see Figure 10.2).
For a description of the entire process, see the following outline:
From KIC to OOPS …
1. From your knowledge of the industry (KIC), list your strengths (S), weak-
nesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats inside the matrix.
2. Develop a tactical IDEA package around your SO, WO, ST, WT strategies
(your tactical package).
Strengths (S)
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
Weaknesses (W)
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
Opportunities
O1
O2
O3
O4
O5
SO STRATEGIES WO STRATEGIES
Threats
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
ST STRATEGIES WT STRATEGIES
3. Arrive at 4–5 possible IDEAS from SO, ST, etc. strategies.
4. On to OOPs, actual evaluation of IDEAS …
172 Newness in methodological approaches
Each OOPs should contain (at the minimum):
1. Executive summary
2. Company description (the management team, key roles)
3. Market and competitor analysis (stems from the KIC)
4. Market, product, and manufacturing description
5. Financial analysis (for example, start-up costs; possible financing
alternatives)
An Example (and its components)
l Executive summary: overview of all areas below including fnal recom-
mendation on the feasibility of the venture
l Company description
l Overview and philosophy of company
– Overall mission and strategic intent
l Management team
– Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs), strengths, experience
l Organizational structure (how will responsibilities be divided?)
l Market and competitor analysis
l Market growth (investigate trends in industry, customer needs)
l Industry information (social, economic, technological trends)
l Key competitors (listing of top strengths and weaknesses of each)
l Market, product, and manufacturing description
l Market served (that is, demographics and location)
l Product/service concept (description of products and/or services, R&D,
proprietary features, and the value added by your business)
l Operations description (especially relevant, of course, if manufacturing
products)
l Financial analysis
l Estimate of start-up costs (investigate similar businesses), fnancing al-
ternatives (debt/equity fnancing, listing of possible resources)
THE NEED FOR THIS COURSE IN THE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP CURRICULUM
Many entrepreneurship courses focus on commonly identifed entrepreneurial
management and planning skills, but often ignore entrepreneurial skills such as
innovation and risk-taking. The teaching of entrepreneurial skills tends to be
technical, with insuffcient attention paid to the cognition and belief systems of
173
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
0
.
3
B
u
i
l
d
i
n
g
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
e
l
f
-
e
f
f
c
a
c
y
M
a
r
s
h
a
l
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
5
:
R
a
i
s
e
m
o
n
e
y
t
o
s
t
a
r
t
a
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
6
:
C
o
n
v
i
n
c
e
o
t
h
e
r
s
t
o
i
n
v
e
s
t
i
n
y
o
u
r
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
7
:
C
o
n
v
i
n
c
e
a
b
a
n
k
t
o
l
e
n
d
y
o
u
m
o
n
e
y
t
o
s
t
a
r
t
a
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
8
:
C
o
n
v
i
n
c
e
o
t
h
e
r
s
t
o
w
o
r
k
f
o
r
y
o
u
i
n
y
o
u
r
n
e
w
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
U
n
c
e
r
t
a
i
n
t
y
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
m
e
n
t
I
n
t
e
r
p
e
r
s
o
n
a
l
a
n
d
n
e
t
w
o
r
k
i
n
g
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
O
p
p
o
r
t
u
n
i
t
y
r
e
c
o
g
n
i
t
i
o
n
P
r
o
c
u
r
e
m
e
n
t
a
n
d
a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
c
r
i
t
i
c
a
l
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
D
e
v
e
l
o
p
m
e
n
t
a
n
d
m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e
o
f
a
n
i
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
v
e
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
D
e
N
o
b
l
e
’
s
f
a
c
t
o
r
s
C
h
e
n
’
s
f
a
c
t
o
r
s
R
i
s
k
-
t
a
k
i
n
g
I
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
o
n
F
i
n
a
n
c
i
a
l
c
o
n
t
r
o
l
M
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
M
a
r
k
e
t
i
n
g
S
e
a
r
c
h
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
1
:
C
o
n
c
e
i
v
e
a
u
n
i
q
u
e
i
d
e
a
T
a
s
k
2
:
I
d
e
n
t
i
f
y
m
a
r
k
e
t
o
p
p
o
r
t
u
n
i
t
i
e
s
P
l
a
n
n
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
3
:
P
l
a
n
a
n
e
w
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
4
:
W
r
i
t
e
a
f
o
r
m
a
l
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
p
l
a
n
I
m
p
l
e
m
e
n
t
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
9
:
M
a
n
a
g
e
a
s
m
a
l
l
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
1
0
:
G
r
o
w
a
s
u
c
c
e
s
s
f
u
l
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
174 Newness in methodological approaches
the entrepreneur. Educators should take into account entrepreneurial attitudes
and perceptions when designing or assessing their entrepreneurship programmes
and course objectives.
One of the ways to understand the new venture creation process that can assist
educators in the design of an entrepreneurship curriculum is to examine the role
of entrepreneurial self-effcacy. Self-effcacy may play an important role in un-
covering the essential skill set needed throughout the various stages of the
entrepreneurial life cycle, from the searching to the implementing phase of the
business (see Figure 10.3). The following section discusses the various compo-
nents of entrepreneurial self-effcacy within the entrepreneurship literature.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SELF-EFFICACY
The construct of self-effcacy has been widely applied in psychology as an in-
dividual difference variable. Self-effcacy is believed to be related to one’s
choice of activities, one’s effort and persistence, thought processes, and emo-
tional reactions when confronted by obstacles (Bandura, 1997; Lent et al.,
1994). Self-effcacy is defned by Bandura (1997) as people’s judgements of
their capabilities to organize and execute courses of actions required to attain
designated types of performances. It is concerned not with the skills one has
but with the judgements of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses.
Self-effcacy is acquired gradually through the development of complex cogni-
tive, social, linguistic and/or physical skills that are obtained through experience
(Bandura, 1982; Gist, 1987). Thus, the acquisition of skills through past
achievements reinforces self-effcacy and contributes to higher aspirations and
future performance (Herron and Sapienza, 1992). Research examining self-ef-
fcacy and knowledge gain, or similar outcomes, has found that pre-training
self-effcacy measures positively predict learning (for example, Gist et al.,
1989; Martocchio and Webster, 1992).
Self-effcacy has a number of practical and theoretical implications for en-
trepreneurial success since initiating a new venture requires unique skills and
mindset. In the entrepreneurial self-effcacy research by De Noble et al. (1999),
they identifed the following six theoretical dimensions of entrepreneurial self-
effcacy, including:
l risk and uncertainty management skills
l innovation and product development skills
l interpersonal and networking management skills
l opportunity recognition
l procurement and allocation of critical resource
l development and maintenance of an innovative environment.
Pathways to new business opportunities 175
Many of these factors may be associated with many of the critical tasks/roles
that have been identifed within the entrepreneurial life cycle. In particular, in-
novation and product development skills as well as opportunity recognition
skills may play a key role in the early stages of the life cycle. Because the
‘Contemporary entrepreneurial opportunities’ course focuses on opportunity
development and innovation, we examined and assessed the students’ abilities
and awareness on several of these skill areas and the early stages of entrepre-
neurial life cycle (for example, the searching phase; see Figure 10.4).
METHOD AND ASSESSMENT
Overview
Undergraduate students who were enrolled in the contemporary entrepreneurial
opportunities course over Winter 2003 participated in the assessment study. All
students were given a questionnaire at the end of the course, asking them to
provide their beliefs and attitudes regarding entrepreneurial ventures as well as
their perceived skills in performing entrepreneurial roles and tasks.
Figure 10.4 Early stages of the entrepreneurial life cycle
Searching
phase
Task 1: Conceive a
unique idea for a
business
Task 2: Identify
market opportunities
for a new business
Entrepreneurial
self-effcacy
opportunity
recognition
Alertness
opportunity
development
The Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Effcacy and Alertness on Business Planning
176 Newness in methodological approaches
Measures
Entrepreneurial self-effcacy
We used De Noble et al.’s (1999) self-effcacy measure to assess their opportu-
nity recognition and development skills. The following is a list of the items
used:
l I can originate new ideas and products.
l I can see new market opportunities for new products and services.
l I can discover new ways to improve existing products.
l I can identify new areas for potential growth.
l I can react quickly to take advantage of business opportunities.
l I can create products that fulfl customers’ unmet needs.
l I can formulate a set of actions in pursuit of opportunities.
Students rated themselves on how capable they believe they are in performing
each task using a 7-point Likert scale where 1 represents ‘strongly disagree’
and 7 represents ‘strongly agree’.
Entrepreneurial alertness
We assessed the students perceived entrepreneurial alertness (towards opportuni-
ties) using Hills et al.’s measure (1995; 5 items) of self-perceived entrepreneurial
alertness. Sample items include, ‘I have a special alertness or sensitivity toward
opportunities’ and ‘I enjoy just thinking about and/or looking for new business
opportunities’. For each statement, students rated themselves using a 7-point
Likert scale where 1 represents ‘strongly disagree’ and 7 represents ‘strongly
agree’.
Entrepreneurial life cycle tasks and roles
Cox et al.’s (2002) scale was used to measure the participants’ perceptions of
their ability to perform many of the instrumental tasks/functions within each
stage of the entrepreneurial life cycle (please refer to their tasks in Figure 10.3).
Participants were asked to think about the process of starting a new business
venture. For each statement within the searching phase (task 1 and task 2), they
rated their level of confdence on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = ‘not confdent’; 7
= ‘completely confdent’).
Pathways to new business opportunities 177
INITIAL ASSESSMENT: EXAMINING THE
RELATIONSHIPS
To examine the relationship between opportunity recognition self-effcacy,
alertness, and entrepreneurial tasks, we conducted correlational analyses. Table
10.1 shows the descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations.
Table 10.1 (a) Descriptive statistics. (b) Correlations
(a) Descriptive statistics
Mean Std. Deviation
Effcacy: opportunity recognition 5.5854 .9150
Entrepreneurial alertness towards
opportunities
4.7877 .7515
Searching-task 1 5.1205 1.5333
Searching-task 2 5.4699 1.3555
(b) Correlations
Effcacy:
Opportunity
Recognition
Alertness
Towards
Opportunities
Searching-
task1
Searching-
task2
Effcacy: opportunity
recognition
1.000
Entrepreneurial
alertness towards
opportunities
.583** 1.000
Searching-task 1 .410** .587** 1.000
Searching-task 2 .470** .589** .806** 1.000
Note: ** Correlation is signifcant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Our results revealed that self-effcacy was associated with entrepreneurial
alertness. Both entrepreneurial self-effcacy (opportunity recognition) and en-
trepreneurial alertness were related to both tasks involved in the searching for
new ideas, innovations for a new venture. From our correlational analyses, we
also examined how the building of entrepreneurial self-effcacy ‘adds’ to entre-
preneurial alertness in a student’s ability to perform the tasks involved in the
178 Newness in methodological approaches
searching phase of the life cycle. Figures 10.5 and 10.6 display the incremental
infuence self-effcacy has on these tasks beyond entrepreneurial alertness. When
entrepreneurial self-effcacy is high (for example, EFFEC = 1), students have
higher perceived abilities in fnding unique ideas for the business (searching
phase, task 1) and identifying market opportunities for a new business (searching
phase, task 2).
DISCUSSION
The opportunity recognition process itself has been described as multidimen-
sional, incorporating the search process for new ideas as well as the recognition
of feasible business opportunities. While some entrepreneurs start ventures prior
to identifying opportunities, beyond start-up this process becomes vital to the
venture’s growth capability as it confronts environmental changes and seeks
new innovations for the business (Zietsma, 1999). This chapter takes a frst step
in outlining a new opportunity recognition course that focuses on building the
skills and abilities of future entrepreneurs, particularly as they become involved
in the planning and launch of their venture.
Figure 10.5 Perceived ability in fnding unique idea for the business
6.5
6.0
4.0
5.5
5.0
4.5
.00 1.00
5.4
4.2
5.9
5.2
Estimated marginal means of searching-task 1
EFFEC
Pathways to new business opportunities 179
Considering the relationship between the entrepreneurial self-effcacy and
entrepreneurial life-cycle tasks, one can expect to enhance their ability to perform
these tasks by putting systematic and continuous emphasis on entrepreneurial
self-effcacy. As mentioned earlier, many entrepreneurship courses focus on
commonly identifed entrepreneurial management and planning skills, but often
ignore entrepreneurial skills, such as innovation and risk-taking. Inadequate at-
tention is given to the cognition and belief systems of the entrepreneur, and skill
development tends to be very technical. Entrepreneurship educators should take
into account entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions when designing or assess-
ing their entrepreneurship programmes and curriculum.
In order to increase a student’s entrepreneurial self-effcacy, educators should
also work on an environment that allows potential and actual entrepreneurs to
share, debate and assess the feasibility of their business ideas. An environment
perceived to be more supportive will also increase entrepreneurial self-effcacy
because individuals assess their entrepreneurial capacities in reference to per-
ceived resources, opportunities and obstacles existing in the environment (see
Figure 10.7).
In addition to building a supportive environment, educators should consider
the role that others have in infuencing entrepreneurial self-effcacy. Social
learning theory (SLT) proposes that one way learning can occur is vicariously,
Figure 10.6 Perceived ability in identifying market opportunities for a new
business
6.5
6.0
4.5
5.5
5.0
.00 1.00
5.5
4.6
6.2
5.7
Estimated marginal means of searching-task 2
EFFEC
180
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
0
.
7
C
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
f
r
a
m
e
w
o
r
k
N
e
w
v
e
n
t
u
r
e
c
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
l
F
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
l
P
r
o
p
o
s
a
l
o
f
i
d
e
a
(
s
)
l
E
v
a
l
u
a
t
i
o
n
T
h
e
f
o
u
n
d
e
r
s
T
h
e
t
e
a
m
F
I
T
v
s
G
A
P
S
P
l
a
n
n
i
n
g
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
r
e
q
u
i
r
e
m
e
n
t
s
O
p
p
o
r
t
u
n
i
t
y
r
e
c
o
g
n
i
t
i
o
n
(
i
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
o
n
s
)
N
e
w
v
e
n
t
u
r
e
P
r
e
/
p
o
s
t
l
a
u
n
c
h
l
C
h
a
l
l
e
n
g
e
l
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
a
n
d
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
P
r
o
g
r
a
m
m
e
i
n
i
t
i
a
t
i
v
e
s
(
P
e
d
a
g
o
g
y
,
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
,
o
u
t
r
e
a
c
h
)
S
k
i
l
l
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
m
e
n
t
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
e
l
f
-
e
f
f
c
a
c
y
Pathways to new business opportunities 181
through the observation of behaviors in others, referred to as role models (Ban-
dura, 1977). Adapting the principles of SLT to entrepreneurial role models in
the form of mentors would indicate that individuals having greater exposure to
other entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial ventures and
activities (Schaver and Scott, 1991). Entrepreneurial mentors may appear in the
form of family members, employers, teachers or anyone whom the individual
has had an opportunity to observe (Sexton and Smilor, 1986). Over time and
using a longitudinal approach, it would be interesting to examine how these re-
lationships evolve and infuence an aspriring and future entrepreneur so that
they launch and grow their own ventures. Programme initiatives can be designed
which allow students to evaluate their opportunities, build an effective manage-
ment team and garner the necessary resources to start the new business. Setting
up a supportive environment and opportunities to incorporate entrepreneurial
role models (Figure 10.8), beginning in our classrooms, that focus on essential
skills, tasks and abilities, may give future entrepreneurs the necessary competen-
cies and confdence needed to launch and grow their businesses within a
marketplace that demands agility and continual innovation.
REFERENCES
Bandura, A. (1977), Social Learning Theory, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A. (1982), ‘Self-effcacy mechanism in human agency’, American Psychologist,
37 (2), 122–47.
Figure 10.8 Entrepreneurial role models
Factors that are taken into account
in the chapter
Factors that could be explored in
further discussion or research
Correlations
demonstrated in the chapter
Links to be explored in future research
Supportive environment
I have a positive
attitude towards
I am confdent
about doing
Someone I admire
explains to me
I think I can
(SE)
I do/I learn
how to do
Someone I like
helps me to do
182 Newness in methodological approaches
Bandura, A. (1997), Self-Effcacy: The Exercise of Control, New York: W.H. Freeman.
Cox, L.W., S.L. Mueller and S.E. Moss (2002), ‘The impact of entrepreneurship educa-
tion on entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship
Education, 1 (2), 229–45.
De Noble. A.F., D. Jung and S.B. Ehrlich (1999), ‘Entrepreneurial self-effcacy: the de-
velopment of a measure and its relationship to entrepreneurial action’, www.babson.
edu/entrep/fer/papers99/index99/index99.html, accessed 20 April 2005.
Gist, M.E. (1987), ‘Self-effcacy: implication for organizational behavior and human
resource management’, Academy of Management Review, 17 (2), 183–211.
Gist, M.E., C. Schwoerer and B. Rosen (1989), ‘Effects of alternative training methods
on self-effcacy and performance in computer software training’, Journal of Applied
Psychology, 74 (6), 884–91.
Herron, L. and H.J. Sapienza (1992), ‘The entrepreneur and the initiation of new venture
launch activities’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 17 (1), 49–55.
Hills, G., T. Lumpkin and R. Singh (1995), ‘Opportunity recognition: Perceptions and
behaviors of entrepreneurs’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley, MA:
Babson College.
Lent, R.W., S.D. Brown and G. Hackett (1994), ‘Toward a unifying social cognitive
theory of career and academic interest, choice and performance, Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 45 (1), 79–122.
Martocchio, J.J. and J. Webster (1992), ‘Effects of feedback and cognitive playfulness
on performance in microcomputer software training’, Personnel Psychology, 45,
553–78.
Sexton, D. and R. Smilor (1986), The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, Cambridge,
MA: Ballinger.
Shaver, K. and L. Scott (1991), ‘Person, process, and choice: the psychology of the new
venture creation’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 16, 23–45.
Zietsma, C. (1999), ‘Opportunity knocks – or does it hide? An examination of the role
of opportunity recognition in entrepreneurship’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Re-
search, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Pathways to new business opportunities 183
APPENDIX: CONTEMPORARY ENTREPRENEURIAL
OPPORTUNITIES
Dr Jill R. Kickul
Email: [email protected]
Web address: www.depaul.edu/~jkickul
Course Description
Entrepreneurship is more than a set of tools and techniques for starting and
growing a business. It is a mindset, a way of looking at things that is opportunity
focused and creative. It is about passion – doing what you love. It is about creat-
ing wealth in all its forms: money, independence, power and innovation. It is
about challenge and persistence. And it is about creativity and writing new ex-
ecution strategies for the way things are done.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart, the timid, those who hate am-
biguity and those who want everything in black and white. It is for those who
are self-motivated, independent, persistent, have a sense of humour, can learn
and bounce back from failure and are willing to take and manage calculated
risks.
This course focuses on new opportunity initiation and the preparation of an
opportunity study that can be used to begin operations in a new business enter-
prise. It examines the critical factors involved in the conception, initiation, and
development of new business ventures. The topics covered include:
l Identifcation of characteristics of prospective entrepreneurs.
l Identifying innovations.
l Market potential analysis for new products or services.
l Initial fnancing, organizing, and operating a new business.
The course objectives are:
l To provide training and education regarding the feasibility, planning, and
implementation of a new business idea and venture.
l To improve your managerial and organizational skills through application
of theories to real entrepreneurial problems.
l To develop a basic understanding and appreciation of entrepreneurs as a
vital part of the American society.
184 Newness in methodological approaches
Course Requirements
Idea journal
Every week, students will have the opportunity to write/document their entre-
preneurial ideas (at least one per week). Ideas can come from multiple sources,
at any time, and anywhere (it may be handy to have pen/paper/scratch paper/
palm (real and electronic) nearby. Check out: www.creativitypool.com/.
Also, to get you jump-started, consider the following questions, from Osborne
(1963):
Put to other uses? New ways to use as is?
Other uses if modifed?
Adapt? What else is like this?
What other idea does this suggest?
Does the past offer parallel?
What could I copy?
Whom could I emulate?
Modify? New twist?
Change meaning, colour, motion, sound, odour, form,
shape?
Other shapes?
Magnify? What to add?
More time?
Greater frequency?
Stronger?
Higher?
Longer?
Thicker?
Extra value?
Plus ingredient?
Duplicate?
Multiply?
Exaggerate?
Minify? What to subtract?
Smaller?
Condensed?
Miniature?
Lower?
Pathways to new business opportunities 185
Shorter?
Lighter?
Omit?
Streamline?
Split up?
Understate?
Substitute? Who else instead?
What else instead?
Other ingredient?
Other material?
Other process?
Other power?
Other place?
Other approach?
Other tone of voice?
Rearrange? Interchange components?
Other pattern?
Other layout?
Other sequence?
Transpose cause and effect?
Change pace?
Change schedule?
Reverse? Transpose positive and negative?
How about opposites?
Turn it backward?
Turn it upside down?
Reverse roles?
Change shoes?
Turn tables?
Turn other cheek?
Combine? How about a blend, an alloy, an assortment, an ensem-
ble?
Combine units?
Combine purposes?
Combine appeals?
Combine ideas?
186 Newness in methodological approaches
Knowledge of industry check (KIC): your beginning to understanding
the industry and the ideas within them
A complete industrial analysis usually includes a review of an industry’s recent
performance, its current status, and the outlook for the future. Many analyses
include a combination of text and statistical data.
There are many sources of industry analysis: investment frms, business and
trade periodicals, trade associations, and government agencies. To conduct a
thorough industry analysis, include a variety of sources (resources to get you
started).
l MultexNET. Provides real-time and full-text investment, corporate and
industry reports supplied by over 700 brokerage frms, investment banks
and independent research providers. Examples include Merrill Lynch,
Morgan Stanley, and Salomon Smith Barney. You can limit searches to
‘industry reports only’ and use the pull-down menu for industry types, or
enter keywords. The advanced search page provides additional options.
Most of the reports are in PDF format. For emerging market reports, see
also ISI Emerging Markets.
l Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys
l U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook
l Hoover’s Industry Group Snapshots
l Internet Intelligence Index. Created by the Fuld & Company Library, this
site provides ’links to nearly 600 intelligence-related Internet sites, cover-
ing everything from macro-economic data to individual patent and stock
quote information’. Notice the sections on ‘Industry-Specifc Internet Re-
sources’ and ‘International Internet Resources’ further down the page. Fuld
& Company offers management consulting in competitive intelligence.
l Business.com. Covers over 28 industries, from accounting to utilities.
Business.com provides a directory of industry websites.
Opportunity organizational proposal (OOPs!)
If you plan to start a business, every business professional and investor you meet
– lawyers, bankers, accountants, other entrepreneurs, business ‘angels’ of all
types – will ask the same thing, ‘Is it feasible?’ The OOPs and a business plan
defne the essence of entrepreneurship or small business as taught in America’s
business schools today. Thus, a central component of this course is the oppor-
tunity for the students to develop a venture OOPs which will be presented for
evaluation. Each OOPs should contain (at the minimum):
1. Executive summary
2. Company description (the management team, key roles)
3. Market and competitor analysis (stems from the KIC)
Pathways to new business opportunities 187
4. Market, product, and manufacturing description
5. Financial analysis (for example, start-up costs; possible financing
alternatives).
Presentations of KIC and OOPs
Many studies indicate that presentations that combine words with graphics help
to get the points across better and faster, assist groups to reach consensus sooner
and help individuals remember key points longer. Students should develop
professional text and graph charts for the presentation material. It is recom-
mended that the team conduct the presentation in as professional a manner as
possible. It is also recommended that a creative, innovative, multi-method
presentation be made (for example, graphics, handouts, statistics, and so on).
Small group and class participation
The success of this course depends not only on your attendance, but also on
your participation. The more you participate, the more fun and valuable the
course will be for all of us. For every class, students are expected to read the
supplemental readings and cases. Participation is measured using several crite-
ria. These include actively participating individually during the ‘discussion’ part
of our sessions, in small group meetings, and in group presentations.
The instructor’s evaluation of your participation is worth 10 per cent towards
your fnal course grade, and will be evaluated using these criteria:
l When questions or cases were presented to the class, how active (as op-
posed to inactive) was your participation?
l When you answered questions or commented on reading-related or dis-
cussion-related material in class, how accurately (as opposed to
inaccurately) did you use concepts previously discussed?
l When you asked questions or commented on reading-related or discus-
sion-related material in class, how creative (as opposed to redundant or
repetitive) was your thinking?
l When you were asked to answer case questions to solve organizational
problems (a career as an organizational consultant offers big bucks by the
way), how specifc, hence implementable (as opposed to vague, hence
useless), were your suggested remedies to problems raised in class?
l When you criticized others’ ideas (including the instructor’s), how con-
structively (as opposed to destructively) did you state your criticism?
l How many times were you absent when your small group was working
on in-class and live case (so that your group missed your contributions)?
One group absence may not adversely affect your participation grade;
more class absences will lower your fnal grade.
188 Newness in methodological approaches
Breakdown of Course Requirements
Idea journal 15%
KIC 25%
KIC presentation 10%
OPPs 25%
OPPs presentation 15%
Class participation 10%
Total 100%
REFERENCE
Osborne, A. (1963), Applied Imagination, 3rd edn, New York: Scribner.
PART THREE
Diffusing and Promoting Entrepreneurial
Culture and Developing Entrepreneurial
Potential
191
11. Developing an entrepreneurial spirit
among engineering college students:
what are the educational factors?
Caroline Verzat and Rémi Bachelet
Although engineers are often associated with innovation, they tend to create far
fewer businesses than business schools graduates (Fayolle, 2001). Most notice-
ably, the career model for French engineers has for a long time been orientated
towards technical or managerial functions within large companies (Bouffartigue,
1994).
Considering the importance of innovative business creation in the economy,
the North Region in France initiated a research programme to study entrepre-
neurship education for engineers. Our research is carried out within the
framework called ‘Pôle Régional de Recherche sur l’Entrepreneuriat’ set up by
Conseil Régional du Nord Pas de Calais. The initial question was to fnd out
how to promote an entrepreneurial spirit among new engineers and fnd the
factors that can be infuential.
Arguably, the most widely recognized factor favouring entrepreneurship is
family background, but this is typically a factor that cannot be infuenced by
education. Another advanced approach is based on the identifcation of entre-
preneurial ftness and skills (Carter et al., 1995; Gartner, 1988; Lorrain et al.,
1998), but this approach does not make it possible to predict the occurrence of
the phenomenon or to detect entrepreneurs. More interestingly for us, a number
of authors emphasize the part to be played by the educational system in the
promotion of an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ prior to the intention to set up a business
(Albert and Marion, 1997; Fayolle, 2000).
Our own experience of teaching grande école engineers at Ecole Centrale de
Lille shows that very few students choose to join the Entrepreneurship Master
Course, which requires applicants to have a personal business project (about 2
per cent of students), and when they do, it is not on impulse but the result of a
process over a period of time (Verzat et al., 2002). Within this process, which
we call, as Fayolle does, the ‘awakening of an entrepreneurial spirit’, a major
part is played, by a hands-on project management experience during the two
frst years of their curriculum.
192 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
The purpose of this chapter is to further what can be called the ‘entrepre-
neurial spirit’. Indeed these words, although widely used, have not yet been
properly defned in the literature as to how it is created, and what precise aspects
can be enhanced through teaching activities. It is a matter of suggesting hypoth-
eses in order to build up a model of how an entrepreneurial spirit is engendered
among newly trained engineers.
Our chapter is divided into four sections. The frst deals with the question of
the defnition of the entrepreneurial spirit: how does it arise prior to the decision
to set up a business? How can the components of an entrepreneurial spirit be
defned? We suggest a dynamic model. The second section deals with the factors
leading to an entrepreneurial spirit among young engineers: what is the rele-
vance of the educational background? What are the possible teaching method
variables within engineering college training? The third section presents meth-
odological features of our research. The fourth section presents some early
results about the projective dimensions of our model of engineering students in
2004. As a conclusion, we present theoretical and practical implications of our
research.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT: A SUGGESTED DYNAMIC
MODEL TO EXPLORE THE BEGINNINGS OF THE
ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS
How should entrepreneurial spirit or entrepreneurial spirit be defned? Although
this notion has been widely used, it has still to be properly defned. We believe
this could very much help in understanding what happens prior to the declared
intention of creating a business. In that regard, this is a new insight into the be-
ginnings of the entrepreneurial process.
The Unknown Beginnings of the Entrepreneurial Process
For a few years, researchers in entrepreneurship have suggested the idea that
setting up a business can be understood as a process (Gartner, 1985; 1988,
Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990). Fayolle (2002) shows that this vision of entre-
preneurship is frst justifed by the fact that entrepreneurship is a rather
complex phenomenon. Indeed, it includes psychological, social, economic and
organizational dimensions. Secondly there is a large diversity of entrepre-
neurial situations, because entrepreneurs and their projects differ greatly.
This vision of entrepreneurship as a process is important because it allows
research in entrepreneurship to go ahead of a dual conception of entrepreneur-
ship. On one side is the functional approach of economists (Baumol, 1993)
where the entrepreneur is described as an innovator, an organizer and a risk-
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 193
taker. On the other is the psychological approach where the entrepreneur is
defned by his or her personality, motivations and behaviours, looking for an
entrepreneurial personality type.
Our research is based on the idea that becoming an entrepreneur is more about
how a person builds up a vision of what he or she is capable of and what he or
she wants to become in relation to an environment that will confrm this project
or not. It is much more a process than a predetermination.
Talking about an entrepreneurial process is nevertheless a very large subject,
because it can take many steps and years from the frst idea to the effective set-
ting up of the frm. Tounès 2003 suggests a representation of the entrepreneurial
process in fve stages (see Figure 11.1). Our choice is to explore the uphill stages
of this process prior to the decision of setting up.
Many authors have already explored the frst stages of the process around the
notion of intention. Most research is based either on Ajzen’s theory of planned
behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; 2002) applied to the intention to create a business or
on the theory of the predictability of the entrepreneurial event by Shapero and
Sokol (1982). According to Ajzen, any behaviour fnds expression in an intention
to adopt this behaviour. This intention springs from positive attitudes as regards
this behaviour, normative beliefs and a feeling of control from this behaviour,
which results in a ‘control locus’ on the one hand, and in the perception of a
‘self-effcacy’ (Bandura, 1982) on the other. This is the way, for instance, he
analyses the intention to give up smoking. According to Shapero and Sokol, the
entrepreneurial intention derives from the perceptions of its desirability and its
feasibility. Krueger and Carsrud (1993), Autio et al. (1997), Wang et al. (2001),
Peterman and Kennedy (2003) and Tounès (2003) try to explain the intention
to set up a business.
Our position is that this model is very important but not suffcient to approach
the early stages of the entrepreneurial process, because in many cases awareness
of this intention occurs very late. We already know from Fayolle (1994) that
many engineers become entrepreneurs late in their careers. We also know from
Source: Tounès (2003)
Figure 11.1 Representation of the entrepreneurial process by Tounès
Entrepreneurial skills
Entrepreneurial
predispositions
Entrepreneurial
intention
Decision to
set up
Effective
setting up
Entrepreneurial
behaviours
Pursuit or abandonment
194 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Wang et al. (2001) that students in Singapore, who have declared their intention
to set up a business do not do it when the economic environment offers better
job opportunities. We also believe that deeper or earlier infuences may exist.
For instance, Fayolle (2001) notes that many engineers setting up a business
had taken responsible positions in associations when at school. As far as we are
concerned, we noted in our exploratory research that most newly trained engi-
neers embarking on setting up a business had beein in a decisive leadership
position for two years within their innovation project team (Verzat et al.,
2002).
We can thus hypothesize that the stages before the business setting-up deci-
sion refer to something that can be named an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. But how
can we defne it?
According to Albert and Marion (1997): ‘the entrepreneurial spirit consists
– for business as well as for all human activities – in identifying opportunities,
in gathering resources of various natures, in order to create a wealth that meets
a solvable demand’. Other authors defne the entrepreneurial spirit as a set of
positive attitudes as regards the notion of ‘enterprise’ or of ‘starting a business’,
or as regards the entrepreneurial spirit, which involves taking initiatives and
action (Léger-Jarniou, 2001). The entrepreneurial spirit also defnes the basic
characteristics of an entrepreneur, who is different from the manager or the in-
ventor (Fayolle, 2002), regarding the activation of mental images allowing an
organization to develop (Fonrouge, 2002). A set of personality features, of abili-
ties, values and attitudes which reveal entrepreneurial behaviours are to be found
in these models.
So there is no clear consensus as to the defnition of an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’,
and the defnitions that can be found in the literature seem to be closer to the
consequences of an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ than to the concept itself. Our ap-
proach is to understand the dynamics that contribute to building up such a
‘spirit’. When students arrive at the engineering college, very few know about
their future career or their specifc abilities. The three years they spend in college
help them to develop professional competence and to build up their professional
identity. So our main hypothesis about the entrepreneurial spirit is that it is
progressively built up through a dual elaboration of professional identity and
of specifc attitudes, behaviours and competence feelings. Our model tries to
encompass these two dimensions in a dynamic process of elaboration.
Suggestion of a Dynamic Model
The model of the entrepreneurial spirit we propose can be roughly drawn in a
diagram (Figure 11.2).
Through academic and pre-professional experiences (internships, activities
in associations) the young student will progressively understand what he or she
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 195
is capable of and what are his or her values or beliefs towards what is good for
him or her. That will help him to choose orientations for the future and progres-
sively summarize his professional project. At each step, we postulate that some
features can be identifed as entrepreneurial. Let us summarize all those features
as regards professional projections and abilities in a broad sense.
Building Up Entrepreneurial Professional Projections
We have noted, through our exploratory interviews, the importance of a projec-
tion of an identity and/or professional type which shows through some assertions,
such as: ‘I have known for a long time that I have an entrepreneur profle’ or ‘I
don’t feel myself as a classical technology or large business minded engineer’
or else ‘there are many business creators in my family, and I am interested in it
too’. How can we give an account of those implicit professional models?
All the more so as, for some authors such as Gottfredson (1981 [1996])
(quoted by Guichard and Huteau, 2001), the professional and career choices
are, frst, an attempt for the person to realize a ‘social self’ and, secondarily, the
realization of a ‘psychological self’. Using the related story of life, Rae and
Carswell, 2000) reveal the importance of building up a meaning for oneself in
front of other people in the entrepreneur’s learning process: becoming an en-
trepreneur is building up values/incentives with precise objectives, so, once they
have been achieved, the successful realizations feed a self-confdence and the
ability to be successful, which is close to Bandura’s ‘self effcacy’ concept.
Becoming an entrepreneur may be approached on the basis of the double
transaction identity-building theory (Dubar, 1991). In fact, we can identify
here:
1. On the one hand, a biographic transaction in which the engineering college
student sees a possible future continuing or breaking up with his or her
Figure 11.2 Model of the entrepreneurial spirit
First professional
experience
Entrepreneurial professional projections
Precursory behaviours: taking responsibilities
Identify projection as an engineer-entrepreneur
Intention to set up a business
First steps towards entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial abilities
Entrepreneurial attitudes
Entrepreneurial beliefs
Entrepreneurial competence feelings
Entrepreneurial spirit
Setting up a
business?
196 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
former experience (family experiences, the choice for an engineering col-
lege, activities with associations, projects, and so on).
2. On the other hand, a relational transaction in which the engineering college
student has the legitimacy of his or her aspirations (career and life projects)
recognized by a favourable environment (parents, relatives, friends, other
students ready to get involved, outside potential partners, lecturers helping
to build up a business plan or confrming the feasibility of a creation idea)
among which the college’s culture plays an important part.
For many of the students, the professional projects build up slowly, through
explorations and trial and error where some encouragement can occur to explore
the trail, and then confrmation of the feasibility of a business setting-up project
by the lecturers.
In that respect, the way some career guidance psychologists analyse the
building up of a professional project is interesting. For Ginzberg et al. (1951,
quoted by Guichard and Huteau, 2001) building up one’s professional project
is a process including ‘realistic choices’. This process goes through three stages:
an exploratory phase, along which frst-year students carry out an active search
for information, taking part in discussions with well-informed people such as
lecturers or career advisers in order to elaborate on a professional choice. The
second phase is a crystallization phase, in which students – generally fourth-year
students – crystallize their choices and experience, which then enable them to
draw up a hierarchy of their choices and to identify their tendencies. The last
phase of the process is called ‘specifcation’ and corresponds to the expression
of the ‘professional tendency’; fnal-year students choose a profession and de-
vote many hours of work to the project they are interested in.
To sum up, several hypotheses can be set out about the way to defne the
projections of an entrepreneurial spirit prior to the decision to set up a
business:
H1. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself through an intention to set up a
business.
H2. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself, during study at college, through
precursory behaviours such as taking responsibilities in associations or
taking the leadership of a project team.
H3. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself through an identity projection
which can be spotted through claims to other people of what one is or
wants to be, as opposed to the technology-minded engineer model.
H4. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself through a professional project
gradually built up around the setting up of a business: with frst-year stu-
dents, it expresses itself in an information search exploratory phase. With
second-year students, it fnds expression in a search for opportunities,
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 197
advice and training related to the project. As soon as they get to the third
year, the students have roughly completed their project work (contacts
have been established with banks or partners; they have turned towards
the Business-setting up Master Course.
Building up entrepreneurial abilities
An important literature deals with the psychological profle of the entrepreneur
or his or her necessary competence. All authors using Ajzen’s theory describe
various components of the intention to be an entrepreneur: (1) favourable atti-
tudes as regards entrepreneurship; (2) internalized social standards related to
an entrepreneurial behaviour; (3) the feeling of having entrepreneurial skills,
self-control and the ability to become successful.
We tried to take all these dimensions into account, and ended up with three
features of a potential entrepreneur:
l specifc attitudes, which refer to internal predispositions to act in certain
ways and account mainly for specifc personality traits
l normative beliefs as regards entrepreneurship
l feeling of having entrepreneurial skills (self-effcacy).
Tables 11.1 and 11.2 show details of these three features.
Entrepreneurial attitudes In order to estimate someone’s attitude as regards
an entrepreneurial behaviour, we have selected eight attitudes in the relevant
literature so as to be able to work out the students’ attitudes regarding entrepre-
neurial behaviour (Table 11.1).
For each attitude, a series of questions are asked, evoking precise situations,
on the basis of the biodata technique (Mael, 1991), which makes it possible to
ask factual questions about real issues, involving opinions, attitudes and values
in a historical perspective.
Normative beliefs towards entrepreneurship The normative beliefs concept in
Ajzen’s intention model refers to the person’s internalized values, which are
confrmed by his or her social models and referents. The person’s ‘relevant oth-
ers’ are the people who are important to the person as regards career and
professional projections, but also to a favourable environment supporting the
person in his or her project.
The questions we ask in our questionnaire aim to identify the professional
reference models and the favourable environment towards the student’s build-
ing-up of a project (parents, relatives, close friends, lecturers, former students,
banks, school friends) on the one hand and, on the other, fnding out whether
these reference models support the student’s entrepreneurial project.
198 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 11.1 Entrepreneurial skill estimating variables
Attitude estimating
variables
References A few situations evoked in the
questionnaire
Autonomy Craid (1990),
Cromie (1987)
Working on one’s own or with a
group, preferring to be ‘framed’
when working on a project
Need for fulflment McClelland (1961),
Koh (1996)
Setting up personal challenges,
working more than required to
Dynamism Craid (1990) Extra curricular activities, with
associations
Risk-taking Koh (1996) Aversion or not to risk
Initiative-taking Cromie (2000) Initiatives within a class, a
group, the family
Responsibility McClelland (1961) Responsibilities within an
association, class representative
functions
Innovation Koh (1996), Craid
(1991)
Favourable to changes, to new
working methods
Will, determination Cromie (2000) Achieving one’s objectives at all
costs
The feeling of having entrepreneurial skills The estimation of this aspect goes
through two sub-aspects:
1. Self-effcacy: within the scope of our study, we have defned self-effcacy
in relation to entrepreneurs’ key skills as identifed in the relevant literature
(Table 11.2). Our purpose is to identify the potential existence of those en-
trepreneurial skills among students, through our questionnaire.
2. The locus of control: this notion refers to the feeling of controlling the
causes and running of an event, or taking them for granted (Braukhaus,
1982; Rotter, 1966). The purpose of our questionnaire is to test these aspects
on two levels:
(a) The internal locus of control: this aspect is tested through questions
helping to fnd out whether the person takes his or her own control of some
events (his or her ability, efforts).
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 199
Table 11.2 Self-effcacy estimating variables
Entrepreneurs’ skills References A few situations evoked
in the questionnaire
Seizing and making up
opportunities
Herron (1990), Vesper
(1990), Baum (1995)
Opportunity of a
placement or
employment, vacancy
opportunity
Working with a team Chandler and Jansen
(1992), Lorrain et al.
(1998)
Working on one’s own or
with a team, dealing with
tensions within a group
Developing and
maintaining a network
Aldrich et al. (1987),
Herron (1990)
Relationships with
friends, school friends;
developing further
acquaintances
Technological skills Baum (1995), Herron
(1990), Chandler and
Jansen (1992)
Solving technical
problems (computers)
Working intensely Chandler and Jansen
(1992)
Working so as to comply
with deadlines, physical
efforts
Organizational skills Lorrain et al. (1998),
Deeks (1976)
Organizing events at
school or with a group of
friends
Self projection into the
future
Hambrik and Crozier
(1985), Milton (1989)
Having a personal idea of
a professional project
after college, anticipating
diffculties pertaining to
the project activity
Making decisions Deeks (1976), Hoffer
and Sandberg (1987)
Making a decision with
little information
(b) The external locus of control: the questions asked to estimate this as-
pect help to fnd out whether the person sees the running of some events as
due to external causes (chance, luck, omnipotence of others).
200 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
So our hypothesis is that the entrepreneurial spirit builds up through different
entrepreneurial features related revealed or confrmed through entrepreneurial
projections. But this does not explain why such a spirit can arise. So the second
part of this model is to investigate the possible causes and especially to identify
what factors can be acted on during the engineering college curriculum.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT INFLUENTIAL FACTORS
Two main factors can be found: the personal past of the person and the peda-
gogical factors during college. We have to look carefully at both to weight the
role of teaching methods and other features at college.
The Identity-building Past
In Ajzen’s intention model, the identity and dynamics only partly appears
through the normative beliefs aspect. With the model we suggest, the identity-
building dynamics are to be considered at two levels. On the one hand is the
identity displayed (self-defnition, particularly as a would-be engineer, and
projections into the future), which builds up interactively with other people (see
above). On the other hand is the identity-building past, which is related to legacy
and identifcation models drawn from the social and family backgrounds: par-
ents being – or not – entrepreneurs, parents’ career as experienced by themselves
and their child, entrepreneurial – or not – social background.
These aspects are spotted as model entry variables: they may have an infu-
ence upon entrepreneurial spirit, but we do not see them as determining factors.
Our hypothesis is that, with some students, the past may constitute a kind of
predisposition which will develop during their studies. With others, there may
be a deliberate break with the past, which may also be seen as some sort of de-
termination. With others, we admit the hypothesis that university education can
provide the opportunity to develop an entrepreneurial spirit in a student who
has not had an entrepreneurial spirit background. This hypothesis is supported
by a few examples of paths followed by students we have met in the course of
the qualitative phase of our research.
Now let us see how university education can be of some infuence upon this
starting point, whether it be favourable or not, in relation to the development of
an entrepreneurial spirit.
The Infuence of Training
There is a rich literature about the construction of an educational and entrepre-
neurial paradigm (Leitch and Harrison, 1999; MacMullan and Long, 1983;
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 201
Sexton and Bowman, 1984). There are also a great deal of reports, syntheses
and evaluations of educational experiments in the feld of university entrepre-
neurial training (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994; Gorman et al., 1997). It is
remarkable that the reported experiments mainly concern management training
at a university level, even though an awareness of entrepreneurial attitudes in-
volving initiative-taking and an approach to changes can – and should – be
addressed very early (Neunreuther, 1979).
As regards entrepreneurship teaching objectives, many authors insist on the
necessity of avoiding any mechanistic type of teaching that would bring entre-
preneurship down to a set of techniques and ignore the students’ incentives
(Hynes, 1996). With Gibb (1993), teaching methods should not just transfer
knowledge, but develop the building-up of skills and attitudes in favour of en-
trepreneurship. They are different from other career objectives because they are
multiple and because of a necessary pluridisciplinarity. They represent a specifc
challenge, particularly for engineering college students whom we are dealing
with, as the point is to forget risk-aversion attitudes induced by analytic ap-
proaches and approaches consisting of searching for a unique solution to cope
with a well-defned problem. In fact, we have noticed, in the course of our
qualitative study, that the students interested in entrepreneurship are less focused
on technology and more open to a selection of the courses they wish to attend.
In the relevant literature, learning entrepreneurial skills and attitudes can be
carried out through a teaching method that puts the student in a real problem-
solving position. Numerous empirical researches show that certain types of
teaching are more favourable than others in the training of entrepreneurs: ‘action
learning’, ‘learning by doing’, learning through experience, learning from one’s
own mistakes, learning from other people (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994;
Hartshorn and Hannon, 2002; Leitch and Harrison, 1999). Reviewing various
works about learning styles, Gibb (1993) suggests seeing entrepreneurs as
characterized by a learning style that would rather be focused on real-life experi-
ence and either on action (pragmatic/intuitive mode) or thinking (refexive/intuitive
mode). In their life-story telling approach, Rae and Carswell (2000) mention
that the entrepreneurs interviewed are typically fond of learning, and quick and
keen on applying the knowledge and skills acquired. They even build up their
own theory about the way to learn and to make their own decisions.
Our frst qualitative research has enabled us to identify the actual links be-
tween an active teaching method and the training to achieve an entrepreneurial
spirit. The project activity at EC Lille is a central activity in the curriculum (300
hours per student). The students’ interviews have shown that this teaching
method, which applies to groups, was seen by the students as the best to encour-
age an entrepreneurial spirit. The intention to become an entrepreneur, when
the time has come for the person to make that decision, has appeared to be in-
fuenced by two major experiences: (1) in the course of the project activity the
202 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
student discovers his or her ability to lead a group, which is an essential asset
for a would-be entrepreneur; (2) through the project activity the student discov-
ers product, market and customer opportunities which drive him or her to reveal
– and confrm to him or herself – his or her ability to create, decide and develop
a social network.
In the light of these theoretical elements and of our frst qualitative research,
we produce several hypotheses regarding the selection of courses and the learn-
ing style which are typical for the students with an entrepreneurial spirit.
H5. The students with an entrepreneurial spirit reveal more varied choices
regarding the available courses than others. They prefer non-technological
courses.
H6. The students choose active teaching activities, such as project or place-
ments, as opposed to lectures.
Beyond the learning styles which rely on variables of a socio-cognitive type,
Gibb (1993) supposes that an entrepreneurial spirit builds up within a specifc
environment. More precisely, he evokes a culture with which all actors (lecturers,
students, career advisers, various partners) support the setting-up of businesses
and entrepreneurs. Likewise, in his study about entrepreneurial engineers, Fay-
olle (2001) also mentions that the college’s own culture is a factor to be taken
into account when considering the decision to set up a business. A study carried
out among Quebec management college students estimates the impact of the
choice of courses (business plan or feld study) on the desirability and feasibility
of an entrepreneurial career (Audet, 2002). In our preliminary research, the
students who have decided to join the Business Setting-up Master Course appear
to see the college’s culture as rather favourable to entrepreneurship.
In a similar feld, Curran and Stanworth (1989) put forward an aspect which
we feel to be of some importance in the training leading to the choice of a career:
the ‘affective socialization element’ conditioning ‘the inculcation of attitudes,
values, psychological mind sets and strategies necessary for the subsequent
taking on of the occupational role in question’. In our qualitative research, we
have been able to observe the infuence of a group on the decision to go into the
business setting-up process. Some students who had not revealed any predisposi-
tion at frst sight, eventually turned towards the setting-up of a business,
following the leader of their project work team.
Relying on these two results and of our frst research, we provide several hy-
potheses regarding the part played by the students’ environments in the
building-up of an entrepreneurial spirit:
H7. The students with an entrepreneurial spirit see the college’s culture as
favourable to entrepreneurship.
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 203
H8. The students with an entrepreneurial spirit belong to a group of close
friends who are favourable to entrepreneurship.
Thus, the part played by teaching methods is an action variable which our
questionnaire will test at two levels:
1. On the one hand, it will test the students’ perception of the interest and
contribution of the various teaching methods provided by the college.
2. On the other hand, the updating of the questionnaire every three years will
make it possible to identify the impact of the various types of teaching
provided by the college as regards entrepreneurial projections, skills and
attitudes. It is then possible to put forward the hypothesis of an evolution
of the management of the college curriculum that would be more or less
favourable to the development of an entrepreneurial model internalized by
students.
To sum up, Figure 11.3 presents the different factors that can infuence the
building-up of an entrepreneurial spirit.
The model in Figure 11.3 is an exploratory model that points out the different
elements that interact in the building up of the entrepreneurial spirit. The way
it can be tested and how it can lead to more precise explanation models needs
some methodological explanations.
Figure 11.3 Exploratory model of the entrepreneurial spirit
First professional
experience
Entrepreneurial professional projections
Precursory behaviours: taking responsibilities
Identify projection as an engineer-entrepreneur
Intention to set up a business
First steps towards entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial abilities
Entrepreneurial attitudes
Entrepreneurial beliefs
Entrepreneurial competence feelings
Setting up a
business?
Infuential factors during college
Choice of varied and non-technical optional courses
Preference for active pedagogy
College culture favourable to entrepreneurship
Group of friends favourable to entrepreneurship
Personal past
Parents entrepreneurs or not
Feelings towards parent’s career
Entrepreneurial social background
204 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
In the methodological issues, there are four different levels:
1. The balance between quantitative data and qualitative data.
2. The creation of a questionnaire that can encompass reliable quantitative
data on the relevant dimensions in the context of students’ life.
3. The administration of the questionnaire to obtain reliable longitudinal
data.
4. The different steps and statistical procedures we are using to test the links
between a tremendous amount of variables.
A Balance between Qualitative and Quantitative Data
The frst approach of our research was qualitative (Verzat et al., 2002; Frugier
et al., 2003). We wanted to explore the students’ attitudes, representations and
beliefs towards entrepreneurship and their links with the family-social and edu-
cational trajectory of the students.
We did two hours, semi-directive interviews with 11 engineering students at
different stages in our curriculum. Some of them had been taking the entrepre-
neurial course and others had not. These gave us two major results (Bachelet et
al., 2004):
1. A frst modelling of the building up of the professional project of our engi-
neering students, showing three major dimensions: the professional
projection related to specifc values and beliefs, on the one hand, and knowl-
edge and skills on the other. All these dimensions were gradually internalized
and confrmed through signifcant experiences at four stages of the student’s
path: infuence of his or her family environment, secondary school, ‘classe
preparatoire’ stage (= two frst years of college in France before taking the
elitist ‘concours’), and college years at the French High School.
2. The identifcation of three different types of attitudes and projections to-
wards entrepreneurship:
(a) Type 1: the determined entrepreneur = older students who have chosen
to take the entrepreneurial course in their third year to prepare setting
up their business after school. Their intention to create had been
awakened during the project experience at school, where they took a
leading role, and stems from deep values inherited from their family
environment; but the parents or close family are not necessarily en-
trepreneurs themselves.
(b) Type 2: the potential entrepreneur = young students who declare their
intention to set up a business at some time but have not taken any step
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 205
in that direction so far. For the time being they do not see themselves
in a project leader’s position but they are ready to take on risks in an
associate’s position. They reveal entrepreneurial abilities (autonomy,
taking initiatives) but need either an opportunity to go forward or more
information on business creation.
(c) Type 3: the students (at any stage of the curriculum) who are not in-
terested in entrepreneurship: they declare no intention to create a
business, they consider it too complicated and risky. They seek secu-
rity for their future career.
These data were very interesting but could not decide on the cause–effect re-
lationships between factors and the diversity of trajectories could not be
combined in clear actionable paths. This is the reason why we launched a large
study of full intakes of students to obtain quantitative longitudinal data so as
to explore more systematically these complex relationships between factors
and trajectories.
When we drew conclusions about types of spirits or trajectories, we also
planned to come back to interview ‘typical’ students to complete our under-
standing. Indeed, our questionnaire involves a question at the end to ask the
student if he or she will take part in a future interview.
Another major issue is to go beyond the vision that entrepreneurial spirit is
a result of an individual process. As matter of fact, the experiences of several
engineering students of our school really setting up businesses show a major
infuence of group dynamics within students’ project teams. To study this lead,
we chose specifc methodological options:
l For quantitative data, we added specifc questions in our questionnaire
about how teamwork was carried out (roles and attitudes in the group,
motivation and satisfaction). But we also included the means to analyse
questionnaire data at group level, not just at individual level.
l As to qualitative data collection, individual interviews are not the best way
to study a group process. Instead we need to use another methodology,
namely, focus groups (Morgan, 1998; Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990).
The Creation of the Questionnaire
Different types of data needed to be gathered, as we have seen in the exploratory
model. How were they transformed into a valid questionnaire? We followed the
classical procedure (Churchill, 1979):
1. Defnition of the concept (entrepreneurial spirit), its dimensions and ac-
tionable factors (intention, projections, attitudes, self-effcacy, social
206 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
background, pedagogy and so on) based on the literature and the related
hypotheses.
2. Defnition of each variable and of indicators for each variable.
3. Choice of number and nature of questions related to each construct (see
below for details) and elaboration of questions for each variable. This was
done in teamwork with two students and three researchers in entrepreneur-
ship and psychology. The student’s help was important to imagine the kind
of situations that were relevant in the students’ life.
4. Test of those questions on paper with 50 students: observation of students
flling in the form and discussion afterwards between the researchers and
the students who had taken part about the questions that had not been
understood.
5. Conclusions on the version of the questionnaire to be launched for the
complete intake (200 students).
A specifc problem we had to face concerned the type and nature of questions
to investigate such personal and social factors.
On a large number of constructs, we decided to associate self-evaluation
questions on opinions (answers on a Likert scale) and biodata questions to in-
vestigate historical, objective and verifable features (Mael, 1991). The following
example of the self-effcacy ‘capacity to build on opportunities’ explains the
different kinds of questions using the two techniques. These are some of the
questions we asked:
– If somebody offers me an unexpected but attractive project, I take the opportunity
immediately and think it over afterwards, I:
l totally agree
l slightly agree
l slightly disagree
l totally disagree.
– One of my father’s friends came to dinner at home in the last six months. His ac-
tivity branch interests me for a potential traineeship.
l I seized the opportunity to talk about my traineeship and make an
appointment.
l The next day I asked my father to talk to him about my traineeship.
l I waited for another occasion to meet him.
The Administration of the Questionnaire
The 180 questions-long questionnaire has been launched through Computer
Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) for frst-, second- and third-year students
at Ecole Centrale de Lille (200–250 students per year), for frst-year students
at ITEEM (Institut Technologique Européen d’Entrepreneuriat et de Manage-
ment) (50 students) and at Ecole Centrale de Paris (450 frst-year students).
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 207
The same questions (except those not expected to change, like the person’s
past for example) are asked of the same students during each year of their cur-
riculum so as to explore what has evolved or not. After three years of completing
this questionnaire at the different stages of the curriculum, we will be able to
analyse the individual and collective evolutions and link them to factors at
college.
The Statistical Procedures
At frst, we used classical correlation analysis and data mining to single out
variables which were linked. To try to build a typology of students or of their
evolution, factorial component analysis was implemented on selected items.
In the near future, more sophisticated techniques will be used:
l odd-ratios and log-linear analysis to separate the impact of different vari-
ables (and eliminate the effect of factors education cannot act upon, like
family background)
l structural equations to try to confrm or disconfrm more complex models,
like Ajzen’s.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
In this section, we show preliminary results that were obtained in 2003–04 for
the three then current intakes at Ecole Centrale de Lille:
l 197 frst-year students (= third year of higher education because French
students take an examination to enter the Grandes Ecoles after two years
of classes préparatoires), who represent 81 per cent of the intake.
l 200 second year students (= fourth year of higher education) who repre-
sent 81 per cent of the intake.
l 125 third year students (= ffth year of higher education). who represent
73 per cent of the present intake (since many students go abroad for this
last year of their curriculum).
At this stage, the results we can show cover only the projective dimensions of
the students’ representation of the engineer, the professional activities envi-
sioned by engineering students, the kind of career they imagine and their
intention to set up a business. The main conclusions we can draw at this stage
are detailed below.
208 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 11.3 Students’ vision of the engineer
First-year students’ vision of the
engineer
Third-year students’ vision of the
engineer
Mastering technical knowledge only
= 15%
Mastering technical knowledge +
management role = 68%
Management role only = 17%
Mastering technical knowledge only
= 12%
Mastering technical knowledge +
management role = 58%
Management role only = 24%
Table 11.4 Students’ preferences for their professional role
First-year students’ preferences for
their professional role
Third-year students’ preferences for
their professional role
Team manager (hierarchical role) =
41%
Project manager = 35%
Technical expert = 24%
Team manager (hierarchical role) =
30%
Project manager = 48%
Technical expert = 21%
The Student’s Vision of the French Engineer is a Manager with a
Privileged Status, the Technical Dimension is Dominant but Not
Necessary
Unsurprisingly, the identity projection of French engineering students of
Grandes Ecoles is linked to the historical fgure of the engineer as a member of
the elite. For most students, the engineer evokes a privileged status (87–90 per
cent in the different intakes). Among all other questions about what being an
engineer evokes, this is the dominant feature.
The mastering of technical knowledge is also a very important feature, but,
as Table 11.3 shows, it is not as important as the management role, although it
usually goes together. It seems that the managerial aspect of the engineer in-
creases each year (this will be confrmed in the longitudinal analysis with the
same students).
Asked about the kind of role they would prefer for their future job, the stu-
dents detail what they understand by the managerial dimension: project
management, gains as opposed to the classical hierarchical role of the manager,
popularity during the studies. We suggest that this may be infuenced by their
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 209
experience of project activity during the frst two years of the curriculum at
Ecole Centrale de Lille. Most of them love this experience of teamwork, which
gives them a clearer vision of daily work in design engineering. Compare this
with other colleges/universities where there is no such pedagogy (Table 11.4).
But these visions are built up very progressively. Indeed, the building up of
the professional project is a lengthy process.
The Elaboration of the Engineer’s Professional Project is a Long Process
Few students have a precise project when entering college. Sixty-seven per cent
declare they have no precise idea about their future job. In the third year, 34 per
cent still remain in this position, even though they will have to choose a job a
few months later. We believe this is partly due to the specifcity of generalist
engineering studies. In Ecole Centrale de Lille, the students have the opportunity
to acquire technical knowledge in all felds of engineering disciplines (from
electronics to mechanics, automatics, chemical engineering, civil engineering
and so on) and this leads to many possible jobs. The students who choose that
kind of Grandes Ecoles do so mainly because in France it offers more prestige
and broader job opportunities, but also because it delays the choice of a profes-
sional speciality. As such they choose to make no choice yet and thus keep all
opportunities open.
However, as they advance in the curriculum, student’s choice of career be-
comes progressively more precise. Table 11.5 shows the progression in what
the students think of doing when the time comes to leave college.
Most students want to occupy managerial positions in technical felds. An-
other group will choose to become management executives in non-technical
Table 11.5 Expected occupation after leaving college
What frst-year students think they
will probably do when leaving
college
What third-year students think they
will probably do when leaving
college
R&D executive = 23%
Technical executive = 15%
Business or fnance executive = 11%
Sales or marketing executive = 6%
Entrepreneur = 8%
Other studies = 11%
No idea = 26%
R&D executive = 22%
Technical executive = 25%
Business or fnance executive = 10%
Sales or marketing executive = 4%
Entrepreneur = 5%
Other studies = 20%
No idea = 14%
210 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
felds, and many students want to go into further studies, which can be inter-
preted in two ways: either as a way of delaying a choice of profession a bit
longer or to acquire more knowledge in specifc felds (often in management),
which is often appreciated in French engineers’ curricula.
Some students still have no idea, which means they rely very much on op-
portunities in their job search. But what is more striking for our subject is the
case of potential entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is the Minority’s Choice but it can be Infuenced by
College Experience
Entrepreneurship might appear as a potentially attractive job opportunity for a
few frst-year students (8 per cent), but this is less the case for third-year students
(5 per cent).
The standard career model of French engineers is still to stay in the same
frm: 55 per cent for frst-year students and 53 per cent of third-year students
envisage such a career. In the frst year the remaining students either think of
changing regularly (21 per cent) or build up their own evolution by setting up
a business or being independent (24 per cent). But in the third year only 14 per
cent still envisage building up their evolution, whereas 32 per cent think of
changing regularly.
In fact, when we ask further questions about what they think of doing after
a few years in their frst job, the majority (46 per cent) give an opportunistic
answer (‘I will see later’). The other more precise answers (‘I envisage staying
in the same frm’/‘I think of going into another frm’/‘I think of setting up my
own business’) are much less attractive. The last possibility (setting up a busi-
ness) attracts only 7.5 per cent of frst-year students and 6.4 per cent of third-year
students.
All these fgures tend to confrm many studies about potential entrepreneurs:
the longer the studies, the less attractive entrepreneurship appears because many
other and less risky job opportunities show up. This hypothesis needs confrma-
tion with longitudinal analysis for the same students.
However, it could also indicate a ‘generation effect’ between the two intakes,
suggesting that entrepreneurship is more popular now than it used to be two
years ago. Indeed, since a majority of students do not know very much about
their future job when entering college, they can be infuenced to a certain extent
by opportunities in the curriculum that offers more and more choices. In fact,
the creation of a third-year option in entrepreneurship in 2002 might have modi-
fed the perception of the attractiveness of entrepreneurship for actual frst-year
students.
However, the main fgures confrm that engineering students have a low level
of entrepreneurial intentions, and these intentions seem to decline between the
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 211
different intakes. Figure 11.4 shows the intentions to set up a business (at any
time during their career) for the three intakes.
Again, the results must be interpreted with prudence since a generation effect
might be present. This needs further examination using longitudinal data from
the same students. Apart from the very small proportion of ‘totally agree’, two
dimensions are striking in Figure 11.4. First, is the clear progression of ‘totally
disagree’, which coincides with the progressive precision of the professional
project. Second, is the stable proportion of ‘slightly agree’ which can reveal a
potential for entrepreneurs in the long term. In fact, very few engineers in France
create a business just after graduation. France is known to specialize in older
entrepreneurs (Fayolle, 2004).
So effective intentions are really low, but another interesting fgure concerns
the question on the intention to start a business with a partner. Compared with
the pessimistic vision shown above, this question paints a very different picture,
as Figure 11.5 shows.
At this stage of analysis the surprising result in Figure 11.5 is diffcult to in-
terpret with certainty. But we formulate the hypothesis that project work
experience during engineering studies has an infuence on student’s perception
of their future career and jobs attractiveness. Qualitative interviews with students’
teams show that when this project work experience is successful, many students
of the same group choose the same job or curriculum orientation, or engage on
management responsibilities in students’ societies. And, in our experience,
among students who effectively set up businesses at the end of their curriculum
at college, a signifcant share did it in teams that originated in the project activity
at Centrale. A further exploration of more precise intentions of common groups
of students will be proposed in the near future, to test this hypothesis.
Figure 11.4 Engineering students’ intentions to set up a business
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1st year 2nd year 3rd year
Totally disagree
Slightly disagree
Slightly agree
Totally agree
212 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
CONCLUSIONS
A number of papers study the intention of setting up a business. The choice we
made in this research was to fnd out what happens before this intention, during
undergraduate and postgraduate engineering studies. Indeed, the genesis of the
entrepreneurial spirit starts very early in life, but we posit that the university
years are decisive. We also posit two other things:
1. There is more to entrepreneurship than business creation since this can oc-
cur late in a career. Entrepreneurial spirit and behaviour can show up early
in other ways, like taking initiatives in students’ unions and simply having
certain attitudes towards studies and students’ life.
2. Beyond well-explored factors like the personality of the entrepreneur,
business opportunities, and so on, other variables must be studied: col-
lege/university culture, professional identity as an engineer, attraction for
certain courses of pedagogies within the curriculum and so on.
That is why we decided to defne and explore the concept of entrepreneurial
spirit, studying how university years affect the individual.
Our preliminary results about the projections students make about their career
and professional identity unsurprisingly show that entrepreneurial orientation
is weak in engineering students in the French context of Grandes Ecoles. But
we also see that the professional identity is progressively built up and there
Figure 11.5 Engineering students’ intentions to set up a business with
somebody they trust: ‘if somebody I trust proposes me, I am
ready to start up a business with him’
Totally disagree
Slightly disagree
Slightly agree
Totally agree
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1st year 3rd year
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 213
might be some ways to infuence this progression towards entrepreneurship.
The choices the students make in the curriculum and the experience they gain
from teamwork could infuence them a great deal.
This has some practical implications for entrepreneurship education:
1. We point out the importance of group dynamics during the curriculum. This
is an issue we will explore in the future. Setting up these project activities
is probably a major factor for developing entrepreneurial spirit. But we need
to know precisely under which conditions such a dynamic can appear. As
far as we have seen on a qualitative basis, stimulating characteristics of
such projects could be innovation objectives, real stakes (market and cus-
tomer) and signifcant weight in the curriculum in terms of available
resources (time, consultant teachers and so on).
2. Another important practical implication for entrepreneurship education
concerns the evaluation of pre-entrepreneurship education. The current
tendency in entrepreneurship education evaluation is to measure differences
in students’ intentions to set up a business. Other actionable dimensions,
like choices in the curriculum could be also measured. The longitudinal
analysis of our questionnaire will probably help us to defne such interesting
variables that occur before the intention to set up a business.
On the methodological level our research offers new perspectives in entrepre-
neurship education research:
1. To measure more than a difference in intentions, specifc methodologies
must be used: questionnaires with a wide range of dimensions tested, as-
sociation of opinion/self-evaluation and biodata questions, longitudinal
studies to follow the life path of students.
2. We also see that entrepreneurial spirit is not only to be studied at the indi-
vidual level, nor at the cultural level, but also in the group dynamic. This
needs a specifc statistical analysis of the questionnaires (group analysis),
and qualitative focus groups methodologies might also be of use to refne
our results.
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I. (1991), ‘The theory of planned behavior’, Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.
Ajzen, I. (2002), ‘Perceived behavioural control, self-effcacy, locus of control and the
theory of planned behaviour’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1–20.
Albert, P. and S. Marion (1997), ‘Ouvrir l’enseignement à l’esprit d’entreprendre’, Les
Echos, 19–20 septembre.
214 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Aldrich, H., B. Rosen and W. Woodward (1987), ‘The impact of social networks on
business founding and proft: a longitudinal study’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship
Research, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Audet, J. (2002), ‘A longitudinal study of the entrepreneurial intentions of university
students’, in Cahiers de la recherché de LINRPME, Université Québec Trois Rivières,
juin.
Autio, E., R.H. Keeley, M. Klofsten and T. Ulfstedt (1997), ‘Entrepreneurial intent among
students: testing an intent model in Asia, Scandinavia, and USA’, Frontiers of Entre-
preneurship Research, 133–47.
Bachelet, R., C. Verzat, D. Frugier and A. Hannachi (2004), ‘Mesurer l’esprit
d’entreprendre des élèves ingénieurs’, Actes du 3ème congrès de l’académie de
l’entrepreneuriat ‘Itinéraires d’entrepreneurs’, Lyon, 31 mars–1er avril.
Bandura, A. (1982), ‘Self effcacy mechanism in human agency’, American Psychologist,
37 (2), 122–47.
Baum, J.R. (1995), ‘The relation of traits, competencies, motivation, strategy and struc-
ture to venture growth’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley, MA:
Babson College.
Baumol, W.J. (1993), Entrepreneurship, Management, and the Structure of Payoffs,
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Macmillan.
Bouffartigue, P. (1994), ‘Ingénieur débutant à l’épreuve du modèle de carrière: trajectoire
de socialisation et entrée dans la vie professionnelle’, Revue Française de Sociologie,
35 (1), 69–100.
Braukhaus, R.H. (1982), ‘The psychologie of the entrepreneur’, in S. Cromie (2000),
‘Assessing entrepreneurial inclinations: some approaches and empirical evidence’,
European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1), 7–30.
Carter, N., W.B. Gartner and P.D. Reynolds (1995), ‘Exploring start-up events sequenc-
es’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley, MA: Babson Collge,
pp. 118–33.
Chandler, G.N. and E. Jansen (1992), ‘The founder’s self-assessed competence and
venture performance’, Journal of Business Venturing, 7, 223–36.
Churchill, G.A. (1979), ‘A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing con-
structs’, Journal of Marketing Research, 16 (1), 64–73.
Craid, S. (1990), ‘What does it mean to be entrepreneurial?’, British Journal of Manage-
ment, 1, 137–45.
Craid, S. (1991), ‘The entrepreneurial tendency of occupational groups’, International
Small Business Journal, 9, 75–81.
Cromie, S. (1987), ‘Motivations of aspiring male and female entrepreneurs’, Journal of
Organisational Behaviour, 8, 251–61.
Cromie, S. (2000), ‘Assessing entrepreneurial inclinations: some approaches and empiri-
cal evidence’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1),
7–30.
Curran, J. and J. Stanworth (1989), ‘Education and training for enterprise: some problems
of classifcation, evaluation, policy and research’, International Small Business Jour-
nal, 7 (2), January/March, 11–15.
Deeks, J. (1976), The Small Firm Owner-manager: Entrepreneurial Behaviour and
Management Practices, New York: Praeger.
Dubar, C. (1991), La socialisation et la construction des identités sociales et profession-
nelles, Paris : Armand Colin.
Fayolle, A. (1994), ‘La trajectoire de l’ingénieur entrepreneur’, Revue Française de
Gestion, novembre-décembre no. 101, 113–25.
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 215
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘Exploratory study to assess the effects of entrepreneurship programs
on French students’ entrepreneurial behaviours’, Journal of Entrepreneurial Culture,
8 (2), June, 169–85.
Fayolle, A. (2001), ‘D’une approche typologique de l’entrepreneuriat chez les ingénieurs
à la reconstruction d’itinéraires d’ingénieurs entrepreneurs’, Revue de l’entrepre-
neuriat, 1 (1), 77–98.
Fayolle, A. (2002), ‘Du champ de l’entrepreneuriat à l’étude du processus entrepreneurial
quelques idées et pistes de recherche’, 6th congrès international Francophones sur la
PME, October HEC, Montréal.
Fayolle, A. (2004), Entrepreneur: Apprendre à Entreprendre, Paris: Dunod.
Fonrouge, C. (2002), ‘Les recherches en entrepreneuriat: problématiques processuelles
et transversales’, in 2
ème
congrès de l’entrepreneuriat, Champs de l’entrepreneuriat et
dynamique des sociétés, Bordeaux, 17–18 April.
Frugier, D., C. Verzat, R. Bachelet and A. Hannachi (2003), ‘Helping engineers to be-
come entrepreneurs. Attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, skills: what are the educational
factors in their entrepreneurial spirit?’, paper presented at IntEnt Internationalizing
Entrepreneurship Education and Training Conference, Grenoble, France, 8–10
September.
Garavan, T.N. and B. O’Cinneide (1994), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training
programmes: a review and evaluation, part 1’, Journal of Industrial Training, 18 (8),
3–12.
Gartner, W.B. (1985), ‘A conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new
venture creation’, Academy of Management Review, 10, 696–706.
Gartner, W.B. (1988), ‘Who is an entrepreneur? is the wrong question’, American Small
Business Journal, 13 (Spring), 11–32.
Gibb, A.A. (1993), ‘Enterprise culture and education: understanding enterprise education
and its links with small business Entrepreneurships and Wider Educational Goals’,
International Small Business Management Journal, 11 (3), 11–34.
Ginzberg, E., S. Ginsburg, S. Axelrad and J. Herma (1951), ‘De l’imaginaire au réalisme’
in J. Guichard and M. Huteau (2001), Psychologie de l’orientation, Paris: Éditions
Dunod, pp. 122–5.
Gorman, G., D. Hanlon and K. Wayne (1997) ‘Some research perspectives on entrepre-
neurship education, enterprise education and education for small business manage-
ment: a ten-year literature review’, International Small Business Journal, April/June,
56–77.
Gottfredson, L.S. (1981 [1996]), ‘La carte cognitive des professions, la circonscription
et le compromis’, in J. Guichard and M. Huteau (2001), Psychologie de l’orientation,
Paris: Éditions Dunod, pp. 141–52.
Guichard, J. and M. Huteau (2001), Psychologie de l’orientation, Paris : Éditions
Dunod.
Hambrick, D.C. and L.M. Crozier (1985), ‘Stumbles and stars in the management of
rapid growth’, Journal of Business Venturing, 1, 31–45.
Hartshorn, C. and P. Hannon (2002), ‘Paradoxes in entrepreneurship education: chalk
and talk or talk and cheese?’, paper presented at the 25th ISBA National Small Firms
Conference, ‘Competing perspectives of Small Business and Entrepreneurship’,
Brighton, 1–19 November.
Herron, L.A. (1990), ‘The effects of characteristics of entrepreneur on new venture per-
formance’, thesis, University of South California.
Hoffer, C.W. and W.R. Sandberg (1987), ‘Improving new performance: some guidelines
for success’, American Journal of Small Business, 11, 11–25.
216 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Hynes, B. (1996), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training: introducing entrepreneurship
into non-business disciplines’, Journal of European Industrial Training, 20 (8),
8–10.
Koh, H.C. (1996), ‘Testing hypotheses of entrepreneurial characteristics: a study of Hong
Kong MBA students’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 11 (3), 12–25.
Krueger, N.F. and A.L. Carsrud (1993), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions: applying the theory
of planned behaviour’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 5, 315–30.
Léger-Jarniou, C. (2001), ‘La création d’entreprise par les jeunes: mythes ou réalités?’,
7
ème
séminaire annuel de la direction des statistiques d’entreprise de l’INSEE, 6
décembre.
Leitch, C.M. and R.T. Harrison (1999), ‘A process model for entrepreneurship education
and development’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research,
5 (3), 8–10.
Lorrain, J., Belley, A. and L. Dussault (1998), ‘Les compétences des entrepreneurs:
élaboration et validation d’un questionnaire QCE’, in congrès international francoph-
one sur la PME, Nancy, 22–24 octobre.
McClelland, D. (1961), The Achieving Society, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
MacMullan, W.E. and W.A. Long (1983), ‘An approach to educating entrepreneurs’, The
Canadian Journal of Business, 4 (1), 6–32.
Mael, F.A. (1991), ‘A conceptual rationale for the domain and attributes of biodata items’,
Personnel Psychology, 44, 763–92.
Milton, D.G. (1989), ‘The complete entrepreneur’, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Prac-
tice, 13, 9–19.
Morgan, D.L. (1998), The Focus Group Guidebook, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publica-
tions, The Focus Group Kit vol. 1.
Neunreuther, B. (1979), ‘Peut on enseigner l’attitude entrepreneuriale?’, Enseignement
et Gestion, nouvelle series no. 11, 7–13.
Peterman, N.E. and J. Kennedy (2003), ‘Enterprise education: infuencing students per-
ceptions of entrepreneurship’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 28 (2),
129–44.
Rae, D. and M. Carswell (2000), ‘Using a life-story approach in researching entrepre-
neurial learning: the development of a conceptual model and its implication in the
design of learning experiences’, Education and Training, 42(4/5), 220–28(9).
Rotter, J.B. (1966), ‘Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of re-
inforcement’, in Psychological Monographs, 80 (1, Whole No. 609).
Sexton, D.L. and N.B. Bowman (1984), ‘Entrepreneurship education suggestions for
increasing effectiveness’, Journal of Small Business Management, 22 (2), April,
18–25.
Shapero, A. and L. Sokol (1982), ‘The social dimensions of entrepreneurship’, in C.A.
Kent, D.L. Sexton and K.H. Vesper (eds), Encyclopedie of Entrepreneurship, Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 72–90.
Stevenson, H.H. and J.C. Jarillo (1990), ‘A paradigm of entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial
management’, Strategic Management Journal, 11, 17–27.
Stewart, W. and P.N. Shamdasani (1990), Focus Group Theory and Practice, London:
Sage Publications.
Tounès, A. (2003), ‘L’intention entrepreneuriale’, thèse de doctorat ès science de gestion,
université de Rouen.
Verzat, C., S. Quenehen, R. Bachelet, D. Frugier and Y. Giry (2002), ‘Developing entre-
preneurship among students in colleges of engineering’, paper presented at
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 217
‘Entrepreneurship in Europe: Specifcities and Perspectives’, Summer University,
ESISAR, 19–22 September.
Vesper, K.H. (1990), New venture strategies 2nd edn, Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Wang, C.K., P.K. Wong and Q. Lu (2001), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions and tertiary educa-
tion’, paper presented at conference on Technological Entrepreneurship in the
Emerging Regions of the New Millennium, Singapore, 28–30 June.
218
12. Undergraduate students as a source of
potential entrepreneurs: a comparative
study between Italy and Argentina
Sergio Postigo, Donato Iacobucci and
María Fernanda Tamborini
INTRODUCTION
Business creation and the encouragement of an entrepreneurial culture have
become fundamental topics on the agenda of politicians, economists and aca-
demics in all countries. This interest is based on existing evidence that new
businesses contribute to job creation, political and social stability, innovation
and economic development (OECD, 1998; Reynolds et al., 2000; 2002; Schum-
peter, 1934; Wennekers and Thurik, 1999: 27).
Different samples including Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries over different time periods have attained con-
sistent results; increases in entrepreneurial activity tend to result in subsequent
higher growth rates and in a reduction of unemployment (Audretsch and Thurik,
2001).
However the sources of economic growth in today’s world are very different
from those of the past (OECD, 2000). In this context, where innovation and
knowledge are the main sources for growth and economic development, new
frms play a critical role as generators of innovation. There is also a growing
consensus that in the knowledge and information society education is one of
the key variables for the emergence of new ventures and their development
prospects (Kantis et al., 2002b).
The relationship between education and entrepreneurship has been examined
at length in different studies.
1
Some of these have found a positive relationship
between individuals’ educational level and their probability of becoming entre-
preneurs (Cowling and Taylor, 2001: 167; Delmar and Davidsson, 2000: 1; Gill,
1988: 229; Karcher, 1998; Lafuente and Salas, 1989: 17; Rees and Shah, 1986;
Robinson and Sexton, 1994: 141).
2
Another group of studies analyses types of entrepreneurs such as those who
are technology based and have a relatively high level of education (Colombo
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 219
and Delmastro, 2001: 177; Litvak and Maule, 1976: 31). There are also several
surveys designed to evaluate the impact of entrepreneurial university courses
and the characteristics of the businesses started up by graduate entrepreneurs
(Charney and Libecap, 2000; Clark et al., 1984: 26; Kolvereid and Moen, 1997:
154; Levie et al., 2001; Lüthje and Franke, 2002; Tackey et al., 1999; Upton et
al., 1995).
The increasing interest in the relationship between entrepreneurs’ education,
their businesses and their prospects of success is evidence of the growing im-
portance of graduates and undergraduates as a source of potential entrepreneurs,
especially in the emergence of new knowledge and technology-based frms.
Veciana (2002), states that education will be increasingly needed for the creation
of new ventures and emphasizes that empirical evidence shows a positive rela-
tionship between formal education and venture success.
3
Veciana also explains that the failure rate for new frms started up by individu-
als with low levels of education is almost 80 per cent, while the failure rate for
ventures started up by graduates is well under 20 per cent. In addition he points
out that there is an imminent need for entrepreneurship programmes as an in-
dependent feld of teaching and researching, and a requirement for promoting
entrepreneurial culture inside academic institutions.
Other authors, such as Kourilsky (1995), state that the economic growth of
countries will hinge on the ability to create new jobs through entrepreneurship.
Effective initiatives in entrepreneurship education will be increasingly critical
for expanding the fow of potential entrepreneurs from the educational
system.
According to Laukkanen (2000), the introduction of entrepreneurial education
at an undergraduate level can be thought of as the strategic response of universi-
ties and business schools to the recent more demanding environment and the
ongoing evolution of societies that make entrepreneurial capabilities and action
increasingly useful, even necessary.
In this context many universities have recognized the signifcance of this
phenomenon and have included in their curricula contents initiatives to promote
entrepreneurship as a legitimate career option and to encourage closer relation-
ships with the productive sector.
Several authors have analysed the extraordinary increase in the quantity and
importance of entrepreneurship programmes over the past 25 years (Fayolle,
1998; Finkle and Deeds, 2001; Kolvereid and Moen, 1997; Lüthje and Franke,
2002; Vesper and Gartner, 1997).
4
In recent years even some governments have
been developing programmes and initiatives orientated to promoting entrepre-
neurship potential through universities and research institutes.
5
Business creation by university graduates is particularly crucial in emerging
countries like Argentina because the industrial structure is based on traditional
frms with relatively low or moderate technological content. Such frms do not
220 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
play a signifcant role as ‘incubators’ for dynamic new entrepreneurs (Kantis et
al., 2002b).
A recent study of business creation in Latin America has shown that 50 per
cent of the most dynamic frms were created by university graduates (Kantis et
al., 2002a). Therefore there exists a need for signifcant changes in the education
system in order to produce a change in the culture and values necessary to
stimulate entrepreneurship (Postigo and Tamborini, 2002; 2003).
Traditionally the Argentinian educational system did not promote or motivate
the skills necessary for developing entrepreneurs. Students were not shaped with
an entrepreneurial attitude because education and social aspiration were mainly
orientated to working in large corporations. In the past decade this trend has
started to reverse, presenting changes in the university education system. One
sign is the increased interest in entrepreneurship within the educational system
and society in general. Moreover in the context of high unemployment and
economic recession, individuals and institutions consider encouraging entre-
preneurship as a vital answer to the crisis.
6
In the past ten years there has been a progressive increase in courses, chairs,
incubators and other activities orientated to promoting entrepreneurship in the
USA. Currently, in Argentina, around 33 per cent of public institutions and 25
per cent of private ones are engaged in some kind of activity concerning this
subject, but these initiatives are still geographically concentrated. The major
obstacles to these initiatives are rigid curricula, lack of funding and diffculty
in fnding academics specializing in this feld (Postigo and Tamborini, 2003).
A characteristic feature of the Argentina case is that the emergence of entre-
preneurship programmes within universities is not a response to a specifc
government policy. Although general economic conditions in Italy are quite
different from those in Argentina, Italy faces similar problems concerning en-
trepreneurship development and education. According to several surveys, Italy
has one of the highest frm birth rates in European countries (Reynolds et al.,
2000).
Since small and medium-sized frms (SMEs) play an important role as incu-
bators of new frms, this is partly the result of the large presence of SMEs in the
Italian economy. Indeed, entrepreneurial rates are particularly high in the North-
Eastern and Central (NEC) regions that are dominated by the presence of SMEs
organized in industrial districts (Garofoli, 1992: 101).
Despite the high birth rate of new frms, entrepreneurial activity in Italy faces
several problems. The majority of new frms are started by former employees,
most of whom have a technical background. These new entrepreneurs typically
show good skills in managing the production process but a low level of formal
education and little ability in other key management functions (like marketing
or fnance). This is one of the reasons why new frms, and SMEs in general,
have little aspiration and ability to grow (Accornero, 1999).
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 221
The lack of managerial competence in SMEs is partly compensated by their
belonging to networks of frms or industrial districts. These districts are mostly
concentrated in traditional sectors (like textiles and clothing, footwear, furniture,
ceramics and so on). As the majority of new frms develop from existing ones,
they normally belong to the same sector of activity. Adding to this, there is
growing concern in Italy that frms in these sectors will experience increasing
competitive pressure from emerging countries.
It is widely acknowledged, therefore, that in order to improve the development
prospects of SMEs it is necessary to stimulate the creation of new frms in other
sectors of activity, mainly those associated with new technologies. In this case,
entrepreneurs spinning out from universities and research centres are expected
to play a greater role than entrepreneurs spinning out from existing companies
do (Postigo and Tamborini, 2003).
Despite acknowledging the potential impact of graduate entrepreneurs, very
little has been done in Italy to favour entrepreneurial education within universi-
ties and just a few attempts have been made to create infrastructures (like
incubators) to support university spin-offs.
In the feld of entrepreneurial education the situation in Italy is rather
anomalous when compared with that of North American countries and even
with that of other European countries. In the past 25 years there has been an
explosion of interest in the USA for the entrepreneurship feld which has re-
sulted in the institution of courses, research centres and degrees at
undergraduate and graduate levels (Katz, 2003; Solomon et al., 2002; Vesper
and Gartner, 1997).
In 1997 there were 160 permanent entrepreneurship chairs in the USA, a clear
indication of the fact that it was considered a separate discipline. The majority
of European countries have followed the same trend, though with some delay.
Entrepreneurship courses have grown in the last decades in all the main indus-
trialized countries. Moreover, a larger presence of entrepreneurial courses within
the curricula of business and engineering students has been supported by several
academic and governmental studies (Beranger et al. 1998; Department of Trade
and Industry, 1998).
In a comparison made in 1996 of the number of entrepreneurship chairs in
the main European countries, Italy, along with Denmark and Hungary, was not
far from the top of the list, with the UK holding more than 12 chairs, and France
and Finland 11. Moreover, while in most European countries the development
of entrepreneurial courses has continued to grow in the past few years, the Italian
situation has remained practically unchanged.
Given this situation there is plenty of scope in Italy for introducing entrepre-
neurial courses into university curricula. Since the main aim is to foster new
frm creation in the high-tech sector, engineering and science schools should be
the ones to primarily encourage these courses.
222 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
The main objective of this study is to analyse the opinions and attitudes of
undergraduate students concerning entrepreneurship in Argentina and Italy.
Specifcally the chapter aims at analysing the infuence of different contexts –
developed and developing countries – on:
1. The attitude towards entrepreneurship (whether and why students consider
creating their own business desirable) and the influence of social
background.
2. The perception of the impact of the social and economic environment (posi-
tive or negative factors) on business creation.
3. The image students hold about entrepreneurs.
Considering the student populations and demographic characteristics, two
groups of students, one from San Andrés University (Argentina) and the other
one from Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy) were analysed. The infor-
mation was obtained from a survey carried out between March and May 2003
on 260 students from both countries. Students from different courses, levels of
education, gender and ages were surveyed.
This chapter is organized as follows. In the next section we review the litera-
ture on the infuence of education, demographic factors, culture and role models
in infuencing perception and attitudes concerning entrepreneurship. In the third
section we describe the methodology used to collect and analyse the data. In
the fourth section we present the results of the survey and in the ffth section
we draw the main conclusions of the study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The Role of Universities in Promoting an Entrepreneurial Culture
The creation of a business is a complex process. Within the large number of
variables that can be considered, at least, three conditions are required for the
conception of a new venture: the existence of entrepreneurs, an entrepreneurial
culture and an adequate environment. Education has a fundamental role in the
frst two (Postigo and Tamborini, 2002).
Universities should promote entrepreneurial activities in partnership with their
students and the business community with the aim of encouraging self-employ-
ment as a career path as well as giving young people the basic competencies, skills
and knowledge required for the creation of a new venture. All students are poten-
tial entrepreneurs who need a university environment to foster their growth and
development. A university fulfls its duty to society and to its students by providing
a rich entrepreneurial learning experience (Ussman and Postigo, 2000).
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 223
Labour market structures are currently changing; fnishing college is no
longer a guarantee of employment. Currently, young people have to face the
uncertainty and complexities of the labour market. Universities can help reduce
unemployment by developing entrepreneurs.
In brief, entrepreneurship education can be a way to (1) legitimize entrepre-
neurship and develop an entrepreneurial culture with the purpose of fostering
economic growth, (2) develop and stimulate entrepreneurial skills, and (3) pre-
pare students for a dynamic labour market.
Culture
Hofstede (1980; 2001) defnes culture as a set of shared values, beliefs and ex-
pected behaviour. An entrepreneurial culture implies a society with a high
entrepreneurial birth rate and with an important degree of acceptance of entre-
preneurs. The cultural aspect is relevant, especially because some cultures
produce more entrepreneurs than others. Authors like Mueller and Thomas
(2000) see a relationship between values, beliefs and behaviour, and point out
that differences in culture may infuence the decision of whether or not to be-
come an entrepreneur.
Institutions are another relevant factor. They are made up of formal (laws and
regulations) and informal (behavioural rules) limitations. Institutions, according
to North (1994, 112), are ‘the humanly devised constraints that structure human
interaction’. Family, education, and political and economic systems are the in-
stitutions that defne the incentive structure for society as a whole.
Finally, the social recognition of the business career is an essential part of
culture. According to Wilken (1979), the degree of approval or disapproval of
business activity will infuence its emergence and characteristics, being favoured
by those environments in which entrepreneurs enjoy greater legitimacy. Never-
theless this does not imply that norms and values alone are enough to cause or
to inhibit the rise of entrepreneurship, but their infuence should be considered
and integrated in the context of other non-economic factors.
Role Models
Minniti and Bygrave (1999) explain that as it occurs with other human decisions,
the individual choice to become an entrepreneur is determined by the informa-
tion available to the individual. Such individuals or ‘economic agents’ are
heterogeneous and have different information, and therefore have different
perceptions about the uncertainty and costs of becoming an entrepreneur.
Randomly each individual is endowed with an initial set of characteristics
(biological and sociological). These characteristics, as well as social circum-
stances such as prospects of employment and education, infuence the attitude
224 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
of people towards entrepreneurship. Moreover role models play a fundamental
part in the determination of entrepreneurial choices. Role models can originate
from society, family, friends and other social networks.
The reasoning is as follows: those who have higher possibilities and opportuni-
ties to observe entrepreneurs directly are more likely to become entrepreneurs,
given that the perception and opportunity cost of the business activity decreases.
This is a consequence of two main factors. The frst is related to networking and
tends to decrease transaction costs. The second is that the presence of role models
increases the probability that new entrepreneurs will appear.
When an individual does not have entrepreneurial role models in his or her
family, universities via courses and teaching methods can promote an entrepre-
neurial culture.
Motivation
Gibb and Ritchie (1982) make a distinction between three critical aspects of
entrepreneurship: motivation, infuences on the decision to become an entrepre-
neur, and identifcation and validation of the business idea. Acquisition of
motivation is the result of infuences stemming from social background, family,
education, career, and so on.
Shapero (1984) presents a model that indicates the following necessary condi-
tions for the creation of a business: displacement, disposition to act, credibility
and availability of resources. Displacement means that each business action
originates from some type of displacement or change in the course of life.
It is a fact that this situation impacts on a prior condition of stability and leads
to action. The factors that cause these changes can be categorized into positive,
like a need for achievement, or negative, such as unemployment. The disposition
to act depends on certain personal characteristics of the entrepreneur, the pres-
ence of role models and of a positive environment.
In conclusion the main factors to be analysed concerning university students’
attitude towards entrepreneurship are the role of universities in fostering entre-
preneurship, the culture, the role models and motivation.
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
Data were collected through a direct interview survey conducted between March
and May 2003 on a sample of students from Universidad de San Andrés (Ar-
gentina) and from the Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy).
The Argentina sample is made up of 100 students at the Business and Eco-
nomics Schools from San Andrés University. The students mainly come from
the province of Buenos Aires where more than 30 per cent of the total popula-
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 225
Table 12.2 Students by country and gender
Argentina Italy
Number % Number %
Male 57 57.0 139 85.8
Female 43 43.0 23 14.2
Total 100 100.0 162 100.0
Table 12.1 Students by country and age (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total %
17–19 47 47 94 35.9
20–22 51 87 138 52.7
23–25 2 28 30 11.4
Total 100 162 262 100.0
tion of the country lives. It is the most prosperous region with a great deal of
industrial activity. Most students surveyed from Argentina are less than 22 years
old (Table 12.1) with a slight prevalence of males over females (Table 12.2).
The Italian sample is made up of 162 students from the School of Engineer-
ing, Ancona University. The students mainly come from the Marche region (of
which Ancona is the capital). The Marche region is a small, highly industrialized
region in central Italy. It belongs to the set of north-east-central (NEC) Italian
regions which, following the Second World War, experienced an intensive proc-
ess of industrialization mostly based on small frms concentrated in industrial
districts. Like the other NEC regions, the Marche specializes in ‘traditional’
industries (clothing, footwear, furniture).
The Italian sample is basically divided into two groups: the frst group is made
up of frst-year students on the Mechanical Engineering course. They are mostly
19 or 20 years old. The second group consists of students from several engineer-
ing courses (Mechanics, Electronics), aged between 23 and 25 (Table 12.1).
Male students dominate the Italian sample because engineering courses in Italy
are still mainly undertaken by males rather than females (Table 12.2).
Besides the differences in courses being taken by age and gender, another
important difference between the Argentinian and the Italian samples is the
students’ social background. In the Argentinian sample there is a prevalence of
students whose parents are entrepreneurs, professionals or executives, while in
226 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.3 Father’s occupation (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
Professional 15.3 16.7 16.1
Entrepreneur 37.8 7.7 19.3
Executive 24.5 15.4 18.9
Manual worker 0 12.2 7.5
Offce worker 5.1 26.3 18.1
Civil servant 4 5.1 4.7
Other* 13.3 16.7 15.4
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Note: * Includes retired people.
Table 12.4 Mother’s occupation (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
Professional 24.0 5.7 12.6
Entrepreneur 10.4 2.5 5.5
Executive 8.3 4.5 5.9
Manual worker 1.0 10.8 7.1
Offce worker 3.1 25.5 17.0
Civil servant 4.2 14.6 10.7
Other* 49.0 36.3 41.1
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Note: * Includes retired people and housewives.
the Italian sample there is a prevalence of students whose parents are offce or
manual workers (Tables 12.3 and 12.4). The Italian distribution of parents’ oc-
cupation is similar to the average in the population, while the Argentinian
sample is biased towards the higher income classes.
The survey questionnaire was organized in three sections. The frst section
collected general information about the student: age, gender, courses being
taken, work experience, parents’ occupation, and so on. The second section was
dedicated to analysing the career prospects of students, with specifc emphasis
on their intention to become entrepreneurs, that is, to start up their own frm. In
this section questions were also asked concerning the perceptions students hold
of entrepreneurs and of the obstacles and possible reasons for becoming entre-
preneurs. The third section was intended to obtain information on how students
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 227
understand the general environment with regard to facilitating or hindering
entrepreneurship.
Data analysis is based on descriptive statistics and on mean comparisons be-
tween sub-groups of students. We were specifcally interested in analysing the
role of some demographic variables in the attitudes towards entrepreneurship,
and in studying the differences between Argentinian and Italian students.
RESULTS
The discussion of results is organized in three parts: (1) career aspiration and
propensity to starting up a frm; (2) perceptions of entrepreneurs and reasons
for starting (or not starting) an entrepreneurial career; (3) environmental factors
that facilitate or hinder entrepreneurship.
Career Aspiration and Propensity to Starting up a Firm
Argentinian and Italian students show both similarities and differences when
asked about their prospective careers.
The similarities are in their possibility of becoming employees, in large as
well as in small frms or in the civil service. One-third want to enter a large frm,
while only a small percentage considers entering the public sector or a small
frm (the higher percentage of Italian students considering entering a small frm
can be explained by the large presence of SMEs in the Marche region). Students
from both countries also agree that frms no longer guarantee lifelong occupation
and so everyone should be prepared to work for more than one frm (Table
12.5).
Differences between the Italian and the Argentinian students can be observed
regarding three aspects:
l intention to do a Master’s after graduation
l propensity to work abroad for a period (true for 85 per cent of Argentini-
ans and only for 55 per cent of Italians)
l propensity to starting up a frm.
The low percentage of Italian students intending to do a Master’s after gradua-
tion is explained by two factors: the frst is that Italian universities did not offer
Master’s degrees until the last year of a student’s academic career; the second
is the good prospects for engineering students of getting a job soon after gradu-
ation. The latter aspect can probably also explain the lower percentage of Italian
students interested in working abroad. The answer to this question is apparently
more dependent on the country than on the students’ social background.
7
228 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.5 Students who agree on the following statements about their
future career (percentage)
Argentina Italy
Master or PhD 83.0 31.6
Clear idea about future job 18.2 30.2
Enter a large frm 34.0 34.8
Enter an SME 3.1 9.6
Enter the public sector 9.2 10.1
Work for more than one frm 65.0 53.2
Work abroad for a period 85.0 53.1
No plan for my career 10.2 38.8
Start up a frm soon after graduation 13.3 3.1
Start up a frm in a few years 34.3 3.8
Start up a frm after a few years of work 43.4 16.9
Start up a frm if opportunity arises 63.6 31.6
No interest in starting up a frm 0.0 11.3
Firms do not guarantee lifelong occupation 35.1 32.1
Work will not require all my intellectual capacities 28.9 40.1
The Argentinian students show a remarkably higher propensity to start up
a frm than do Italian students. The difference is particularly high in the case
of creating a new frm some years after graduation or if the opportunity arises.
It seems that Argentinian students are more eager to enter an entrepreneurial
career (although as future entrepreneurs) and more prepared to take on this
opportunity.
There are two possible reasons for this result. First, is that the high unemploy-
ment rate in Argentina has reduced the opportunity cost of self-employment.
Second, the educational system in Argentina does not provide work experience.
As a result students prefer to gain some experience in the labour market before
starting their own businesses (Table 12.6).
The high propensity of Argentinian students starting up their own frm also
emerges from the answer to whether they have ever taken into consideration the
idea of starting up a frm. While in both samples almost half of the students have
only vaguely thought about the matter, 47 per cent of Argentinian students de-
clare they have ‘serious’ intentions to do so, compared with 17 per cent of Italian
students. Among the Italian students there is also one-third who have never
thought about this possibility (Table 12.7).
The propensity to start up a frm shows a clear relationship with the social
background of students (Table 12.8). The percentage seriously thinking about
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 229
Table 12.7 Interest in starting up a new frm (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
No, never 8.0 29.2 20.6
Yes, a little 45.0 53.7 50.2
Yes, seriously 32.0 8.2 17.8
Yes, I plan to create my own frm 15.0 8.8 11.4
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Table 12.6 Firm start up (percentage of students who agree with the
following statement)
Argentina Italy
Start up a frm soon after graduation 13.3 3.1
Start up a frm in a few years 34.3 3.8
Start up a frm after a few years 43.4 16.9
Start up a frm if opportunity arises 63.6 31.6
Table 12.8 Interest in starting up a frm considering father’s occupation
(percentage)
8
No, never Yes, a little Yes* Total
Professional 17.1 53.7 29.3 100
Entrepreneur 16.3 46.9 36.7 100
Executive 11.4 52.3 36.4 100
Manual worker 35.3 58.8 5.9 100
Offce worker 31.7 43.9 24.4 100
Civil servant 30.0 50.0 20.0 100
Other 16.2 56.8 27.0 100
Total 20.1 51.0 28.9 100
Note: * Seriously thinking of creating a business or have already planned it.
it or who have already planned this career path is signifcantly higher for stu-
dents whose parents are entrepreneurs or executives, compared with students
whose parents are manual or offce workers.
230 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.9 Students whose fathers are entrepreneurs or executives by
country and interest in starting up a frm (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
No 9.8 21.9* 14.0
Yes, a little 50.8 46.9 49.5
Yes 39.3 31.3 36.6
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Note: * Includes students who do not think of starting up their own frm but who plan to enter the
family business.
If we analyse the social background of students (parents’ occupation) much
of the country difference disappears. Unfortunately, this analysis can only be
done for students whose parents are entrepreneurs or executives, because we
have just a few Argentinian students whose parents’ occupation is manual or
offce work (Table 12.9).
Overall family background seems to play a more important role in the entre-
preneurial attitude of students than general cultural variables associated with
the country. At the same time it is interesting to note that even after controlling
for social background Argentinian students show a slightly higher propensity
to start up their own frm than do their Italian counterparts.
Society’s Perception of Entrepreneurs and Reasons for Becoming
Entrepreneurs
Concerning the issue of the perception they have of entrepreneurs, Italian and
Argentinian students show similarities and differences. Overall the image of
entrepreneurs’ personal attributes is similar in both countries: students agree
that entrepreneurs are skilful people (they are dynamic, able to tolerate risks,
have good entrepreneurial vision) but have a low sense of social justice and
honesty (Table 12.10).
Students seem to think of entrepreneurs as clever people who use their skills
and abilities in ways that are not always, or completely, socially acceptable.
This homogeneity is remarkable given that the majority of Argentinian students
have entrepreneurs as parents while the majority of Italian students have em-
ployees as parents.
With regard to the differences between Argentinian and Italian students, two
issues are worth mentioning. The frst is the social and economic role of entre-
preneurs: a larger percentage of Italian students, compared with Argentinian
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 231
Table 12.10 Students who agree with the following statements (percentage)
Argentina Italy
Entrepreneurs are dynamic 95.7 95.9
Entrepreneurs have good entrepreneurial vision 79.7 93.0
Entrepreneurs are honest 41.4 31.3
Entrepreneurs have a clear sense of social justice 29.1 19.7
Entrepreneurs talk with their employees 69.9 43.4
Entrepreneurs are able to tolerate risks 88.3 86.3
Entrepreneurs are innovative 81.7 66.9
Entrepreneurs know organizations 81.9 72.9
Entrepreneurs have fnancial and management skills 70.4 74.3
Entrepreneurs are fnancial investors 75.3 98.0
Entrepreneurs are professional 55.9 46.5
Entrepreneurs earn a lot of money 40.5 86.4
Entrepreneurs contribute to economic development 80.7 91.4
Entrepreneurs create jobs 77.2 88.7
students, think that entrepreneurs create jobs and contribute to the country’s
economic development. Perhaps this difference can be attributed to the different
economic conditions in Argentina and Italy.
A higher percentage of Italian students agree that entrepreneurs earn a lot of
money. This seems to contrast with their low interest towards pursuing an en-
trepreneurial career compared with Argentinian students. This paradox is only
apparent because earning money does not represent the main reason for becom-
ing an entrepreneur.
Indeed, both Argentinian and Italian students indicate non-economic reasons
as the most important ones for starting up their own frm. It is remarkable that
the frst three reasons rank in the same order in both countries and are all related
to personal rather than economic attainment (Table 12.11).
At the same time it is worth noting that the Italian students assign more im-
portance to economic reasons than do Argentinian students. In the case of
diffculties in starting up their own frm the differences between Argentinian
and Italian students are more evident. Among the frst fve diffculties, they agree
on three items: the perception of too much risk, the lack of initial funding and
the presence of too much competition (Table 12.12).
Following these problems the Italian students also indicate the fear of being
unsuccessful and of fscal pressure, while the Argentinian students put forward
doubts about their entrepreneurial abilities and the bad prospects after retire-
ment. The differences in the importance of fscal pressure or the prospects after
232 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
retirement could be attributed to differences in the institutional situations in the
two countries. The other two items are connected to a certain extent considering
that the fear of being unsuccessful is linked with a lack of confdence in personal
capabilities.
Obstacles and Incentives for Starting up a New Firm
In both countries the majority of students think that it is more diffcult to start
up a frm now than it was in the past (Table 12.13).
The percentage that believes this is higher for Italian students. Even in this
case the difference depends on the lower percentage of Italian students coming
from entrepreneurial families (Table 12.14). Indeed, if we consider only the
students whose parents are entrepreneurs, the difference between the two coun-
tries disappears (Table 12.15). It is worth noting that, even in this case,
two-thirds of the students think that creating a frm at present is more diffcult
than it was in the past.
Except for the case of excessive competition, the obstacles perceived by stu-
dents for the start-up phase of new frms are very different in the two countries.
Table 12.11 Reasons for starting up a frm (percentage of students
indicating the reasons as important or very important)
Argentina Italy*
% Rank % Rank
To put into practice own ideas 86.0 1 71.6 1
Personal independence 80.0 2 66.0 2
To create something of one’s own 76.0 3 64.8 3
To be the head of an organization 57.0 4 34.6 6
Economic independence 47.0 5 34.7 7
To earn more than an employee 39.0 6 55.6 4
To accumulate a personal fortune 33.0 7 38.9 5
Diffculty in getting a satisfying job 32.0 8 24.7 10
Not satisfed with current job 25.0 9 14.8 12
To get a salary that corresponds to abilities 22.0 10 34.0 8
Social status 20.0 11 29.6 9
Family tradition 15.0 12 7.4 13
To invest family assets 15.0 13 15.4 11
Other 11 14 3.7 14
Note: * Answers were limited to fve items.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 233
Table 12.12 Obstacles for starting up a frm (percentage of students
indicating the obstacles as important or very important)
Argentina Italy*
% Rank % Rank
Too much risk 64.0 1 77.2 2
Lack of initial funding 60.0 2 83.3 1
Too much competition 50.0 3 59.9 4
I doubt my entrepreneurial abilities 49.0 4 30.2 6
Bad prospects after retirement 26.0 5 4.9 13
Lack of minimum salary 23.0 6 27.1 8
Good career prospects as an employee 21.0 7 12.3 11
Fear of being unsuccessful 21.0 8 70.4 3
Too much work 19.0 9 25.9 9
Negative image attached to entrepreneurship 17.0 10 8.6 12
Fiscal pressure 16.0 11 50.0 5
No regular income from entrepreneurial activity 16.0 12 27.2 7
Problems with employees 12.0 13 16.0 10
Other 8.0 14 1.9 14
Note: * Answers were limited to fve items.
Table 12.13 Diffculty in starting up a frm compared with the past
(percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
Easier 38.5 23.2 29.1
More diffcult 61.5 76.8 70.9
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Argentinian students point out general economic factors like globalization, the
presence of uncertainty and the diffculties in penetrating markets (market con-
centration and market saturation).
Italian students point out more specifc factors like fscal pressure, diffculty
in raising adequate funding for the start-up phase, competition from large frms
and bureaucracy (Table 12.16). These differences can be clearly explained by
the differences in the general economic conditions in the two countries.
234 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.14 Diffculty in starting up a frm compared with the past
segmented by father’s occupation (percentage)
Easier More diffcult
Entrepreneur 35.4 64.6
Professional 35.0 65.0
Executive 30.4 69.6
Offce worker 22.7 77.3
Manual worker 21.1 78.9
Civil servant 18.2 81.8
Other 27.8 72.2
Total 29.1 70.9
Table 12.15 Diffculty in starting up a frm compared with the past
(percentage values for students whose parents are
entrepreneurs)
Argentina Italy Total
Easier 36.1 33.3 35.4
More diffcult 63.9 66.7 64.6
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
In neither of the two countries is lack of education considered to be one of
the main obstacles for entrepreneurial activity. This seems coherent with the
image of entrepreneurs as people with special personal attributes but without
specifc education and training.
CONCLUSIONS
This chapter is a preliminary study of the factors infuencing how undergraduate
students perceive entrepreneurship and of their attitude to starting an entrepre-
neurial career. It is also intended to assess how country differences infuence
these perceptions and attitudes. The main conclusions can be summarized as
follows.
The social background of students (specifcally, parents’ occupation) plays a
crucial role in the attitude of students towards becoming entrepreneurs, while
country specifcity has little impact on it.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 235
On the contrary, social background has less impact on the image of entrepre-
neurs. This image shows remarkable similarities in both countries: entrepreneurs
are seen as people with specifc personal attributes who use their skills and
abilities in ways that are not always, or completely, socially acceptable (lack of
honesty or sense of social justice).
The different country environments infuence the image of the economic role
of entrepreneurs in creating jobs and fostering economic development: a role
that is more recognized by Italian than Argentinian students.
Remarkable similarities between the two groups of students are also observed
in the reasons for creating their own frm. Both groups stress personal attainment
– that is, putting their own ideas into practice, personal independence, creating
something of their own – rather than economic reasons (earning or accumulating
money). The latter reasons are considered important by a larger percentage of
Italian than Argentinian students.
Table 12.16 Obstacles for starting up a frm
Argentina Italy
% Rank % Rank
Globalization 64.0 1 13.6 15
Competition 44.0 2 43.8 1
Lack of planning skills 36.0 3 14.2 14
Economic trend 31.0 4 30.2 9
Uncertainty 29.0 5 32.7 8
Market concentration 24.0 6 6.2 18
Market saturation 22.0 7 30.2 9
Risk aversion 20.0 8 29.0 11
Entry barriers 19.0 9 22.8 13
Other 17.0 10 0.6 19
Legislation 14.0 11 13.0 16
Lack of information 13.0 12 6.8 17
Lack of education 13.0 12 25.9 12
Problems in raising funds 8.0 14 34.6 7
Lack of experience 8.0 14 35.2 6
Fiscal pressure 6.0 16 42.0 2
Bureaucracy 5.0 17 36.4 5
Large frms 3.0 18 37.7 4
Insuffcient funding at start-up 3.0 18 39.5 3
236 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
The perceived obstacles in starting up their own frm are also similar: both
Argentinian and Italian students emphasize the risk associated with venture
creation combined with the lack of initial funding. Among the main obstacles
they also consider fear of being unsuccessful (Italian students) and doubts about
their entrepreneurial skills (Argentinian students).
Overall in both countries students emphasize reasons related to their personal
status or to the characteristics of the ventures they are going to start up rather
than variables related to the general environment (only in the case of Italian
students is fscal pressure indicated as an important obstacle).
More than two-thirds of the students believe that it is more diffcult to create
a frm at present than it was in the past. The result is highly dependent on the
social background of students and not on the country in which they live. Stu-
dents coming from entrepreneurial, professional and executive families seem
more confdent about the possibility of starting up their own frm than students
coming from other social backgrounds. On this point it is interesting to note
that even the former two-thirds of students perceive the present situation as more
diffcult than in the past.
The major differences between the two countries emerge with reference to
the obstacles to entrepreneurial activity in general. Argentinian students point
out general economic factors – for example, the effect of globalization and the
presence of uncertainty – while Italian students point out more specifc factors
like fscal pressure, diffculty in raising adequate funding at start-up and com-
petition from large frms.
Overall the results of the study show that there are more similarities than
differences between Argentinian and Italian students in their perception of en-
trepreneurship and in their attitude towards starting up their own frms. The
differences concerning these aspects can be mainly attributed to the social
background of the students – specifcally to their parents’ occupation – rather
than to the country. This has two important consequences.
The frst consequence is similarities between the two countries allow the de-
sign and experimentation of similar university programmes for entrepreneurship
development. The second, and most important, consequence is that the problems
and attitudes shown by students concerning their prospective career as entre-
preneurs seem to give a considerable scope for entrepreneurship programmes
and several interesting indications about the aims and contents of these
programmes.
The importance of family background on the propensity to take up an entre-
preneurial career strongly supports the importance of university courses
designed not only to develop specifc entrepreneurial skills, but also to give
students the opportunity to obtain a general knowledge of entrepreneurship and
to interact directly with entrepreneurs by promoting role models.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 237
With regard to entrepreneurial skills, courses on entrepreneurship should
address the following topics:
1. Improvement of personal capabilities and confdence in managing the risks
associated with the creation of new ventures.
2. Information about the possibilities and instruments for raising external
funds for new ventures.
3. Development of a business plan with specifc regard to the evaluation and
control of entrepreneurial risks.
4. Socio-cultural aspects of entrepreneurship and the forces encouraging or
inhibiting it.
This study has several limitations that indicate areas for further development
both at a theoretical and an empirical level. At an empirical level the main limi-
tation concerns the sample size and the lack of variability for some demographic
aspects. In order to overcome this limitation we intend to enlarge the sample to
include a larger typology of students in terms of university curricula, social
background and countries.
At a theoretical level more data is needed to identify the different factors
(demographic, cultural, personal) infuencing perceptions and attitudes towards
entrepreneurship and the mechanisms through which they operate.
NOTES
1. We adopt the following defnition of entrepreneurship: ‘the perception and creation of new
economic opportunities’ combined with ‘decision-making on the location, form and use of re-
sources’ (Wennekers and Thurik, 1999: 27).
2. According to Baumol (1968; 1993), entrepreneurs are people who identify new ideas and set
them in motion. They are the people who lead and are the source of inspiration in the develop-
ment of a new business. Finally, Bygrave (1997) defnes an entrepreneur as someone who
perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to exploit it.
3. In Kantis et al. (2002a) Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: The Creation and Develop-
ment of New Firms in Latin America and East Asia, Inter-American Development Bank.
4. In a study on nine countries, Vesper and Gartner (1997) show that the number of universities
with entrepreneurship courses grew from 16 in 1970 to 400 in 1995.
5. Examples of such schemes are the German EXIST Programme, the Business Birth Rate Strategy
in Scotland, Brasil Emprende, IG in Italy.
6. Unemployment started to grow in the 1990s. In 1990 the rate was set around 8.6 per cent, in
1993 9.9 per cent, reaching 18.4 per cent two years later. In 2002 it reached 21.5 per cent, with
18.6 per cent of sub-employment (INDEC, 2002). In addition to the problem of unemployment,
gross domestic product (GDP) has been declining since 1999. The available information indi-
cates that its decrease was 3.4 per cent in 1999, approximately 1 per cent in 2000, 4.4 per cent
in 2001 and 11.2 per cent in 2002 (IMF, 2002).
7. Anyway in both countries students from high-income families (entrepreneurs, executives and
professionals) show a higher propensity to working abroad for a period of time.
238 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
8. Given the high level of correlation between father’s and mother’s occupation and the fact that
a high percentage of mothers do not work, we have used the father’s occupation to analyse the
social background.
REFERENCES
Accornero, A. (1999), ‘Poter Crescere E Voler Crescere: I Piccoli Imprenditori Ex
Dipendenti’, in F. Trau (ed.), La ‘Questione Dimensionale’ Nell’industria Italiana,
Bologna: Il Mulino.
Audretsch, D.B. and R. Thurik (2001), ‘Linking entrepreneurship to economic growth’,
STI working papers 2001/2.
Baumol, W.J. (1968), ‘Entrepreneurship in economic theory’, American Economic Re-
view, 58 (2), 64–71.
Baumol, W.J. (1993), ‘Formal entrepreneurship theory in economics: existence and
bounds’, Journal of Business Venturing, 8 (3), 197–210.
Beranger, J., R. Chabbal and F. Dambrine (1998), Report Concerning Entrepreneurial
Training of Engineers, Paris: Ministère de l’Economie, Finance et Industrie.
Bygrave, W.D. (1997), The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, 2nd edn, New York: John
Wiley and Sons.
Charney, A. and G. Libecap (2000), ‘Impact of entrepreneurship education’, Insights: A
Kauffman Research Series, Rockhill Road, Kansas: Kauffman Center for Entrepre-
neurship Leadership.
Clark, B., C. Davis and V. Harnish (1984), ‘Do courses in entrepreneurship aid in new
venture creation?’, Journal of Small Business Management, 22 (2), 26–32.
Colombo, M. and M. Delmastro (2001), ‘Technology-based entrepreneurs: does Internet
make a difference?’, Small Business Economics, 16 (3), 177–90.
Cowling, M. and M. Taylor (2001), ‘Entrepreneurial women and men: two different
species?’, Small Business Economics, 16 (3), 167–75.
Delmar, F. and P. Davidsson (2000), ‘Where do they come from? Prevalence and char-
acteristics of nascent entrepreneurs’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development,
12 (1), 1–23.
Department of Trade, and Industry (1998), Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowl-
edge Driven Economy, Command Paper 4176, London: The Stationery Offce.
Fayolle, A. (1998), ‘Teaching of entrepreneurship: outcomes from an innovative experi-
ence’, paper presented at the Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and
Training Conference, IntEnt98, Oestrich-Winkel, Germany, 27–29 July.
Finkle, T. and D. Deeds (2001), ‘Trends in the market for entrepreneurship faculty, 1989-
1998’, Journal of Business Venturing, 16 (6), 613–31.
Garofoli, G. (1992), ‘New frm formation and local development: the Italian experience’,
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 4, 101–25.
Gibb, A. and J. Ritchie (1982), ‘Understanding the process of starting small business’,
European Small Business Journal, 1, 122–32.
Gill, A. (1988), ‘Choice of employment status and the wages of employees and the self-
employed: some further evidence’, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 3, 229–34.
Hofstede, G. (1980), Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work Related
Values, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Hofstede, G. (2001), Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions
and Organizations Across Nations, 2nd edn, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 239
Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INDEC) (2002), www. indec.mecon.gov.
ar., accessed April 2003.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2002), www.imf.org/external/pubs/B/WEO/2002/02,
accessed April 2003.
Kantis, H., M. Ishida and M. Komori (eds) (2002a), Entrepreneurship in Emerging
Economies: The Creation and Development of New Firms in Latin America and East
Asia, Inter-American Development Bank, Department of Sustainable Development,
Micro, Small and Medium Business Division.
Kantis, H., S. Postigo, J. Federico and M.F. Tamborini (2002b), ‘The emergence of uni-
versity graduates entrepreneurs: what makes the difference? Empirical evidences from
research in Argentina’, paper presented at the RENT XVI Conference, Barcelona,
Spain, 21–22 November.
Karcher, B. (1998), ‘Does gender really matter? The infuences of gender and qualifca-
tions on self-employment and their implications on entrepreneurship education’, paper
presented at the Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Training Confer-
ence, IntEnt98, Oestrich-Winkel, Germany, 27–29 July.
Katz, Jerome A. (2003), ‘The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American Entre-
preneurship education 1876–1999’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18 (3), 283–301.
Kolvereid, L. and O. Moen (1997), ‘Entrepreneurship among business graduates: does
a major in entrepreneurship make a difference?’, Journal of European Industrial
Training, 21 (4–5), 154–7.
Kourilsky, M.L. (1995), ‘Entrepreneurship education: opportunity in search of curricu-
lum’, Business Education Forum, 50, 11–15.
Lafuente, A. and V. Salas (1989), ‘Types of entrepreneurs and frms: the case of new
Spanish frms’, Strategic Management Journal, 10, 17–30.
Laukkanen, M. (2000), ‘Exploring alternative approaches in high-level entrepreneurship
education: creation micro mechanisms for endogenous regional growth’, Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 12, 25–47.
Levie, J., W. Brown and L. Steele (2001), ‘How entrepreneurial are Strathclyde Alumni?’,
paper presented at the International Entrepreneurship: Researching New Frontiers
Conference, University of Strathclyde, 21–23 September.
Litvak, I. and C. Maule (1976), ‘Comparative technical entrepreneurship: some perspec-
tives’, Journal of International Business Studies, 7 (1), 31–8.
Lüthje, C. and N. Franke (2002), ‘Fostering entrepreneurship through university educa-
tion and training: lessons from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’, paper presented
at the 2nd Annual Conference of the European Academy of Management, Stockholm
School of Entrepreneurship, Sweden, 9–11 May.
Minniti, M. and W.D. Bygrave (1999), ‘The microfoundations of entrepreneurship’,
Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 23 (4), 41–52.
Mueller, S.L and A.S. Thomas (2000), ‘Culture and entrepreneurial potential: a nine
country study of locus of control and innovativeness’, Journal of Business Venturing,
16, 51–75.
North, D.C. (1994), ‘Economic performance through time’, American Economic Review,
84 (3), 112–19.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1998), Fostering
Entrepreneurship: The OECD Jobs Strategy, Paris: OECD.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2000), OECD
Employment Outlook, Paris: OECD.
Postigo, S. and M.F. Tamborini (2002), ‘Entrepreneurship education in Argentina: the
case of university of San Andrés’s’, paper presented at the Conference International-
240 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
izing Entrepreneurship Education and Training, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 8–10
July.
Postigo, S. and M.F. Tamborini (2003), ‘Entrepreneurship education in Argentina: lessons
from the experience of University of San Andrés’s’, paper presented at the Annual
National Conference of the United States Association for Small Business and Entre-
preneurship, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA, 23–6 January.
Rees, H. and A. Shah (1986), ‘An empirical analysis of self-employment in the UK’,
Journal of Applied Econometrics, 1, 95–108.
Reynolds, P.D., H. Michael, S.M. Camp and E. Autio (2000), Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor. 2000 Executive Report, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Reynolds, P.D., W.D. Bygrave, E. Autio, L. Cox and M. Hay (2002), Global Entrepre-
neurship Monitor: 2002 Executive Report, Wellesley, MA: Babson College, London
Business School and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Robinson, P. and E. Sexton (1994), ‘The effect of education and experience self-employ-
ment success’, Journal of Business Venturing, 9 (2), 141–57.
Schumpeter, J.A. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development, Cambridge, MA: Har-
vard University Press.
Shapero, A. (1984), ‘The entrepreneurial event’, in C.A. Kent (ed.), The Environment
for Entrepreneurship, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 21–40.
Solomon, George T., S. Duffy and A. Tarabishy (2002), ‘The state of entrepreneurship
education in the United States: a nationwide survey and analysis’, International Jour-
nal of Entrepreneurship Education, 1 (1), 1–22.
Tackey, N., S. Perryman and H. Connor (1999), Graduated Business Start-Ups, Institute
for Employment Studies, Brighton.
Upton, N., D. Sexton and C. Moore (1995), ‘Have we made a difference? An examination
of career activity of entrepreneurship majors since 1981’, working paper, Baylor
University, Baylor, TX.
Ussman, A. and S. Postigo (2000), ‘O Papel da universidade no fomento da funçao em-
presarial’, Anais universitarios, Ciencias Sociais e Humanas. 1990–2000 Yearbook
Special Issue, Beira Interior, Portugal: Universidades de Beira Interior.
Veciana, J. (2002), ‘Comentarios sobre los resultados de la investigación comparada
sobre la empresarialidad entre América Latina y el Este de Asia’ (‘Comments on the
results of the comparative study of entrepreneurshop between East Asia and Latin
America’, in H. Kantis, M. Ishida and M. Komori, Entrepreneurship in Emerging
Economies: The Creation and Development of New Firms in Latin America and East
Asia, Inter-American Development Bank, Department of Sustainable Development,
Micro, Small and Medium Business Division.
Vesper, K. and W. Gartner (1997), ‘Measuring progress in entrepreneurship education’,
Journal of Business Venturing, 12 (5), 403–21.
Wennekers, A.R.M. and A.R. Thurik (1999), ‘Linking entrepreneurship and economic
growth’, Small Business Economics, 13, 27–55.
Wilken, P. (1979), Entrepreneurship: A Comparative and Historical Study, Norwood,
NJ: Ablex.
241
13. Entrepreneurship education among
students at a Canadian university: an
extensive empirical study of students’
entrepreneurial preferences and
intentions
Yvon Gasse and Maripier Tremblay
INTRODUCTION
Though certain studies have determined the entrepreneurial potential in the gen-
eral population (Reynolds, 1997), few have concentrated on university settings.
This fact is all the more noteworthy in the context of a knowledge economy in
which university students increasingly see entrepreneurship as a valid career
choice. Laval University, which has a student population of close to 36 000, al-
ready provides services for student entrepreneurs, but the entrepreneurial potential
of this population is, as of yet, not that well known. The goal of the present study
was thus to compare the entrepreneurial potential of Laval University students
with that of the general population and to verify the students’ specifc interests,
expectations, intentions, prevalence and needs. We likewise attempted to see how
the students’ values, attitudes and behaviour, that is, their entrepreneurial poten-
tial, could predispose them to founding a company, creating their own job or
having the intention to do so. Consequently, we also tried to better understand
what learning methods could stimulate the entrepreneurial approach and what
type of support and follow-up would be likely to interest the students.
MODEL OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS
New companies are created and developed by entrepreneurs, that is, those who
bring together and manage human and physical resources with the goal of creat-
ing, developing and implementing solutions that help to meet people’s needs
(Cooper et al., 1990). Entrepreneurs harness and organize these resources to
start up and then develop the companies that will respond to these needs.
242 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Several studies have shown that company founders have certain particular
characteristics (Gasse and D’Amours, 2000); however, upon closer analysis,
these attributes can vary according to the type of entrepreneur (Krueger, 2000).
Moreover, we must also recognize that these entrepreneurial predispositions are
infuenced by the environment in which the person works (Reynolds, 1995).
The act of founding a company results from a decision made by an entrepre-
neur (Bhidé, 2000). The various infuences that bear on this decision are to be
found in three crucial aspects, namely:
l desirability
l feasibility
l creation.
Figure 13.1 is an attempt to represent the main elements of the model of the
entrepreneurial process. The interest of this fgure lies in the light it sheds on a
very complex and dynamic reality. The different levels of analysis not only bring
out the numerous links and causalities but also the constant interpenetration of
individual and social problems. A model, even a descriptive one, is only a partial
and simplifed representation of reality, its only goal being to help people better
understand the phenomenon in question. Real life teaches us that each person,
situation and environment has its own particularities. Even though these par-
ticularities cannot be generalized, they can serve as illustrations of general
concepts.
Our objective in this study is to verify the role played by certain, specifcally
chosen variables in the entrepreneurial process of university students. The other
elements presented in Figure 13.1 are only shown to give an overall view of the
phenomenon’s complexity.
Desirability (Values)
Since entrepreneurship is above all a matter of individuals, and people are
largely shaped by the environment in which they evolve, it is important to better
determine the factors of the surrounding environment that can infuence the at-
tractiveness and even the desirability of entrepreneurship. Social and cultural
factors directly affect the perceived desirability of a given behaviour or action
(OECD, 1998). When entrepreneurship is promoted in a community, such as
that of the university, the people who make up this community then tend to have
a positive perception of this activity (Davidsson and Honig, 2003). There are
two dimensions to this desirability: frst, the perception that the benefts of an
entrepreneurial behaviour will be personally desirable and, second, the percep-
tion that they will also be socially desirable (Shapero and Sokol, 1982). In a
university context, we can see how faculties, programmes, courses, pedagogical
243
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
3
.
1
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
p
r
o
c
e
s
s
m
o
d
e
l
C
H
A
R
A
C
T
E
R
I
S
T
I
C
S
D
E
T
E
R
M
I
N
I
N
G
S
O
C
I
A
L
F
A
C
T
O
R
S
M
A
J
O
R
I
N
F
L
U
E
N
C
E
S
E
L
E
M
E
N
T
S
S
T
A
G
E
S
D
E
C
I
S
I
O
N
S
P
R
O
C
E
S
S
E
S
C
u
l
t
u
r
e
F
a
m
i
l
y
R
e
l
i
g
i
o
n
E
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
S
o
c
i
a
l
s
t
r
u
c
t
u
r
e
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
t
y
I
n
s
t
i
t
u
t
i
o
n
s
(
u
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
i
e
s
)
A
s
s
o
c
i
a
t
i
o
n
s
:
P
r
o
f
e
s
s
i
o
n
a
l
I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
C
o
n
s
u
l
a
r
M
e
d
i
a
C
o
m
m
u
n
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
n
e
t
w
o
r
k
s
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
o
r
g
a
n
i
z
a
t
i
o
n
s
A
c
h
i
e
v
e
m
e
n
t
I
n
i
t
i
a
t
i
v
e
s
S
e
l
f
-
c
o
n
f
d
e
n
c
e
D
e
t
e
r
m
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
C
r
e
a
t
i
v
i
t
y
E
n
e
r
g
y
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
R
i
s
k
s
G
r
a
t
i
f
c
a
t
i
o
n
R
e
c
o
g
n
i
t
i
o
n
L
i
f
e
s
t
y
l
e
A
c
c
e
s
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
I
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
A
d
v
i
c
e
M
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
F
u
n
d
i
n
g
N
e
t
w
o
r
k
T
e
c
h
n
o
l
o
g
y
F
a
c
i
l
i
t
y
F
e
e
d
b
a
c
k
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
N
e
e
d
s
U
s
e
f
u
l
n
e
s
s
D
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
V
a
l
u
e
a
d
d
e
d
M
a
r
k
e
t
a
b
l
e
P
r
o
f
t
a
b
l
e
P
r
o
m
i
s
i
n
g
(
t
r
e
n
d
)
M
a
n
a
g
e
a
b
l
e
I
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
v
e
C
i
t
i
z
e
n
S
a
t
i
s
f
a
c
t
o
r
y
M
o
d
e
r
n
D
e
s
i
r
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
F
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
C
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
I
d
e
a
s
P
r
o
j
e
c
t
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
P
e
r
c
e
p
t
i
o
n
s
(
a
t
t
i
t
u
d
e
s
)
V
a
l
u
e
s
M
e
a
n
s
E
N
V
I
R
O
N
M
E
N
T
A
N
D
E
N
T
R
E
P
R
E
N
E
U
R
S
H
I
P
244 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
methods and extra-curricular activities can infuence this desirability. It is like-
wise important to take into account certain antecedents such as age, gender,
work experience – especially experience related to entrepreneurship and SMEs
– as well as the level and feld of study.
Feasibility (Perceptions)
Several external factors that are outside of a person’s control infuence entrepre-
neurship. It is clear that the interaction between these factors can foster or hinder
business creation (Fortin, 2002). An entrepreneur must not only perceive the de-
sirability of the entrepreneurial act, this act must also be reasonably feasible.
Feasibility depends on whether or not the means and resources needed to create
a business are seen to be readily accessible. Though some of these means can be
related to an entrepreneur’s abilities, many stem from the surrounding environ-
ment. Accordingly, feasibility should be refected in entrepreneurial intentions
(Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). In a university context, the probability of owning
one’s own company, the factors facilitating entrepreneurship and the perceived
obstacles to creating a business are examples of entrepreneurial intentions.
Creation (Means)
Desirability and feasibility are necessary but not suffcient conditions for creat-
ing companies. To take action, potential entrepreneurs must bring together the
relevant means and resources at the right time and in the right place. These re-
sources can be human, fnancial, material and informational (Filion, 2002).
Environments in which these resources are reasonably available have a clear
advantage in terms of company creation (Carter et al., 1996). In a university
context, the university and its components can play a determining role for en-
trepreneurs. We do not only wish to know how students perceive their university
or what they expect from it, we also want to determine the entrepreneurial inci-
dence rate. Accordingly, it would be worthwhile to compare the entrepreneurial
intensity of the students on campus to that of the general population.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND UNIVERSITIES
Studies are regularly conducted to determine how university programmes,
courses and specializations in entrepreneurship are evolving (Fayolle, 2000). In
the USA, for example, Vesper and Gartner (2001) showed that more than 100
universities offer entrepreneurial programmes, but that as many as 800 universi-
ties and colleges offer courses on this subject. In Canada, a study by Menzies
(2000) indicated that all universities and colleges offered either entrepreneurial
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 245
courses or programmes. In France, universities, business and administration
schools, specialized schools and the ‘grandes écoles’ have been offering more
and more programmes and courses in entrepreneurship in the past ten years
(Fayolle, 2003). Moreover, Europe has developed the most innovative pedagogi-
cal initiatives of the last few years, as Albert et al. (1999), Goujet and Marion
(1999) and Obrecht (1998) have reported. In North America, it would seem that
the traditional pedagogical methods are still predominant, such as the writing
up of a business plan, case studies, lectures and guest entrepreneurs (Fiet, 2001a;
Katz, 2003; Solomon et al., 2002). Furthermore, few studies have examined
what students actually learn in courses on entrepreneurship in terms of entre-
preneurial behaviour, suitable attitudes and acquired abilities (see, for example,
Bechard and Toulouse, 1998; Chen et al., 1998; Cox et al., 2003; Ehrlich et al.,
2000; Gorman et al., 1998). It would seem, nonetheless, that students who take
entrepreneurial courses show a better acquisition of certain entrepreneurial
characteristics than those who do not take these courses. For example, there is
a signifcant relationship between taking entrepreneurial courses and displaying
entrepreneurial intentions (Fayolle, 2002; Kolvereid, 1996a). Likewise, Noel
(2001) found a relationship between entrepreneurial teaching, entrepreneurial
intentions and the perception of ‘self-effcacy’. Finally, Hansemark (1998) at-
tempted to associate the need for accomplishment and an internal locus of
control with entrepreneurial courses.
A certain number of studies have shown rather interesting entrepreneurial
intention rates in Canada and elsewhere. For instance, Filion et al. (2002)
showed that 57.7 per cent of the students at a French-speaking Québec university
intended to start their own business. Furthermore, Audet (2001) found that only
8 per cent of the students at an English-speaking Québec university intended to
create their own business in the short term, but that 45 per cent of these students
estimated their chances of one day starting up their own business at 75 per cent.
This data is similar to that for student clientele in Russia and Norway (Kolv-
ereid, 1996b; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999).
APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
The students were selected randomly from a complete list of the Laval Univer-
sity students enrolled in the 2002 winter session.The data were collected by the
professional polling frm SOM Surveys, Opinion Polls and Marketing.
Target Population and Sample
The target population for this research was all of the students enrolled at Laval
University for the 2002 winter session. The sample was determined using fles
246 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
provided by Laval University. So as to conserve the confdentiality of the stu-
dents’ telephone number, the Registrar Service at Laval University randomly
picked the students in the study by means of a computer.
Questionnaire
1
The frst draft of this questionnaire was developed by the authors. The SOM
Surveys, Opinion Polls and Marketing company then proceeded with a technical
revision and a pre-test of the questionnaire.
Data Collection and Treatment
A total of 600 interviews were conducted. The response rate was estimated at
69.2 per cent of the valid phone numbers that were supplied. A total of 20.5 per
cent of the people for whom we had a valid phone number could not be con-
tacted during the survey period and 10.4 per cent refused to participate. The
detailed results of the calls and the calculation of the response rate are presented
in Tables 13.1 and 13.2.
The statistical data analysis was conducted by the researchers. The data fle
was transmitted by SOM in an SPSS software format. The maximum error
margin in the sample results for the 600 respondents is, at most, 4 per cent with
a confdence level of 95 per cent.
Table 13.1 Sample data
A. Initial sample 962
B. Never reached during the data collection period 146
C. None in service or discontinued 55
D. Business numbers 7
E. Lines out of order 1
F. Non-eligible 8
G. Out of stratum 0
H. Disabilities/foreign languages 8
I. Not at home 46
J. Uncompleted 1
K. Household refusals 2
L. Respondent refusals 88
M. Completed interviews 600
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 247
RESULTS
Prevalence of Emerging Entrepreneurs and the Others’ Intentions
The data collected were used to determine the prevalence rate of emerging en-
trepreneurs on the campus. Of the 600 respondents, 3.2 per cent said they were
actively trying to start up a business.
Nonetheless, to compare the prevalence rate on the campus to that of the
National Study on the Entrepreneurial Process and Firms’ Birth,
2
two other
conditions had to be taken into account. The respondent had to, in addition to
being actively involved in a business start-up:
l have undertaken concrete endeavours to start up a business in the last 12
months
l be the owner or co-owner of the start-up business.
More than 73.7 per cent of the students who were actively trying to start up
a business had undertaken concrete endeavours in the last 12 months; 36.8
per cent were sole owners as opposed to 63.2 per cent who were part
owners.
Of the 600 students who were interviewed, 2.3 per cent met all the conditions.
The prevalence rate at Laval University was therefore 28 per cent higher than
that of the Canadian population, which was 1.8 per cent.
Entrepreneur: A Choice Considered by Many
The students who were not involved in starting up a business
3
were also polled
in order to know if they had already thought of starting up a business or one day
Table 13.2 Main response rates
N. Numbers not reached (B+E) 147
O. Numbers reached (A-(N+G)) 815
P. Non-usable numbers among reached (C+D+H) 70
Q. Usable numbers among reached (O-P) 745
R. Estimate of usable numbers not reached (NQ/O) 134
S. Estimated total of usable numbers (Q+R) 879
Estimated non-response (R+I/S) 20.5%
Refusal (J+K+L)/S 10.4%
Estimated response rate ((M+F)/S) 69.2%
248 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
being self-employed. The results show that 32.5 per cent of them had already
considered it.
Of this number, 42.9 per cent thought they would do it in the long term, 31.2
per cent in the three to fve years following their studies and 14.8 per cent in the
two years after their studies. Only 7.9 per cent thought they would start the
business or become self-employed during their studies. Finally, 3.2 per cent did
not respond to this question.
Concept of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a concept that can refer to several things. Moreover, the re-
spondents identifed several elements referring to this term; Table 13.3 shows
the frequency of the main traditional concepts of entrepreneurship.
Table 13.4 Other concepts of entrepreneurship (percentage)
Freedom, autonomy, and independance 26.6
Linked to business concept 20.7
Required qualities 10.8
Loss and requirement 9.4
Innovation, creation 8.2
Required skills 5.9
Status/job 4.1
Personal achievement 4.1
Linked to environment factors, social role (job creation) 3.4
Table 13.3 Various concepts of entrepreneurship (percentage)
New business creation 19.0
Purchase of an existing business 0.2
New product development 0.7
Creation of a not-for-proft organization 0.2
New project start-up 1.8
Business ownership 11.5
Other 57.0
As might be expected, it is above all the notions of business creation and
ownership that dominated. However, an analysis of the entrepreneurship concept
category ‘Other’ brought forward fairly diverse elements, as can be seen in Table
13.4.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 249
Many of these ‘other’ concepts refer to values, abilities, attitudes, lifestyles
and ways of being that indicate that people have or would like to have an in-
creasingly wider view of entrepreneurship.
Awareness of Entrepreneurship: Knowledge of the Services
Laval University offers certain entrepreneurial services for its students through,
among others, Entrepreneuriat Laval, a support organization for student entre-
preneurs. This section of the survey focused primarily on evaluating what the
students knew about these services and how they perceived and used them.
Among the entrepreneurship support services available for Laval University
students, those that stood out were primarily linked to learning, awareness and
follow-up. For example:
l 13.7 per cent of the respondents said they had already taken a course in
entrepreneurship
l 25.8 per cent had been informed about the career possibilities in
entrepreneurship
l 42.5 per cent of the polled students had acquired some knowledge about
the business world during their studies
l 40.7 per cent had heard of entrepreneurship at Laval University
l 21.7 per cent knew Entrepreneuriat Laval; of these, 33.1 per cent knew
where the organization’s offces where
l 6.5 per cent of the respondents knew of REEL, an association of student
entrepreneurs at Laval University that promotes entrepreneurship among
students.
Perceptions of the University’s Role
Since entrepreneurship is increasingly seen by the university student population
as a valid career choice, it was important to determine what role the students
felt the university should play in its development and stimulation. The survey
showed us that:
l 55.3 per cent of the respondents agreed that the university acknowledged
innovation, initiative and business creation. However, 96 per cent stated
that the university should formally acknowledge the students’ initiatives
to create their own business, for example, by providing course credits for
entrepreneurial activities
l 94.7 per cent stated that it is important to inform students about
entrepreneurship.
250 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Probability of Owning a Business
As concerns the probability of one day owning their business, the student survey
gave the results presented in Table 13.5.
Table13.5 Probability of owning their own business (percentage)
High 15.3
Medium 30.3
Poor 32.2
None 21.8
These perceptions about the probability of one day owning their own business
were similar to those obtained in previous studies of the Laval University student
population, as can be seen below.
Factors Involved in Owning a Business
As with any other human activity, entrepreneurship can be better developed
under certain facilitating conditions. Though several of these conditions were
identifed, only a few seemed quite signifcant.
Among the main factors mentioned, only one stood out, that is, fnancing,
with 24.2 per cent. Among the secondary factors that were mentioned, the most
notable ones were fnancing with 20.3 per cent and get the required knowledge
with 13.7 per cent.
These results are not surprising, given the importance that the media and f-
nancial, public and para-public institutions attribute to fnancing business
creation.
Obstacles to Owning a Business
The factors that facilitate owning a business can often act as obstacles if they
are not suffciently present. This study observed the same phenomenon, as can
be seen by the main obstacles: funding at 45.3 per cent and lack of interest at
6.7 per cent. Secondary factors that were mentioned included funding at 13.7
per cent, time (9.6 per cent) and competition (8.2 per cent).
Once again, the availability of funds was seen as a major obstacle and was
mentioned by close to half the respondents. Moreover, most of the new busi-
nesses were created with very limited personal funds.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 251
Main Motivations for Creating a Business
The main motivations for creating one’s own business and becoming self-em-
ployed are few in number and often the same. This study population was not
really an exception to this rule. The respondents’ principal motivations are
mentioned in Table 13.6.
Table 13.6 Motivations for creating a business (percentage)
Being one’s own boss 29.7
Independence and autonomy 13.8
Making money 7.2
Table 13.7 Secondary motivations for creating a business (percentage)
Being one’s own boss 14.3
Making money 13.7
Get power and control 11.9
Being one’s own boss seemed to be the main reason. This concept can none-
theless include several aspects, such as the need for achievement, which is
often identifed as the dominant motivation for business creators in the classic
studies of entrepreneurship. The selected defnitions would seem to have sev-
eral similarities. Table 13.7 presents the secondary motivations for creating a
business.
Activities that Could Develop Entrepreneurship
It was seen above that the students felt the university had a role to play in stimu-
lating and developing entrepreneurship. Realistically speaking, the respondents
were asked what activities and methods Laval University should put in place to
promote entrepreneurship. Table 13.8 shows the respondents’ support for various
entrepreneurship development activities that Laval University could provide.
The most strongly supported activities revolved around practical business
initiatives such as access to a business network, work terms with business own-
ers, counselling, mentoring and fnancial aid.
252 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Methods and Academic and Extra-academic Activities that Foster the
Development of Entrepreneurship
At university, several academic activities can help develop entrepreneurship. It
is nonetheless worthwhile to know the students’ interest in these activities. Table
13.9 summarizes this interest.
Table 13.8 Entrepreneurship development activities that Laval University
should support (percentage)
More training 84.3
Offcial recognition of entrepreneurial initiatives 93.2
Counselling 96.8
Offering space for students’ businesses 90.0
Business incubator 83.2
Help student entrepreneur to fnd funds 95.5
Networking 98.2
Work terms with entrepreneurs 96.7
Course credits for business projects 80.3
Mentoring programme 95.0
Table 13.9 Academic activities helping the development of entrepreneurship
Academic activities 1st
selection 2nd
selection
(%) (%)
Case studies in business start-ups 19.5 13.1
Visits of business enterprises 6.2 12.7
Conferences on business start-up 9.0 16.2
Meeting with practitioner 8.3 19.9
Work terms with entrepreneurs 42.5 17.1
Simulation of business enterprises 8.0 9.9
Once again, it was the activities that allowed the students to experience real
business conditions that aroused the most interest, as was the case with work
terms and case studies. As concerns extra-academic activities that helped de-
velop entrepreneurship, Table 13.10 shows how the students perceived some of
these activities. Here as well, the practical aspect dominated, with counselling
services and business plan competitions.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 253
Profle and Past History of the Respondents
Most studies of entrepreneurship pay special attention to entrepreneurs’ profles
and past history, this information primarily comprising age, education level,
areas of competence and relevant experience. Thus, in the Laval University
student population:
l 17.8 per cent of the respondents were self-employed
l 66 per cent of the respondents were studying full-time.
The students’ education level is presented in Table 13.11. The percentages are
fairly representative of the Laval University student population. Table 13.12
presents the areas of study in the sample. As can be seen in Table 13.13, more
than 70 per cent of the students were from 20 to 29 years of age.
Table 13.10 Para-academic activities helping the development of
entrepreneurship
Para-academic activities 1st selection 2nd selection
(%) (%)
Business plan competition 26.7 25.6
Participation in a student association 12.2 15.7
Student entrepreneurs association 19.2 26.3
Small business counselling services offering 41.0 30.8
students
Table 13.11 Education level (percentage)
Level of education %
Bachelor 62.7
Master 13.3
Doctorate 4.8
Diploma 0.5
Certifcate 11.5
Non-credited courses 3.2
254 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 13.12 Areas of study (percentage)
Letters 11.7
Administration 17.0
Education 11.0
Engineering 17.7
Social sciences 11.8
Table 13.13 Age categories (percentage)
Less than 20 years old 3.8
20–23 years old 45.7
24–29 years old 25.2
30 years old and more 25.3
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Prevalence Rate of Emerging Entrepreneurs
One of the goals of this research was to determine the prevalence rate of emerg-
ing entrepreneurs among Laval University students, and to compare this rate
with that of the Canadian population. This comparison was possible because
the same methodology and the same eligibility criteria were used for a general
study of Nascent Canadian Entrepreneurs (Menzies et al., 2002). As was men-
tioned above, the prevalence rate on the campus was 28 per cent higher than
that of the Canadian general population, that is, 2.3 per cent versus 1.8 per cent
respectively. Nonetheless, given the fact that, when their studies are fnished,
students often accept a job in their feld and drop their business project, it is
possible that several students who were actively involved in starting up a busi-
ness during their studies did so for monetary reasons and as a temporary
solution. This hypothesis could be tested with a longitudinal study.
Intentions to Start up a Business
The results concerning the Laval University students’ intentions to start up a
business can be compared to those obtained in a study conducted in 1995 by
the Groupe de recherche sur la PME
4
and in another study conducted in 2000
5
by Geneviève Tremblay for the same research group (see Table 13.14).
The differences between these results can be explained by the sample
choice. Indeed, in previous studies, the faculties and disciplines included in
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 255
the sample were limited to those that showed the greatest inclination towards
entrepreneurship. The main characteristic of the present study is its overall
representativeness, the sample being randomly chosen from the offcial list of
all Laval University students from all the different programmes, disciplines
and faculties.
The results show that a high percentage of the students were considering
starting up a business, thereby illustrating the fact that students saw entrepre-
neurship as a potential career choice. However, it should be understood that it
is intentions that are being discussed here, and that the gap in percentage terms
between those who were considering eventually creating their business and those
who actually did, was quite substantial. Indeed, as was previously shown, the
percentage of students who were actively trying to start a business was 3.2 per
cent whereas as the percentage of those who had already thought about starting
a business or becoming self-employed was 32.5 per cent. Moreover, most of
them thought they would start a business three or more years after fnishing their
studies. Considering that Laval University has a student population of 36 000,
this would mean that approximately 1152 students are presently involved in
starting up a business and 11 700 have already thought about eventually starting
a business or one day being self-employed. It bears repeating that 7.9 per cent
or 925 of these students have the intention to start up a business during their
studies.
Intentions According to Faculties
It would seem that the majority of the student entrepreneurs came from the ad-
ministrative sciences (21 per cent), sciences and engineering (15.8 per cent),
Table 13.14 Comparison of students’ start-up intentions at three different
times
2002* 2000 1995
(%) (%) (%)
Has ever thought to start a business 32.5 42 59
During schooling 7.9 n/a Short term 4
2 years after schooling 14.8 n/a Medium term 22
3 to 5 years after schooling 31.2 n/a Long term 33
In the longer term 42.9 n/a
Don’t know 3.02 n/a
Note: The labelling of the question in this study included both the intention to start a business and
to become self-employed.
256 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
and social sciences (21 per cent) faculties. These three faculties also had the
greatest percentage of students who had already thought about starting a
business.
Other faculties also had high percentages of students who had already thought
about starting a business, with numbers ranging from 66.7 per cent in dentistry
to 64.7 per cent in urban planning, architecture and visual arts, and 44.4 per
cent in pharmacy.
Some of these data are supported by data gathered in a previous study by the
small business research group, which came to the conclusion that the faculties
with the highest rate of intention were agriculture and food sciences (31 per
cent), sciences and engineering (23 per cent), administrative sciences (13 per
cent) and forestry (12 per cent).
Intentions for Women
Women were also well represented in the potential entrepreneurs category. The
study conducted in 2000 by the same Research Group showed that 39 per cent
of the women were potential entrepreneurs. In the present study, among the 3.2
per cent of the students who were actively trying to start a business, close to 37
per cent were women, as can be seen in Table 13.15.
Table 13.15 Start-up effort according to the gender
Male Female
(%) (%)
Is actively trying to start a business 63 37
Has ever thought to start a business 55 45
Moreover, of the 32.5 per cent of students who had already thought of start-
ing a business or becoming self-employed, close to 45 per cent were women.
These results demonstrate the growing presence of women in entrepreneur-
ship. As they are increasingly likely to go to university – women account for
52 per cent of the students at Laval University – this increase is not
surprising.
Awareness of Services
The results presented in Table 13.16 would seem to indicate that few students
at Laval University were aware of the entrepreneurial services on the campus.
As was mentioned above, Laval University has two main services for the stimu-
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 257
lation and development of entrepreneurship, namely, Entrepreneuriat Laval and
REEL (Regroupement des Étudiants Entrepreneurs de Laval – Laval student
entrepreneurs group).
It is noteworthy that these services are self-fnanced and that their advertising
and promotion budget is quite limited; moreover, students often confused them
with other services offered on campus. Nevertheless, these authors are a bit
surprised by the relatively low percentages (between 21 per cent and 29 per
cent) of awareness shown by the students.
Further research will be needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the various
awareness programmes and services available on the campus. It seems that
students are not attracted by programmes or activities targeted at entrepreneur-
ship, unless they are seriously considering entrepreneurship for themselves; for
those actively involved in entrepreneurial activities, they may even perceive
these services to be not well adapted to their needs.
Intentions Concerning Entrepreneurial Training
For several years now, Laval University has offered various courses and pro-
grammes in entrepreneurship, especially in the Faculty of Administrative
Sciences. They are for the most part credit courses that can be taken by all the
students on campus.
The intentions concerning entrepreneurial training were quite high among
the respondents. Indeed, 40.8 per cent of the respondents were interested in
taking credited courses. This fgure climbs to 75.5 per cent among respondents
who had already considered starting a business or becoming self-employed, as
can be seen in Table 13.17.
The learning style advocated by the respondents focused primarily on experi-
mentation and feld activities. As was seen above, work terms were by far the
most popular (42.5 per cent),
6
followed by case studies of business start-ups
Table 13.16 Awareness of services comparison according to start-up efforts
Knows
Entrepreneuriat
Laval
(%)
Knows REEL
(%)
All respondents 21.7 6.5
Is actively trying to start a business 26.3 0
Has ever thought to start a business or
become self-employed
29.1 11.6
258 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
(19.5 per cent). Respondents who were also actively trying to start up a business
also preferred work terms (36.8 per cent) and case studies (21.1 per cent).
These results are consistent with those of the 2000 study in which the students
showed a preference for workshops, simulations, company visits and meetings
with entrepreneurs. Potential entrepreneurs thus seemed to prefer practical
methods rather than theory and lecture courses.
Extra-academic Activities
The extra-academic activities preferred by students from the faculties
7
that had
the highest rates of interest in entrepreneurship were essentially the same. Table
13.18 presents the three most preferred activity categories by faculty.
Moreover, the choice of extra-academic activities according to the respond-
ents’ motivation to start up a business is presented in Table 13.19.
It would seem that there were unanimous opinions concerning the relevance of
three activities (SME counselling services, business plan competitions and student
entrepreneur clubs) with regard to their contribution to entrepreneurship.
CONCLUSION
This exploratory study is far from being exhaustive. Nonetheless, it gives a
good idea of the entrepreneurial potential of Laval University students, espe-
cially if an ‘Entrepreneurship Profile’ is set up on the campus (The
‘Entrepreneurial Profle’ is intended to be a series of credited courses and
projects which can be taken by any student on the campus; the label ‘Entre-
Table 13.17 Intention concerning entrepreneurial training according to
start-up efforts
Interested in
taking credited
courses
(%)
Not interested
in taking credited
courses
(%)
Is actively trying to start a business 57.9 42.1
Is not actively trying to start a business 40.3 59.7
Has ever thought to start a business or
become self-employed
75.5 27.5
Has never thought to start a business or
become self-employed
24.7 75.3
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 259
preneurial Profle’ will then be written on the Diploma of the students involved
in the ‘Profle’). It also provides an overall picture of entrepreneurship among
the students of a university campus. This university campus has a long experi-
ence of entrepreneurial training, research and services; it is presented here as
an illustration of what can be done in a particular setting, and does not pretend
to be representative of what should be done elsewhere. Entrepreneurship, as
we have shown in Figure 13.1, is infuenced by many environmental and social
factors; an entrepreneurial culture will emerge and evolve within a specifc
surrounding, and at a rate which is consistent with these dimensions. At Laval
University, for example, as was seen above, the prevalence rate of emerging
student entrepreneurs was 28 per cent greater than that of the general Canadian
population,
8
a sizeable portion of the students being actively involved in busi-
ness start-up or pre-start-up. Likewise, more than 32 per cent of the interviewed
Table 13.19 Preferred extra-academic activities according to start-up
efforts
Small business
counselling
services
(%)
Business plan
competition
(%)
Student
entrepreneurs
association
(%)
Is actively trying to
start a business
47.4 21.1 21.1
Is not actively trying to
start a business
40.8 26.9 19.1
Table 13.18 Preferred extra-academic activities according to the area of
study
Small business
counselling
services
(%)
Business plan
competition
(%)
Student
entrepreneurs
association
(%)
Administration 48.0 24.5 14.7
Engineering 42.5 26.4 18.9
Social sciences 35.2 32.4 16.9
Urban planning,
architecture and arts
42.1 36.8 10.5
260 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
students had already considered starting up a business or one day being
self-employed.
The main idea that emerged from this study was that Laval University students
would like academic and extra-academic support that is based on experiential
and practical methods. They would also like Laval University to become more
committed in its support for business start-up. Mentoring and support pro-
grammes, work terms, fnancing and business networks are methods that would
seem to respond to the students’ needs. Finally, respondents knew little or noth-
ing about the entrepreneurship support organizations at Laval University.
It bears repeating that the entrepreneurial potential of environments, be they
universities or not, can change over time. This potential can grow through various
initiatives and environmental changes that foster the emergence of entrepre-
neurial talent or make more effective use of existing talent.
Displaying a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship, expressing approval
in university programmes and the media, presenting entrepreneurship as a life-
style, promoting successful entrepreneurship through social recognition and
honours, reinforcing aptitudes, watching out for opportunities, and including
discovery, inventions and risk in pedagogical content, are all factors that will
help to promote entrepreneurship and increase our use of the creative capacities
that are already part of the university environment, because, ultimately, the evo-
lution of entrepreneurship depends on the interaction between individual
characteristics and socio-environmental factors.
NOTES
1. A copy of this questionnaire is available at the Centre d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME.
2. National Study on the Entrepreneurial Process and Firms’ Birth, Québec City, Centre
d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME, 2000.
3. 581 respondents were in this category.
4. Centre d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME, Laval University, Enquête pour la mise en place d’un
programme en entrepreneuriat technologique, November 1995.
5. Tremblay (2000).
6. The results correspond to the frst response choice of the respondents.
7. The faculties in question are administrative sciences, sciences and engineering, social sciences,
urban planning, architecture and visual arts.
8. According to the National Study on the Entrepreneurial Process and Firms’ Birth, conducted
by the Centre d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME in 2000.
REFERENCES
Albert, P., M. Bernasconi and F.X. Boucand (1999), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat
au CERAM: une histoire avec Sophia Antipolis’, in Bertrand Saporta (ed.), Actes du
premier congrès de l’Académie de l’entrepreneuriat, Lille.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 261
Audet, J. (2001), ‘Une étude des aspirations entrepreneuriales d’étudiants universitaires
québécois: seront-ils des entrepreneurs de demain?’, in Thomas A. Bryant (ed.), Actes
du Congrès de l’Association Canadienne des Sciences Administratives du Canada,
Section Entrepreneuriat et affaires familiales, Toronto, 22 (21), 31–41.
Bechard, J.P. and J.M. Toulouse (1998), ‘Validation of a didactic model for the analysis
of training objectives in entrepreneurship’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13 (4),
317–32.
Bhidé, A.V. (2000), The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses, New York: Oxford
University Press.
Chen, C.C., P.G. Greene and A. Crick (1998), ‘Does entrepreneurial self-effcacy distin-
guish entrepreneurs from managers?’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13 (4),
295–316.
Cooper, A.C., W.C. Dunkelberg, C.Y. Woo and W.J. Dennis (1990), New Business in
America: The Firms and their Owners, NFIB Foundation. Washington, DC.
Cox, L.W., S.L. Mueller and S.E. Moss (2003), ‘The impact of entrepreneurship educa-
tion on entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship
Education, 1 (2), 229–47.
Davidsson, P. and B. Honig (2003), ‘The role of social and human capital among nascent
entrepreneurs’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18 (2), 301–440.
Ehrlich, S.B., A.F. De Noble, D. Jung and D. Pearson (2000), ‘The impact of entrepre-
neurship training programs on an individual’s entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, Frontiers
of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.babson.edu/
entrep/fer, accessed 21 October 2001.
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat dans le système éducatif
supérieur: un regard sur la situation actuelle’, Revue Gestion 2000, 3, 77–95.
Fayolle, A. (2002), ‘Les déterminants de l’acte entrepreneurial chez les étudiants et les
jeunes diplômés de l’enseignement supérieur français’, Revue Gestion 2000, 4,
61–77.
Fayolle, A. (2003), Le métier de créateur d’entreprise, Paris: Editions d’Organisation.
Fiet, J.O. (2001a), ‘The pedagogical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16 (2), 101–17.
Filion, L.J. (2002), Savoir entreprendre: douze modèles de réussite, Montréal, CA: Les
Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
Filion, L.J., D. L’Heureux, D. Kadji-Youaleu and F. Bellavance (2002), ‘L’entrepreneuriat
comme carrière potentielle: une évaluation en milieu universitaire’, Chaire
d’entrepreneurship Maclean-Hunter, Cahier de recherche 2002–04, Montreal,
HEC.
Fortin, P.A. (2002), La culture entrepreneuriale: un antidote à la pauvreté, Québec, CA:
Les Éditions de la Fondation de l’Entrepreneurship.
Gasse, Y. and A. D’Amours (2000), Profession: Entrepreneur, Montréal: Les Éditions
Transcontinentales.
Gorman, G., D. Hanlon and W. King (1998), ‘Some research perspectives on entrepreneur-
ship education, enterprise education and education for small business management: a
ten-year literature review’, International Small Business Journal, 3 (4), 56–77.
Hansemark, O.C. (1998), ‘The effects of an entrepreneurship program on need for
achievement and locus of control of reinforcement’, International Journal of Entre-
preneurial Behaviour and Research, 4 (1), 28–50.
Katz, J.A. (2003), ‘The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American entrepreneur-
ship education 1876–1999’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18, 283–300.
262 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Kolvereid, L. (1996a), ‘Prediction of employment status choice intentions’, Entrepre-
neurship Theory and Practice, 20 (3), 45–57.
Kolvereid, L. (1996b), ‘Organisational employment versus self-employment: reasons
for career choice intentions’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 20 (3), 23–31.
Krueger, N.F. (2000), ‘The cognitive infrastructure of opportunity emergence’, Entre-
preneurship Theory and Practice, 24, 5–23.
Krueger, N.F. and A.L. Carsrud (1993), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions: applying the theory
of planned behaviour’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 5, 315–30.
Menzies, T.V. (2000), Entrepreneurship Education in Canada, Montreal: John Dobson
Foundation.
Menzies, T.V., Y. Gasse, M. Diochon and D. Garand (2002), ‘Nascent entrepreneurs in
Canada: an empirical study’, ICSB 47th World Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Noel, T.W. (2001), ‘Effects of entrepreneurial education on intent to open a business’,
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.
babson.edu/entrep/fer, accessed 7 June 2001.
Obrecht, J.J. (1998), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training in France: a new challenge
to the universities’, 8th Global Inter-Ent Conference, Oestrich/Winkel, Germany.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1998), Stimuler
l’esprit d’entreprise, Paris: OECD.
Reynolds, P. (1995), ‘Explaining regional variation in business births and deaths: US
1976–88’, Small Business Economics, 7 (5), 153–227.
Reynolds, P. (1997), ‘Who starts new frms?’, Small Business Economics, 9 (1),
190–204.
Shapero, A. and L. Sokol (1982), ‘The social dimensions of entrepreneurship’, in C.
Kent, D. Sexton and K. Vesper (eds), The Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 72–90.
Solomon, G.T., S. Duffy and A. Tarabishy (2002), ‘The state of entrepreneurship educa-
tion in the United States: a nationwide survey and analysis’, International Journal of
Entrepreneurship Education, 1 (1), 65–87.
Tkachev, A. and L. Kolvereid (1999), ‘Self-employment intentions among Russian stu-
dents’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 11 (3), 269–80.
Tremblay, G. (2000), ‘Profl des entrepreneurs potentiels de l’Université Laval’, essay,
September, Université Laval, Quebec.
Varela, R. and J.E Jimenez (2001), ‘The effect of entrepreneurship education in the uni-
versities of Cali’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference
Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer, accessed 8 December 2001.
Vesper, K.H. and W.B. Gartner (2001), Compendium of Entrepreneur Programs, Los
Angeles, CA: Lloyd Grief Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Southern
California.
263
14. Motivations and drawbacks
concerning entrepreneurial action: a
study of French PhD students
Jean-Pierre Boissin, Jean-Claude Castagnos
and Bérangère Deschamps
Over the last few years the number of hours dedicated to the entrepreneurial
awareness of students in schools and universities has greatly increased. It is true
that France was responsible for a certain delay in this domain (see, for example,
action run in Quebec; Menzies, 2002), especially as during the last 10 years the
number of new ventures has declined or is stabilized (270 000 new ventures by
year). It is important to remember that the number of creation was over 304 000
in 1990 and over 280 000 in 1995. The French statistical institute (INSEE) in-
cludes new ventures from scratch, re-creations and takeovers in the global
fgures. The number of creations from scratch is increasing (178 000 in 2002,
200 000 in 2003). The latter (200 000) represents the known goal of the French
government with the Dutreil Law (2003). This good score can be infuenced by
this law or can be explained as a response of the economic recession: creating
one’s own frm is the way to create one’s own job. Due to this fact, the French
state has tried to implement measures (economic and fnancial) aimed at stimu-
lating and motivating the entrepreneurial mind and at stimulating innovation
and research.
The sixth measure of the Department of Industry and Research’s innovation
plan (2002) highlights the need to develop an entrepreneurial course aimed at
encouraging the entrepreneurial mind. One type of action involves the creation
of entrepreneurial centres on French university campuses. Grenoble is an ex-
perimental site with the creation of an entrepreneurial centre in 2002. Different
performance indicators are going to be used in this study, some of which show
how students’ entrepreneurial intentions have evolved. Databases will be con-
structed using this information, thus offering a wider range of data for
researchers, in particular CERAG (the management laboratory of Grenoble,
specializing in entrepreneurship). At the time of the proposition concerning a
prototype of the entrepreneurial centres (Boissin, 2003) and in continuation of
research by Fayolle (1999; 2001) and Verstraete (2000), a questionnaire was
264 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
distributed to 74 PhD students concerning their entrepreneurial intentions and
their perception of entrepreneurial awareness. This chapter analyses these data
in more depth by trying to class these PhD students by ‘type’ depending on their
perceived motivations and perceived drawbacks to start a business. These PhD
students are tomorrow’s researchers and represent those of the French popula-
tion targeted by the ministerial innovation plan. Knowing how PhD students of
the pure sciences view new ventures can help to provide better information and
to help make future students aware of this feld.
The frst section of this chapter details the theoretical and practical aspects
of the work carried out. There follows a description of the methods used, an
analysis of the results obtained and a discussion of potential future action to be
taken concerning students.
THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL AIMS
Starting a business is a process in which incentives is the most important (Bird,
1988; Katz and Gartner, 1988). Incentives models such as those of planed be-
haviour (Ajzen, 1987; 1991) seems consistent, simple and robust to understand
start-up processes (Krueger, 1993). This theory has recently been used in several
studies (Emin, 2003; Fayolle, 2004; Tounès, 2003). Anyway, this work is a frst
step as to state of minds of the students and the representation about new busi-
nesses of the PhDs. Incentives models will be used in further researches. The
aims of this work are important for many different reasons. In order to undertake
suitable action, students’ opinions concerning start-ups need to be known.
Contact with entrepreneurship can take place in three different ways: pure
awareness, specialization and experimentation (Albert and Marion, 1998).
However, these three levels of intervention depend also upon how students view
entrepreneurial action. Entrepreneurial intentions are most notably expressed
in diverse ways depending on a student’s level of study (degree, master’s, PhD,
and so on). At the moment in Grenoble, awareness methods differ throughout
the learning process.
An analysis of entrepreneurial typologies (Daval et al., 2002) shows that a
favourable attitude towards entrepreneurial action is closely linked to a per-
son’s background. This includes individuals intrinsic features (age, gender)
as well as values linked with their past (education, professional experience)
and relational elements which could also have infuenced the individual’s
choices (Lorrain and Dussault, 1998). An individual’s past conditions his or
her entrepreneurial capacity. His or her specifc attitude regarding entrepre-
neurial action is closely linked to his or her experience, education and
upbringing (Lafuente and Salas, 1989; Laufer, 1975). The students’ current
environment thus seems to have an infuence on their willingness to engage
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 265
themselves in an entrepreneurial action and also on their initial reaction to
entrepreneurial action. Students’ current environment is represented by their
university, their studies and by their extra-curricular activities. It is possible
to take action in order to orientate a student’s environment towards entrepre-
neurial action. To do this, it is essential to understand how the student views
new ventures in order to detect elements susceptible to reducing the student’s
wish to embark on entrepreneurial action and in order to detect elements sus-
ceptible to increasing this wish. This is a way to propose devices adapted to
individuals’ needs. Each entrepreneur and thus each future entrepreneur comes
from a different background and is motivated by different factors (Woo et al.,
1988).
Several factors come into play during entrepreneurial action, internal and
external, and negative (dissatisfaction at work, unwanted moves, technical
and creative frustrations) and positive (fnancial offers, offers of partnership)
(Baronet, 1996). These factors provide reasons both for and against entrepre-
neurial action. This chapter thus identifes and analyses the motivations of the
PhD students questioned and the drawbacks they perceive to starting a busi-
ness. Incentives have been researched a lot these past few years, particularly
in the feld of marketing the incentives of purchasing. We have seen that some
recent works have applied these theoretical models to entrepreneurship, no-
tably the incentives for creating (see Emin, 2004). This survey is a test for a
larger analysis of all the students in Grenoble who follow courses in entrepre-
neurship. The aim of this larger analysis is not to study the gap between
intention and action for several reasons. First, it seems impossible to trace
the students post-university; such a work would implicate personal involve-
ment to gain information that cannot be generalized. Second, some students
follow courses integrated in their whole curriculum. They have no choice but
to study this discipline, but some of them have no intention of starting a busi-
ness. Third, the success of training cannot be evaluated by the number of new
ventures just after this training. The curriculum can consolidate the building
of a favourable feld that could be exploited 10 years later. Thus this new
creation as it might be in 10 years’ time could not be taken into consideration
here.
METHODOLOGY
A questionnaire was sent to PhD students in 2003 attending university in Gre-
noble. Seventy-four PhD students flled out this questionnaire. Their profles
are very different: 65 per cent male, 35 per cent female. Of these 60.8 per cent
are currently studying pure sciences, 32.4 per cent are at the Engineering School.
Those studying social sciences and literature are few, 5.4 per cent and 1.4 per
266 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
cent respectively. Two-thirds of the sample is in the second year, the rest in the
fnal stages of their thesis. Our sample is quite heterogeneous, but regardless of
their education the students have in common that they have chosen the PhD
seminar in management.
The questionnaire was aimed at collecting information rapidly and on a
larger scale than that allowed by carrying out qualitative interviews concern-
ing PhD students’ perceptions of start-ups and educational actions aimed at
increasing students’ knowledge of entrepreneurial action. Different precau-
tions were taken in order to guarantee the robustness of the methodology used
and the understanding of the questions asked: the questionnaire was read by
several experts before being distributed to students (university lecturers, en-
trepreneurial representatives). The questionnaire includes closed, dichotomics
and multichotomics questions. The answers from the completed question-
naires have been coded using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences) version 10.0. The multichotomic questions have been phrased using
a 7-point Likert scale and are aimed at transforming qualitative information
into quantitative information (Lambin, 1994). These questions concern precise
points, for example, entrepreneurial motivations and drawbacks of start-ups.
They allow a multivariate statistical analysis in order to defne student
typologies.
The choices for a best statistical confguration take into account all factors
and groups retained for this study. This chapter details the statistical analysis
sequences for all questions related to students’ motivations. The same procedure
has been used in relation to drawbacks perceived by students.
In factor analysis, the number of observations must be superior, from 30 to
50, to the number of variables (Donada and Mbengue, 1999). This study com-
prised 74 observations for 19 variables. The Barlett test indicates a rejection of
the hypothesis of equality of interrelationship and identity matrices, and the test
of Kaiser Meyer and Olkin, minimum threshold equal to 0.5, is judged suffcient
(KMO: 0.525). The number of factors is determined using the Kaiser rule (ma-
trix identity values greater than one). Analysis of Cattell’s scree test has
confrmed this number. Six factors have been retained explaining the 66.4 per
cent variance. All variables have a representation quality greater than 0.5 (a
minimum requirement). The interpretation of all factors is carried out after rota-
tion of these factors according to the Varimax method.
For the typological analysis, following the analysis of the dendrogram by
Ward’s hierarchical procedure and a dynamic multitude, fve groups remain
(Table 14.1).
The Fisher test (permitting the testing of the validity of the typology) and the
analysis of the variance also cause us to keep this number of groups, as the sig-
nifcance of the factors is below 0.050. The fourth group contains more persons
than the others. The distribution of PhD students’ motivations is thus not ho-
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 267
mogenous. The interpretation of the different groups is thus delicate and requires
the complement of discriminative analysis.
In order to do a valid multiple discriminative analysis, the variable to be ex-
plained must be nominal (this is the case as we are dealing with quick cluster
as determined by the software during the factorial analysis) and the explanatory
variables measured on interval scales. Two statistical tests should be used. The
Bartlett test (result correct) and the Box test (compliant in so far as it rejects the
equality of the matrices). The highest identity values are associated with the
most discriminative functions. Our results show four mains axes (Table 14.2),
the frst two being the most discriminative: they explain 42 per cent and 28 per
cent respectively of the variance.
The factors 6, 3, 5 and 1 are the most discriminative in the construction of
the four axes.
RESULTS/DISCUSSION
The statistical analysis of the questionnaires determines the features of the type
of PhD student most likely to start a business. In order to complete these results,
multivaried analysis is used.
Table 14.1 Typology of students’ motivations
Final clusters Classe
1 2 3 4 5
REGR factor score
1 for analysis 1 2.03899 .07566 .28160 –.26662 –.34819
REGR factor score
2 for analysis 1 1.64990 –.17164 .22529 –.58821 .45584
REGR factor score
3 for analysis 1 –1.24083 .04081 1.19383 –.22208 –.60520
REGR factor score
4 for analysis 1 –.36240 .20824 –.72047 .30203 .18964
REGR factor score
5 for analysis 1 1.27904 –.31721 .09264 .56494 –1.05056
REGR factor score
6 for analysis 1 .69319 1.83593 –.26165 –.35450 –.51006
268 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 14.2 Axes determined by the discriminative analysis (structure
matrix)
Function
1 2 3 4
REGR factor score
6 for analysis 1 .601* –.504 .197 –.513
REGR factor score
3 for analysis 1 .194 .584* –.119 –.532
REGR factor score
4 for analysis 1 –.136 –.234* .220 –.025
REGR factor score
5 for analysis 1 .193 .259 .637* .473
REGR factor score
2 for analysis 1 .136 –.074 –.535* .341
REGR factor score
1 for analysis 1 .295 .030 –.106 .368*
A Strong Link between Awareness and Intention to Create a Venture
We work on an enlarged defnition of entrepreneurship including a broad diver-
sity of entrepreneurial situations and forms, which is far from the traditional
view of the entrepreneur. However, this broad view of entrepreneurial action
also has its limits as far as the study of PhD students’ entrepreneurial intentions
is concerned. Indeed, no less than 75 per cent have entrepreneurial intentions
but only one-third concern the creation of a new business. It is therefore diffcult
to construct links between different variables (gender, sensitization) and entre-
preneurial intention, even if several interesting results appear concerning the
intention to create an enterprise.
Gender and entrepreneurial intention are closely linked. Men are more open
to start-up projects. In other words, drawbacks to entrepreneurial action as
perceived by women are an infuence early on, before the domestic role (preg-
nancy, motherhood, for example) becomes an issue or these variables are
anticipated.
In the same way, educational awareness of entrepreneurship is closely linked
to intention to create a business. This result is encouraging for entrepreneurial
awareness which also seems to be linked to a greater knowledge of the assist-
ance (incubators) and causes for people wishing to start an enterprise. However,
education and courses concerning start-ups do not seem to have much infuence
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 269
on entrepreneurial action. In other words, the action of awareness must aim at
informing people regarding the creation or takeover of a frm. For the remainder,
young people have perhaps less need to be informed. For instance, the actions
of the entrepreneurial centres should use the experiences of collective projects
as a means of awareness rather than treating them as an aim. Information pro-
grammes are much more frequent in engineering schools and in social science
courses at university than in pure science courses.
The Image/Perception of Motivations and Drawbacks to Enterprise
Creation
The main motivations are:
l the development of a project, a technique or an ability
l team spirit, group dynamics
l search for independence
l the idea of a challenge.
Other motivations proposed were less ‘favourable’:
l individualism, recognition, power
l fnancial gain, maximization of proftability
l risk.
The main drawbacks are:
l the risk
l the fnancial requirement and the lack of capital
l a lack of awareness during the education
l the administrative procedures.
The following drawbacks are quantitatively less important: French culture, the
appeal of a steady income, taking on new responsibilities and a lack of inspira-
tion for a new business.
Construction of a Typology of PhD Students According to their
Perception of Motivations and Drawbacks to Start-ups
A multivariate analysis identifes fve groups of motivations. These groups are
interpreted following the determination of six factors. Factor 1 re-groups moti-
vations concerned with a search for independence, autonomy, the absence of a
superior and a wish to control his or her professional environment. This factor
270 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
correlates negatively with the variable ‘maximize proftability’. This factor is
linked to motivations generally identifed with start-ups and a wish for independ-
ence. These motivations are found in different entrepreneurial typologies
(Casson, 1991; Cooper and Artz, 1993; Dunkelberg and Cooper, 1982; Filion,
1997; Julien and Marchesnay, 1996; Lafuente and Salas, 1989; Laufer, 1975;
Siu, 1995; Woo et al., 1991).
Factor 2 is linked to fnancial and material aspects: maximization of wealth
and proftability, a search for fnancial gain and a motivation to create one’s own
job. To the authors mentioned for factor 1, one can add Miner (1997). The frst
two factors are much used in scientifc literature linked with entrepreneurial
actions.
Factor 3 concerns collective dynamics, team spirit and project development.
This factor is interesting in so far as it appears very little in literature.
Factor 4 is linked to two variables: a research for recognition and power (the
majority of authors agree on the choice of these two motivating factors).
Factor 5 includes variables concerned with the individual character of entre-
preneurial action: taking decisions alone, individualism, risk, the challenge (less
so as this variable is only weakly correlated – 0.493). These variables are linked
to a ‘locus of control’, particularly present in works by Bird (1986), Davidsson
(1988), Ray (1993), Deakins (1996) and Miner (1997).
Factor 6 comprises two variables: creation in order to exploit one’s knowledge
and for pleasure.
The identifcation of these factors enables us to interpret the fve groups of
PhD students concerning their motivations for enterprise creation (see Table
14.1).
The frst group only includes three people who judge that the motivations for
entrepreneurial action only concern gain, research of power and a control over
individual destiny. Factors 1, 2 and 4 are representative of this group, which
also manifests a negative score for Factor 3. For these students entrepreneurial
action is decidedly individual. This interpretation is confrmed by a discriminant
analysis as this group is negative on axis 2 which relates to team spirit. This
perception of entrepreneurship is brought by media which focus the entrepre-
neur’s testimony on proft and control of others.
The nine PhD students in group 2 consider motivations to create as being a
search for pleasure and the exploitation of personal knowledge. The relationship
between this group and factor 6 is strong. The discriminative analysis completes
this interpretation: the group is negative on the axis 4 which represents inde-
pendence. The entrepreneurial action therefore corresponds to an adventure
where the project initiator gains pleasure; independence is not a primary factor
of importance.
Typological and discriminative analyses converge for the interpretation of
the results for this group of 14 students, which are largely correlated with factor
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 271
3. Entrepreneurial action is seen as being a collective adventure. It is interesting
to notice that over half the members of this group have declared an entrepre-
neurial intention. The creation of an activity within an existing organization is
coherent with the idea that these students think about motivations to business
creation.
Twenty-two PhD students consider that motivations that push an individual
to undertake entrepreneurial action concern a search for an individual risk.
Discriminative analysis shows that this group is negative on axis 1, which is
concerned with a search for pleasure, this axis is the most discriminative. Two-
thirds of this group of students are not involved with an association. For them,
entrepreneurial action is motivated by risk that they, for the moment, are not
willing to take. Thirty-fve per cent of students who have already received in-
formation concerning entrepreneurial action are in this group.
The last group contains 14 students for whom entrepreneurial action is moti-
vated by a search for wealth and power but without risk. Scores are strongly
negative for factor 5, less so for factor 3. Factor 2 is weakly correlated (
In such a brief criteria with regards to entrepreneurship international entrepreneurship education.
International Entrepreneurship Education
International
Entrepreneurship
Education
Issues and Newness
Edited by
Alain Fayolle
EM Lyon and CERAG Laboratory, France, and Solvay Business
School, Belgium
Heinz Klandt
European Business School, Germany
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
© Alain Fayolle and Heinz Klandt, 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Glensanda House
Montpellier Parade
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 1UA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
136 West Street
Suite 202
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
International entrepreneurship education: issues and newness/edited by
Alain Fayolle, Heinz Klandt.
p. cm.
Selections from the proceedings of the 2003 INET conference in Grenoble.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Business education—Congresses. 2. Business education—Cross-cultural
studies—Congresses. 3. Entrepreneurship—Study and teaching—Congresses.
4. Entrepreneurship—Cross-cultural studies—Congresses. I. Title:
Entrepreneurship education. II. Fayolle, Alain. III. Klandt, Heinz.
HF1102.I585 2006
650.071’1—dc22
2005052825
ISBN-13: 978 1 84542 179 3
ISBN-10: 1 84542 179 5
Typeset by Manton Typesetters, Louth, Lincolnshire, UK
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
v
Contents
Contributors vii
Foreword by Allan Gibb ix
1 Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education: new
lenses for new practical and academic questions 1
Alain Fayolle and Heinz Klandt
PART ONE KEY ISSUES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
2 Learning and teaching entrepreneurship: dilemmas, refections
and strategies 21
Per Blenker, Poul Dreisler, Helle M. Færgeman and John Kjeldsen
3 Entrepreneurship education: can business schools meet the
challenge? 35
David A. Kirby
4 To support the emergence of academic entrepreneurs: the role of
business plan competitions 55
Lorella Cannavacciuolo, Guido Capaldo, Gianluca Esposito, Luca
Iandoli and Mario Raffa
5 Attitudes, intentions and behaviour: new approaches to evaluating
entrepreneurship education 74
Alain Fayolle and Jean Michel Degeorge
PART TWO ABOUT THE NEWNESS IN METHODOLOGICAL
APPROACHES TO TEACH ENTREPRENEURSHIP
6 The continental and Anglo-American approaches to
entrepreneurship education – differences and bridges 93
Paula Kyrö
7 Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 112
Asko Miettinen
vi Contents
8 Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? An
empirical evaluation of business plan competitions 133
Benoît Gailly
9 Skills demonstrations: a possibility for meaningful co-operation
with work-life in internationalizing vocational education 155
Seija Mahlamäki-Kultanen
10 Pathways to new business opportunities: innovations and
strategies for the entrepreneurial classroom 168
Jill Kickul
PART THREE DIFFUSING AND PROMOTING
ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE AND
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL POTENTIAL
11 Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering college
students: what are the educational factors? 191
Caroline Verzat and Rémi Bachelet
12 Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs: a
comparative study between Italy and Argentina 218
Sergio Postigo, Donato Iacobucci and María Fernanda Tamborini
13 Entrepreneurship education among students at a Canadian
university: an extensive empirical study of students’
entrepreneurial preferences and intentions 241
Yvon Gasse and Maripier Tremblay
14 Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action: a
study of French PhD students 263
Jean-Pierre Boissin, Jean-Claude Castagnos and Bérangère
Deschamps
15 Entrepreneurship education for the African informal sector 277
Hanas A. Cader and David W. Norman
Index 297
vii
Contributors
Rémi Bachelet, Ecole Centrale de Lille, France
Per Blenker, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Jean-Pierre Boissin, Université Pierre Mendès France, CERAG, Grenoble,
France
Hanas A. Cader, South Carolina State University, USA
Lorella Cannavacciuolo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Guido Capaldo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Jean-Claude Castagnos, Université Pierre Mendès France, CERAG, Grenoble,
France
Jean Michel Degeorge, ESC Saint-Etienne, France
Bérangère Deschamps, Université Pierre Mendès France, CERAG, Grenoble,
France
Poul Dreisler, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Gianluca Esposito, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Helle M. Færgeman, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Alain Fayolle, EM Lyon and CERAG Laboratory, France, and Solvay Business
School, Belgium
Benoît Gailly, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Yvon Gasse, Laval University, Canada
Allan Gibb, University of Durham, Foundation for SME Development,
England
Donato Iacobucci, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy
Luca Iandoli, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Jill Kickul, Simmons School of Management, USA
David A. Kirby, University of Surrey, England
viii Contributors
John Kjeldsen, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Heinz Klandt, European Business School, Germany
Paula Kyrö, University of Tampere, Finland
Seija Mahlamäki-Kultanen, University of Tampere, Finland
Asko Miettinen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
David W. Norman, Kansas State University, USA
Sergio Postigo, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina
Mario Raffa, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
María Fernanda Tamborini, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina
Maripier Tremblay, Laval University, Canada
Caroline Verzat, Ecole Centrale de Lille, France
ix
Foreword
Allan Gibb
I have had the privilege to be in touch with the Internationalizing Entrepreneur-
ship Education and Training (IntEnt) conference initiative since its inception
and have been lucky enough to participate in many of its workshops. Like most
small enterprises it arose from slender beginnings, driven by an entrepreneur
with the vision, Heinz Klandt. It has gained in conceptual and pragmatic
strength, and in numbers, over the years. Most importantly, in my view, it has
served to create a wider view of the concept of entrepreneurship education,
challenging in some respects the dominant US paradigm. As international inter-
est in entrepreneurship education has grown, so, appropriately, has the dynamic
of the contributions.
This volume, selected from the proceedings of the 2003 Conference in Gre-
noble, marks another distinctive step. The overall theme is one of challenge to
the knowledge conventions, the context, the location and pedagogy of entrepre-
neurship education. Alongside several contributions from distinguished authors
in the feld, there are relative newcomers with insights to challenge the reader,
both empirical and conceptual.
IntEnt has always been driven by the desire to make sense of things to the
teacher and policy-maker in the entrepreneurship feld. It never has been an
empty vessel to be flled with purely academic papers in the traditional research
conference single disciplinary mode. It draws from many different conceptual
frames and is unafraid to embrace creative pragmatism. This volume is no ex-
ception and as such is always stimulating.
1
1. Issues and newness in the feld of
entrepreneurship education: new
lenses for new practical and academic
questions
Alain Fayolle and Heinz Klandt
Following a trend initiated in the USA in the 1970s (Fiet, 2001), the number of
public and private initiatives to train and educate people to be more entrepre-
neurial have multiplied on both sides of the Atlantic (see, for example, Fayolle,
2000; Klandt, 2004). Those entrepreneurship education programmes respond
to, on the one hand, an increasing interest from students about entrepreneurial
careers (Brenner et al., 1991; Fleming, 1994; Hart and Harrison, 1992; Kolv-
ereid, 1996) and, on the other hand, an increasing awareness from public
authorities about the importance of entrepreneurship as a contributor to eco-
nomic development (Hytti and Kuopusjärvi, 2004).
In the context of this book we defne entrepreneurship education in a wide
sense as any pedagogical programme or process of education for entrepreneurial
attitudes and skills, which involves developing certain personal qualities. It is
therefore not exclusively focused on the immediate creation of new businesses.
Hence this defnition covers a wide variety of situations, aims, methods and
teaching approaches.
The introductory chapter pursues two objectives. First, we would like to
highlight some changes in the paradigmatic approach of entrepreneurship educa-
tion and their consequences on research in the feld. Secondly, we provide an
overview of the book through a presentation of the chapters.
TOWARDS A CHANGE OF PARADIGM IN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION?
Entrepreneurship education is becoming a great focal point of interest for re-
searchers since a dedicated conference
1
to that topic appeared in the scientifc
world at the beginning of the 1990s. As the entrepreneurship concept itself is
2 International entrepreneurship education
diffcult to defne, there is no strong agreement on what entrepreneurship educa-
tion is and how it could be taught. A broad variety of researchers, practitioners
and teachers see entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education from different
angles and through specifc lenses (see, for example, Bouchikhi, 2003; Fayolle,
2004). For us (Fayolle, 2004; Fayolle and Senicourt, 2005), entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurship education can be seen (and defned?) at different levels:
l Entrepreneurship is a matter of culture (institutional point of view) or a
matter of state of mind (individual point of view). That means that entre-
preneurship education is helpful to create an entrepreneurial culture
within countries, societies, frms, associations, and so on, and/or to change
the mindset of individuals. Culture and state of mind could be mainly
approached in terms of values, beliefs and attitudes.
l Entrepreneurship is also a matter of behaviours. Organizations and indi-
viduals can develop entrepreneurial behaviours such as, for example,
those described by Stevenson (opportunity orientation, commitment to
opportunity orientation, commitment of resources, and so on)
2
or those
suggested through the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (Lumpkin
and Dess, 1996).
l Finally, entrepreneurship is a matter of specifc situations (new frm crea-
tion, corporate venturing, acquiring existing businesses, and so on)
including change, uncertainty, complexity and requiring entrepreneurial
behaviours such as those previously exposed and entrepreneurial compe-
tencies in relation to the features of these specifc situations.
Both individual and organizational dimensions have to be considered at each
level.
As Kirby (forthcoming) suggests, the traditional entrepreneurship education
paradigm has focused on new venture creation, the objective being: ‘To generate
more quickly a greater variety of different ideas for how to exploit a business
opportunity and … project a more extensive sequence of actions for entering
business’ (Vesper and McMullen, 1988: 9). This assertion is fully relevant with
the current contents of the most worldwide diffused textbooks in entrepreneur-
ship. In this paradigm the aim of entrepreneurship education is about teaching
students to start their own businesses. This is a concept of teaching entrepreneur-
ship which mainly focuses on the third level (specifc situations).
Gibb (2002; 2004a; 2004b) alternatively proposes a ‘modern’ paradigm in
entrepreneurship education which deals more with the frst (culture, state of mind)
and the second (behaviours) levels. Gibb’s departure point is to consider that the
considerable and growing interest in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship edu-
cation is related to a change of perceptions, coming from the globalization
phenomena, characterized by an increasing degree of environment complexity
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 3
and uncertainty. Governments, institutions (such as universities and schools),
organizations and frms, individuals are changing their perceptions of the world
and facing both the complexity and the uncertainty of that new world.
Nowadays, increasingly, each of us has to live with, deal with, create and
enjoy uncertainty and complexity (Gibb, 2004a). As Gibb states, there is a need
to move away from the traditional focus of entrepreneurship education on new
venture management, business plans, growth and innovation, to a broader con-
cept based on an understanding of the way that entrepreneurs live and learn.
Table 1.1 highlights the implications for entrepreneurship education and for
research in entrepreneurship education depending on the level considered (cul-
ture/behaviour/specifc situation) for positioning entrepreneurship.
To provide the reader with a good understanding of what our contribution is
and is not, let us briefy underline a couple of limits and precisions.
First, our approach to identify these implications was not exhaustive and,
obviously, Table 1.1 could be completed and considerably enriched.
Secondly, the proposed framework does not consider how the different levels
(culture/behaviour/specifc situation) and how the two dimensions (collective/
individual) relate to each other. Certainly, one can fnd at the crossroads and in
the interactions between these key elements new research issues and new en-
trepreneurship education questions.
Finally, we think that the modern paradigm is a new focus on other elements
(culture and behaviours), but it does not mean the traditional focus on new
venture creation and on entrepreneurial situations is neglected. From our point
of view, the modern paradigm is not an alternative to the past and ought not to
be seen as a substitute, but it is much more an extension of the traditional para-
digm. As the complexity of the world increases, the complexity of the
entrepreneurship education model has to increase too, through the inclusion of
new variables and new levels of conception.
Clearly, that change of paradigm and thoughts of what entrepreneurship edu-
cation is or should be, leads us as researchers in the feld to ask new research
questions which complete the old ones. However, old research questions remain,
as we shall see.
Classical research questions in the feld of entrepreneurship education mainly
revolve around the audiences, their needs, the educators, the contents and the
methods, and the actions. Brockhaus (1993) suggests a research agenda in en-
trepreneurship education. First, he thought we need to develop research
methodology for measuring entrepreneurial education. For instance, our current
research programme goes hand in hand with this objective (see Fayolle, 2005;
Fayolle and Gailly, 2004; Fayolle et al., 2005; Chapter 5 in this book). Particu-
larly, we try to take into consideration in our research methodology the main
elements. Brockhaus stated: ‘The student, the student needs, the type of instruc-
tor, the format and different outcomes over points in time’ (1993: 4).
4
T
a
b
l
e
1
.
1
F
r
o
m
a
t
r
a
d
i
t
i
o
n
a
l
t
o
a
m
o
d
e
r
n
p
a
r
a
d
i
g
m
i
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
:
s
o
m
e
i
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
e
d
u
c
a
t
o
r
s
,
p
r
a
c
t
i
t
i
o
n
e
r
s
a
n
d
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
e
r
s
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
a
s
a
m
a
t
t
e
r
o
f
…
C
u
l
t
u
r
e
o
r
s
t
a
t
e
o
f
m
i
n
d
B
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
S
p
e
c
i
f
c
s
i
t
u
a
t
i
o
n
s
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
o
f
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
a
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
b
e
c
r
e
a
t
e
d
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
d
e
s
i
g
n
a
n
d
s
e
t
u
p
a
f
a
v
o
u
r
a
b
l
e
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
t
o
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
p
o
l
i
t
i
c
i
a
n
s
a
n
d
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
e
r
s
t
o
h
e
l
p
t
h
e
m
i
n
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
i
n
g
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
o
r
i
e
n
t
a
t
i
o
n
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
s
k
i
l
l
s
a
n
d
c
o
m
p
e
t
e
n
c
i
e
s
i
n
r
e
l
a
t
i
o
n
t
o
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
r
e
l
a
t
e
t
h
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
t
o
o
t
h
e
r
s
s
u
c
h
a
s
s
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
c
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
o
r
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
?
C
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
v
e
l
e
v
e
l
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
(
c
o
n
t
e
n
t
s
a
n
d
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
)
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
v
a
l
u
e
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
p
o
s
i
t
i
v
e
a
t
t
i
t
u
d
e
s
t
o
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
b
e
s
t
c
o
n
t
e
n
t
s
a
n
d
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
t
o
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
t
e
a
c
h
i
n
d
e
p
e
n
d
e
n
t
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
(
m
a
i
n
l
y
n
e
w
v
e
n
t
u
r
e
c
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
)
?
W
h
o
c
a
n
t
e
a
c
h
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
t
o
r
e
a
c
h
t
h
e
o
b
j
e
c
t
i
v
e
s
?
I
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
l
e
v
e
l
5
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
i
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
i
z
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
d
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
b
e
t
w
e
e
n
c
o
u
n
t
r
i
e
s
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
i
n
f
u
e
n
c
e
s
o
f
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
,
p
r
o
f
e
s
s
i
o
n
a
l
a
n
d
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
i
d
e
n
t
i
t
i
e
s
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
?
W
h
a
t
d
o
e
s
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
m
e
a
n
(
w
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
k
e
y
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
s
)
?
A
r
e
t
h
e
r
e
o
r
g
a
n
i
z
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
f
r
a
m
e
w
o
r
k
s
o
r
c
o
n
d
i
t
i
o
n
s
m
o
r
e
f
a
v
o
u
r
a
b
l
e
t
h
a
n
o
t
h
e
r
s
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
i
z
e
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
b
u
i
l
d
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
b
r
i
d
g
e
s
b
e
t
w
e
e
n
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
a
n
d
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
A
r
e
t
h
e
r
e
s
p
e
c
i
f
c
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
a
n
d
c
o
n
t
e
n
t
s
t
o
t
e
a
c
h
c
o
r
p
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
?
C
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
v
e
l
e
v
e
l
I
m
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
f
o
r
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
i
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
i
z
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
m
e
a
s
u
r
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
t
h
e
e
f
f
e
c
t
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
p
i
r
i
t
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
t
h
e
e
f
f
e
c
t
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
n
i
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
?
W
h
a
t
a
r
e
t
h
e
f
a
c
t
o
r
s
w
h
i
c
h
c
o
u
l
d
h
a
v
e
a
n
i
n
f
u
e
n
c
e
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
?
H
o
w
c
a
n
w
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
t
h
e
e
f
f
e
c
t
s
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
e
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
n
t
h
e
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
t
h
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
e
v
e
n
t
a
n
d
t
h
e
d
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
t
s
t
a
g
e
s
o
f
t
h
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
p
r
o
c
e
s
s
?
I
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
l
e
v
e
l
6 International entrepreneurship education
Brockhaus also stated that we should examine what is taught to the audiences:
‘Do they need management education? Do they need information on entrepre-
neurial processes? Do they need technical skills? Do they need to be more highly
motivated?’ (1992: 4).
‘Who does the teaching?’ is also a research need underlined by Brockhaus.
In this way, ‘research should attempt to evaluate which ones are the most effec-
tive in which situation?’ (ibid., 1992: 4). Who are the ‘best’ teachers? Those
who have no formal education in entrepreneurship or those with advanced de-
grees? Those who have experienced entrepreneurship or those who have not?
Are entrepreneurs better teachers than non-entrepreneurs?
The last research need in Brockhaus’s research agenda is in relation to the
learning style perspective. Is there a specifc learning style with which to teach
entrepreneurship? As entrepreneurs seem to think and act differently from
managers, the format in which they learn most effectively should attract the at-
tention of researchers.
Table 1.1 shows us that traditional research questions remain in the modern
paradigm. They are completed by a growing interest in new research objects
such as entrepreneurial culture, entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial orienta-
tion, entrepreneurial potential, and so on. These new research objects need frst
to be defned and conceptualized, and then approached within the diversity of
pedagogical contexts and learning situations.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK: NEW LOOKS ON NEW
ISSUES
The chapters of this book certainly refect this change in paradigm and empha-
size the need to address both traditional and new research questions.
The authors come from 10 countries and three continents. All of them are
experienced in the feld of entrepreneurship education and have a good academic
practice. We see in this group some diversity in relation to the scope of the na-
tional cultures that are represented and homogeneity coming from a community
of practice. Both diversity and homogeneity are strongly evident in this edited
work.
The book includes three parts dealing with the new research questions in rela-
tion to entrepreneurship education and research. The frst addresses key issues
in relation to defnitional, evaluative and institutional questions. The second part
is dedicated to the methodological aspects approached through different con-
texts. The third part focuses on culture in a broad sense and on the new teaching
approaches of enterprising individuals.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 7
PART ONE: KEY ISSUES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION
The chapters which are included in this frst part of the book address both
traditional and new questions. The question of how to learn and teach entrepre-
neurship is at the heart of Chapter 2. It is probably one of the oldest questions
in the feld of entrepreneurship education. The collective dimension appears
strongly in Chapter 3 where the author is wondering about the capacity of some
institutions such as business schools to develop in the right way entrepreneurship
education. Chapter 4 exposes a review of existing approaches to support aca-
demic spin-offs and draws implications for the design of most effective frames
and tools. Finally, Chapter 5 deals with the assessment issue and elaborates on
a theoretical and methodological framework based on the theory of planned
behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) to measure the impact of entrepreneurship education
programmes on attitudes and behaviours of students. But let us have a look at
the chapters of the frst part in more detail.
Chapter 2 (by Blenker, Dreisler, Færgeman and Kjeldsen), ‘Learning and
teaching entrepreneurship: dilemmas, refections and strategies’, is centred on
a basic set of questions.
The question as to whether entrepreneurship could be learned, and whether
it should be taught as part of university studies in general and, more particularly,
as part of business studies, has been discussed for a number of years. The most
widespread answer today seems to be positive: yes, entrepreneurship can be
learned and should be taught.
For the authors, a major problem is that the traditional forms of teaching at
universities and business schools have shown themselves to be inappropriate for
enhancing the motivation and competencies of students towards innovation and
entrepreneurship. This phenomenon holds several dilemmas which are described
and discussed in the chapter. Most of these dilemmas are related to the relation-
ship between learning and teaching entrepreneurship, and to the question of
whether entrepreneurship or enterprising behaviour is to be promoted.
One dilemma is whether teaching should be for entrepreneurship or about
entrepreneurship, and another concerns the foundation of teaching; whether it
should be based on management theories or on some not-as-yet-defned theory
of entrepreneurship. A third dilemma concerns the situating of this education;
should it be placed within the secure context of the university auditorium or in
small frms – or perhaps somewhere in between academia and practice. A fourth
dilemma is whether students should work individually or in teams, and a ffth
is the question of how the substance of what is taught is formulated; whether
entrepreneurship is conceptualized as an art or a science.
To answer the fundamental questions they have identifed, the authors tran-
scend traditional ways of asking questions about how to teach entrepreneurship,
8 International entrepreneurship education
particularly by introducing three different, but related, levels of educational
decisions that a university should decide on when choosing entrepreneurship
education strategy.
Chapter 3 (by Kirby), ‘Entrepreneurship education: can business schools meet
the challenge?’ offers an original view on the institutional and educational
conditions which have been gathered to develop entrepreneurial culture and
entrepreneurial behaviours within business schools.
This chapter examines the characteristics and role of the entrepreneur and
the challenges for business schools posed by the need to develop more enterpris-
ing individuals. It argues that the traditional education system stultifes rather
than develops the requisite attributes and skills to produce entrepreneurs, and
proposes that, if entrepreneurs are to be developed, considerable changes are
required in both the content and process of learning. In particular the chapter
suggests that there needs to be a shift in the emphasis in learning from educating
‘about’ entrepreneurship to educating ‘for’ it. Equally it stresses that entrepre-
neurship should not be equated with new venture creation nor small business
management but with creativity and change. In this context it proposes that edu-
cational institutions need to change the process of learning to enable their
students to develop their right-brain entrepreneurial capabilities as well as their
left-brain analytical skills. Borrowing ideas from Chia (1996), the author argues
that business schools need to weaken the thought processes so as to encourage
and stimulate the entrepreneurial imagination.
Chapter 4 (by Cannavacciuolo, Capaldo, Esposito, Iandoli and Raffa), ‘To
support the emergence of academic entrepreneurs: the role of business plan
competitions’ is interested in reviewing and analysing existing approaches to
encourage academic spin-offs.
Therefore this chapter focuses on the academic spin-off creation process. More
specifcally, it analyses such process in its early stages. The successful implemen-
tation of academic spin-off programmes is hindered by cultural, organizational,
legal and fnancial barriers. To begin with, this chapter analyses barriers prevent-
ing academic spin-offs from being created. Secondly, the authors present an
overview of supports instrumental in overcoming such barriers. Thirdly, they
classify the key features of academic entrepreneurs. These aspects are then uti-
lized in order to identify some basic principles focused on the creation of effective
policies facilitating the establishment of academic spin-offs in areas that do not
excel in transforming research output into business-related activities.
More specifcally, the research work presented in this chapter analyses an
academic spin-off support programme implemented in Italy by the University
of Naples Federico II. The programme does not take into account all the phases
of the entrepreneurial process but only focuses on the frst phase of the academic
spin-off creation process. This phase is mainly aimed at facilitating the emer-
gence of new business ideas.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 9
To end the frst part of the book, Chapter 5 (by Fayolle and Degeorge), ‘Atti-
tudes, intentions and behaviors: new approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship
education’ deals with the key questions of ‘what should we measure?’ and ‘how
do we assess the impact of entrepreneurship education?’
Entrepreneurship teaching programmes and initiatives in educating people
towards entrepreneurship are growing throughout the world. In relation to this
development some practical and research key issues are rising. Among them,
the question of entrepreneurship teaching programmes assessment is probably
one of the most crucial both at a social and at a research level.
As the chapter shows, some research has been undertaken on this topic and
the greater part of it clearly underlines the complexity of the assessment ques-
tion, mainly in terms of indicator choice and because the measure itself is very
complicated due to the existence of late effects. Moreover, the feld of the en-
trepreneurship education is diversifed and heterogeneous, depending on the
teaching objectives, the audiences, the contents, the teacher profles, the peda-
gogical methods and approaches, and so on.
Based on this complex reality, the aim of the chapter is to show that it is pos-
sible to avoid some of these diffculties by reconsidering and reformulating the
assessment question. It seems to the authors that the most important result of
entrepreneurship education is not necessarily the creation of start-ups, but could
be, among educated students, mindset changes, attitude changes and the devel-
opment of an entrepreneurial orientation, measured through intentions. The
chapter is thus proposing a conceptual framework in assessing the entrepreneur-
ship education programme. This framework uses the theory of planned
behaviour elaborated by Ajzen (1991). Under the infuences of independent
variables related to entrepreneurship education programmes, the theory of
planned behaviour is a powerful tool to measure attitudes change towards en-
trepreneurial behaviour, changes in subjective norms, changes of perceived
entrepreneurial behaviour control and, fnally, changes in entrepreneurial inten-
tions. The main research idea in this chapter is to consider whether it is expected
and feasible to design a dynamic tool using the theory of planned behaviour to
assess the entrepreneurship education programmes and so to measure variations
on entrepreneurial intention throughout the education process.
PART TWO: ABOUT THE NEWNESS IN
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO TEACH
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
This second part of the book includes fve chapters which try to bring new views
and insights on the pedagogical concepts and practices. Here the question is not
only how to teach students to design and start a new business (that is, the tradi-
10 International entrepreneurship education
tional approach in the feld), but increasingly the focus is on how to help students
to develop entrepreneurial behaviours and entrepreneurial attitudes throughout
innovative methods in the classroom or outside.
In a teaching community such as ours, the questions around pedagogy and
learning methods are of the frst importance. Following an overview of entre-
preneurship pedagogy (Chapter 6), the authors explore the pedagogical ways
of mentoring (Chapter 7), business planning (Chapter 8), skills demonstration
in a specifc context (Chapter 8) and new business opportunities (Chapter 9).
Chapter 6 (by Kyrö), ‘The continental and Anglo-American approaches to
entrepreneurship education differences and bridges’ is clearly centred on entre-
preneurship pedagogy and compares Europe and North America to highlight
some expectations for the future.
From the author’s point of view, the discussion between entrepreneurship and
education has become more evident since the end of the twentieth century due
to the increasing impact of entrepreneurship and small business phenomena on
countries. As entrepreneurship in a broad sense relates to a strong social demand,
it is obvious that the debate of how to learn entrepreneurship and how to develop
successful pedagogies is a priority both for practitioners and decision-makers.
So far the focus has changed from the innate perspective (entrepreneurs are
born, not made) to the current educative perspective (people are educated to
become entrepreneurs). This education-orientated focus has, however, generated
studies in entrepreneurship research rather than attracted researchers in educa-
tion sciences. The chapter suggests that this fact appears to be due to an apparent
shortage of pedagogical discussion. In order to encourage a scientifc debate as
an interplay between entrepreneurship and education, the research delineates
the basis for entrepreneurial pedagogy.
Chapter 7 (by Miettinen), ‘Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an educational
intervention’, is studying a very interesting notion, ‘mentoring’, which is very
close to ‘coaching’, the latter probably more often used in other countries (as
is the case, for instance, in France where the word ‘mentoring’ is replaced in
the literature and in practice by the word ‘coaching’). Mentoring and coaching
are relatively new concepts which have been insuffciently studied in the feld
of entrepreneurship.
In this chapter, a regionally based mentoring programme in Finland is ex-
plored at the end of its frst decade of running. The empirical part consists of
two surveys, one focusing on the experiences of the mentees (n = 57) and the
other on the experiences of the mentors (n = 20). The results are mostly positive
and encouraging: the mentees feel they have benefted from the programme and
the mentors have found it rewarding by providing learning opportunities for
them, too. In this research, mentoring activities are considered to be informal
training and education efforts that supplement more formal education and train-
ing for entrepreneurs. Mentoring activities are defned as an intervention
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 11
categorized broadly into feedback of data, agenda-setting interventions and
coaching or counselling individuals. The educational role of mentoring is further
discussed through the concepts of experience and refection.
Chapter 8 (by Gailly), ‘Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business
plans? An empirical evaluation of business plan competitions’ is focusing on a
well-known tool in the classroom and also in the entrepreneurship literature.
But the issues raised by the author have considerable implications both at the
pedagogical and the research levels. We have here a good example of how an
old question is seen through new lenses.
The aim of this chapter is to provide empirical evidence on the effciency (do
they help the right business?) and effectiveness (do they provide relevant sup-
port?) of business plan competitions, through the analysis of data from a
business plan competition organized annually since 2000 in four European
countries. In this work the author analyses the data from the evaluation, by ex-
ternal experts, of the business plans submitted to the business plan competition,
the evolution of those evaluations as the ventures receive support and the sub-
sequent outcome of those ventures, in particular whether they led to the creation
of actual businesses.
The conclusions are that the business plan competition approach to select
potential ventures based on their business plan only (excluding interviews of
the entrepreneur) appears relatively effcient, in the sense that this process helps
to select the right business. However the effectiveness of the expert support and
training provided to the entrepreneurs appears not to be effective, in the sense
that it does not signifcantly increase the probability of success of the venture.
On the other hand, anecdotal evidence gathered from participants indicate that
the business plan competition is very effective in providing support to the en-
trepreneur in terms of networking, in particular through contacts with other
prospective entrepreneurs and with the experts involved in the process.
Chapter 9 (by Mahlamäki-Kultanen) ‘Skill demonstrations: a possibility for
meaningful co-operation with work-life in the internationalizing vocational
education’ exposes an experience initiated by the Finnish government and based
on the implementation of national skills demonstrations in initial vocational
secondary-level education.
In this context, the chapter presents an example of theoretically and practi-
cally justifed assessment of the core processes of entrepreneurship in home
economics. It describes and analyses the development project of the national
skills demonstration material created for the vocational degree of entrepreneurs
in home economics.
The author analyses data from this experience and other similar experiences.
The results show us that there is an entrepreneurial cultural transformation going
on through this experimentation. The raising of entrepreneurial intention of
young vocational students is also a key outcome. Finally, it appears that effcient
12 International entrepreneurship education
practical skills and customer orientation are seen as the most important compe-
tences in initial entrepreneurial education.
Chapter 10 (by Kickul) ‘Pathways to new business opportunities: innovations
and strategies for the entrepreneurial classroom’ ends the second part of the
book, exposing new approaches and original thoughts about how entrepreneur-
ship could be taught.
The purpose of this chapter is therefore to highlight a new entrepreneurship
course that focuses on new opportunity initiation and creation. This course ex-
amines the critical factors involved in the conception, initiation and development
of new and existing business ventures. The author’s position is based on the
belief that entrepreneurship is more than a set of tools and techniques for starting
and growing a business: it is a mindset, a way of looking at things that is op-
portunity focused and creative. To a few examples, some of the topics covered
by this new course include: (1) identifying new ideas and opportunities; (2)
market potential analysis for products and/or services; and (3) initial fnancing
and organizing of the business opportunity.
We clearly fnd in this chapter ideas and suggestions to teach entrepreneurship
in the new paradigm. We are not only in the ‘how to start a business’ approach
but much more in the ‘how to develop enterprising qualities’ approach.
PART THREE: DIFFUSING AND PROMOTING
ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE AND DEVELOPING
ENTREPRENEURIAL POTENTIAL
The fnal part of the book includes fve chapters which deal with the broad
concept of culture. Entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial spirit and entre-
preneurial potential grow in a favourable culture and context. To highlight the
importance of culture at the national level, the chapters expose more or less
directly the cultural specifcities of a set of countries and continents, including
Africa, Argentina, Canada, France and Italy. This part gives us the opportunity
to learn from other cultures and, in so doing, to improve our understanding on
how an entrepreneurial culture could be created and developed. At the individual
level, useful insights show us some ways to make progress in our knowledge of
key notions such as entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial intention and entre-
preneurial potential.
Chapter 11 (by Verzat and Bachelet), ‘Developing an entrepreneurial spirit
among engineering college students: what are the educational factors?’ is cen-
tred on the concept of entrepreneurial spirit.
The purpose of the chapter is to further the exploration of this concept of en-
trepreneurial spirit, which, as a label, has been widely used, while poorly defned
in the relevant literature. The chapter also considers the way it builds up and in
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 13
which specifc aspects the various teaching activities may be infuential. One
important objective of the authors is therefore to design a model of the way in
which to build up an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students and
young engineers. This model is based on a double – psychological and socio-
logical – theoretical source, but also on the observations carried out by the
authors throughout their own experiences in a leading French engineering
school.
In their research work, Verzat and Bachelet are dealing with key questions
such as: (1) How may the entrepreneurial spirit be seen in relation to the inten-
tion of setting up a new business? (2) How can we analyse the emergence
process of an enterprising mind with engineering students, within their own
identity-building process? (3) What is the impact of the various awareness-rais-
ing/facilitating/training means on attitudes, beliefs and self-effcacy making up
the entrepreneurial spirit?
As we can see these key research questions are at the heart of the new para-
digm in entrepreneurship education.
Chapter 12 (by Postigo, Iacobucci and Tamborini), ‘Undergraduate students
as source of potential entrepreneurs: a comparative study between Italy and
Argentina’, uses an international comparison to increase knowledge about
some essential reasons and conditions which lead students to become
entrepreneurs.
There is a growing consensus that ‘information society’ education is one of
the key factors for the emergence of new frms and their development prospects.
In this context new ventures created by graduates are expected to play a critical
role, especially for the emergence of knowledge- and technology-based frms.
The main aim of this chapter is to analyse the infuence of different contexts
– developed (Italy) and developing (Argentina) countries – on: (1) the percep-
tions students hold about entrepreneurs; (2) the infuence of social background
on the motivation to become an entrepreneur; and (3) the perception about what
positive or negative factors affect the creation of new ventures.
The results of the study show overall there are more similarities than differ-
ences between Argentinean and Italian students in their perception of
entrepreneurship and in their attitude to starting up their own frm. However,
the social background of the students plays a major role. Although this can be
considered an exploratory and preliminary study, it offers interesting indications
for the design of entrepreneurship programmes orientated to university
students.
Chapter 13 (by Gasse and Tremblay), ‘Entrepreneurship among students at
a Canadian university: an extensive empirical study of students’ entrepreneurial
preferences and intentions’, offers a study carried out in North America and
designed around the concept of entrepreneurial potential. This concept, much
less developed in the entrepreneurship literature, appears to us to be of the frst
14 International entrepreneurship education
importance in relation to a good understanding of how the skills and abilities
to perform an entrepreneurial behaviour can be increased.
The study carried out at Laval University is helpful to determine the entre-
preneurial potential on the campus and, at the same time, provides us with a
better understanding of the students’ needs and expectations with regard to en-
trepreneurship. The students have been selected randomly from a complete list
of Laval University students. A total of 600 students have been interviewed.
The author attempts to see, through this research, how the students’ values,
attitudes and behaviour, that is, their entrepreneurial potential, could predispose
them to found a company, create their own job or have the intention to do so.
According to the data, approximately 3.2 per cent of the students are currently
involved in starting up a business. Moreover, it would seem that 32.5 per cent
of the students have already thought of starting up a business or one day being
self-employed. Among these, 43 per cent planned to do so more than fve years
after their studies, whereas 7.9 per cent intended to do so during their studies.
The research also aims at determining the role that Laval University should
play in supporting entrepreneurial students. Moreover, the results show that the
respondents prefer certain methods for teaching entrepreneurship. Furthermore,
the motivations behind wanting to start up a business are the desire to become
their own boss (30 per cent), followed by the wish to be self-suffcient and in-
dependent (14 per cent).
Chapter 14 (by Boissin, Castagnos and Deschamps), ‘Motivations and draw-
backs concerning entrepreneurial action: a study of French PhD students’, is
one more attempt to measure the entrepreneurial intention among students.
Clearly the research tries to explore the effect of entrepreneurship education on
students’ entrepreneurial intentions.
The study is based on an initial sample of 74 PhD students and aims at un-
derstanding their entrepreneurial intentions and their perceptions about
entrepreneurship. The authors analyse the data with statistical tools and try to
categorize the students depending on their perceived motivations and drawbacks
to starting a business.
Even though the research is in a preliminary stage, the results exposed in this
chapter are very encouraging and should lead us in designing longitudinal re-
search based on building up student databases aimed at following them inside
and just outside their curriculum.
The third part and the book itself end with Chapter 15 (by Cader and
Norman), ‘Entrepreneurial education for the African informal sector’. Africa is
well known for the economic role of the informal sector which provides particu-
larly would-be entrepreneurs with key advice and resources. Developed
countries could be inspired to obtain more knowledge about the rules and func-
tioning of this informal sector, and trying, transferring or adapting some of these
informal practices.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 15
In this chapter, the authors show us that the informal sector in Africa has a
potential for entrepreneurship education and training. Lack of focus on potential
entrepreneurs, such as adults with lower educational attainment, in the imple-
mentation of any entrepreneurial educational strategy could be a drawback.
Entrepreneurial activity can only be planned and organized by entrepreneurs
themselves. This chapter therefore proposes an alternative, and practical, edu-
cational and training methodology, in the context of the African informal sector.
In this specifc context, the authors offer an interesting view on how adults learn
from their peers and why practising teachers are the best masters. A strong
conclusion is that mentoring is one of the alternatives to promote entrepreneur-
ship among the rural adult and, at this level, local entrepreneurs play a critical
role as mentors.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this introductory chapter we have attempted to propose and discuss paradig-
matic changes in the feld of entrepreneurship education. These changes come
from the emergence of new objects and focus on both the research and educa-
tional levels, in relation to economic, politic and social needs. These movements
in the feld lead us to ask new questions and to use new pedagogical approaches.
We hope we have brought, with all the chapters briefy presented in this intro-
duction, a piece of useful knowledge aimed at opening our eyes and our minds
to this moving world and to the necessity of renewing the contents and the
methods used in our classrooms to teach entrepreneurship. We are conscious
that the step we have just taken in this book is a small one and that a lot more
research is required. More than ever, research in the feld of entrepreneurship
education has to be encouraged and facilitated. More than ever, research must
go on and should drive the activity of entrepreneurship teachers.
NOTES
1. The IntEnt (Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Training) conference. See also
the research work from Bechard and Gregoire (2005) which is proposing an interesting frame-
work for research in entrepreneurship education.
2. See for more details Stevenson and Sahlmann (1987).
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I. (1991), ‘The theory of planned behaviour’, Organizational Behavior and Hu-
man Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.
16 International entrepreneurship education
Bechard, J.P. and D. Gregoire (2005), ‘Entrepreneurship education research revisited:
the case of higher education’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4
(1), 22–43.
Bouchikhi, H. (2003), ‘Entrepreneurship professors and their constituencies: manifest
for a plural professional identity’, guest lecture at the 2003 IntEnt Conference, Gre-
noble, France.
Brenner, O.C., C.D. Pringle and J.H. Greenhaus (1991), ‘Perceived fulflment of organi-
zational employment versus entrepreneurship: work values and career intentions of
business college graduates’, Journal of Small Business Management, 29 (3), 62–74.
Brockhaus, R.H. (1993), ‘Entrepreneurship education: a research agenda’, in H. Klandt
and D. Müller-Böling (eds), Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Train-
ing, proceedings of the IntEnt92 Conference, Dortmund, 23–26 June, FGF-Verlag,
Köln-Dortmund, Germany.
Chia, R. (1996), ‘Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: university busi-
ness schools and the entrepreneurial imagination’, Journal of Management Studies,
33 (4), 40.
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat dans le système éducatif
supérieur: un regard sur la situation actuelle’, Revue Gestion 2000, no. 3, 77–95.
Fayolle, A. (2004), ‘“Entrepreneuriat”, de quoi parlons-nous?’, L’Expansion Manage-
ment Review, no. 114, 67–74.
Fayolle, A. (2005), ‘Evaluation of entrepreneurship education: behaviour performing or
intention increasing’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business,
2 (1), 89–98.
Fayolle, A. and B. Gailly (2004), ‘Using the theory of planned behaviour to assess en-
trepreneurship teaching programs: a frst experimentation’, paper presented at the
IntEnt 2004 Conference, Napoli, Italy, 4–7 July.
Fayolle, A. and P. Senicourt (2005), ‘Peut-on former des entrepreneurs?’, L’Expansion
Management Review, no. 116, 34–41.
Fayolle, A., B. Gailly, J. Kikul, N. Lassas-Clerc and L. Whitcanack (2005), ‘Capturing
variations in attitudes and intentions: a longitudinal study to assess the pedagogical
effectiveness of entrepreneurship teaching programs’, paper presented at the 50th
ICSB Conference, Washington, 15–18 June.
Fiet, J.O. (2001), ‘The pedagogical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16 (2), 101–17.
Fleming, P. (1994), ‘The role of structured interventions in shaping graduate entrepre-
neurship’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 15, 146–57.
Gibb, A.A. (2002), ‘In pursuit of a new enterprise and entrepreneurship paradigm for
learning: creative destruction, new values, new ways of doing things and new combi-
nations of knowledge’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 4 (3),
233–69.
Gibb, A.A. (2004a), ‘Creating conducive environments for learning and entrepreneur-
ship’, paper presented at the 14th Annual IntEnt Conference, University of Napoli
Federico II, 4–7 July.
Gibb, A.A. (2004b), ‘Creative destruction, new values of doing things and new combina-
tions of knowledge’, paper presented at the 14th Annual IntEnt Conference, University
of Napoli Federico II, 4–7 July.
Hart, M. and R. Harrison (1992), ‘Encouraging enterprise in Northern Ireland: constraints
and opportunities’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 13, 104–16.
Hytti, U. and P. Kuopusjärvi (2004), ‘Evaluating and measuring entrepreneurship and
enterprise education: methods, tools and practices’, www.entreva.net.
Issues and newness in the feld of entrepreneurship education 17
Kirby, D. (forthcoming), ‘Changing the entrepreneurship education paradigm’, in A.
Fayolle (ed.), Handbook of Research in Entrepreneurship Education, Cheltenham,
UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
Klandt, H. (2004), ‘Entrepreneurship education and research in German-speaking Eu-
rope’, Academy of Management, Learning and Education, 3 (3), 293–301.
Kolvereid, L. (1996), ‘Prediction of employment status choice intentions’, Entrepreneur-
ship Theory and Practice, 20 (3), 47–57.
Lumpkin, G.T. and G.G. Dess (1996), ‘Clarifying the entrepreneurial orientation con-
struct and linking it to performance’, Academy of Management Review, 21 (1),
135–72.
Stevenson, H.H. and W. Sahlmann (1987), ‘Entrepreneurship: a process not a person’,
working paper, Harvard Business School.
Vesper, K.H., and W.E. McMullen (1988), ‘Entrepreneurship: today courses, tomorrow
degrees?’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 13 (1), 7–13.
PART ONE
Key Issues in Entrepreneurship Education
21
2. Learning and teaching
entrepreneurship: dilemmas,
refections and strategies
Per Blenker, Poul Dreisler, Helle M. Færgeman
and John Kjeldsen
1
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ASSUMPTIONS
Over the past few decades, there has been some discussion about whether or
not – and, if positive, to what extent – certain people are born as entrepreneurs.
Thus, from birth entrepreneurs seem to have competencies and skills that cannot
be taught. We shall not enter this discussion, but rely on the general assumption
that at least some personal characteristics, competencies and skills can be nur-
tured and trained in the entrepreneur’s interplay with the environment, including
the interplay with the educational system.
Our basic assumption is thus that entrepreneurship or enterprising behaviour
can be learned and that, as such, it should be taught. Entrepreneurship education,
however, requires thorough refection on the connection between action and
theory and between learning and doing. This is primarily because of the multi-
faceted nature of the entrepreneurial phenomenon, which makes it diffcult to
encompass and thus to teach and learn.
Based on this assumption we further assume that the public sector, including
the educational system and the universities, should refect how it could contrib-
ute to the stimulation of an enterprising mindset among students. The number
of academic institutions teaching entrepreneurship seems to be increasing (Jack
and Anderson, 1999; Katz, 2003).
One problem is that traditional forms of teaching at universities and business
schools have shown themselves quite inappropriate with respect to enhancement
of motivation and competencies among students towards innovation and entre-
preneurship. This phenomenon is dealt with increasingly in the literature (Gibb,
2002; Swedberg, 2000; the proceedings of IntEnt conferences), leading to spe-
cial issues of journals (for example, special issue of Academy of Management,
Learning and Education, 3 (3), in 2004, focusing on entrepreneurship educa-
tion), annual workshops on entrepreneurship teaching (IntEnt and ESPRI) and
22 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
even an academic journal (International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education)
dedicated solely to the study of this phenomenon.
Research on teaching entrepreneurship is thus perhaps no longer sparse, but
there is still a lack of generally accepted approaches and paradigms. Instead,
there seems to be a large variation in teaching approaches. In this chapter, we
attempt to demonstrate that this area holds a number of dilemmas and that the
large variety of approaches can be related to the question of how teachers try to
overcome these dilemmas.
Figure 2.1 shows the structure of the chapter. First a number of dilemmas
observed in entrepreneurship programmes are shown. These dilemmas are
condensed into three fundamental dimensions that should be refected in actors
involved in entrepreneurship education. Based on these refections, it is argued
that universities wishing to develop entrepreneurial education should decide on
three groups of strategic questions.
SOME DILEMMAS OF TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The discussion on how to teach and learn entrepreneurship holds several dilem-
mas. Through examining the literature on teaching and training entrepreneurship
and the literature on entrepreneurial learning, we have identifed fve fundamen-
tal dilemmas expressed in a larger number of texts:
l Whether teaching should be for entrepreneurship or about entrepreneur-
ship.
3 groups of strategic
questions
l University role in its
context and
institutional norms.
l The portfolio of
courses and the target
group for
entrepreneurial
education.
l The purpose of
teaching and the
learning process of
each entrepreneurial
course.
Figure 2.1 The structure of the chapter
5 dilemmas in
entrepreneurship
education:
l For or about
entrepreneurship?
l Management or
entrepreneurship
theory?
l At the university
or elsewhere?
l Individually or
collectively?
l Art or science?
3 key dimensions of
refection:
l Ivory tower or
entrepreneurial
university?
l Learning or
teaching?
l Entrepreneurship
or enterprising
behaviour?
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 23
l The foundation of teaching – whether it should be based on management
theories or on some not-as-yet-defned theory of entrepreneurship and
intrapreneurship.
l The situating of the education – should it be placed within the secure
context of the university auditorium or in small frms, or somewhere in
between academia and practice.
l Whether students should work individually (the heroic Schumpeterian
entrepreneur) or collectively (the entrepreneurial network entrepre-
neur).
l How the substance of what is taught is formulated – whether entrepreneur-
ship is conceptualized as an art or a science.
As we shall see at the end of the chapter, most of these dilemmas concern the
way the university relates to its context, the relationship between learning and
teaching entrepreneurship as well as the question of whether we seek enterpris-
ing behaviour or entrepreneurship.
For or About Entrepreneurship
There are several reasons why students might want to study entrepreneurship
(Jack and Anderson, 1999); they may want to start up a business of their own,
but they may also be interested in acquiring and developing general knowledge
about entrepreneurship based on an intellectual ambition.
The decision about whether to teach for entrepreneurship or about entrepre-
neurship is closely related to the question of whether education seeks to improve
the student’s ability to perform entrepreneurial action as a practical activity, on
the one hand, or to learn about entrepreneurship as an academic subject, on the
other (Gibb, 2002; Laukkanen, 1998).
Teaching for entrepreneurship is often centred on improving the student’s
ability to write a business plan. Students are taught to see the formulation of
their potential business idea as sequential by going through a number of phases
such as problem recognition (including problem description, information gather-
ing and problem analysis), formulation and evaluation of alternatives as well as
implementation. In the business plan courses, the students thus describe and
defne their business, describe their management team and frm structure, de-
scribe the market, decide on a marketing plan and a business system, and choose
how to implement their business idea with respect to fnance, risks and cash
fow.
To gain insight into the different elements of the business plan, entrepreneur-
ship education seeking to improve the student’s ability to perform entrepreneurial
action often involves a number of functional specialization courses. Similar to
traditional management education, courses on marketing, organization, fnance
24 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
and accounting are given. These courses usually differ from the traditional func-
tional specialization courses only in the way that they are taught ‘with a twist’ of
entrepreneurship.
When the aim of entrepreneurship education is primarily to increase the stu-
dent’s general knowledge about entrepreneurship, courses on the history of
entrepreneurship theory dominate. Students are introduced to the classics of
entrepreneurship theory. These courses typically have three key elements. One
is about Schumpeter (1934), Kirzner (1973) and other pioneers of Austrian
economics focusing on creative destruction and on the entrepreneur as the crea-
tor of societal innovation. Another element of these courses, with a more
psychological and sociological focus, is the personal traits approach. Students
are introduced to Weber (1905 [2001]) and the spirit of capitalism, and to Mc-
Clelland’s (1961) theories of the entrepreneur as an individual with a strong
need for achievement and high internal beliefs of control. Finally, these courses
introduce the students to more contemporary theories of entrepreneurship, for
example, theories focusing on the relationship between the entrepreneur and
situations that hold opportunities, in order to identify how the entrepreneur
identifes or creates opportunities (Eckhardt and Shane, 2003; Shane and Venka-
taraman, 2000)
The distinction between courses for and about entrepreneurship outlined
above is, of course, simplistic. Improving the ability to act entrepreneurially
will support the academic competencies of entrepreneurship, and knowledge
about entrepreneurship will improve practical competencies, but there is little
doubt that some programmes stress practical application while others seek a
more conceptual development (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994).
Management or Entrepreneurship Theories
Generally there is a lack of clear defnitions of the concept of entrepreneurship,
leading to the lack of a clear boundary for the academic feld of entrepreneur-
ship. Jack and Anderson (1999) indicated that the term covers different felds,
ranging from small business operations via new venture creation to a broader
meaning of general innovation and individualism.
Whether or not teaching is for or about entrepreneurship, some sort of theo-
retical foundation is needed. A key question, therefore, is, which theories to
build upon? Entrepreneurship theories can be seen as a means of helping po-
tential entrepreneurs to understand the future and the consequences of their
actions. Drawn to its extreme, this line of thinking may even see theory as a
way of providing the ‘ought’ in entrepreneurial action (Fiet, 2000; Gibb, 2002).
Such an approach, however, tends to create too much generalization and too
little contextualization (Laukkanen, 1998). As indicated in the paragraph above
on the dilemma of ‘for or about’, entrepreneurship education seems to build on
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 25
two different kinds of intellectual heritage: the institutional heritage from busi-
ness schools and the theoretical heritage from entrepreneurship theory. At the
business schools, entrepreneurship courses are usually taught by teachers who
are primarily educated in economics and management. This leads to a very
strong emphasis on management theories as the fundamental theoretical back-
ground in entrepreneurship education.
When performing entrepreneurship, fundamental business knowledge and
skills are required. Fundamental entrepreneurial problems such as how to dis-
cover opportunities, how to evaluate the attractiveness of industries, how to
marshal resources and how to create a competitive advantage may be explained
by more general economics and management theories such as network theory,
consumer behaviour theory, industrial organization theory, game theory, agency
theory, transactions cost theory or resource-based theory (Fiet, 2000).
Thus, teaching entrepreneurship often seems to group together a large number
of areas and topics from traditional management education (Fiet, 2000), but often
without a thorough conceptual foundation relating it to entrepreneurship.
The strong theoretical heritage from entrepreneurship theory is another infu-
ence. The theories of entrepreneurship are, however, primarily descriptive. A
problem of using entrepreneurship theory in entrepreneurship education is thus
that it has little to say with respect to the question of teaching ‘for’
entrepreneurship.
As argued by Jack and Anderson (1999), each entrepreneurial event is unique
and idiosyncratic, and the entrepreneurial process is a result of complex and
contingent variables. The essence of the entrepreneur lies in his or her ability
to go beyond the diffculties that others have had in foreseeing the opportunity.
This involves uniqueness, sensitivity and ability to cope with the unknowable
in the sense that no formal correct procedure exists for decisions. Instead, en-
trepreneurial actions seem explicitly to involve an anti-positivistic, subjective
and judgemental approach to problems based on personal knowledge.
These problems could lead to the development of a more action-orientated
theory as inspired by Austrian economics (Jakobsen, 1992). However, little has
been achieved so far in the attempt to explicitly combine such an approach with
more formal entrepreneurship education.
University – Small Firms or Elsewhere
Factual knowledge and skills can be taught in the classroom, but the entrepre-
neurial event is also dependent on individual and contextual knowledge. This
sort of knowledge primarily stems from personal experience.
The lack of entrepreneurial experience among university staff, combined with
the general lack of entrepreneurial experience among students (Jack and An-
derson, 1999), tends to produce classroom situations which focus heavily on
26 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
what the participants feel comfortable with: theory, either normative manage-
ment theory adjusted to give advice for entrepreneurship and small business, or
descriptive entrepreneurship theory explaining societal innovation by the emer-
gence of entrepreneurs and their personal traits.
Since it would probably be quite diffcult to change both the population of
teachers and the population of students, the experience aspect has to be brought
in from elsewhere. One way is in the form of guest lecturers from the ‘real world’,
serving as the case study input which conventional pedagogy is familiar with.
These kinds of case stories, however, do not transcend the traditional pedagogy.
Still, enterprising behaviour cannot be created in a contextual vacuum. To
enhance this behaviour, universities have to open doors – both within the uni-
versity to create networks between faculties and departments and to the outside
in order to create networks with industry and government in the environment.
This is not an easy task. Institutional norms, incitement systems and general
prejudices hinder fruitful experiments on these matters.
Individually or Collectively
Most approaches to entrepreneurial education adopt an individually centred
approach. This individualism can be expressed in two ways: the entrepreneur-
ship content and the educational context (Laukkanen, 1998: 2–3).
The entrepreneurship content focuses on the individual. An example is the
heroic entrepreneur, who (as an alert individual) identifes opportunities and
marshals resources in order to start his own frm. It is rarely recognized that this
economic process is also an organization of social processes (Johannisson and
Lundberg, 2002) where the actions of other people are infuenced and
co-ordinated.
In a similar way, the educational context focuses on the individual. Conven-
tional university teaching is dominated by the idea of transferring knowledge
from one individual to another. One could thus argue that the pedagogical con-
text does little to improve the student’s ability to organize the social processes,
which a large part of entrepreneurial action is about.
Alternative learning processes may, however, take place in groups or com-
munities which do not have learning, but some sort of enterprising behaviour
as its primary goal. Teamwork among students or collaboration with other
members of the community with different experiences has the potential for
creating entrepreneurial behaviour among students.
Art or Science
Within the university context, we tend to think of entrepreneurship as a theoreti-
cal discipline. A central problem is, however, that we cannot theoretically
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 27
replicate the experiences of successful entrepreneurs (Jack and Anderson,
1999).
Some of the keywords related to entrepreneurship seem to be ‘experimenta-
tion’, ‘novelty’, ‘innovation’, ‘creativity’, ‘fexibility’, ‘uniqueness’, ‘autonomy’,
‘self-direction’ and ‘self-expression’ (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994; Jack and
Anderson, 1999). These words are often associated with artists. From this point
of view entrepreneurship may also be characterized as an economic art form,
where the entrepreneur creates something that did not exist before (Jack and
Anderson; 1999).
On the one hand, entrepreneurship can thus be seen as an art form because it
is ‘generative proactive’ and not just a ‘passive, descriptive and contemplative’
theoretical discipline trying to describe and analyse entrepreneurial situations
(Cockx et al., 2000). The art of entrepreneurship can be understood as an ability
or mastery that may be based on profound theoretical knowledge, but where the
essence of the art form is the person’s ‘ability to apply it creatively and with ini-
tiative in practice’ (Cockx et al., 2000: 22).
From this point of view the person him or herself must generate the skills of
thinking entrepreneurially, probably through personal learning processes. This
is quite different from more theoretical approaches trying to analyse the entre-
preneurial situation. It is probably easier to train someone on the basis of
‘situation centred’ skills than to train them on the basis of ‘personal centred’
skills (Cockx et al., 2000).
REFLECTIONS ON REPHRASING THE DILEMMAS
So far a number of dilemmas involved in teaching and training people in entre-
preneurship have been juxtaposed. The central question of this chapter has been,
how can entrepreneurship be learned and how can it be taught?
In an attempt to answer this question, we recognize that it is impossible to
reconcile these different demands when dealing with the dilemmas mentioned
above. It is not possible to choose between the questions since they involve deci-
sions at many different levels of education planning. The challenge is thus not
to choose one or the other position of the dilemma, but to transcend the dilem-
mas by rephrasing them.
In order to design the university’s entrepreneurial strategy, the mix of entre-
preneurship-related courses and the single entrepreneurship course, the involved
teachers and university management should refect on these dilemmas in order
to fnd out how they in particular will seek to overcome them.
In order to transcend the dilemmas, we refect on three broader strands of
discourse that have emerged within the entrepreneurship literature during the
past decade.
28 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
The frst is inspired by the more general debate on the learning organization
and organizational learning that has established itself as a dominant theme of
the 1990s. It has roots in the search for individual self-development within a
continuously self-transforming organization, based on both individual and or-
ganizational development. This personal and organizational self-renewal of the
learning organization is seen as the key to unlocking a source of competitive
advantage, hereby re-creating the world.
The second is inspired by the discussions on entrepreneurship or enterprising
behaviour and relates to the question of to what kind of behaviour education
seeks to promote.
A third discourse concerns a more general transformation of the university
system. Under the headings of ‘The entrepreneurial university’ and ‘Triple helix’
new relationships between the university and its context have been discussed.
Learning or Teaching
The disagreement as to whether someone can be educated to be an entrepreneur
seems to be strongly related to the question of learning and teaching. Garavan
and O’Cinneide (1994) argue that there is agreement that one can teach entre-
preneurship, while Jonsson and Jonsson (2002) argue that the belief that one
can educate someone to be an entrepreneur is wrong; entrepreneurship is not a
cognitive issue, but something else.
Traditionally universities have focused on teaching students what the univer-
sity fnds necessary. If entrepreneurship has been part of the study programme,
it has usually been rather isolated and part of separate courses. A broader focus
on both learning and enterprising behaviour is, however, necessary if the ambi-
tion is to improve alertness and encourage the ability to deal with opportunities
among students, teachers and central actors in the university environment.
The traditional university has been distributing knowledge based on a teach-
ing approach. For the entrepreneurial university, the ambition is to integrate
knowledge of opportunities in a continuous learning process in order to create
refexive action. This calls for experiments in relation to the pedagogical ap-
proach with respect to both courses as well as other study activities at the
university and in the university environment. While teaching focuses on knowl-
edge transfer, it focuses less on the personal development of the student.
The words ‘learning’ and ‘teaching’ were previously used to describe the role
of the student and the teacher, respectively, but as many new learning theories
emerge it is clearly not this simple anymore.
‘Learning’ is connected to approaches according to which the student or
learner is invited to become an active and equal partner in the learning process.
Theoretically it is related to constructivist, experiential, existential and socially
orientated theories. Practically and methodically learning is associated with
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 29
phrases like ‘taking responsibility for one’s own learning’ and ‘learning to
learn’. This approach also offers a more holistic view of education: the focus is
not entirely on cognitive development, but affective and connotative purposes
are also taken into consideration.
The word ‘teaching’ is still closely connected with what the teacher is doing
because students – or perhaps better, ‘pupils’ – are seen as relatively passive
receivers of knowledge and skills in this approach. This is why related pedagogi-
cal theories and strategies concentrate on fnding the best ways for teachers to
present the content so that the pupils can easily digest and afterwards – if rele-
vant – practise it. Generally speaking, the approach could be labelled
instructionism and consists primarily of cognitive and behavioural pedagogical
theories.
When we see enterprising behaviour as a prerequisite for entrepreneurship,
we need primarily to adopt a learning approach. The main reason for this is that
we relate entrepreneurial behaviour to some personal characteristics. These
characteristics are not very likely to be infuenced by teaching, which is often
exemplifed by lectures and so on, unless manipulation is perceived as a special
kind of teaching.
However, entrepreneurship itself may be seen as a learning process, or at least
learning is closely related to entrepreneurship. Most theories of entrepreneurship
are built on the idea that the entrepreneur only holds his or her title as an entre-
preneur as long as he or she performs the renewal function of opportunity
identifcation. Thus, an entrepreneur could also be defned as a person that keeps
learning in order to identify new opportunities.
Entrepreneurship or Enterprising Behaviour
In the literature there is some confusion over what kind of behaviour should be
taught, related to even more confusion over the concepts of small business, en-
trepreneurship and enterprising behaviour. If these concepts are not well defned,
there can be little agreement about the appropriate content and the pedagogical
processes of education programmes directed towards these areas (Gibb,
2002).
Small business education is thus understood as providing management tools
for small business owners who may not be innovative, but often suffer from the
lack of a number of traditional management resources. Teaching small business
management is probably to a large extent possible within a conventional peda-
gogic paradigm (Jack and Anderson, 1999).
Entrepreneurship is traditionally associated with a particular form of business
activity, the creation of a frm. Entrepreneurship education is therefore directed
towards stimulating entrepreneurship in the form of new venture creation, and
the focus is on business renewal in an economic sense.
30 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Contrary to these concepts, enterprising behaviour is a broader concept and
the educational effort is directed towards developing self-reliant and enterprising
people (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994). Enterprising behaviour thus seems to
involve a more creative and dynamic approach to problem-solving compared
with the more ‘mundane’ (Gibb, 2002: 238) versions related to small business
management.
Next we shall focus primarily on enterprising behaviour, which we see as
distinct from the two other concepts. Enterprising behaviour is a broader con-
cept, which has been given a number of defnitions, but generally seems to relate
to personal characteristics such as willingness to change, fexibility, creativity,
and so on. Enterprising behaviour may take place in other contexts than the
economic world and may take other forms than the entrepreneurial creation of
a frm. As argued by Gibb (2002), complexity and uncertainty necessitating an
entrepreneurial response affect all people in many different aspects of life, not
just when they are involved in creating a business.
From this point of view, enterprising behaviour resembles what Spinosa et
al. (1997) have called the ability to ‘disclose new worlds’ and may best be un-
derstood as a prerequisite for entrepreneurship. This prerequisite may be
described as an ability to see the anomalies of everyday life and use them as a
foundation for understanding the world and changing it. In this way, frms are
created, societies changed and history made (Spinosa et al., 1997).
Ivory Tower or Entrepreneurial University
Other problems seem to relate to the role of the university. Traditionally the
university is involved in studying entrepreneurship and subsequently in teaching
it. In both cases entrepreneurship takes place in another system, decoupled from
the university system.
A more radical viewpoint could be that the responsibility for entrepreneurial
performance is part of university obligations, and the responsibility for teaching
entrepreneurs cannot be left entirely to the educational world (Garavan and
O’Cinneide, 1994).
Recent approaches such as triple helix (Matlay and Mitra, 2002) or the en-
trepreneurial university (Etzkowitz et al., 2000; Nelson, 2001) argue for a more
complicated view, where the university is seen as a societal subsystem in which
education takes place through enterprise. Johannisson and Lundberg (2002)
even speak of the university context as the innovative context. The concepts of
triple helix and the entrepreneurial university are used to express the university’s
relation to its environment, as part of an innovation system or as a regional or
national growth generator.
Another understanding of the ‘modern university’ seems to emerge. In this
alternative understanding, the modern university is to be understood as a social
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 31
system that itself becomes entrepreneurial as its members of faculty, students
and employees turn themselves somehow into entrepreneurs. By their interaction
with the environment, the coupling between university and region follows en-
trepreneurial patterns (Clark, 1998; Röpke, 1998).
REFLECTIONS ON UNIVERSITY STRATEGIES
Above we have discussed some of the dilemmas observed in the entrepreneur-
ship education community. These dilemmas are real in the sense that no single
formula for learning enterprising behaviour can be prescribed. But, as shown
above, the dilemmas might best be dealt with by rephrasing the old dilemmas
into new ones. We have suggested the juxtaposition of learning or teaching and
entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial behaviour as more fruitful reformulations
of the key problems of establishing education within this area.
Some parts of the dilemmas question the overall strategy of the university,
others question the mix or curriculum of entrepreneurship courses, while other
questions relate to the design of a single entrepreneurship course.
From a more pragmatic and strategic point of view, it may thus be argued that
teaching entrepreneurship or stimulating enterprising behaviour at universities
involves institutional questions about the norms of the university and how the
university relates to its context. It involves different groups of students, who
have several different needs, and it seems that these needs can be met by a vari-
ety of pedagogical approaches.
Figure 2.2 organizes these questions and relates them to the old dilemmas.
Figure 2.2 can thus be understood as a scheme for refection on goals and ap-
proaches for people and organizations working with entrepreneurship education
and training.
For
or
about
Management or
entrepreneurship
theory
Art
or
science
University
or
elsewhere
Individually
or
collectively
Learning or
teaching
Pedagogical decisions on both the
general portfolio of entrepreneurial
courses and each entrepreneurial
course
Institutional and
contextual decisions on
university norms,
structures and external
relationships
Entrepreneurship
or enterprising
behaviour
Didactical decisions on both the
general portfolio of entrepreneurial
courses and each entrepreneurial
course
Figure 2.2 The central strategic decisions of entrepreneurship education
32 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
A similar point is made by Gibb (2002), who argues for a better segmentation
of clients and needs, and by Laukannen (1998), who argues that there is a lack
of explicit goals in terms of learning targets, system objectives, priorities and
sequences of education.
The conceptual framework for refections on teaching entrepreneurship, il-
lustrated in Figure 2.1, should enable us to refect on how we plan courses for
potential entrepreneurs. The courses should help students to cope better with
the practical problems of starting a business. But our conceptual framework
should also make us refect on how other courses can assist the learning proc-
esses of people who more generally want to develop their ability to act, create
and enjoy the uncertainty and complexity of life when it is best (Gibb, 2002;
Spinosa et al., 1997).
Following these more general refections, institutions of entrepreneurial edu-
cation should probably undergo more detailed analysis. For this purpose, we
shall propose three levels of analysis:
l The university itself, its identity, strategy, academic norms and structures
– we see this as a contextual question of how a university pursues its en-
trepreneurial activities with respect to the environment. For each
university, this is a question of commitment to an entrepreneurial strategy.
It must refect on its identity, strategy, academic norms and structures in
the sense that the university must decide on the general strategy to pursue
with respect to target groups and purpose of entrepreneurship teaching.
This involves questions of how its entrepreneurial activities relate to its
environment.
l The teaching or learning processes used in various forms of entrepreneur-
ship education – we see this as a question of identifying the right course
content and pedagogical approach with respect to the portfolio of courses
or other study activities belonging to the university’s entrepreneurship
study programme.
l The target group and the purpose of teaching infuence the content and
form of each entrepreneurial education element – we see this as a question
of deciding on central didactic and pedagogical questions for each entre-
preneurship course offered at a university.
There is an interdependence between these three elements. All three are equally
important, and changes in one element must be balanced by changes in the other
two. By refecting on these questions, teachers and university management may
be able to transcend the traditional ways of asking questions about how to teach
entrepreneurship.
Learning and teaching entrepreneurship 33
CONCLUSION
The world of entrepreneurial education is flled with dilemmas; not primarily
theoretical dilemmas, but very real dilemmas facing everyone involved in entre-
preneurship teaching or in developing entrepreneurship oriented universities.
Some questions are didactical. The entrepreneurship theory resolving the di-
lemmas of ‘for or about’ or ‘art or science’ is still to be formed, and the theories
borrowed from management may do more harm than good.
Other questions are pedagogical. The entrepreneurial learning concept show-
ing new roles, processes and structures of entrepreneurial education is still to
be developed.
Further, institutional problems are to be solved. The entrepreneurial university
that may bridge the university and its context as well as resolve the individual
and collective dilemma is also still to be invented.
In the mean time, we will have to deal pragmatically with setting entrepre-
neurial university strategies, developing innovative curricula and teaching
various forms of entrepreneurship courses. To do so, we need frameworks for
organization of our refections on these themes. In this chapter, a framework for
integrating the three groups of strategic questions in entrepreneurship education
has been established.
NOTE
1. The authors would like to thank the Danish Agency for Trade and Industry for fnancial support
and an anonymous referee for a number of constructive comments.
REFERENCES
Clark, Burton R. (1998), Creating Entrepreneurial Universities – Organizational Path-
ways of Transformation, Oxford: Elsevier Science.
Cockx, Raphael, Sven De Vocht, Jan Heylen and Tom Van Bockstaele (2000), Encourag-
ing Entrepreneurship in Europe: A Comparative Study Focused on Education,
Antwerpen: UFSIA – University of Antwerp.
Eckhardt, J. and S. Shane (2003), ‘Opportunities and entrepreneurship’, Journal of
Management, 29 (3), 333–49.
Etzkowitz, Henry, Andrew Webster, Christiane Gebhardt, Branca Regina and Cantisano
Terra (2000), ‘The future of the university and the university of the future: evolution
of ivory tower to entrepreneurial paradigm’, Research Policy, 29, 313–30.
Fiet, J.O. (2000), ‘The theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Business
Venturing, 16, 1–24.
Garavan, T.N. and B. O’Cinneide (1994), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training
programmes: a review and evaluation – part 1’, Journal of European Industrial Train-
ing, 18 (8), 3–12.
34 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Gibb, A. (2002), ‘In pursuit of a new “enterprise” and “entrepreneurship” paradigm for
learning: creative deconstruction, new values, new ways of doing things and new
combinations of knowledge’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 4 (3),
213–31.
Jack, S.L. and A.R. Anderson (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship education within the enterprise
culture’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, 5 (3),
110.
Jakobsen, R. (1992), ‘The “Austrian” School of Strategy’, Academy of Management
Review, 17 (4), 782–807.
Johannisson, Bengt and Hans Lundberg (2002), Entrepreneurship as Breaking and Mak-
ing Sense – Learning Beyond Boundaries, RENT XVI – Research in Entrepreneurship
and Small Business, Barcelona, Spain.
Jonsson, C. and T. Jonsson (2002), ‘Entrepreneurial learning: an informed way of learn-
ing – the case of enterprising and business development’, working paper, Växjö
University.
Katz, Jerome A. (2003), ‘The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American entre-
preneurship education 1876–1999’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18 (2), 283–300.
Kirzner, Israel (1973), Competition and Entrepreneurship, Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.
Laukkanen, Mauri (1998), ‘Exploring alternative approaches in high-level entrepreneur-
ship education’, paper presented at the 10th Nordic Conference on Small Business
Research, 14–16 June, Wäxjö.
Matlay, Harry and Jay Mitra (2002), ‘Entrepreneurship and learning: the double act in
the triple helix’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 3 (1),
7–16.
McClelland, David C. (1961), The Achieving Society, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Nelson, Lita (2001), ‘The entrepreneurial university’, in Albert H. Teich, Stephen D.
Nelson, Ceilia McEnaney and Stephen J. Lita (eds), AAAS Science and Technology
Policy Yearbook 2001, Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement
of Science, pp. 279–85.
Röpke, Jochen (1998), The Entrepreneurial University – Innovation, Academic Knowl-
edge Creation and Regional Development in Globalized Economy, Marburg:
Phillips-Universität.
Schumpeter Joseph A. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development, Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Shane, Scott and Sankaran Venkataraman (2000), ‘The promise of entrepreneurship as
a feld of research’, Academy of Management Review, 25, 217–26.
Spinosa, C., F. Flores and H.L. Dreyfus (1997), Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneur-
ship, Democratic Action and the Cultivation of Solidarity, Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Swedberg, Richard (2000), ‘The social science view of entrepreneurship: introduction
and practical applications’, in Richard Swedberg (ed.), Entrepreneurship, the Social
Science View, Oxford Management Readers, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
pp. 7–44.
Weber, Max (1905), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 2001 edn, London:
Routledge Classics.
35
3. Entrepreneurship education: can
business schools meet the challenge?
David A. Kirby
INTRODUCTION
According to Brockhaus (2001: xiv) ‘one of the frst courses [in entrepreneur-
ship or small business] was offered at the Harvard Business School in 1947.
Peter Drucker taught another early course at New York University in 1953’.
However, it was only in the last two decades of the twentieth century that any
considerable attention was paid by academia to the role of higher education in
the creation of graduate entrepreneurs (Hills, 1986; Scott and Twomey, 1988).
With the publication of Birch’s (1979) fndings on the role of new small busi-
nesses in the creation of employment opportunities in the USA, and the advent
of governments in America and Great Britain that focused on reducing the level
of state intervention and increasing individual responsibility, governments
around the world became interested in the creation of cultures that would pro-
mote enterprise and create new ventures. Subsequently, education systems have
been charged, in varying degrees, with bringing this about. Nowhere has this
been demonstrated more clearly than in the UK. In 1997, the National Commit-
tee of Inquiry into Higher Education (1997: 201) recommended universities to
‘consider the scope for encouraging entrepreneurship through innovative ap-
proaches to programme design’, and by 2000 business and entrepreneurial
development had been listed as one of four strategic goals for British universities
(Universities UK, 2000).
Despite such external infuences, there has been considerable debate within
the academic community over whether universities in general and business
schools in particular can or should contribute. To some, entrepreneurs are born
not bred, while to others: ‘to teach individuals to become not only more enter-
prising but businessmen as well … is an undertaking that in both time and scope
is beyond the capabilities of an academic business school’ (Johannisson, 1991:
79).
Interestingly, a UK survey by the Small Business Research Trust (1988) in-
dicated that only 13 per cent of the survey sample believed that entrepreneurial
skills could not be acquired by a process of learning. Hence, this chapter argues
36 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
that universities and business schools can develop entrepreneurs but that, as
Chia (1996: 410–11) has suggested: ‘a radical change in intellectual and edu-
cational priorities is needed’. In so doing, the chapter frst addresses what is
meant by the term ‘entrepreneur’, before going on to consider why entrepreneurs
are so important to society and how entrepreneurs (or intrapreneurs as they are
known in large organizations) can be developed. The premise is that once it is
known what is needed, and why, it should be possible to determine how it can
be produced!
ENTREPRENEURIAL ATTRIBUTES
Often, the term ‘entrepreneur’ is equated with small business (Gibb, 1996) and
the concepts of owner-management and self-employment. However, this is to
oversimplify the concept. The term is much broader than these concepts would
suggest. Not all owner-managers are entrepreneurs, nor are all small businesses
entrepreneurial, and not all large businesses are unenterprising.
Unfortunately, though, there remains no agreed defnition of what consti-
tutes an entrepreneur. Writing in 1986, Brockhaus and Howitz recognized
that: ‘the literature appears to support the argument that there is no generic
defnition of the entrepreneur’. Subsequently Chell et al. (1991: 1) have sug-
gested that: ‘the problem of identifcation of an entrepreneur has been
confounded by the fact that there is still no standard, universally accepted
defnition of entrepreneurship’.
While there remains no uniform standardized defnition, one is needed and
for this it is necessary to go back to the origins of the term, which stems from
the French verb, entreprendre – to undertake. Thus, the entrepreneur is an un-
dertaker – someone who undertakes to make things happen, and does. As a
consequence, he or she disturbs the status quo and may thus be regarded as a
change agent. In such a capacity, he or she does not just work for him or herself
in a small frm but may be employed in a large organization. Frequently such
organizations are in the private sector but, increasingly, in the public and vol-
untary sectors, also (Kirby et al., 1991). Hence it is possible to agree with
Timmons (1989: 1) that: ‘Entrepreneurship is the ability to create and build
something from practically nothing. It is initiating, doing, achieving, and build-
ing an enterprise or organization, rather than just watching, analysing or
describing one. It is the knack for sensing an opportunity where others see chaos,
contradiction and confusion.’
It would seem, then, that although it may not be possible to defne, precisely,
what an entrepreneur is, it is possible to identify one. Indeed, if the argument
of Lessem (1986) is adopted, in all probability there is no such thing as an ar-
chetypal entrepreneur – no single individual who displays, in equal degree, the
Can business schools meet the challenge? 37
Table 3.1 Entrepreneurship type, personality and attributes
Entrepreneurship Personality
type type Attributes
Innovator Imagination Originality, inspiration, love,
transformation
New designer/ enabler Intuition Evolution, development, symbiosis,
connection
Leader Authority Direction, responsibility, structure,
control
New entrepreneur Will Achievement, opportunity, risk-
taking, power
Animateur Sociability Informality, shared values, community,
culture
Adventurer Energy Movement, work, health, activity
Source: after Lessem (1986).
full range of entrepreneurial attributes. Rather, it is more likely that there are
different types of entrepreneur, each with a different personality type and set of
attributes and behaviours (Table 3.1).
The work of Lessem is important but all too frequently ignored in the litera-
ture. It is important for several reasons. First, it reasserts that entrepreneurs can
be found in large as well as small frms, second it moves away from the over-
simplistic notion of a single entrepreneurial type and, thirdly, it focuses attention
on the attributes of the entrepreneur – very different attributes from those tradi-
tionally developed in business schools. Clearly Lessem was not the frst to do
this. Although no longer in vogue, the psychological literature suggests that
entrepreneurs possess certain characteristics or traits, such as:
l Risk-taking ability. Classic economic theory suggests that entrepreneurs
are risk-takers. By the very nature of their activities and roles in the econo-
my and society, it is clear that entrepreneurs cannot be averse to risk.
However, there is no apparent consensus with respect to risk-taking, and
the prevailing belief appears to be that entrepreneurs are more predisposed
to taking calculated risks than are other sectors of society (Caird, 1991;
Cromie and O’Donoghue, 1992), and that they are more able to cope with
the consequent ambiguity and uncertainty than are non-entrepreneurs (Koh,
1996). Interestingly, the work of Busenitz (1999) indicates that entrepre-
neurs are more confdent than managers in large organizations and, as a
consequence, tend to distort their perceptions of risk. This introduces a
38 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
further concept, that of self-confdence, which Koh (1996) believes to be a
prerequisite of successful entrepreneurship and Ho and Koh (1992) regard
as being linked to both a tolerance for ambiguity and creativity.
l Need for achievement (nAch). First propounded by McClelland in 1961,
this suggests that entrepreneurs have a high need for achievement, and
achievers will choose situations that are characterized by:
– individual responsibility
– moderate (not high) risk-taking
– knowledge of results of decisions
– novel instrumental activity
– anticipation of future possibilities.
It is the prospect of achievement (not money) that motivates them. Once
again, empirical research support for McClelland’s theory of nAch has
been somewhat conficting and it is generally held that ‘although people
with a strong need to achieve might well act entrepreneurially, there are
problems with elevating nAch to a central position in explaining entre-
preneurial motivation’ (Cromie, 2000: 17).
l Locus of control. This is based on the work of Rotter (1966). Entrepre-
neurs are believed to possess a high internal locus of control and believe
that the achievement of a goal is dependent on their own behaviour or
individual characteristics. However, the results of empirical research into
this are again inconclusive. Some (Cromie, 1987; Cromie and Johns,
1983) have found signifcantly higher ‘internal’ scores compared to ex-
perienced managers, while others (Brockhaus and Nord, 1979; Cromie
et al., 1992) have found no differences between the scores of these two
groups. Additionally, it has been suggested, as Cromie (2000) has recog-
nized, that high achievers will also exhibit these behaviours, and there is
conficting evidence (Chen, et al., 1998; Hull, et al., 1980) about whether
locus of control or need for achievement is the more fundamental entre-
preneurial attribute.
l Desire for autonomy. Entrepreneurs want to be in control – hence they
have been found to have a higher need for autonomy and a greater fear
of external control than many other occupational groups (Caird, 1991;
Cromie and O’Donoghue, 1992). They value individualism and freedom
more than do either the general public or managers and they have a dislike
of rules, procedures and social norms. As a consequence they have diff-
culty functioning in constraining environments that stife creativity, and
can experience diffculty relating to others. As Cromie (2000) observes,
some are even regarded as deviants.
l Deviancy. This is based on the work of Kets de Vries (1977) who argues
that entrepreneurial behaviour is the result of negative characteristics and
Can business schools meet the challenge? 39
drives, and its fnancial benefts and drives do not always lead to personal
satisfaction and happiness. According to him, an entrepreneur is ‘an
anxious individual, a non-conformist poorly organized and not a stranger
to self-destructive behaviour’ (ibid.: 41). Such behaviour, he asserts, is
the result of a troublesome and very disturbed childhood where the father
is often absent. As a consequence the entrepreneur becomes a person
– with low self-esteem
– who lacks the ability to refect critically
– who dreams of being in total control and independent of everything
and everyone.
This would thus explain why entrepreneurs become engaged in risky ac-
tivities and choose to create their own organizations. However, research
suggests that entrepreneurs are no more troubled than anyone else and
may come from families that are stable fnancially and emotionally.
l Creativity and opportunism. Much of the entrepreneurial literature sug-
gests that entrepreneurs are more creative than others (Timmons, 1989;
Whiting, 1988). Certainly entrepreneurs tend to think in non-conventional
ways, to challenge existing assumptions and to be fexible and adaptable
in their problem-solving. All of these are integral to creativity and the
creative process (Kirton, 1976; Solomon and Winslow, 1988), though
some would argue that entrepreneurs are not so much creative as oppor-
tunistic. Rather than creating the new idea, they see opportunities and
make them happen. Whatever, research by Utsch and Rauch (2000) sug-
gests that there is a powerful link between innovativeness and venture
performance, and that innovativeness is linked to achievement orientation.
Whereas people with a low achievement orientation avoid innovation,
give up quickly, demonstrate little effort and lack self-confdence, entre-
preneurs with high achievement orientation exert considerable effort and
persist in the face of problems and barriers. Hence they conclude that ‘an
entrepreneur need not be high in achievement orientation to be successful,
but it is helpful to be innovative. Especially in fast-growing areas or in
high technology areas … a high achievement orientation is important’
(ibid.: 59).
l Intuition. It has been contested (Carland, 1982) that entrepreneurs are
intuitive rather than rational thinkers. Instead of adopting a structured,
analytical approach to problem-solving, which requires attention to detail,
adherence to rules and systematic investigation, it is believed that they
prefer a more intuitive approach that requires more holism and synthesis,
lateral rather than sequential reasoning and random methods of explora-
tion. However, others contest that although intuition is important, it is
more important for certain situations than for others and for certain types
40 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
of entrepreneur. For example, Olsen (1995) contends that intuition is
important in the invention phase of the entrepreneurial process, while
Miner (1997) suggests that of the four types of entrepreneur he identifes,
intuition is an important characteristic of just one, the ‘expert idea genera-
tors’. In an interesting piece of research based on the 437 founders of
high-growth companies listed in the role-model publication, Local Heroes
(Scottish Enterprise, 1997), Allinson et al. (2000) compare the 156 re-
sponses to a questionnaire survey with an earlier survey (using the same
questionnaire) of 546 managers from various organizations. The results
reveal that entrepreneurs in high-growth frms are more intuitive than
members of the general population of managers, and middle and junior
managers in particular, but are no different in their cognitive style from
senior managers and executives. While recognizing that this is a pilot in-
vestigation based on a convenience sample, the authors conclude that the
fndings ‘provide empirical support for the widely held view that success-
ful entrepreneurs adopt an intuitive approach to information processing’
(ibid.: 41). At the same time they challenge the view that entrepreneurs
process information differently from all categories of salaried managers,
which is consistent with the view that entrepreneurial behaviour is not
confned to the self-employed.
Over the years, therefore, the psychological literature has identifed various
individual characteristics or traits of the entrepreneur which, it would seem,
appear to occur not so much as individual, dominant characteristics but, as the
work of Lessem (1986) suggests, in combination. This point is reiterated in the
work of Timmons et al. (1985: 153) where they conclude that: ‘we do not believe
that there is any single set of characteristics that every entrepreneur must have’.
Rather, they suggest that there are 15 behaviours that are required by the entre-
preneur, depending upon the situation in which he or she is to be found.
Importantly, they conclude that these can all be learned. They are:
l total commitment, determination and perseverance
l drive to achieve and grow
l orientation to goals and opportunities
l taking initiative and personal responsibility
l veridical awareness and a sense of humour
l seeking and using feedback
l internal locus of control
l tolerance of ambiguity, stress and uncertainty
l calculated risk-taking and risk-sharing
l low need for status and power
l integrity and reliability
Can business schools meet the challenge? 41
l decisiveness, urgency and patience
l learning from failure
l team-builder and hero-maker.
As might be expected, this is not a defnitive listing. For example, Hornaday
(1982) identifes 19 similar but slightly different attributes and behaviours, and
Gibb (1990) identifes 12. For the purpose of this chapter, the precise number
and types of behaviour are unimportant. What is important is the recognition of
the sort of behaviours/attributes that characterize the entrepreneur and the fact
that these characteristics can be acquired and/or developed.
THE NEED FOR ENTREPRENEURS
There are numerous reasons for the contemporary interest in entrepreneurship
and the creation of entrepreneurs. For Gibb (1996) there are essentially three
main reasons, namely:
l job creation and economic development
l strategic adjustment/realignment
l deregulation and the privatization of public utilities and state-owned
enterprises.
However, it may be asserted that these are the manifestations of a more funda-
mental reason.
According to Peters (1987) and others, society is entering an era of unprece-
dented change, a ‘world turned upside down’. This is not new. Change has
always been a part of social and economic evolution. Previously, however,
change was, as Handy (1990: 5) has observed:
more of the same only better. That was incremental change and to be welcomed. To-
day, we know that in many areas of life we cannot guarantee more of the same, be it
work or money, peace or freedom, health or happiness, and cannot even predict with
confdence what will be happening in our own lives.
Under such circumstances, Drucker’s (1989) ‘new realities’ society will need
not only to accommodate change but also to be capable of anticipating and,
more importantly perhaps, initiating it. Indeed, Moss Kanter (1984: 354), writ-
ing two decades ago, suggested that: ‘Today, more than ever, because of
profound transformations in the economic and social environment it should be
a national priority to release and support the skills of men and women who can
envision and push innovations.’
42 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
At the same time, however, there is a somewhat paradoxical set of trends oc-
curring within the world economy. While globalization and the interdependence
of markets have been recognized increasingly in recent years, it has also become
apparent that world citizenry can no longer rely upon ‘they’. Whether ‘they’ are
the wealthy nations of the world, the state or large frms they cannot be relied
upon to provide wealth, jobs, homes, health care, and so on. Increasingly, society
is having to rely upon itself. So, individuals, communities, organizations and,
even, nations are having to be empowered in a way that previously has been
unrecognized. In a global economy, every citizen is interdependent, but increas-
ingly will be required to take ownership of their own destinies – for the beneft
of themselves, their families, their colleagues, their fellow countrymen and
world citizenry. Thus, within individuals, communities, organizations and socie-
ties there needs to develop a greater sense of enterprise and self-help. People
are needed who see opportunity, create and build, initiate and achieve. Hence
it is these entrepreneurial characteristics that need to be developed by business
schools in their students.
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURS
All too frequently, though, it would seem, that ‘education in the sense of a for-
mal academic training dulls the cutting edge of commerce’ (Bartlett, 1988: 26).
Even in the USA, that hotbed of entrepreneurship, courses designed to introduce
students to the principles of business and management have tended to ‘teach
students how to become profcient employees instead of successful business
persons’ (Solomon, 1989). Since these statements were made, numerous entre-
preneurship programmes have been introduced in many parts of the world
(Brockhaus, et al., 2001; Interman, 1991; Vesper and Gartner, 1998). Often such
programmes equate entrepreneurship with new venture creation or/and small
business management and educate about entrepreneurship and enterprise rather
than educating for entrepreneurship. Only rarely, it would seem, is the focus on
developing in their students the skills, attributes and behaviour of the successful
entrepreneur. For example, the comprehensive Interman Directory lists three
types of entrepreneurship programme, namely:
l Entrepreneurship orientation and awareness programmes which focus on
general information about entrepreneurship and encourage participants
to think in terms of entrepreneurship as a career.
l New enterprise creation programmes designed to develop competences
that lead to self-employment, economic self-suffciency or employment
generation.
l Programmes that focus on small business survival and growth.
Can business schools meet the challenge? 43
In the space available here it is not possible to analyse each of the 205 listed
programmes, but clearly it would seem from the category descriptors that the
emphasis in these programmes is on learning about entrepreneurship and how
to manage a small business. As has been argued earlier in this chapter, however,
entrepreneurship is about possessing or acquiring a particular set of attributes,
skills and behaviours.
Again, in his highly acclaimed The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, By-
grave (1994) purports to provide the reader with an insight into: ‘how top
business schools are preparing students to meet the challenges of the entrepre-
neurial-driven business climate of the 1990s and beyond’. In 14 chapters and
450 pages, the student learns about the entrepreneurial process, opportunity
recognition, entry strategies, market opportunities and marketing, creating a
successful business plan, fnancial projections, venture capital, debt and other
forms of fnancing, external assistance for start-ups and small business, legal
and tax issues, intellectual property, franchising, harvesting, entrepreneurship
economics. Clearly it is important that business students understand such prin-
ciples and practices, especially if they are to go on to create their own enterprises
but, knowing about them will not, per se, equip the student ‘to meet the chal-
lenges of the entrepreneurial business climate of the 1990s and beyond’. This
is only one, relatively minor, element in the equation. As has been shown above,
the successful entrepreneur has a set of personal skills, attributes and behaviours
that go beyond the purely commercial. It is these attributes, this way of thinking
and behaving, that needs to be developed in students if their entrepreneurial
capabilities are to be enhanced and they are to be equipped to meet the chal-
lenges of the entrepreneurial climate of the twenty-frst century. This means that
both the content of courses and the process of learning need to change, and it
is possible to agree with Gibb (2004a) that it is important to move away from
‘the current narrow paradigm for entrepreneurship’ that equates it with new
venture creation and the tools to start and run a business.
Proposed Changes to the Content of Courses
As Ray (1997: 199), has suggested: ‘the skills traditionally taught in business
schools are essential but not suffcient to make a successful entrepreneur’. While
students still need to develop their business skills and understanding, more at-
tention needs to be paid to the development of their entrepreneurial skills,
attributes and behaviours. This means introducing modules and courses specif-
cally designed to develop in students the awareness and characteristics of the
entrepreneur. According to Ray (1997), these need to include, among others:
l communication skills, especially persuasion
l creativity skills
44 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
l critical thinking and assessment skills
l leadership skills
l negotiation skills
l problem-solving skills
l social networking skills
l time management skills
In itself, this is not suffcient, however. To succeed it will be necessary to create
a learning environment that changes the way students learn and reinforces the
development of such skills.
Proposed Changes to the Process of Learning
From a neuropsychological perspective (Ornstein, 1986; Sperry, 1968), it would
appear that the brain is divided into two hemispheres.
l The left side handles language, logic and symbols. It processes informa-
tion in a step-by-step fashion. Left-brain thinking is narrowly focused and
systematic, proceeding in a highly logical fashion from one point to the
next.
l The right side takes care of the body’s emotional, intuitive and spatial
functions. It processes information intuitively, relying heavily on images.
Right-brained thinking is lateral, unconventional, unsystematic and un-
structured. It is this right-brained lateral thinking that is at the heart of
the creative process.
According to Lewis (1987: 38–9):
while the left brain requires hard facts before reaching a conclusion, the right is hap-
pier dealing with uncertainties and elusive knowledge. It favours open-ended
questions, problems for which there are many answers rather than a single, correct
solution … The left specializes in precise descriptions and exact explanations; the
right enjoys analogies, similes and metaphors. The left demands structure and cer-
tainty; the right thrives on spontaneity and ambiguity.
Thus, those who have learned to develop their right-brained thinking skills tend
to:
l ask if there is a better way of doing things
l challenge custom, routine and tradition
l be refective – often deep in thought
l play mental games, trying to see an issue from a different perspective
l realize that there may be more than one ‘right’ answer
Can business schools meet the challenge? 45
l see mistakes and failures as pit stops on the route to success
l relate seemingly unrelated ideas to a problem to generate a solution
l see an issue from a broader perspective, but have the ability to focus on
an area in need of change.
Although the two halves normally complement each other, on occasions they
compete or one half may choose not to participate. Importantly, also, most for-
mal education systems since the time of the ancient Greeks have tended to
develop in their students left-brain capabilities. As Lewis (ibid.: 41) has
recognized
In class, students are expected to acquire knowledge one step at a time, adding me-
thodically to their storehouse of facts until they have suffcient to pass an examination.
This demands left-brain skills. The problems students are given to solve more often
demand an analytical rather than an intuitive approach. This, too … is a task for the
left hemisphere. Written work, by which ability is chiefy evaluated, must be organ-
ized, well argued and logically structured … all left-brain skills. The students
considered most intelligent and successful are those who strive after academic goals,
can control their emotions in class, follow instructions, do not ask awkward questions,
are punctual and hand in class assignments on time. Goal-setting, emotional restraint,
time-keeping and matching your behaviour to other people’s expectations are all
left-brain skills. Children are meant to learn by listening, keeping notes and reading
books. All these, too, of course, are tasks in which the left hemisphere specializes.
Interestingly, preliminary research by Nieuwenhuizen and Groenwald (2004)
in South Africa on the brain preference profles of entrepreneurs appears to
confrm the right-brain thinking preferences of successful entrepreneurs, which
may well explain why so many are known not to have succeeded in the formal
education system and are dyslexic (Kirby, 2003). It may also explain why Gibb
(1987), apparently intuitively, has argued that to develop entrepreneurs or more
enterprising individuals, the focus of the education system needs to be shifted
away from the traditional to what he terms ‘the entrepreneurial’ (Table 3.2).
Thus, the challenge is to develop a system of learning (and assessment) that
complements the traditional and develops in its students the skills, attributes
and behaviours characteristic of the enterprising or entrepreneurial individual.
As observed elsewhere (Kirby, 1992), of particular relevance here are the
proposals of Olsen and Bosserman (1984: 53). They suggest that ‘individuals
will exhibit entrepreneurial behaviour when they possess a combination of three
attributes’, namely:
l role orientation – emphasizing effectiveness
l abilities – to think both intuitively and rationally
l motivation – the driving force behind action.
46 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Table 3.2 The focus of learning
Traditional focus on Entrepreneurial focus on
The past The future
Critical analysis Creativity
Knowledge Insight
Passive understanding Active understanding
Absolute detachment Emotional involvement
Manipulation of symbols Manipulation of events
Written communication and Neutrality Personal communication and
Infuence
Concept Problem or opportunity
Source: Gibb (1987).
To achieve these, it seems necessary to adopt an approach to learning that:
l gives students ownership of their learning, including negotiating with
their tutor their own learning objectives, the resources, activities and
processes required to meet these objectives and, importantly, the way in
which it will be determined whether these objectives have been met (to
stimulate motivation, reduce dependency and provide experience of role
orientation).
l involves students in problem-solving in real-world situations, possibly in
teams (to develop both intuitive and rational thinking, to recognize the
multifaceted nature of problem and solution, and to encourage commu-
nication and co-operation)
l encourages students to formulate decisions on data that are immediate,
incomplete, ‘dubious’ and, as appropriate, personally generated (to stimu-
late effectiveness and the ability to cope with uncertainty)
l provides students with role models who are involved in both the learning
and assessment processes (to demonstrate role orientation, ability and
motivation).
Of the attributes identifed by Olsen and Bosserman, possibly the most diff-
cult to develop from the perspective of the education system in general and
business schools in particular is the ability to think both intuitively and rationally
– to develop what may be termed the ‘balanced brain’. As suggested already,
most education systems tend to adopt left-brain approaches to learning. The
emphasis has been on developing critical or vertical thinking. This is a function
of the left brain – it is objective, analytical and logical, and results in one or, at
Can business schools meet the challenge? 47
most, only a few answers. In contrast, creative thinking is lateral, imaginative
and emotional resulting, through association, in more than one solution (de
Bono, 1970). The two ways of thinking, summarized in Figure 3.1, are clearly
complementary and it is apparent that in order to develop entrepreneurial capa-
bility, both critical and creative thinking are needed. If it is assumed that the
brain is a computer that can be programmed, then presumably the right-brain
functions can be developed. Hence, as with critical thinking, students can be
trained to think creatively and to cope with ambiguity and uncertainty as these
are right-brain functions, as has been pointed out. Indeed, there are many tech-
niques for encouraging people to think laterally and to look at things in new
ways, but perhaps the most important is to maintain at all times an open and
enquiring mind. This should be the role of education but all too frequently it is
not. As Lewis (1987: 240) has recognized: ‘Under the domination of the present
paradigm, schools teach what and how rather than why. Content is all-important,
and the key to success lies in the acquisition of ‘knowledge’ and its accurate
representation to teachers and examiners. Facts are true, truth is sacred and in-
formation lasts a lifetime.’
Sadly this situation pertains not just in schools but in most levels of education,
and business schools are no exception. In an era of very rapid change, where
the life of the existing body of understanding will become increasingly shorter,
this situation is unlikely to continue indefnitely. Change is inevitable. However,
if business schools are to lead the way in creating entrepreneurs, they will need
P
R
O
B
L
E
M
Figure 3.1 Critical and creative thinking
Critical thinking
(Vertical)
Creative thinking
(Lateral)
ANSWER
PROBLEM
A
N
S
W
E
R
S
48 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
to change more rapidly than other sectors of the system. Indeed, it may be ar-
gued that the role of the academic entrepreneur is, in fact, to innovate and bring
about this much needed change.
EXPERIMENT
To test the validity of the concepts put forward in this chapter the entrepre-
neurial tendencies of 76 full- and part-time Master of Business Administration
(MBA) students at the University of Surrey, England, were tested before em-
barking on an entrepreneurship module that adopted the objectives and
techniques espoused here and promulgated in Kirby (2003). The instrument
used to test entrepreneurial tendencies of the students at the beginning and end
of the experiment was the Durham University General Enterprising Tendency
(GET) test, developed from the work of Johnson and Caird (1988) and based
on the psychological trait theories outlined above. According to Cromie (2000)
the GET test is one of the most useful, comprehensive, accessible and easy
tests to administer and score. It is a 54-item questionnaire designed to assess
fve dimensions of personality – Need for Achievement (12 items), Autonomy
(six items), Drive and Determination (12 items), Risk-taking (12 items) and
Creativity (six items). Each item is a statement and participants are required
either to agree or disagree with it. Each dimension receives a score of 0–12
(0–6 for the Autonomy dimension) with a composite score for the test of 0–54.
The complete test takes about 10 minutes to complete and would appear to
have ‘criterion and convergent validity and good internal consistency’ (ibid.,
22). The test, which was administered prior to the students enrolling on a
compulsory entrepreneurship module in the MBA, revealed that when com-
pared with a similarly sized sample of business owners/managers (Caird, 1991),
the students had lower performance scores on all of the measures, suggesting
a somewhat lower propensity to be entrepreneurial. Indeed, their entrepre-
neurial tendencies were found to be even lower than those derived from an
admittedly smaller and somewhat dated sample of lecturers and trainers (Table
3.3), though a more recent study, conducted at approximately the same time
as the student survey, suggests that the students have a slightly higher enterpris-
ing tendency than the academics (Hay et al., 2003). Whatever, the fndings
indicate the challenge facing business schools if they are to create entrepreneurs
as, increasingly, appears to be required. Assuming that the Surrey students are
not atypical of the general MBA cohort, certainly in the UK, it would appear
that MBA students, generally, are less, or only slightly more, entrepreneurial
than the people responsible for teaching and training them. Given the corporate
careers of many MBAs, and the conditioning that undoubtedly will have taken
place both through the education system and in the workplace, perhaps this is
Can business schools meet the challenge? 49
to be expected. However, it does suggest that the challenge facing UK business
schools, at least, will not be easy. While MBA students appear, perhaps some-
what unsurprisingly, to possess a relatively high need for achievement, they
underscore somewhat in terms of their need for autonomy, their belief that they
control their own destinies, their creativity and their preparedness to take risks.
If the arguments put forward in this chapter are accepted, then it must be as-
sumed that all these characteristics or attributes can be developed in them, but
not by using the more traditional, pedagogic teaching methods and styles nor
by teaching the standard functional competences traditionally taught in busi-
ness schools. Neither, it might be added, are they likely to be developed if their
‘role models’ are staff who, themselves, are not enterprising and do not adopt
an entrepreneurial approach to their teaching.
Interestingly, when they were introduced to the content and process of learn-
ing proposed here, the entrepreneurial tendencies of the cohort improved. At
the end of the module the students were re-tested and it was discovered that after
a period of only 12 weeks of exposure to this different process of learning, and
without reinforcement from other programmes that continued to adopt a more
traditional pedagogic approach to teaching and learning, the General Enterpris-
ing Tendency of the 76 Surrey MBA students increased by almost 10 per cent,
with individuals showing much higher (and lower) scores than this. Even more
important, perhaps, students talked about the way the programme had changed
the way they thought and behaved.
Table 3.3 The General Enterprising Tendencies of a sample of MBA
students,
1
business owners/managers and lecturers/trainers
compared
2
(mean scores)
Group Need for
achievement
Autonomy Creativity Calculated
risk-taking
Locus of
control
Total
score
max = 12 max = 6 max = 12 max = 12 max = 12 max = 54
Business
students
9.00 3.4 8.2 8.3 8.5 37.6
Owners/
managers
9.98 4.1 8.7 8.7 9.5 41.0
Lecturers/
trainers
8.90 4.1 8.5 8.6 8.2 38.3
Notes:
1. Source: GET test.
2. Source: Caird (1991).
50 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
CONCLUSION
On the basis of this, admittedly limited, experiment it would seem that, by
adopting the principles espoused here in the way students are educated for en-
trepreneurship, it is possible to increase their entrepreneurial tendencies, both
as a cohort and as individuals. Clearly it is diffcult to comment on the perma-
nency of this change or to state categorically that it results from the changes
introduced. To do this would require not just a longitudinal study with a wider
range of students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) but a controlled experi-
ment with two ‘identical’ cohorts, only one of which was exposed to the changed
pedagogy. However, it would seem that if the education system is to meet the
challenge of developing more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours in its
students, then there does need to be a very signifcant transformation in not only
what is taught but also how it is taught. Developing entrepreneurs in the class-
room, it is contested, is about developing the enterprising environments and
approaches to learning in which entrepreneurial aptitudes and capabilities can
fourish, alongside business acumen and understanding. As Chia (1996: 426)
has argued: ‘The unique contribution university business schools can make to
the business community is not through the vocationalizing of business/manage-
ment education programmes. Rather it is through adopting a deliberate
educational strategy which privileges the “weakening” of thought processes so
as to encourage and stimulate the entrepreneurial imagination.’
At the same time, it must not be assumed that entrepreneurship education is
solely about encouraging ‘students’ to set-up and run their own businesses.
While there is some evidence that experience in a small frm can help the de-
velopment of more enterprising individuals (Kirby and Mullen, 1990),
entrepreneurship should not be equated solely with new venture creation nor
with small business management. Rather, it is, as Kao (1997: 237–8) has rec-
ognized, about ‘making a change’ and: ‘even those who relate entrepreneurship
with business undertakings have noted that only those who innovate and develop
new combinations are entrepreneurs’.
Entrepreneurs can occur in all walks of life and increasingly attention is being
focused not just on business entrepreneurs, but on academic entrepreneurs, civic
entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs and technological entrepreneurs, among
others. Thus, entrepreneurship education is no longer the sole province of the
business school academic, as Welsch and Kickul (2001) have recognized. This
is to be welcomed. However, if business schools are to maintain their leading
role and business school educators are to assist and facilitate this new market
and its support system, then there would appear to be a need for a more innova-
tive and radical approach to entrepreneurship education than appears to have
been evident to date, a point recognized by Gibb (2004b). There are signs of
this occurring, as the essays by DeTienne and Chandler (2004), Honig (2004)
Can business schools meet the challenge? 51
and Shepherd (2004) perhaps indicate. Also, through this publication and the
annual publications of the IntEnt Conference proceedings (www.intent-confer-
ence.com) there appears to be a body of knowledge emerging that is capable,
perhaps, of providing the beginnings of a theoretical framework for the teaching
of entrepreneurship. Even so, ‘very little is still known about effective teaching
techniques for entrepreneurial educators’ (Brockhaus et al., 2001: xiv) and re-
search and knowledge about how to teach entrepreneurship remains relatively
underdeveloped, despite the increasing demand, globally, for more entrepre-
neurially oriented graduates of business schools and universities. It is the
intention that this chapter will provide some insights into how the educational
process might need to change and develop, and will act as a catalyst for research
that will progress the subject and ensure business schools retain their premier
position in the creation of entrepreneurs.
REFERENCES
Allinson, C.W., E. Chell, and J. Hayes (2000), ‘Intuition and entrepreneurial behaviour’,
European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1), 31–43.
Bartlett, A.F. (1988), Profle of the Entrepreneur or Machiavellian Management, Leath-
erhead: Ashford Press.
Birch, D. (1979), The Job Generation Process, Cambridge, MA: MIT Program on
Neighbourhood and Regional Change.
Brockhaus, R.H. (2001), ‘Foreword’, in R.H Brockhaus, G.E Hills, H. Klandt and H.P.
Welsch (eds), Entrepreneurship Education: A Global View, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Brockhaus, R.H. and P.S. Horwitz (1986), ‘The psychology of the entrepreneur’, in D.L.
Sexton and R.W. Smilor (eds), The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, Cambridge:
Ballinger.
Brockhaus, R.H. and W.R. Nord (1979), ‘An exploration of factors affecting the entre-
preneurial decision: personal characteristics versus environmental conditions’,
Proceedings of the Academy of Management, 10, 509–20.
Brockhaus, R.H., G.E. Hills, H. Klandt and H.P. Welsch (2001), Entrepreneurship Edu-
cation: A Global View, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Busenitz, L.W. (1999), ‘Entrepreneurial risk and strategic decision-making: it’s a matter
of perspective’, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 35 (3), 325–40.
Bygrave, W.D. (1994), The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, Chichester: John
Wiley.
Caird, S. (1991), ‘The enterprising tendency of occupational groups’, International Small
Business Journal, 9 (4), 75–81.
Carland, J.W. (1982), ‘Entrepreneurship in a small business setting: an exploratory
study’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
Chell, E., J. Haworth and S. Brearley (1991), The Entrepreneurial Personality: Concepts,
Cases and Categories, London: Routledge.
Chen, P.C., P.G. Greene and A. Crick (1998), ‘Does entrepreneurial self effcacy distin-
guish entrepreneurs from managers?’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13, 295–316.
Chia, R. (1996), ‘Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: university busi-
52 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
ness schools and the entrepreneurial imagination’, Journal of Management Studies,
33 (4), 40.
Cromie, S. (1987), ‘Motivations of aspiring male and female entrepreneurs’, Journal of
Organisational Behaviour, 8, 251–61.
Cromie, S. (2000), ‘Assessing entrepreneurial implications: some approaches and empiri-
cal evidence’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1),
7–30.
Cromie, S. and S. Johns (1983), ‘Irish entrepreneurs: some personal characteristics’,
Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 4, 317–24.
Cromie, S. and J. O’Donoghue (1992), ‘Assessing entrepreneurial inclinations’, Inter-
national Small Business Journal, 10 (2), 66–73.
Cromie, S., I. Callaghan and M. Jansen (1992), ‘The entrepreneurial tendencies of man-
agers: a research note’, British Journal of Management, 3, 1–5.
de Bono, E. (1970), Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step-by-Step, New York: Harper and
Row.
DeTienne, D.R and G.N. Chandler (2004), ‘Opportunity identifcation and its role in the
entrepreneurial classroom: a pedagogical approach and empirical test’, Academy of
Management Learning and Education, 3 (3), 242–57.
Drucker, P.F. (1989), The New Realities, London: Heinemann.
Gibb, A.A. (1987), ‘Enterprise culture – its meaning and implications for education and
training’, Journal of European Industrial Training, 11 (2), 3–38.
Gibb, A.A. (1990), ‘Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship – exploring the differences’,
in R. Donckels and A. Miettinen (eds), New Findings and Perspectives in Entrepre-
neurship, Aldershot: Gower.
Gibb, A.A. (1996), ‘Entrepreneurship and small business management: can we afford to
neglect them in the twenty-frst century business school?’, British Journal of Manage-
ment, 7 (4), 309–24.
Gibb, A.A. (2004a), ‘Creating conducive environments for learning and entrepreneur-
ship’, paper presented at the Internationalising Entrepreneurship Education and
Training Conference (IntEnt 2004), Naples, July.
Gibb, A.A. (2004b), ‘Creative destruction, new values, new ways of doing things and
new combinations of knowledge’, paper presented at the Internationalising Entrepre-
neurship Education and Training Conference (IntEnt 2004), Naples, July.
Handy, C. (1990), The Age of Unreason, London: Random Century.
Hay, D.B., F. Butt and D.A. Kirby (2003), ‘Academics as entrepreneurs’, in G. Williams
(ed.), The Enterprising University: Reform, Excellence and Equity, Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Hills, G.E. (1986), ‘Entrepreneurship behavioural intentions and student independence,
characteristics and experience’, in R. Ronstadt, J.A. Hornaday, R. Peterson and K.H.
Vesper (eds), Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual
Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Babson Park, MA: Babson
College, pp. 173–6.
Ho, T.S. and H.C. Koh (1992), ‘Differences in psychological characteristics between
entrepreneurially accounting graduates in Singapore’, Entrepreneurship, Innovation
and Change, 1, 243–54.
Honig, B. (2004), ‘Entrepreneurship education: toward a model of contingency-based
business planning’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3 (3),
258–73.
Hornaday, J.A. (1982), ‘Research about living entrepreneurs’, in C.A. Kent, D.L. Sexton
Can business schools meet the challenge? 53
and K.L. Vesper (eds), Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Hull, D.L., J.J. Bosley and G.G. Udell (1980), ‘Renewing the hunt for the heffalump:
identifying potential entrepreneurs by personality characteristics’, Journal of Small
Business, 18, 11–18.
Interman (1991), Profles of Entrepreneurship Development Programmes, Geneva: In-
ternational Labour Offce.
Johannisson, B. (1991), ‘University training for entrepreneurship: Swedish approaches’,
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 3 (1), 67–82.
Johnson, C. and S. Caird (1988), The Measurement of General Enterprising Tendency,
Durham: Durham University Business School.
Kao, R.W. (1997), An Entrepreneurial Approach to Corporate Management, London:
Prentice Hall.
Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (1977), ‘The entrepreneurial personality: a person at the cross-
roads’, Journal of Management Studies, February, 34–57.
Kirby, D.A. (1992), ‘Developing graduate entrepreneurs: the U.K. Graduate Enterprise
Programme’, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Change, 1 (2), 165–75.
Kirby, D.A. (2003), Entrepreneurship, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
Kirby, D.A. and D. Mullen (1990), ‘Developing enterprising undergraduates’, Journal
of European Industrial Training, 14 (2), 27–32.
Kirby, D.A., P. Livett and J. Rindl (1991), Innovations in Service, Luton: Local Govern-
ment Training Board.
Kirton, M. (1976), ‘Adaptors and innovators: a description and measure’, Journal of
Applied Psychology, October, 622–9.
Koh, H.C. (1996), ‘Testing hypotheses of entrepreneurial characteristics’, Journal of
Managerial Psychology, 11, 12–25.
Lessem, R. (1986), Enterprise Development, Aldershot: Gower.
Lewis, D. (1987), Mind Skills: Giving Your Child a Brighter Future, London: Souvenir
Press.
McClelland, D.C. (1961), The Achieving Society, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Miner, J.B. (1997), A Psychological Typology of Successful Entrepreneurs, London:
Quorum Books.
Moss Kanter, R. (1984), The Change Masters: Corporate Entrepreneurs at Work, Lon-
don: Unwin.
National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (1997), Higher Education in the
Learning Society: Report of the National Committee, London: HMSO.
Nieuwenhuizen, C. and D. Groenwald (2004), ‘Entrepreneurship training and education
needs as determined by the brain preference profles of successful, established entre-
preneurs’, paper presented at the Internationalising Entrepreneurship Education and
Training Conference (IntEnt 2004). Naples, July.
Olsen, P.D. (1995), ‘Entrepreneurship: process and abilities’, Entrepreneurship Theory
and Practice, 10 (1), 25–32.
Olsen, P. and D. Bosserman (1984), ‘Attributes of the entrepreneurial type’, Business
Horizons, May–June, 53–6.
Ornstein, R. (1986), The Psychology of Consciousness, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Peters, T. (1987), Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution, London:
Pan Books.
Ray, D.M. (1997), ‘Teaching entrepreneurship in Asia: impact of a pedagogical innova-
tion’, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Change, 6 (3), 193–227.
54 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Rotter, J.B. (1966), ‘Generalised expectancies for internal versus external control of re-
inforcement’, Psychological Monographs, 609 (80), 1.
Scott, M.G. and D.F. Twomey (1988), ‘The long-term supply of entrepreneurs: students’
career aspirations in relation to entrepreneurship’, Journal of Small Business Manage-
ment, 26 (4), 5–13.
Scottish Enterprise (1997), Local Heroes, Edinburgh: Insider Group.
Shepherd, D.A. (2004), ‘Educating entrepreneurship students about emotion and learning
from failure’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3 (3), 274–87.
Small Business Research Trust (1988), Entrepreneurship, Milton Keynes: Open
University.
Solomon, G. (1989), ‘Youth: tomorrow’s entrepreneurs’, ICSB Bulletin, 26 (5), 1–2.
Solomon, G.T. and E. Winslow (1988), ‘Towards a descriptive profle of the entrepre-
neur’, Journal of Creative Behaviour, L22, 162–71.
Sperry, R.W. (1968), ‘Hemisphere deconnection and unity in conscious awareness’,
American Psychologist, 23, 723–33.
Timmons, J.A. (1989), The Entrepreneurial Mind, Andover, MA: Brick House.
Timmons, J.A., L.E Smollen and A.L.M. Dingee (1985), New Venture Creation, Home-
wood, IL: Irwin.
Universities UK (2000), A Forward Look – Highlights of our Corporate Plan, 2001–
2004, London: Universities UK.
Utsch, A. and A. Rauch (2000), ‘Innovativeness and initiative as mediators between
achievement orientation and venture performance’, European Journal of Work and
Organisational Psychology, 9 (1), 45–62.
Vesper, K. and W. Gartner (1998), University Entrepreneurship Programmes Worldwide,
Los Angeles, CA: University of South Carolina.
Welsch, H.P. and J.R. Kickul (2001), ‘Training for successful entrepreneurship careers
in the creative arts’, in R.H. Brockhaus, G.E. Hills, H. Klandt and H.P. Welsch (eds),
Entrepreneurship Education: A Global View, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Whiting, B.G. (1988), ‘Creativity and entrepreneurship: how do they relate?’, Journal
of Creative Behaviour, 22 (3), 178–83.
55
4. To support the emergence of academic
entrepreneurs: the role of business
plan competitions
Lorella Cannavacciuolo,
1
Guido Capaldo,
Gianluca Esposito, Luca Iandoli and Mario
Raffa
INTRODUCTION
Besides mainstream literature, this chapter builds on previous empirical re-
searches implemented by some of the authors of this work (Capaldo et al., 1997;
Capaldo and Fontes, 2001; Capaldo et al., 2002; Raffa and Zollo, 2000). In
particular, the research presented in this chapter has been carried out following
three different steps:
1. To present an overview of the main defnitions of academic spin-off (AS)
and analyse barriers preventing the creation of such spin-offs (the second
and third sections). The label ‘barrier’ refers to legal, organizational, cul-
tural and fnancial obstacles preventing research output from being
transformed into business opportunities throughout the academic spin-off
creation process (BenDaniel and Szafara, 1998).
2. To present an overview of the most commonly used supports for the creation
of academic spin-off (the fourth and ffth sections). Previous researches
have proved that the effective creation of such spin-offs is constrained if
universities take advantage of a limited number of supports. Conversely,
the creation of academic spin-offs benefts from a valuable combination of
both formal and informal supports (Capaldo and Fontes, 2001).
3. To analyse the role played by academic spin-off support programmes in
facilitating the emergence and the exploitation of new-business ideas within
universities and research centres.
56 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS OF ACADEMIC SPIN-OFF
Building on the academic spin-off’s literature, this paragraph is aimed at de-
scribing the key features of academic entrepreneurs. In order to describe such
features, it is necessary to identify a clear-cut defnition of academic spin-off.
In this respect, there is a vast literature providing a huge variety of different
defnitions. This phase is not aimed at identifying the best defnition. On the
contrary, this paragraph is targetted at showing that defnitions proposed by the
mainstream literature address many different academic spin-off related aspects.
According to Gibson and Smilor (1991), the conceptual underpinning of aca-
demic spin-off relies on at least one of the following conditions:
1. The entrepreneur promoting the creation of an academic spin-off must be
either an academic-staff member or a student who has almost completed
his studies.
2. The new frm must take advantage of either a new idea or a cutting-age
technology. Both should have been developed within university laborato-
ries.
Similarly, the academic spin-off-defnition of Stankiewicz (1986) encompasses
every frm created either by students who have almost completed their studies
or by people working for universities. Moreover, such defnition includes frms
promoted by people working for public founded research centres. A more gen-
eral defnition is provided by Formica (1993) who makes a distinction among
three different types of academic spin-offs:
l spin-offs promoted by researchers working for universities, and both
public and private research centres
l spin-offs promoted by students
l spin-offs promoted by people who work neither for universities nor for
research centres, but want to take advantage of ideas developed within
academic-related environments.
The defnition carried out by Jones-Evans (1997) is primarily focused on the
key features of entrepreneurs promoting academic spin-offs. More specifcally,
this author makes a distinction among four different types of entrepreneurs:
l the research-technical entrepreneur, who is characterized by relevant
scientifc and technological competencies, but inadequate managerial
skills
l the production-technical entrepreneur, whose technical skills are coupled
with managerial ones
The role of business plan competitions 57
l the production-user technical entrepreneur, whose competencies are
primarily managerial ones
l the opportunist-technical entrepreneur, who is able to identify and exploit
a huge variety of opportunities taking advantage of other people’s
competencies.
Contrary to Jones-Evans, Clarysse et al. (2000) focus their defnition of aca-
demic spin-off on the key features of academic spin-off frms. In particular, they
identify three different types of academic spin-offs:
1. Technological small and medium enterprises (SMEs), that are primarily
focused on research and development (R&D) activities. Although such frms
are short in fnancial resources they rely on highly qualifed people who
take advantage of an academic background in cutting-edge technologies.
2. ‘Looking for gold’ SMEs that are primarily focused on identifying either
products or services that can eventually guarantee high growth rates. These
frms are usually created by academic-background people who are charac-
terized by high networking capabilities. Such capabilities play a crucial role
in fnding fnancial resources.
3. Venture-capital supported SMEs that are able to fnance their activities
taking advantage of fnancial resources provided by venture capitalists. The
frst step in the creation of such frms is characterized by a so-called ‘incu-
bation period’. This period is crucial for testing the ability of potential
academic spin-offs to deal with market forces.
In this chapter we take advantage of a rather broad defnition of academic
spin-off. More specifcally, in our view the creation of academic spin-offs is not
necessarily related to the exploitation of research-related ideas. Therefore, our
defnition of academic spin-off encompasses any frm based on ideas promoted
by people working for both universities and research centres (that is, under-
graduate, graduate and PhD students, professors, university-staff employees).
Therefore, one of the key features of such spin-offs is related to a cultural envi-
ronment which is not naturally biased towards entrepreneurship. Such defnition
includes a huge variety of people. Nevertheless, taking advantage of previous
scientifc publications, it is possible to identify some key features characterizing
academic entrepreneurs (BenDaniel and Szafara, 1998; Capaldo et al., 2002).
The competence-based approach (Boyatzis, 1982; Capaldo et al., 2002;
Spencer and Spencer, 1993) shows that the competence profle of the academic
entrepreneur is usually characterized by a lack of skills that are strictly related
to entrepreneurship. BenDaniel and Szafara (1998) point out that the cultural
differences between entrepreneurs and academics seem to play a major role.
Entrepreneurs are strongly business committed. Rather, people working for
58 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
academia are more focused on scientifc tasks. Therefore, academic entrepre-
neurs are characterized by a cognitive profle made up by particular attitudes,
values and beliefs. This cognitive profle is rather different from the one that
usually characterizes entrepreneurs. It goes without saying that elements such
as a lack of business awareness, low commitment, motivations driven by intel-
lectual curiosity coupled with organizational, legal and fnancial barriers, may
put a serious constraint on the growth of academic individuals willing to exploit
their ideas on the market.
The key features mentioned above are mostly related to people involved in
research activities. Nevertheless, being both risk adverse and not biased towards
entrepreneurship are elements that usually characterize those people who work
for universities and research centres.
BARRIERS HINDERING ACADEMIC SPIN-OFF CREATION
This paragraph is devoted to the analysis of barriers hindering the creation of
academic spin-offs. BenDaniel and Szafara (1998) have focused their attention
on the key features that characterize cultural backgrounds of ‘technical profes-
sors’. Moreover, they have studied the way two strongly research-orientated
universities (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell) are struc-
tured. Both aspects are taken into account in order to identify factors
infuencing the creation of academic spin-offs. More specifcally, the ethno-
graphic study this chapter refers to, classifes such factors in four different
typologies:
1. Attitudes. This aspect refers to the way ‘technical professors’ depict their
jobs. According to such professors, their main task is disseminating knowl-
edge. This element is in contrast with the way entrepreneurs picture their
job. In fact, entrepreneurs are primarily focused on exploiting rather than
disseminating knowledge.
2. Organizational aspects. This point refers to formal and informal rules that
characterize universities. Moreover, this element encompasses organiza-
tional support for people implementing research-related activities who want
to create a new venture.
3. Motivation and de-motivations. This aspect refers to the elements that could
either encourage or discourage people implementing research-related activi-
ties from becoming entrepreneurs.
4. Scientifc paradigm. According to some authors (Brown, 1985; Etzkowitz,
1989; McMillan et al., 2000), the so-called scientifc paradigm is exclu-
sively focused on the knowledge-increasing process. In this respect,
research-related results are considered to be ‘public goods’ (Bok, 1990;
The role of business plan competitions 59
Callon, 1994; Etzkowitz, 1998; Geisler, 1993). On the contrary, according
to the entrepreneurial view such results are not to be disclosed.
It is possible to identify a huge variety of barriers that prevent both the emer-
gence and the exploitation of new business ideas within universities and research
centres. The origin of such barriers could be related to cultural, organizational,
fnancial and legal aspects. Whoever works for universities and research centres
will be forced to face such barriers if he or she wants to implement an entrepre-
neurial activity. However, the impact of each barrier differs as regards the
typology of the university-related actor involved in the creation of a new venture.
The following list is devoted to the analysis of four different types of barriers.
1. Cultural barriers. This barrier represents a major obstacle in particular for
professors. Such actors depict the business start-up process taking advan-
tage of their cultural background. More specifcally, they picture such a
process as the way to produce and disseminate knowledge. Therefore, the
great majority of professors see the creation of academic spin-offs creation
as a continuation of their main task, that is, spreading knowledge and con-
trolling their discoveries. More specifcally, a professor is satisfed when
he or she is able to provide the best explanation of an event, while an en-
trepreneur is satisfed when he or she achieves market-related success. In
brief, professors are interested in the dissemination of their ideas, while
entrepreneurs’ concern is the retention of relevant knowledge. Last but not
least, professors’ time horizons are focused on long-term periods. Con-
versely, entrepreneurs’ activities are focused on short term periods.
2. Organizational barriers. This aspect refers to the lack of structural and
systematic support for business-orientated activities such as patent requests,
incubation of new start-ups, and procedural support for business creation.
Such barriers prevent any university actor (professors, PhD students, uni-
versity staff members, and so on) from implementing entrepreneurial
activities.
3. Legal barriers. Such barriers represent an obstacle for those who want to
take advantage of research-related results for implementing entrepreneurial
activities. More specifcally, legal barriers refer to policies aimed at regulat-
ing activities of professors involved in business tasks. In particular such a
barrier encompasses laws regulating intellectual property rights, patents,
conficts of interests, and so on.
4. Financial barriers. This aspect refers to diffculties in fnding and managing
fnancial resources. Whoever works for universities and research centres
will be forced to face such barriers if he or she wants to implement an en-
trepreneurial activity.
60 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
In this list we have identifed four different types of barriers that hinder the
emergence of new business ideas and put a serious constraint on the creation of
new academic spin-offs. Therefore, the existence of these obstacles makes it
necessary to create supports aimed at facilitating the emergence of such spin-
offs. The next section is devoted to the analysis of such supports.
SUPPORTS FOR THE CREATION OF ACADEMIC
SPIN-OFFS
It is possible to make a distinction between research and entrepreneurial activi-
ties. More specifcally, the former could be defned as an exploration process
while the latter is considered an exploitation process (Chiesa and Piccaluga,
1996). In the lights of such distinction, the transformation process of research
output into new frms is neither simple nor instantaneous. In fact, despite strong
motivations, a huge variety of cultural, organizational, legal and fnancial bar-
riers hinder such a transformation process. Besides people involved in
research-related activities, such barriers may prevent whoever works for uni-
versities and research centres from creating a new venture. Therefore, a wide
spectrum of both formal and informal supports aimed at overcoming such bar-
riers is required. These supports stimulate the creation of new academic spin-offs
(Van Alstè and Van der Sijde, 1998; Varaldo and Piccaluga, 1994). This para-
graph focuses on the analysis of both formal and informal supports for the
academic spin-off creation process.
To begin with, formal supports could be defned as institutional tools that
provide academic spin-offs with infrastructure, fnancial resources, cultural,
legal and organizational supports (Table 4.1). Direct fnancial contribution as
well as indirect ones – tax incentives, favourable loans, and so on – are particu-
larly important mechanisms in promoting entrepreneurship among young people
with limited resources (that is, undergraduate students, graduate students, PhD
students). Moreover, it is necessary to provide academic entrepreneurs with
other fnancial supports that are geared to their needs. A case in point is repre-
sented by venture capital. According to Capaldo and Fontes (2001) academic
entrepreneurs do not consider formal supports other than fnancial ones as cru-
cial. This is due to the fact that most of the times such supports are not tailored
to the needs of the business area academic entrepreneurs are dealing with.
Informal supports could be described as a network made up by different rela-
tionships each entrepreneur relies on (Table 4.2). Such a network plays a crucial
role for entrepreneurs. It provides them with vital pieces of information and
business-related opportunities. Academic entrepreneurs take advantage of such
a network in order to compensate for their weaknesses. Informal supports are
vital for overcoming diffculties that are ineffectively faced by formal supports.
The role of business plan competitions 61
Table 4.1 Typology of formal support obtained by frms
Typology of formal support
Financial subsidies for investments
Financial contributions to R&D activities
Financial contributions to operational costs
Favourable loans
Tax exemptions
Training courses on business plan preparation
Business training courses
Management consultancy activities
Access to database
Information on new market opportunities
Information on technological opportunities
Assistance in the establishment of contacts with other frms for commercial
purpose
Equipment maintenance assistance
Source: Capaldo and Fontes (2001).
Table 4.2 Typologies of informal support obtained by the frms
Typology of formal support
Informal family support
Informal support from academics and researchers
Informal support from customers
Informal support from consultants
Source: Capaldo and Fontes (2001).
In this respect, the support offered by relatives and friends together with informal
relationships with customers can facilitate the early-stage activities of academic
entrepreneurs. In fact, the support network represents the key link between such
entrepreneurs and the market they operate in (Bellini et al., 1996; Capaldo et al.,
1997; Johannisson, 1998; Monsted, 1998; Mustar, 1994). Moreover, it provides
these entrepreneurs with vital competencies for successfully implementing their
business ideas. Therefore, the presence of a network represents an always avail-
able support that can be exploited by academic entrepreneurs.
Formal and informal supports are complementary tools that facilitate the
emergence of new business ideas and lay the foundation for the creation of new
62 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Table 4.3 The impact of different supports on barriers hindering the
creation of academic spin-offs
Barriers Supports Impact
Cultural Formal:
– Business plan preparation courses
– Business training courses
– Start-up and ‘business fertilization’
activities
Informal:
– Participation in conferences and
university seminars on
entrepreneurship
– Favourable academic culture biased
towards entrepreneurship
– Networks with local frms
To develop
entrepreneurial culture
within universities
To support the transition
from the exploration to
the exploitation of
scientifc related topics
To expand the
knowledge of the
scientifc results that
can be commercialized
Organizational Formal:
– Management consultancy activities
– Information on new market
opportunities
– Information on technological
opportunities
– Support for the establishment of
contacts with other frms for
commercial purposes
– Support for the equipment
maintenance
Informal:
– Informal support from customers
– Informal support from consultants
– Informal family support
To provide new
ventures with
organizational tools and
managerial
competencies
Legal Formal:
– To manage the patent application
process
– To deal with legal problems related
to the compatibility of university-
related activities and
entrepreneurial-related activities
To change rules
regulating the business
exploitation of research
output
Financial Formal:
– Financial subsidies for investments
– Financial contribution to R&D
activities
– Financial contribution to operational
costs
– Favourable-condition loans
– Tax exemptions
To provide new
ventures with fnancial
resources
The role of business plan competitions 63
ventures. Formal supports provide potential new ventures with standard tools.
More specifcally, such tools do not take into account the specifc features of
the frms utilizing them. In other words, formal supports are not tailored to the
individual needs of new ventures. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate such
supports with informal ones. The latter category provides start-up frms with a
network of both direct and indirect relationships that are somehow related to
the specifc needs of new ventures (that is, vertical markets; sources of
competencies).
To sum up, both supports are crucial in fostering the creation of new frms.
On the one hand, formal supports facilitate the transformation of innovative
ideas into business ideas that lay the foundation for the creation of new ventures.
On the other hand, informal supports help potential new ventures bridge the gap
with market-related agents (that is, customers, suppliers, and so on). Table 4.3
shows the impact of formal and informal supports on obstacles preventing the
creation of academic spin-offs.
FORMAL AND INFORMAL SUPPORTS FACILITATING
THE EMERGENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL
BEHAVIOURS
In order to take full advantage of such supports it is not suffcient to evaluate
the nature of the barriers mentioned previously in this chapter. The implementa-
tion of effective policies supporting the creation of academic spin-offs should
take into account the key features of academic entrepreneurs. More specifcally,
it is necessary for such budding entrepreneurs to develop some specifc behav-
iours that generally characterize entrepreneurs.
As regards academic entrepreneurs’ characteristics, bridging the gap with the
market they operate in means taking advantage of three different entrepreneurial
behaviours that usually do not coexist in university-related actors. Such behav-
iours are rational, empirical and cognitive ones (Marchini, 1995). In order to
achieve a predefned result, rational entrepreneurs analyse different pieces of
information and take into account every possible alternative. Empirical entre-
preneurs’ behaviours are based on previous experiences and routines. Last but
not least, cognitive entrepreneurs create new knowledge building on information
and know-how resources they can incorporate by exploiting preferential links
with universities and market forces.
To begin with, in order to transform an innovative idea into a business-exploit-
able one, it is necessary to strengthen the rational behaviour of academic
entrepreneurs. On average, academic entrepreneurs are not short in the skills of
gathering and analysing information. However, supports are needed in order to
tailor such skills to the needs of the business community. In this phase, formal
64
T
a
b
l
e
4
.
4
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
a
n
d
r
e
l
a
t
e
d
s
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
D
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
s
t
y
l
e
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
-
t
o
o
l
s
R
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
S
i
m
o
n
,
1
9
5
9
;
M
a
r
c
h
a
n
d
S
i
m
o
n
,
1
9
5
8
I
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
-
b
a
s
e
d
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
T
o
g
a
t
h
e
r
a
n
d
a
n
a
l
y
s
e
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
T
o
e
v
a
l
u
a
t
e
e
v
e
r
y
p
o
s
s
i
b
l
e
a
l
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
v
e
T
o
m
a
k
e
a
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
t
a
k
i
n
g
a
d
v
a
n
t
a
g
e
o
f
r
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
a
s
s
u
m
p
t
i
o
n
s
.
T
r
a
d
i
t
i
o
n
a
l
f
o
r
m
a
l
t
r
a
i
n
i
n
g
f
a
c
i
l
i
t
a
t
i
n
g
l
S
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
c
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
l
C
o
s
t
/
b
e
n
e
f
t
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
l
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
p
l
a
n
c
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
E
m
p
i
r
i
c
a
l
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
B
e
r
g
e
r
a
n
d
L
u
c
k
m
a
n
n
,
1
9
6
6
;
C
o
h
e
n
a
n
d
M
a
r
c
h
,
1
9
7
4
;
N
e
l
s
o
n
a
n
d
W
i
n
t
e
r
,
1
9
8
2
;
P
e
n
r
o
s
e
,
1
9
5
9
E
x
p
e
r
i
e
n
c
e
-
b
a
s
e
d
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
T
o
c
r
e
a
t
e
a
n
d
i
m
p
l
e
m
e
n
t
r
o
u
t
i
n
e
s
F
o
r
m
a
l
a
n
d
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
l
s
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
f
a
c
i
l
i
t
a
t
i
n
g
l
T
a
c
i
t
k
n
o
w
l
e
d
g
e
t
r
a
n
s
f
e
r
l
I
m
i
t
a
t
i
o
n
a
n
d
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
o
f
b
e
s
t
p
r
a
c
t
i
c
e
s
a
n
d
c
a
s
e
s
t
u
d
i
e
s
l
L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g
b
y
d
o
i
n
g
l
P
r
e
v
i
o
u
s
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
t
r
a
d
i
t
i
o
n
s
l
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
r
e
l
a
t
e
d
t
o
s
p
e
c
i
f
c
t
e
r
r
i
t
o
r
i
a
l
c
o
n
t
e
x
t
s
C
o
g
n
i
t
i
v
e
b
e
h
a
v
i
o
u
r
s
A
r
g
y
r
i
s
a
n
d
S
c
h
o
n
,
1
9
7
8
;
F
r
a
n
s
m
a
n
,
1
9
9
4
;
P
o
r
a
c
e
t
a
l
.
1
9
8
9
;
S
c
h
e
i
n
,
1
9
7
8
;
W
a
l
s
h
a
n
d
U
n
g
s
o
n
,
1
9
9
1
;
W
e
i
c
k
,
1
9
7
6
E
x
p
e
c
t
a
t
i
o
n
-
b
a
s
e
d
a
n
d
v
i
s
i
o
n
-
c
r
e
a
t
i
n
g
d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
-
m
a
k
i
n
g
T
o
i
m
p
l
e
m
e
n
t
‘
s
e
n
s
e
m
a
k
i
n
g
’
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
.
T
o
e
l
a
b
o
r
a
t
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
v
i
s
i
o
n
s
F
o
r
m
a
l
a
n
d
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
l
s
u
p
p
o
r
t
s
f
a
c
i
l
i
t
a
t
i
n
g
l
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
a
n
d
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
t
y
m
e
m
b
e
r
s
h
i
p
s
l
C
o
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
o
f
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
n
e
t
w
o
r
k
s
l
D
i
s
s
e
m
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
r
e
s
u
l
t
s
a
n
d
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
s
h
a
r
i
n
g
l
C
o
-
o
p
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
The role of business plan competitions 65
supports such as business plans play a crucial role. Subsequently, it is necessary
to build up academic entrepreneurs’ empirical behaviours. Such behaviours are
experienced based. It goes without saying that academic entrepreneurs are usu-
ally short on business experience and formal supports are not effective in flling
this gap as in the previous case. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen informal
network-based supports that eventually help academic entrepreneurs create and
implement routines throughout tacit knowledge transfer. Finally, academic en-
trepreneurs need to elaborate a safe and sound entrepreneurial vision throughout
reinforcing their cognitive behaviour. Once again, the presence of a well-estab-
lished network plays a crucial role.
Table 4.4 shows the relationships between different entrepreneurial styles and
supports that could foster the development of the associated decision-making
styles.
The analysis presented above shows that both the number and the quality of
academic spin-offs could be increased by taking advantage of adequate support
policies. More specifcally, such policies should be aimed at overcoming cul-
tural, organizational, legal and fnancial barriers preventing the creation of
academic spin-offs. In this respect, universities seem to play a key role in getting
around cultural barriers. In doing so, universities should take into account the
key features of academic entrepreneurs. Therefore, support policies should be
aimed at providing academic entrepreneurs with competencies they are usually
short of. Moreover, universities play a vital role in strengthening the links be-
tween knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting centres. In doing
so, they create a network that provides academic entrepreneurs with crucial in-
formal supports.
Building on such assumptions, the next section is devoted to the analysis of
the conceptual framework that is helping the University of Naples Federico II
lay the foundation for the creation of a new academic spin-off-promotion
programme.
THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN FACILITATING THE
DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC SPIN-OFFS: THE CASE
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NAPLES FEDERICO II
Ultimately the importance of European programmes promoting academic
spin-offs has considerably increased. In this respect, universities play a key
role in both overcoming cultural barriers and strengthening the links between
knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting centres.
As regards the frst aspect, professors and researchers usually do not recognize
that scientifc output contains valuable solutions for entrepreneurs. Moreover,
most of the time they are not eager to exploit research results in order to create
66 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
academic spin-offs. Similarly, entrepreneurs do not recognize that their competi-
tive weaknesses could be overcome taking advantage of scientifc output.
Universities that want to promote academic spin-offs cannot operate eff-
ciently by simply pushing professors and researchers towards the creation of
new ventures. Rather, it is necessary to create a new organizational structure
aimed at bridging cultural divides between universities and market forces. Such
a structure should be aimed primarily at sowing the seeds for an entrepreneurial
culture to emerge among university employees. In doing so, the key features of
academic entrepreneurs should be taken into account.
Besides formal supports, this chapter has underlined the importance of infor-
mal supports. The latter could be described as a network made up of different
relationships each entrepreneur relies on. Universities should take the lead in
promoting such networks. More specifcally, throughout the implementation of
AS-promotion programmes they could eventually strengthen the links between
knowledge-producing centres (universities, innovative large frms, research
centres) and knowledge-exploiting entities (start-up frms, small and medium
enterprises [SMEs], local public administrations). This is crucial for an area
such as Southern Italy that suffers from feeble relationships between the busi-
ness community and other key elements in the environment (Cappellin, 1996).
More specifcally, Southern Italy regions are characterized by weak links be-
tween knowledge-producing and knowledge-exploiting entities (Corti, 1997).
The lack of these links puts a serious constraint on the development of innova-
tive SMEs. In fact, as many authors point out (Oakey, 1984; OECD, 1982; Raffa
and Zollo, 1994; Rothwell, 1984), the development of such frms depends on
the possibility of exploiting local knowledge-producing centre resources.
The remaining part of this chapter focuses on the analysis of an academic
spin-off promotion policy (Federico II Start Cup) implemented by the University
of Naples Federico II. This policy is primarily focused on overcoming cultural
barriers and strengthening the links between knowledge-producing centres and
knowledge-exploiting centres.
As regards methodological aspects, the authors are implementing a longitu-
dinal case study focused on the different phases of the academic spin-off
creation process: that is, the emergence of business-related ideas; the transfor-
mation of such ideas into business plans; the exploitation of business plans in
order to create new frms; the capability of new ventures to overcome the incu-
bation phase. As Federico II Start Cup is a newly implemented policy, this work
focuses only on the frst two phases. Subsequently the case study will be com-
pleted taking a close look at the creation of new academic spin-offs and
implementing a cost–beneft analysis of such policy.
Federico II Start Cup provides potential ‘academic entrepreneurs’ with sup-
ports aimed at overcoming cultural barriers. It positively affects the relationship
between knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting entities as
The role of business plan competitions 67
well. In doing so, it sows the seeds for a technological environment (Stauden-
maier, 1985) to emerge. Such environment plays a crucial role in sustaining
innovative capabilities of SMEs (Meyer and Roberts, 1986; Raffa and Zollo,
1994).
To begin with, Federico II Start Cup is a competition involving all the em-
ployees of the University of Naples Federico II who have implemented an
innovative idea. Federico II Start Cup provides university employees with sup-
ports aimed at overcoming cultural barriers preventing ground-breaking ideas
from being transformed into business plans. Thereafter, the University of Na-
ples Federico II takes the lead in bridging the gap with knowledge-exploiting
entities that may eventually be interested in transforming business plans into
ASs.
Table 4.5 Formal and informal supports provided by Federico II Start Cup
The emergence
of business-ideas
The development
of business plans
The creation
of start-ups
Formal supports Early-stage
consulting
training
Business plan
consulting
training
Incubator’s
infrastructure
Informal supports Mentoring
Networking
Mentoring
Networking
Mentoring
Networking
As regards supports (Table 4.5), Federico II Start Cup helps participants build
on their innovative ideas taking advantage of the so-called ‘information-based
decision-making tools’ (strategic analysis; costs–benefts analysis; business
plan). In doing so, participants are able to strengthen their rational behaviours
that represent (together with empirical and cognitive ones) one of the key fea-
tures of entrepreneurs. Moreover, Federico II Start Cup provides participants
with informal supports as well. More specifcally, taking advantage of market
mentors, the competition help participants lay the foundation for empirical be-
haviours to emerge. In other words, building up on consultants’ experience,
Federico II Start Cup allows potential entrepreneurs to speed up the creation
and implementation of frm-orientated organizational routines (tacit-knowledge
transformation processes, imitation processes, learn by doing processes, and so
on).
Taking advantage of a preliminary data analysis, it is possible to outline some
key features of people participating in the competition:
68 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Source: University of Naples Federico II.
Figure 4.1 Participants’ faculties in Federico II Start Cup 2003
Table 4.6 People participating in Federico II Start Cup 2003
Typology Percentage of total
Professors 11
PhD students 12
Graduate students 26
Undergraduate students 47
University staff employees 4
Total 100
Engineering (31%)
Economics (12%)
Architecture (12%)
Law (9%)
Science
(Mathematics, Physics,
Natural Science)
(8%)
Medicine (6%)
Literature and Philosophy
(6%)
Sociology (5%)
Veterinary (5%)
Agrarian (4%)
Political Science (1%)
Biotechnology (1%)
1. Federico II Start Cup involves people who play different roles within the
University of Naples (Table 4.6).
2. Participants belong to a huge variety of faculties (Figure 4.1).
3. Participants have developed business ideas in a wide spectrum of business
felds (Table 4.7).
The role of business plan competitions 69
That 93 groups (300 people) are participating in such a competition demon-
strates that within the University of Naples the interest in entrepreneurship is
higher than expected. Moreover, such interest is not just related to faculties that
are usually biased towards entrepreneurship. In fact, data shows that humanistic
faculties are also participating in the competition (Figure 4.1).
Last but not least, the emergence of highly differentiated business ideas is a
case in point for demonstrating that the creation of new ASs is not exclusively
related to the exploitation of scientifc research results (Table 4.7).
Besides providing potential ‘academic entrepreneurs’ with such supports,
Federico II Start Cup also aims at bridging the gap with knowledge-exploiting
entities that may eventually be interested in transforming business plans into
academic spin-offs. In fact, those who win the competition can lay the founda-
tion of a new frm taking advantage of an incubator located in Naples (Business
Innovation Centre promoted by ‘Città della Scienza’). Besides providing infra-
structure-based supports, such an environment strengthens the cognitive skills
of potential entrepreneurs. More specifcally, taking advantage of the business
community gravitating around the Business Innovation Centre, university em-
ployees could build on their entrepreneurial vision. In conclusion, at the end of
such a process, rational, empirical and cognitive behaviours of university em-
ployees will be strengthened. This in turn will ease cultural barriers that prevent
such employees from becoming entrepreneurs. Moreover, for those who are
interested in pushing further the transformation process of an innovative idea
into a new frm, Federico II Start Cup makes it possible to take advantage of a
Table 4.7 Fields in which the participants have developed their business
ideas
Business idea felds
Products and services for industrial-related activities
Products and services based on information and communication technologies
Food products
Organic products
Biomedical products
Fishing and farming related products
Services for both tourists and frms operating in such sector
Environment-related services
News-media related services
Energy-sector related services
Consultancy services for frms
Non-proft related activities
70 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Neapolitan-based incubator. In doing so, not only does the programme provide
potential entrepreneurs with an infrastructure, it also strengthens the relationship
between knowledge-producing centres and knowledge-exploiting entities.
Therefore, Federico II Start Cup sows the seeds for a technological environment
to emerge.
CONCLUSIONS
Both the analysis of the literature and the early stage results of the AS strategy
being implemented by the University of Naples Federico II make it possible to
draw some preliminary fndings as regards the academic spin-off support pro-
grammes. Such fndings could eventually be taken into account in designing
effective tools supporting the creation of ASs.
To begin with, there is widespread consensus over the role played by universi-
ties in promoting economic development. However, in particular with regard to
areas that do not excel in transforming research output into business-exploitable
ideas, such a role should not be overstretched. Therefore, at least initially, uni-
versities could operate effectively even if they limit their action to overcome
cultural barriers preventing new business ideas from coming through. In doing
so, universities sow the seeds for the emergence of entrepreneurial activities in
environments that are not naturally biased towards entrepreneurship. However,
through a combination of formal and informal supports, universities can extend
their reach, laying the foundation for the emergence of new ventures. More
specifcally, such a combination makes it possible to overcome the remaining
barriers that prevent the creation of ASs (that is, organizational, fnancial, legal
barriers). Secondly, it is not necessary for AS support programmes to be nar-
rowly focused on research-producing actors (professors, PhD students, and so
on). Such programmes can encompass a huge variety of university-related ac-
tors. In doing so, they can demonstrate that even environments that are not
naturally biased towards business activities can prove to be a ‘hidden source’
of entrepreneurship.
This chapter represents the frst step of a wider research project. Further re-
searches will be aimed at:
l developing a better understanding of the combined effect of formal and
informal supports on extending the reach of universities in promoting
ASs
l completing the longitudinal case study taking into account the creation
of new ventures and their ability to gain market shares.
The role of business plan competitions 71
NOTE
1. Although the chapter is the result of the collaboration of all the authors, in this version, ‘Barriers
hindering accademic spin-off creation’ is by Luca Iandoli, ‘Supports for the creation of aca-
demic spin-offs’ by Lorella Cannavacciuolo, ‘Formal and informal supports facilitating the
emergence of entrepreneurial behavious’ by Guido Capaldo, ‘The role of universities in facili-
tating the development of academic spin-offs: the case of the University of Naples Frederico
II’ by Gianluca Esposito, and remaining sections are the fruit of collaborative work.
REFERENCES
Argyris, C. and D.A. Schon (1978), Organizational Learning. A Theory of Action Per-
spective, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Bellini, E., G. Capaldo, A. Coppola and G. Zollo (1996), ‘Problemi di acquisizione e
sviluppo delle competenze delle piccole e medie imprese operanti nel Mezzogiorno’,
L’Industria, 4, 749–66.
BenDaniel, D.J. and K. Szafara (1998), ‘What aspects of the culture of technical profes-
sors and the structure of research universities help or hinder the transfer of technology’,
report of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Kauffman Foundation, Cornell
University.
Berger, L. and T. Luckmann (1966), The Social Construction of the Reality, Harmonds-
worth: Penguin.
Bok, D. (1990), Universities and the Future of America, Durham, NC: Duke University
Press.
Boyatzis, R.E. (1982), The Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance,
New York: Wiley.
Brown, W.S. (1985), ‘A proposed mechanism for commercializing university technolo-
gy’, Technovation, 3, 19–25.
Callon, M. (1994), ‘Is science a public good?’, Science, Technology and Human Values,
19 (4), 395–424.
Capaldo, G. and M. Fontes (2001), ‘Support for graduate entrepreneurs in new technol-
ogy-based frms: an exploratory study from Southern Europe’, Enterprise and
Innovation Management Studies, 2 (1), 65–78.
Capaldo, G., E. Corti and O. Greco (1997), ‘A coordinated network of different actors
to offer services for innovation to develop local SMEs inside areas with a delay of
development’, paper presented at 37th European ERSA (European Science Associa-
tion) Congress, Rome, 26–29 August.
Capaldo, G., L. Iandoli, M. Raffa and G. Zollo (2002), ‘The role of academic spin-offs
in connecting local knowledge’, in F. Belussi, G. Gottardi and E. Rullani (eds), Knowl-
edge Creation, Collective Learning and Variety of Institutional Arrangements,
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Cappellin, R. (1996), ‘Una politica per il Mezzogiorno orientata al mercato e la proposta
di un Progetto dalla Calabria’, in D. Cersosimo (a cura di), Una Politica Economica
per la Calabria, Soneria Mannelli (Catanzaro): Rubbettino Editore.
Chiesa, V. and A. Piccaluga (1996), ‘Le imprese Spin-off nella ricerca in Italia e
all’estero’, Quaderni della fondazione Piaggio, 3, 177–95.
Clarysse, B., J. Degroof and A. Heirman (2001), ‘Analysis of the typical growth pattern
of technology-based companies in life sciences and information technology and the
72 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
role of different source of innovation fnancing’, report to European Commission,
D.G. Enterprise, EIMS, September.
Cohen, M.D. and J.G. March (1974), Leadership and Ambiguity: The American College
President, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Corti, E. (1997), ‘Il Parco Tecnologico come strumento per lo sviluppo delle economie
locali’, paper presented at 1997 TII Annual Conference, Napoli, 28–29 Aprile.
Etzkowitz, H. (1989), ‘Entrepreneurial science in the academy: a case of the transforma-
tions of norms’, Social Problems, 36 (1), 14–27.
Etzkowitz, H. (1998), ‘The norms of entrepreneurial science: cognitive effects of the
new university–industry linkages’, Research Policy, 27 (8), 823–33.
Formica, P. (1993), ‘Gli spin-off aziendali’, Zenit, 3.
Fransman, M. (1994), ‘Information, knowledge, vision and theories of the frm’, Indus-
trial and Corporate Change, 3 (2), 1–45.
Geisler, R.L. (1993), Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities
since World War II, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gibson, D. and V.D. Smilor (1991), ‘Key variables in technology transfer: a feld study
based empirical analysis’, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 8
(3/4), 287–312.
Johannisson, B. (1998), ‘Personal networks in emerging knowledge-based frms: spatial
and functional patterns’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 10 (4),
297–312.
Jones-Evans, D. (1997), ‘Technical entrepreneurship, experience and the management
of small technology-based frms’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 9 (1),
65–90.
March, J.G. and H. Simon (1958), Organizations, New York: Wiley.
Marchini, I. (1995), Il governo della piccola impresa, Voll. I e II, Urbino: Aspi/
InsEdit.
McMillan, G.S., F. Narin and D.L. Dedes (2000), ‘An analysis of the critical role of
public science in innovation: the case of biotechnology’, Research policy, 29 (1),
1–8.
Meyer, M.H. and E.B. Roberts (1986), ‘New product strategy in small technology-based
frms: a pilot study’, Management Science, 32 (7), 806–21.
Monsted, M. (1998), ‘Strategic alliances as an analytical perspective for innovative
SMEs’, in R. Oakey and W. During (eds), New Technology-Based Firms in the 1990s,
London: Paul Chapman, pp. 99–111.
Mustar, P. (1994), ‘Organisations, Technologies et Marchés en Création: La Genese des
PME High-Tech’, Revue d’Economie Industrielle, 67, 156–74.
Nelson, R.R. and S.G. Winter (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change,
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Oakey, R. (1984), High Technology Small Firms, London: Frances Pinter.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1982), Innovation
in Small and Medium Firms, Paris: OECD.
Penrose, E.T. (1959), The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Porac, J.F., T. Howard and C. Baden-Fuller (1989), ‘Competitive groups as cognitive
communities: the case of Scottish knitwear manufacturers’, Journal of Management
Studies, 26 (4), 397–416.
Raffa, M. and G. Zollo (1994), ‘The role of professionals in small Italian software frms’,
Journal of Systems Software, 26 (3), 19–30.
Raffa, M. and G. Zollo (2000), Economia del Software, Napoli: Edizioni Scientifche
Italiane.
The role of business plan competitions 73
Rothwell, R. (1984), ‘The role of small frms in the emergence of new technologies’,
Omega, 1 (1), 19–29.
Schein, E.H. (1978), Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs,
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Simon, H.A (1959), ‘Theories of decision making in economics and behavioral science’,
American Economic Review, 49, 253–83.
Spencer, L.M. and S.M. Spencer (1993), Competence at Work. Models for Superior
Performance, New York: Wiley.
Stankiewicz, R. (1986), Academics and Entrepreneurs. Developing University–Industry
Relations, London: Frances Pinter.
Staudenmaier, J.M. (1985), Technology’s Storytellers: Reweaving the Human Fabric,
Cambridge: Society for the History of Technology and MIT Press.
Van Alstè, J.A. and P.C. Van der Sijde (eds) (1998), The Role of the University in Regional
Development, Enschede: Twente University Press.
Varaldo, R. and A. Piccaluga (1994), ‘Un ponte tra industria e università per rilanciare
la ricerca’, L’impresa, 9.
Walsh, J.P. and G.R. Ungson (1991), ‘Organizational memory’, Academy of Management
Review, 16 (1), 57–91.
Weick, K.E. (1976), The Social Psychology of Organization, 2nd edn, Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
74
5. Attitudes, intentions and behaviour:
new approaches to evaluating
entrepreneurship education
Alain Fayolle and Jean Michel Degeorge
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, entrepreneurship education has been developing steadily but
unevenly in most countries. In the USA, for example, which has been a trail-
blazer and leader in the feld, the past decade has been described as an important
era, with a signifcant increase in student interest (Fiet, 2001a). The fgures tend
to support this statement. In 1971, only 16 colleges and universities in the USA
offered entrepreneurship education programmes, while today there are more
than 800. More American students are showing an interest in venture creation
and independent employment, and are seriously considering entrepreneurship
as a career option. They are therefore looking for and choosing entrepreneurship
programmes. In 1996, for example, roughly 45 per cent
1
of frst-year students
in Northwestern University’s management programme said they wanted to
specialize in entrepreneurship (Fiet, 2001a). During the same period, entrepre-
neurship teachers began to meet regularly at conferences to discuss recent
developments and compare their educational practices and methods (Fiet,
2001b). In France, entrepreneurship education has spread considerably over the
past few years, and is currently in a structural phase (Fayolle, 2000a; 2003).
Two recent initiatives clearly illustrate the process: frst, the creation in 1998 of
the ‘Academie de l’Entrepreneuriat’, a French association of entrepreneurship
teachers and trainers from the secondary and higher education levels; and sec-
ond, the creation in 2001 of the ‘Observatoire des Pratiques Pédagogiques en
Entrepreneuriat’, a joint initiative involving three government departments
whose primary mission is to identify entrepreneurship teaching and training
activities throughout France.
Although entrepreneurship education is fourishing, a large number of ques-
tions, some of them important, have yet to be answered or clarifed. They include
the question of evaluating entrepreneurship programmes and training (Bechard
and Toulouse, 1998). This is certainly a diffcult and complex issue. While the
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 75
impact of the programme or session on the trainees, students and other partici-
pants may be an acceptable evaluation criterion, the problem of how to measure
it still remains. What indicators should be used, and how should they be meas-
ured? How can you measure a change in someone’s state of mind or behaviour?
How can the importance of the time factor be taken into account? And how can
factors relating to education, teaching and training be separated from all the
other factors that have an impact on the decision to choose a specifc career path
or profession?
It is not our intention here to try to answer all these questions. We will, how-
ever, attempt to show the potential utility of the theory of planned behaviour in
addressing the complex problems encountered in the evaluation process. The
next section of the chapter will identify some of the major issues affecting the
evaluation of entrepreneurship education programmes, while the third section
summarizes prior research on the evaluation and impact of entrepreneurship
programmes, and the fourth presents models of intention and the theory of
planned behaviour as they apply to entrepreneurship. A fnal section sets out
our research approach and presents the overlying conceptual framework.
SOME QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE EVALUATION OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
In a recent paper, Vesper and Gartner (1997) listed 18 criteria for evaluating
entrepreneurship education programmes, ranked in order of importance by ex-
pert respondents. The top fve criteria were:
l the number of courses offered
l publications by teachers
l impacts on the community
l venture creation by students and young graduates
l resulting innovations.
Two observations are in order here. First, the above classifcation was produced
by academics, not by venture-creation professionals or economic and political
decision-makers. Second, the paper does not say how the selected indicators
can be measured. Measurement is often extremely diffcult. As shown by Block
and Stumpf (1992) and summarized in Table 5.1, indicators can often produce
delayed effects. For example ‘venture creation’ cannot possibly be measured
during or immediately after training, since the venture-creation process takes
time – sometimes a great deal of time. And the more delayed the measurement,
the harder it is to isolate the role played by a given factor from the potential
impacts of other variables on the venture-creation act.
76 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Table 5.1 Evaluation indicators and measurement times
Measurement period or time Criteria
Same time as the courses Number of students enrolled
Number of courses
General awareness of and/or interest in
entrepreneurship
A short time after the
courses end
Intention to act
Acquisition of knowledge and know-how
Development of entrepreneurial self-diagnosis
abilities
Between 0 and 5 years after
the courses
Number of ventures created
Number of buyouts
Number of entrepreneurial positions sought
and obtained
Between 3 and 10 years
after the courses
Sustainability and reputation of the frms
Level of innovation and capacity for change
exhibited by the frms
More than 10 years after the
courses
Contribution to society and the economy
Business performance
Level of satisfaction with career
Source: based on Block and Stumpf (1992).
Educational institutions also offer a wide range of entrepreneurship awareness
and training activities (Fayolle, 2003; Gartner and Vesper, 1994). Given that the
goal of entrepreneurship education is not necessarily for all participants to
launch businesses or for businesses to be launched immediately, the simplest
and most obvious indicators are not generally the most appropriate. The worst-
case scenario would be to evaluate a programme by counting only the number
of businesses launched by trainees or the number of jobs generated. This is es-
pecially true because, given the inherent risks and difficulties of the
venture-creation process, it is often unwise to push students too hard, or to take
an evangelical approach. Students are young, easily infuenced and often looking
for models. Evaluation should always be adjusted to the educational level, the
goals of the training and the target clientele, all of which need to be clearly
identifed (Bechard and Toulouse, 1998). The range of possible learning situa-
tions is clearly illustrated by Johannisson’s (1991) taxonomical approach, which
proposes fve levels of learning designed to develop the attitudes, skills, tools
and knowledge required for entrepreneurship.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 77
Precisely what, then, should be evaluated? When should the evaluation take
place? As with any educational programme, it is possible to evaluate the knowl-
edge acquired and measure how well students have understood the key
techniques and mechanisms. Student interest, awareness and intention can also
be measured. Attendance rates, participation and student motivation are the
classical criteria for measuring satisfaction, and evaluations or measurements
taken during and shortly after the training are also important, in that they can
help identify variations and progress in performance levels (project manage-
ment, teamwork, creative capacity, and so on). For the purposes of this research,
we have limited the analysis period or measurement time to the frst two catego-
ries in Table 5.1.
THE EFFECTS AND IMPACTS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
Throughout the world, student interest in entrepreneurship as a career choice is
growing (Brenner et al., 1991; Fleming, 1994; Hart and Harrison, 1992; Kolv-
ereid, 1996a), while interest in traditional professional employment in big
business is gradually declining (Kolvereid, 1996a). The orientations and behav-
iours of students and young graduates are infuenced by a number of personal
and environmental factors (Lüthje and Kranke, 2003). Empirical research has
shown that the presence of entrepreneurship education programmes and a posi-
tive image of entrepreneurs within the university are both incentives for students
to choose an entrepreneurial career. For example, Johannisson (1991) and Autio
et al. (1997) underscored the positive impact of students’ perceptions of entre-
preneurship as a career choice, along with the role played by the resources and
other support mechanisms available in the university environment. Other re-
search has shown the importance of the social status of entrepreneurial activities
and situations (Begley et al., 1997) and the statistical link between the level of
entrepreneurial intention and the number of management courses taken by stu-
dents enrolled in other programmes (Chen et al., 1998).
Entrepreneurship education and training infuence both current behaviour and
future intentions (Fayolle, 2002; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999; Kolvereid and
Moen, 1997). In other words, there are signifcant differences between students
who have taken entrepreneurship courses and those who have not. But can the
causal relationship between the educational variables (course content, teaching
methods, teacher profle, resources and support, and so on) and the direct inten-
tional and/or behavioural antecedents (attitudes, values, knowledge, and so on)
really be explained in detail? Some researchers have attempted to do this and
their fndings are summarized below, but we believe there is still a need for fur-
ther conceptualization and testing.
78 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Attempts have been made to compare the intentions and/or behaviours of
students from different groups. For example, Varela and Jimenez (2001), in a
longitudinal study, chose groups of students from fve programmes in three
universities in Columbia. They found that the highest entrepreneurship rates
were achieved in the universities that had invested the most in entrepreneurship
guidance and training for their students.
Noel (2001) looked specifcally at the impact of entrepreneurship training on
the development of entrepreneurial intention and the perception of self-effcacy.
The students in the sample had all taken an entrepreneurship education pro-
gramme and were graduates in entrepreneurship, management or another
discipline. Noel’s fndings at least partially confrmed the assumption that the
entrepreneurship graduates were more likely to launch businesses and had a
higher level of intention and a more developed perception of self-effcacy than
students in the other two groups.
Other researchers have tried to explain the relationship between entrepreneur-
ship programmes and characteristics such as need for achievement and locus of
control (Hansemark, 1998) or the perception of self-effcacy (Ehrlich et al.,
2000). They found that entrepreneurship education had a positive impact, en-
hancing these characteristics and the likelihood of action at some point in the
future.
However, less attention appears to have been paid to educational variables.
Dilts and Fowler (1999) tried to show that certain teaching methods (traineeships
and feld learning) are more successful than others at preparing students for an
entrepreneurial career, while Lüthje and Kranke (2003) mentioned the impor-
tance of certain contextual factors within the university environment in hindering
or facilitating access by technical students to entrepreneurial behaviours. Their
fndings confrm those of Autio et al. (1997) and Fayolle (1996), obtained using
similar samples.
THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR AND ITS
UTILITY IN THE FIELD OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The theory of planned behaviour is based on the theory of reasoned action
(Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). It was developed by Ajzen (1991) and has recently
been reformulated (Ajzen, 2002). Basically, the concept of intention plays a
central and overriding role in predicting and explaining a planned human be-
haviour that is controlled entirely by will and is not dependent on factors outside
the control of the person concerned. This clearly limits the utility of the theory,
since situations that satisfy all these conditions are rare. The limitation relates
principally to the automatic nature of the relationship between intention and
behaviour. Although in certain conditions intention is a good predictor of be-
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 79
haviour, it is by no means true that behaviour will automatically follow on from
intention. It all depends on the type of behaviour. The examples cited by Ajzen
(1991) are mostly behaviours that can be controlled by the individuals con-
cerned, in which will plays a major role – for instance, the decision to stop
smoking, short-term elective preferences or the choice of how to feed a baby
(breast or bottle feeding). Although we are convinced of both the interest and
the utility of the theory of planned behaviour in the feld of entrepreneurship,
we also believe entrepreneurial behaviour is more complex (and thus, perhaps,
less easy to predict from intention) than the cases cited above.
In the theory of planned behaviour, intentions are formed over time as a result
of three principal factors whose relative importance depends on the specifc
case. The frst of these is the attitude towards the behaviour, derived from per-
ceptions of the behaviour’s consequences and the value ascribed to those
consequences. The second is awareness of social standards and pressure, result-
ing from a perception of what other people (of importance) think should be done
and the reasons for submitting to their expectations. The third is the perception
of behavioural control, determined frst by the subject’s perception of the op-
portunities and resources required to achieve the behaviour, and second by a
belief that it will in fact be possible to obtain those resources. The underlying
basis of intention and the determinants of behaviour are therefore perceptions,
which are developed gradually from beliefs.
The theory of planned behaviour is part of the larger family of intentional
models, created principally to try to explain the emergence of entrepreneurial
behaviour. In the view of many authors (Autio et al., 1997; Bird, 1989; Krueger
and Carsrud, 1993; Shapero and Sokol, 1982; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999),
venture creation is a planned and hence an intentional behaviour. Intention
therefore appears to be a better predictor of behaviour than attitudes, beliefs or
other psychological or sociological variables (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993).
Krueger and Carsrud (1993) were the frst to apply the theory of planned be-
haviour to the feld of entrepreneurship by trying to make Ajzen’s (1991) model
compatible with other theoretical frameworks, especially that of Shapero and
Sokol (1982). Their fnal model (Figure 5.1) is the result of this approach.
The three antecedents of intention in this model are:
1. Perceived attractiveness of entrepreneurial behaviour. This factor corre-
sponds to the attitude towards the behaviour, and is dependent on beliefs
relating to the behaviour’s positive or negative impacts. It encompasses the
notion of perceived desirability (or lack thereof), which is one of the com-
ponents of Shapero and Sokol’s model (1982).
2. Perceived social norms about entrepreneurial behaviours. This factor in-
cludes perceptions of what important people or groups (peer pressure,
friends’ wishes, family wishes, and so on) think of the target behaviour.
80 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
These perceptions are infuenced by normative beliefs and are of less rele-
vance for individuals with a strong internal locus of control (Ajzen, 1987)
than for those with a strong action orientation (Bagozzi et al., 1992). The
factor covers the notions of desirability and feasibility from Shapero and
Sokol’s model (1982).
3. Perceived self-effcacy/control for entrepreneurial behaviours. This factor
is as important in this model as in that of Ajzen (1991). It relates to percep-
tions of the behaviour’s feasibility, which are an essential predictor of the
behaviour. Individuals usually elect to work towards behaviours they think
they will be able to control and master. The perceived behavioural control
factor in Ajzen’s model (1991) is very similar to the self-effcacy notion
constructed by Bandura (1986), which has been used in numerous studies
of entrepreneurship, although not enough according to certain authors:
‘Self-effcacy should be a particularly useful tool in the researcher’s reper-
Source: Krueger and Carsrud (1993: 323).
Figure 5.1 Intentions towards entrepreneurial behaviour: the theory of
planned behaviour
Perceived
attractiveness of
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Perceived social
norms about
entrepreneurial
behaviours
Target
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Intentions towards
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Perceived self-
effcacy/control
for
entrepreneurial
behaviours
Hypothesized exogenous
precipitating, facilitating,
or inhibiting infuences
H
y
p
o
t
h
e
s
i
z
e
d
e
x
o
g
e
n
o
u
s
i
n
f
u
e
n
c
e
s
o
n
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 81
toire and entrepreneurship researchers seeking a psychological explanation
for organizational emergence should examine the role of perceived self-ef-
fcacy’ (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993: 325).
Their model remains open to the infuence of exogenous variables that may play
a role in the development of beliefs and attitudes. It also uses some of the con-
ceptual contributions of Shapero and Sokol (1982), including the notion of an
external trigger, to explain the shift from intention to behaviour.
The implications and applications of the theory of planned behaviour in the
feld of entrepreneurship are numerous and extremely promising. Some of the
theory’s implications are related to education and training. Since the early 1980s,
researchers have been able to identify the role played by education and teaching
variables in the development of perceptions about the desirability and feasibility
of entrepreneurial behaviour (Shapero and Sokol, 1982). In other words, a train-
ing programme can have an impact on the antecedents of intention in the theory
of planned behaviour (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). As an example, Krueger
and Carsrud (1993: 326) state that ‘Perceived self-effcacy/control for entrepre-
neurial behaviours’ is infuenced by the acquisition of management tools and
exposure to entrepreneurial situations. They go on to say, ‘Teaching people
about the realities of entrepreneurship may increase their entrepreneurial self-
effcacy, but simultaneously decrease the perceived desirability of starting a
business’ (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993: 327).
In conclusion, and based upon the observations of Krueger and Carsrud, we
will make a number of recommendations concerning the use of the theory of
planned behaviour as an instrument for evaluating entrepreneurship education.
With regard to the teaching aspect, it would, for example, be useful to try to
understand the process by which entrepreneurial intentions are formed, to situate
the respective roles of intentional antecedents and to explore the confgurations
that generate high, stable intentions in different entrepreneurial situations.
Teachers could also try to use the model to improve their understanding of their
students’ motivations and intentions, and then adjust their programmes accord-
ingly. With regard to research, the theory of planned behaviour could be used
to analyse how and in what conditions a business plan preparation process within
an educational programme affects entrepreneurial intentions.
PREPARING AN EVALUATION FRAMEWORK FOR
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
USING THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR
As we saw in the second section, it is diffcult to use the venture-creation act as
the sole criterion for evaluating a programme’s impact. However, it may be
82 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
easier and equally appropriate to use criteria related to entrepreneurial intention
or change of attitude towards entrepreneurial behaviour. The likelihood of en-
gaging in entrepreneurial behaviour, or entrepreneurial intention, could therefore
be used to measure the impacts of a training programme, even though intending
to launch a business is not the same as actually doing so.
The purpose of this section of the chapter is to construct a dynamic tool for
evaluating awareness activities, training programmes and courses in the feld
of entrepreneurship. The tool should, to a certain extent, permit us to penetrate
entrepreneurship education’s ‘black box’ – in other words, to understand the
impact of specifc ‘educational’ variables on changes of attitude and the de-
velopment of entrepreneurial intention. The instrument is inspired directly by
the theory of planned behaviour, and is presented in diagram form in Figure
5.2.
It now remains for us to defne our concepts, the model’s variables and a
framework for their use. Our general framework is designed to evaluate aware-
ness activities, training programmes and support programmes for students and
other types of learners. It should be capable of being transformed into hypotheti-
cal/deductive models appropriate to the situations in which it is used. As we
mentioned earlier, awareness activities and educational programmes differ
widely in terms of their actions, teaching strategies and resources, duration and
the types of people involved. In this chapter, we use the term ‘entrepreneurship
education programme’ to refer to all awareness, teaching, training and support
activities in the feld of entrepreneurship, including their environment, content,
teaching approaches, resources, teachers and other players. The measurement
and analysis period begins slightly before the programme and ends a short time
afterwards. We do have a strong interest in intentional stability, however, and
may decide to extend the observation period at a later date. In such a case, the
same indicators would be used.
The Model’s Independent Variables
In our model, the variables relating to training and the educational environment
are independent variables designed to explain the dependent variables (attitudes
towards entrepreneurial behaviour and entrepreneurial intention).
Figure 5.2 The general model underlying the evaluation tool
Variables related to
the training and the
educational
environment
Variables related to
attitudes towards
entrepreneurial
behaviour
Entrepreneurial
intentions
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 83
In an entrepreneurship education programme, depending on its type and na-
ture, students and learners must deal with one or more learning processes and
an institutional environment that conveys a positive or negative image of entre-
preneurship and offers variable amounts of resources. At frst glance, these three
families of variables (learning process, institutional environment and resources)
appear to constitute a satisfactory point of departure. We will examine them in-
dividually, in more detail, below. Although the latter two have been identifed
and incorporated into the work of other researchers, the frst does not appear to
have been used very much.
Learning processes
Learning processes can be broken down into teaching objectives, types of stu-
dents and disciplines, content, duration, intensity, frequency, teaching methods
and approaches, and teacher numbers and profles. Potentially, all these aspects
could be independent variables with individual and collective impacts on attitudes
and intentions. For example, a study by Fayolle (2000b) revealed the importance
of the teaching objectives assigned to entrepreneurship education programmes.
With regard to content, the balance and range of knowledge are important features
of such programmes (Gasse, 1992; Ghosh and Block, 1993; Gibb, 1988; Wyck-
ham, 1989). Johannisson (1991) identifed fve content levels for the development
of entrepreneurial knowledge: the know-why (attitudes, values, motivations), the
know-how (abilities), the know-who (short and long-term social skills), the know-
when (intuition) and the know-what (knowledge).
Teaching approaches and methods can be divided into content strategies, re-
lationship strategies and acquisition strategies (Develay, 1992). They may
involve ‘learning by doing’, immersion in real-life situations, case studies and
talks by entrepreneurs, or more didactical and conventional procedures. For
example, would the fact of asking students to develop a business plan based on
their own ideas and/or projects, have a different impact on their attitudes and
intention than the fact of working on a case study or attending a traditional
classroom lecture? The purpose of our study is to test all these possibilities, a
task that may well involve incursions into the feld of educational science.
Institutional environment
Not all educational institutions (universities, management schools, business
schools and so on) offer the same political, social and cultural environments.
Research in France has shown the important impact of the course or programme
on the students’ choice of career (Safavian-Martinon, 1998). An institutional
environment that accepts and values entrepreneurial behaviour and employment
in small and medium-sized enterprises may have an impact on the entrepre-
neurial intentions of students. Through its policies, incentives and behaviours,
an institution can encourage its students to take the initiative and engage in
84 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
venture creation, and can also convey a positive image of entrepreneurship as
a career choice (Autio et al., 1997).
Resources
Resources may be material, fnancial and intellectual in nature. Examples in-
clude the availability of funds to help fnance venture creation projects by
students, support networks for entrepreneurial initiatives (professionals and
businesses), entrepreneurship centres, business incubators, a broad supply of
entrepreneurship programmes, entrepreneurship institutes and specialized
libraries.
The Model’s Dependent Variables
Before addressing the dependent variables – attitudes and intention – we will
frst discuss what we mean by ‘entrepreneurial behaviour’ and how we have
used the concept in our research. The term ‘entrepreneurial behaviour’ refers
back to the defnition of entrepreneurship itself, on which there is no real con-
sensus. We therefore propose to replace this somewhat generic term by a series
of more precise terms applicable to different entrepreneurial situations. These
include ‘venture creation’ – although here again we would need to specify the
type of creation (technological, innovative, craft, industrial, tertiary, agricultural,
and so on). Individual buy-outs of problem frms could also be included, as
could certain instances of corporate entrepreneurship (innovative activities
within a large frm), provided they are clearly defned to avoid any possible
ambiguities.
Attitudes
The various types of ‘entrepreneurial’ attitudes are derived directly from the
theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) applied to the feld of entrepreneur-
ship (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). Kolvereid (1996b), in subsequent empirical
research, proposed a series of indicators designed to operationalize the attitude
variables (attitude towards action, subjective norms, perceived behavioural
control).
Intention
Kolvereid (1996b) used a three-part indicator to measure an individual’s inten-
tion to create a business.
The attitude and intention variables are measured using Likert-type scales as
opposed to a binary system, so that they can be graded by intensity.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 85
Measurements
The proposed evaluation tool is dynamic; in other words, the most important
element is its development over time, rather than the value of a given variable
at a given time. The goal is to capture changes of attitude and changes of inten-
tion. There is therefore a need for different measurements at different times – for
example, at the beginning and end of the programme, with one or two intermedi-
ate measurements in the case of long-term programmes.
For the independent variables, the measurements can be binary in some cases
(for example, ‘exists’ or ‘does not exist’ for resources), or they may estimate
the interest or relevance of a given strategy or the progression of learning.
Given that we are concerned with intention and not with the behaviour itself,
we may, to obtain a proper evaluation, need to try and measure intentional sta-
bility over time, and this may involve adding measurements one or two years
after the end of the programme.
CONCLUSION
The evaluation of entrepreneurship education programmes is currently attracting
a lot of interest from researchers. Numerous initiatives have been launched or
are under way, and the social demand is always as strong with regard to venture
creation, job creation and widespread development of the entrepreneurial spirit
and associated behaviours. All this has triggered a need for evaluation, in that
the governments, regional communities and socio-economic partners providing
the funding need to know the results of their contributions. The information they
want relates basically to venture creation and the creation of direct and indirect
jobs, and these factors have therefore become the most important evaluation
criteria. The most surprising element here is that this particular conception of
the role and issues of entrepreneurship education has been taken up by the edu-
cational community in general, which also tends to use the venture-creation and
job-creation indicators to prove the relevance, quality and effectiveness of its
educational programmes. This raises a dual question. First, as we have shown
in this chapter, these particular indicators produce signifcant delayed effects,
so that it is diffcult, if not impossible, to use and measure them objectively and
reliably within an acceptable time frame. Second, the focus on these indicators
to the exclusion of all others tends to minimize the existence and importance of
other indicators. It would be equally relevant to examine pedagogical criteria
such as knowledge acquisition and the relevance and effectiveness of a given
teaching strategy, not to mention indicators such as awareness of an area of
economic or social life or the development of an entrepreneurial mindset and
entrepreneurial intention.
86 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
The basic contribution of our research is to show that the theory of planned
behaviour and models of intention can be used to evaluate entrepreneurship
education programmes. The development of and changes to entrepreneurial in-
tention are therefore core elements in our approach. In the theory of planned
behaviour, intention is a good predictor of certain types of human behaviour.
Intention is developed as part of a process and is subject to changes of attitude.
Three types of attitudes are relevant to entrepreneurial behaviour, namely, atti-
tudes towards the behaviour, attitudes subject to social pressures and subjective
norms, and attitudes towards the control and mastery of the behaviour. Our
proposed evaluation framework includes a generic model comprising a number
of independent variables related to the education programme and its environ-
ment, which infuence the dependent variables (the three types of attitudes listed
above, and entrepreneurial intention). The framework opens up a broad feld of
research covering the objectives, assumptions and independent variables to be
included in the model. Hypothetical-deductive type research can be used to test
the impacts of a wide range of variables and variable confgurations. Another
feature of the framework relates to the type of research. We feel it is extremely
important to work longitudinally throughout the duration of a training process,
and to take several measurements at different times both during the programme
and afterwards.
We believe our work has many implications, primarily for researchers. The
framework opens up numerous avenues for future research to understand the
infuence and impacts of entrepreneurship education programmes on student
attitudes, intensions and mindsets. Ultimately, it could help improve knowledge
of intentional models. It also has implications for teachers, trainers and political
and economic decision-makers. For example, teachers and trainers may ulti-
mately be able to adjust their programmes by reformulating and clarifying their
objectives as a result of this study and future extensions of it. Political and eco-
nomic decision-makers, for their part, may be able to reconsider their vision of
the evaluation issue and reorient their policies and practices accordingly.
NOTE
1. This fgure can be compared with others: 30 per cent in 1995, 12 per cent in 1994 and 7 per
cent in 1993.
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I. (1991), ‘The theory of planned behaviour’, Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 87
Ajzen, I. (2002), ‘Perceived behavioral control, self-effcacy, locus of control, and the
theory of planned behavior’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1–20.
Ajzen, I. and M. Fishbein (1980), Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Be-
haviour, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Autio, E., R.H. Keeley, M. Klofsten and T. Ulfstedt (1997), ‘Entrepreneurial intent among
students: testing an intent model in Asia, Scandinavia and USA’, Frontiers of Entre-
preneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer.
Bagozzi, R., H. Baumgartner and Y. Yi (1992), ‘State versus action orientation and the
theory of reasoned action: an application to coupon usage’, Journal of Consumer Re-
search, 18, 505–18.
Bandura, A. (1986), The Social Foundations of Thought and Action, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bechard, J.P. and J.M. Toulouse (1998), ‘Validation of a didactic model for the analysis
of training objectives in entrepreneurship’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13 (4),
317–32.
Begley, T.M., W.L. Tan, A.B. Larasati, A. Rab, E. Zamora and G. Nanayakkara (1997),
‘The relationship between socio-cultural dimensions and interest in starting a business:
a multi-country study’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference
Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer.
Bird, B. (1989), ‘Implementing entrepreneurial ideas: the case for intentions’, Academy
of Management Review, 13, 442–54.
Block, Z. and S.A. Stumpf (1992), ‘Entrepreneurship education research: experience
and challenge’, in D.L. Sexton and J.D. Kasarda (eds), The State of the Art of Entre-
preneurship, Boston, MA: PWS-Kent, pp. 17–45.
Brenner, O.C., C.D. Pringle and J.H. Greenhaus (1991), ‘Perceived fulflment of organi-
zational employment versus entrepreneurship: work values and career intentions of
business college graduates’, Journal of Small Business Management, 29 (3), 62–74.
Chen, C.C., P.G. Greene and A. Crick (1998), ‘Does entrepreneurial self-effcacy distin-
guish entrepreneurs from managers?’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13, (4),
295–316.
Develay, M. (1992), De l’apprentissage à l’enseignement, Paris: ESF Editeur.
Dilts, J.C. and S.M. Fowler (1999), ‘Internships: preparing students for an entrepreneurial
career’, Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 11, (1), 51–63.
Ehrlich, S.B., A.F. De Noble, D. Jung and D. Pearson (2000),’The impact of entrepre-
neurship training programs on an individual’s entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, Frontiers
of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.babson.edu/
entrep/fer.
Fayolle, A. (1996), ‘Contribution à l’étude des comportements entrepreneuriaux des in-
génieurs français’, thèse de doctorat en sciences de gestion, université Jean Moulin
de Lyon.
Fayolle, A. (2000a), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat dans le système éducatif
supérieur: un regard sur la situation actuelle’, Revue Gestion 2000, no. 3, 77–95.
Fayolle, A. (2000b), ‘Exploratory study to assess the effects of entrepreneurship pro-
grams on student entrepreneurial behaviours’, Journal of Enterprising Culture, 8, (2),
169–84.
Fayolle, A. (2002), ‘Les déterminants de l’acte entrepreneurial chez les étudiants et les
jeunes diplômés de l’enseignement supérieur français’, Revue Gestion 2000, no. 4,
61–77.
Fayolle, A. (2003), Le métier de créateur d’entreprise, Paris : Editions d’Organisation.
88 Key issues in entrepreneurship education
Fiet, J.O. (2001a), ‘The pedagogical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16, (2), 101–17.
Fiet, J.O. (2001b), ‘The theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16, (1), 1–24.
Fleming, P. (1994), ‘The role of structured interventions in shaping graduate entrepre-
neurship’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 15, 146–57.
Gartner, W.B. and K.H. Vesper (1994), ‘Experiments in entrepreneurship education:
successes and failures’, Journal of Business Venturing, 9, (2), 179–87.
Gasse, Y. (1992), ‘Pour une éducation plus entrepreneuriale. Quelques voies et moyens’,
Colloque l’Education et l’Entrepreneuriat, Centre d’Entrepreneuriat du cœur du
Québec, Trois-Rivières, mai.
Ghosh, A. and Z. Block (1993), ‘Audiences for entrepreneurship education: character-
istics and needs’, paper presented at the Project for Excellence in Entrepreneurship
Education, Baldwin Wallace College, Cleveland, Ohio.
Gibb, A.A. (1988), Stimulating Entrepreneurship and New Business Development, Ge-
neva: International Labour Offce, 73.
Hansemark, O.C. (1998), ‘The effects of an entrepreneurship program on need for
achievement and locus of control of reinforcement’, International Journal of Entre-
preneurial Behaviour and Research, 4, (1), 28–50.
Hart, M. and R. Harrison (1992), ‘Encouraging enterprise in Northern Ireland: constraints
and opportunities’, Irish Business and Administrative Research, 13, 104–16.
Johannisson, B. (1991), ‘University training for entrepreneurship: a Swedish approach’,
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 3, (1), 67–82.
Kolvereid, L. (1996a), ‘Prediction of employment status choice intentions’, Entrepre-
neurship Theory and Practice, 20, (3), 45–57.
Kolvereid, L. (1996b), ‘Organisational employment versus self-employment: reasons
for career choice intentions’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 20, (3), 23–31.
Kolvereid L. and O. Moen (1997), ‘Entrepreneurship among business graduates: does a
major in entrepreneurship make a difference?’, Journal of European Industrial Train-
ing, 21, (4), 154–60.
Krueger, N.F. and A.L. Carsrud (1993), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions: applying the theory
of planned behaviour’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 5, 315–30.
Lüthje, C. and N. Kranke (2003), ‘The making of an entrepreneur: testing a model of
entrepreneurial intent among engineering students at MIT’, R&D Management, 33,
(2), 135–47.
Noel, T.W. (2001), ‘Effects of entrepreneurial education on intent to open a business’,
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.
babson.edu/entrep/fer.
Safavian-Martinon, M. (1998), ‘Le lien entre le diplôme et la logique d’acteur relative
à la carrière : une explication du rôle du diplôme dans la carrière des jeunes cadres
issus des grandes écoles de gestion’, thèse pour le doctorat en sciences de gestion,
université Paris I.
Shapero, A. and L. Sokol (1982), ‘The social dimensions of entrepreneurship’, in C.
Kent, D. Sexton and K. Vesper (eds), The Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 72–90.
Tkachev, A. and L. Kolvereid (1999), ‘Self-employment intentions among Russian stu-
dents’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 11 (3), 269–80.
Varela R. and J.E. Jimenez (2001), ‘The effect of entrepreneurship education in the uni-
versities of Cali’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference
Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer.
New approaches to evaluating entrepreneurship education 89
Vesper, K.H. and W.B. Gartner (1997), ‘Measuring progress in entrepreneurship educa-
tion’, Journal of Business Venturing, 12, (4), 403–21.
Wyckham, R.G. (1989), ‘Measuring the effects of entrepreneurial education programs:
Canada and Latin America’, in G. Robert, W. Wyckham and C. Wedley (eds), Educat-
ing the Entrepreneurs, Colombie-Britannique: Faculté d’administration, université
Simon Fraser, pp. 1–16.
PART TWO
About the Newness in Methodological
Approaches to Teach Entrepreneurship
93
6. The continental and Anglo-American
approaches to entrepreneurship
education – differences and bridges
Paula Kyrö
The discussion between entrepreneurship and education has strengthened to-
wards the end of the twentieth century. However, the discussion of the dynamics
of learning entrepreneurship has taken only very preliminary steps. So far the
focus has changed from the trait theories of biological heritage, that is, assuming
that we are born to be entrepreneurs, towards the belief that we learn to be en-
trepreneurs and that we learn how to behave like entrepreneurs. This
education-orientated focus has, however, generated studies and courses in the
felds of business and engineering rather than attracted researchers and educators
in educational disciplines and institutions. This study suggests that the lack of
this contribution appears as an apparent shortage of advancing conceptual dis-
cussion of entrepreneurship education. Furthermore, it is argued that the
confusion related to entrepreneurship education and its neighbouring concepts
does not only refect the current state of research, but also the cultural differ-
ences in the meanings of the basic educational concepts of pedagogy and
didactics. In order to encourage the conceptual debate on entrepreneurship edu-
cation as an interplay between education and entrepreneurship research, this
study delineates the conceptual bases and elements for this interplay by employ-
ing a descriptive interpretative concept method.
INCREASING DEMAND FOR CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDING ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION
1
Entrepreneurship education has slightly less than a 30-year history in science
(for example, Alberti, 1999). Three fndings have stimulated its development
since the 1970s. The frst of these is the fact that small businesses and organiza-
tions, rather than large frms and institutions, created new work (Drucker, 1986).
Second is the perception that entrepreneurship is more an educational than bio-
94 Newness in methodological approaches
logical issue and, the third, that the growth in number of small businesses and
entrepreneurial behaviour in organizations has deeper cultural roots than previ-
ously thought (Fayolle et al., 2005).
These fndings have, however, generated studies in entrepreneurship, rather
than attracted education researchers. The frst scientifc journal in this feld,
Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, published its frst issue only in 1997.
Perhaps this is due to the tendency to perceive entrepreneurship as an individual
and business-orientated rather than an educational and social-orientated phe-
nomenon (for example, Grant, 1998; Scott et al., 1998). Also, research on
entrepreneurship education has focused more on curriculum and content ques-
tions than on the dynamics of learning. Only recently the need to combine
educational studies with entrepreneurial processes has started to attract academ-
ics (for example, Gorman and Hanlon, 1997; Grant, 1998; Scott et al., 1998).
Still, the problem is that the contribution of educators in this debate is marginal.
Scott et al. (1998) suggest, though, that so far we have only gathered experiences
of various case studies and now there is a need to focus on basic dimensions
and concepts. The frst PhD or licenciate level thesis on entrepreneurship educa-
tion emerged only at the end of the 1990s. Among those we can identify is the
Finnish contribution (Erkkilä, 2000; Kyrö, 1997; Leskinen, 1999; Nevanperä,
2003; Pihkala, 1998; Remes, 2003; Soininen, 2000). However, due to the lan-
guage barrier, its contribution in the international arena is hard to identify. This
might be the case also with other less well known languages.
Along with this development, the number of institutions offering entrepre-
neurship courses has risen in many Western countries (for example, Menzies
and Gasse, 1999; Vesper and Gartner, 1999). Several international studies have
reported an increase in the supply of university-level courses. For example,
Vesper and Gartner’s study from 1999 found that the number of universities
offering entrepreneurship courses in the USA had increased from 85 in the
1970s to 383 by the end of the 1990s. Studies from Canada and France have
reported similar trends (Fayolle, 2000; Menzies and Gasse, 1999). The content
of the courses included such topics as new business foundation, business plans,
small business management and project management. A similar study of Finnish
universities revealed that in 1996/97 18 universities out of 21 offered entrepre-
neurship courses as a major, or part of a major, in management or engineering
and as a minor or separate course also in other felds. The contents were similar
to those in other countries. Considering this supply, we face the same problem
as in research, namely, the marginal contribution of educational institutions and
courses’ contents. Also, a recently published report on entrepreneurship educa-
tion in the European Union revealed that entrepreneurship education was
primarily available in business disciplines (European Commission, 2002).
The report also indicated considerable differences between countries related
to the position of entrepreneurship education in national educational systems
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 95
ending up to recommend that the importance of entrepreneurship teaching
should be acknowledged in the national curriculum as well as in the curriculum
for each level of the educational system (European Commission, 2002). This
was also recommended as one of the key qualitative indicators for entrepreneur-
ship education. In this respect, for example, only Finland has extensively
included it in the curriculum of primary and secondary levels, as well as in initial
vocational training. Yet 10 out of 16 member countries recognized considerable
national policy commitment to promote entrepreneurship in education.
All three perspectives on entrepreneurship education – the development of the
number and content of courses, the recent emergence of educational research and
the current state in educational system – refect an apparent consensus in the need
to supply entrepreneurship education. However, on the one hand, its short history
and, on the other hand, the marginal contribution of the science of education in-
dicate that it is not possible to share mutual collective insights, understanding
and knowledge on its basic elements and concepts. The European Commission’s
recent report also identifed this as a diffculty in international co-operation and
comparisons. The report concluded that most of the education related to entre-
preneurship education had, in fact, taken place under some other title (European
Commission, 2002). This perception summarizes the conceptual confusion that
characterizes the current state of the debate on entrepreneurship education.
All these aspects encourage me to suggest that, in order to advance educa-
tional debate on entrepreneurship education, there is a need to address more
attention to its basic elements and the dynamics between them. Thus, following
Scott et al.’s (1998) recommendation, the aim of this chapter is, on the one hand,
to delineate the basic conceptual elements of entrepreneurship education and,
on the other hand, to approach their dynamics through two basic concepts of
education, namely, pedagogy and didactics, assuming that this might advance
the educational debate on conceptualizing entrepreneurship education and raise
some expectations for future developments.
THE ROLE OF CONCEPTS IN UNDERSTANDING
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
The understanding and further refection of the concepts of pedagogy and di-
dactics in entrepreneurship education is not possible unless we are able to
understand their history and relationship to each other. As Richards (1995) ex-
presses while introducing the core of Böhm’s (1995) extensive study on ‘theory
and practice’:
Educational concepts make presuppositions about the nature of reality and that which
constitutes legitimate academic study. To understand these educational concepts
96 Newness in methodological approaches
across different cultures requires more than a dictionary of educational terms. There
needs to be a reaching out to participate in the international dialogue. By examining
the differences in our basic concepts we can begin to ask what might be missing in
our own perspective.
Furthermore, since most of the joint international discussion on entrepreneurship
education takes place in the English language and in the feld of entrepreneur-
ship, the continental conceptual infuence of education on this debate can be
assumed to be minor. This challenges us to open up not only the concepts as
such, but also the differences in conceptual understanding of pedagogy and di-
dactics in the feld of education and to refect these differences in the ideas of
entrepreneurship education. These points of departure guide the methodological
choices of this study.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Methodologically, this study belongs to the feld of interpretative concept re-
search and, more specifcally, it applies the descriptive interpretative method
introduced by Lämsä and Takala (2001). Conceptual methodology consists of
two basic branches – analytical and interpretative. Contextuality and theoretical
thematization distinguish the interpretative branch from the analytical study,
and justify it as a methodological alternative in human sciences. The interpreta-
tive branch aims to fnd meanings included in concepts and their defnitions in
order to expand the understanding of the concepts. The interpretation is linked
with contextual factors. Contextuality in this study emerges in two respects:
frst, the elements of entrepreneurship are anchored to, and guided by, the en-
trepreneurship debate and, secondly, the concepts of pedagogy and didactics
are anchored to their cultural and historical contexts.
Among its four categories, that is, heuristic, theory bounded, descriptive and
critical, the descriptive method aims to increase the understanding of a concept
by fnding, describing and interpreting the entity of meanings and possible
changed meanings while compiling a comprehensive overview of the concept
(Lämsä and Takala, 2001). It emphasizes further development of the concepts
and their defnitions. Lämsä and Takala (2001) suggest that, at its best, descrip-
tive conceptual study might provide ‘a fertile re-interpretation from a new
completely a new perspective’. In this study, the focus is on searching for a new
angle for conceptualizing problems of entrepreneurship education rather than
providing a completely new perspective by employing educational pedagogy
and didactics.
Lämsä and Takala (2001) argue that the validity of this method is analogous
to the adopted assumption of reality at a particular time, since the use of the
method always includes a set of commitments from the philosophy of science.
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 97
The concepts and their meanings must be seen as ever-changing, dynamic proc-
esses. They are ambiguous, changing, as well as socially and culturally
constructed. Therefore, the interpretative study of concepts commits itself to
basic assumptions at the very beginning, and always gives us information in
limited frames. This is the guiding presumption of this study, suggesting that
the concept of entrepreneurship education and the concepts of pedagogy and
didactics are culturally constructed and changing phenomena.
Consequently, this study consists of fve phases. Phase 1 identifes the ele-
ments of entrepreneurship education in entrepreneurship studies and phase 2
describes the concepts of pedagogy and didactics in their historical contexts.
Phase 3 summarizes their essential features and differences, phase 4 compares
these to the elements of entrepreneurship education and phase 5 refects these
fndings to the aims of this study and to the future needs in the interplay between
research on entrepreneurship and education.
ELEMENTS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
Identifying the elements of entrepreneurship education starts by looking at the
terms used for it. A study conducted in 1989 by the Durham University Business
School identifed differences between terms in the USA, Canada, UK and other
European countries. The term ‘entrepreneurship education’ was familiar in the
USA and Canada whereas the term ‘enterprise education’ was used in the UK.
In the UK, the focus was on ‘an entrepreneur’. Also, Erkkilä’s dissertation, En-
trepreneurial Education, studying these concepts in the USA, the UK and
Finland, revealed differences in terms (Erkkilä, 2000). In order to avoid con-
ceptual confusion Erkkilä suggests that we should use a single concept of
‘entrepreneurial education’. Allan Gibb poses that there is a substantial syno-
nymity between entrepreneurial and enterprising behaviours. The only major
distinction that can be made is that an entrepreneur actor is traditionally associ-
ated with business activity (Gibb, 1993). In his later writings Gibb (2001) has
started to use these terms synonymously.
Thus, in identifying the elements of this phenomenon, we have to lean mostly
on Anglo-American terminology that focuses on the terms ‘entrepreneurship’,
‘enterprise’, ‘enterprising’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘entrepreneur’.
Conceptually, it is easy to argue that these terms are not comparable, but
rather focus on different elements of the phenomenon. Each of these poses a
different question in education. The question of who is supposed to learn, gets
the answer – an entrepreneur. The questions of what is the target of our learning,
gives us the terms ‘enterprise’ or ‘entrepreneurship’, and what kind of a learner
or learning we refer to, gives us the answer ‘enterprising’ or ‘entrepreneurial’.
Consequently, in defning our concept we have to choose between two terms
98 Newness in methodological approaches
for our phenomenon and two terms for the qualities of that phenomenon. Thus,
we ask the question: is our phenomenon an enterprise or an entrepreneurship?
In this respect, I believe there is a consensus that it is entrepreneurship rather
than an enterprise (for example, Gartner, 1990). Thus, from the perspective of
education, these questions have actually identifed the basic elements and phe-
nomenon. This is delineated in Figure 6.1.
Therefore, it is possible to suggest that entrepreneurship education concerns
entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial/enterprising processes and, as an outcome, the
enterprise of whatever context or conceptual content it relates to as well as the
dynamics between them. Consequently, revising the terminology of entrepre-
neurship education from the perspective of education, it is possible to focus the
debate on its core elements and identify its key dimensions as Scott et al. (1998)
recommend. Taking the entrepreneur as a point of departure, the key dimensions
concern the interplay between the actor, the process and the outcome. Consider-
ing what to learn refers to the substance of entrepreneurship education, that is,
the whole phenomenon or some of its parts or aspects, including the process it-
self, and considering how to learn refers to the behavioural aspects of the actor,
the entrepreneur and his or her experiences, that is, the actor learns about en-
trepreneurship through entrepreneurial processes. Thus, we can say that the key
dimensions of entrepreneurship education refer to what to learn and how to
learn, and the qualities of the three elements relate to the phenomena the feld
of entrepreneurship studies is gathered around. These focus on such phenomena
as opportunity recognition, new venture creation, risk and acquisition, and al-
location of resources in order to make things happen in different contexts, levels
and perspectives (for example Brush, 1992; Carland and Carland, 1991; Davids-
son et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997).
Figure 6.1 The framework for the elements of entrepreneurship education
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
ENTREPRENEUR ENTERPRISE
Qualities
Entrepreneurial
Enterprising
PROCESS
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 99
Consequently, entrepreneurship education can be approached from each of
these or from the dynamics between them. However, this does not mean that all
have an equal or similar role in education. Next, I will briefy elaborate these
roles in education and refect them to the conceptual debate on entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurship education.
THE ROLE OF THE HUMAN BEING AND ACTION IN THE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEBATE
We can argue that both education and entrepreneurship are human sciences or
felds of science and, thus, the human being, the entrepreneur and his or her
behaviour, are the points of departure and the centre of the education. If we
forget this, we lose our phenomenon and the whole debate on entrepreneurship
education becomes useless. This is not, however, always obvious in the concep-
tual debate on entrepreneurship.
Considering human action, we can identify two different dialogues in the
contemporary conceptual debate on entrepreneurship. On the one hand, the in-
dividual, entrepreneur-orientated discussion has left behind the biological
interpretations and, through behavioural theories, has started to inquire into
education as a discussion for supporting entrepreneurial behaviour (Gibb, 1993).
Yet, a major part of the biological explanations focus on human features and
qualifcations. This indicates that human behaviour is at the core of entrepre-
neurship in both of these dialogues.
On the other hand, the dialogue between business and innovations has in-
troduced the concept of new economic activity as a defnition for the
entrepreneurship (for example, Davidsson et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997).
A point of departure and focus of this defnition is activity, not the actor.
Growth is often combined with the debate on newness or is taken as a measure
for it (for example, Davidsson et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997). For example,
Davidsson et al. (2002) pose the question whether entrepreneurship is growth
or growth is entrepreneurship. They come to the conclusion that growth relates
to entrepreneurship even though not all growth is entrepreneurial. Basically,
the focus in this debate is on the dialogue between innovation, growth and
business. Identifying new economic activities is emphasized and those creating
them are less focused on. This view, however, has also been challenged by
Carland and Carland (1991). They suggest that it is, indeed, diffcult to defne
entrepreneurship without entrepreneurs.
The essential role of the human actor and his or her behaviour is also evident
in Barreto’s (1989) historical analyses of the writings of the early contributors
on entrepreneurship research. Barreto claims that entrepreneurship disappeared
from microeconomic theories by drawing lines between entrepreneurship re-
100 Newness in methodological approaches
search and microeconomic theories through the disappearance of the role of an
entrepreneur.
Also a cultural approach to the history of entrepreneurship reveals that the
role of human beings has been essential. The scientifc descriptions of entrepre-
neurship were born in France during the Enlightenment. At the end of the
Middle Ages in France, two institutions, feudalism and the crafts system, were
coming to an end. The roots of this broader approach to science can be found
from the ideas of the French physiocrats during the eighteenth century. They
opposed mercantilism, feudalism and the craft system. For them entrepreneur-
ship referred to a farmer and farming in free circumstances (Hamilton, 1999).
Instead of the hereditary system, privileges and institutions, citizens started to
demand freedom for trade and industry: in general, freedom to decide how to
earn their living (Dillard, 1967; Lindeqvist, 1905). Thus, the early contributors
of entrepreneurship focused on the right and ability of free human beings to
create their own welfare and living. This was supposed to be achieved through
creative human action by combining resources in a novel way, applying new
knowledge and taking risks in this process. This was often described as a special
kind of management and ownership combined in the same entity. These early
discussions were then addressed to different contexts. First, they were attached
to the dynamics between an individual and society, then to small businesses and,
fnally, to larger organizations (Kyrö, 2000). As an outcome, these practices
broke old systems and hierarchies and created new practices. The qualities used
in these early discussions have also been used in the contemporary debate on
the defnitions in entrepreneurship. They are gathered around such phenomena
as opportunity recognition, new venture creation, growth, risk and acquisition,
and allocation of resources in order to make things happen (for example, Brush,
1992; Carland and Carland, 1991; Davidsson et al., 2002; Venkataraman, 1997).
Consequently it is possible to argue that, in its current state, there are different
forms or contexts of entrepreneurship referring to an individual, business and
organization. We can include the whole of society as an organization. Thus,
entrepreneurial activities can create different outcomes, that is, enterprises, be
they entrepreneurial individuals, businesses, micro organizations or whole
societies.
Differences in these conceptualizing efforts seem to fall on the essence and
nature of the human actor, which from the perspective of education defne the
conceptions of learning and teaching. Yet, this ‘chicken and egg’ dialogue in-
dicates that problematizing the nature and role of a human being is, and has
been, an essential part of the entrepreneurship debate. On the other hand, the
qualities related to the three elements of entrepreneurship education might get
their content from the historical grounding of entrepreneurship.
The role of the process referring to action and its nature and dynamics, even
though being a part of the entrepreneurship education research, varies consider-
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 101
ably between studies. For example, in Gibb’s earlier and later articles it is one
of the guiding themes, whereas Alberti (1999) divides studies according to their
focus into three categories: course contents and their appropriateness; screening
on possible course concepts and their usefulness; and the effciency of pedagogi-
cal techniques and learning environments. Scott et al. (1998), on their behalf,
divide research on entrepreneurship education into three categories: education
about, through and for enterprise. The conclusion of the article studying the
educational contribution on the debate of entrepreneurship education was that
the dynamics of learning processes are understood as different techniques and
models of learning rather than complex dynamics of the various elements in the
learning process (Kyrö, 1999).
These perceptions of the central elements and their role in discourses of en-
trepreneurship and entrepreneurship education seem to indicate that, even
though they are an essential part of that debate, a conceptual approach has not
been found that would allow them to advance the discourses on the dynamics
of these elements. Thus, employing educational concepts of pedagogy and di-
dactics might give some new angles to that problem.
TWO DIFFERENT ROUTES FOR EDUCATIONAL
CONCEPTS
In their early days, there was no difference between pedagogy and didactics but
rather a holistic view to education linked with organic holism and Naturphiloso-
phie. According to the Holistic school of science, man must be educated to see
nature as a complete integrated, purposeful system with himself an integral part
of it. Furthermore, this non-dualistic approach made no difference between the
body and the mind (Bowen, 1981). Thus, considering the history of entrepre-
neurship we can see that both education and entrepreneurship have their roots
in the same schools of science.
The very frst meaning of Didaktik was about the same as the art of teaching
or Lehrkunst. Kansanen (1995) identifes Wolfgang Ratke and Johan Amos
Comenius (1592–1670) at the beginning of the seventeenth century as the found-
ers of the German Didaktik (didactica). The idea was to develop a general
teaching method compared to the logical method, which at that time was thought
to be the best way to present the teaching content in order to bring about learn-
ing. The position of Didaktik with regard to pedagogics (Pädagogik) changed
during the next centuries. Die Didaktik was gradually taken into more general
use alongside die Pädagogik or dedagogics, but its use was limited to German-
speaking countries or to countries having cultural relations with Germany.
The results of these early developments are evident in the contemporary use
of the concepts of pedagogy and didactics. According to Kansanen, by nature,
102 Newness in methodological approaches
die Didaktik in Germany has always been philosophical thinking, theorizing,
and construction of theoretical models. Didaktik is nowadays in use in Central
European and Scandinavian countries, but it is practically unknown in English
or French-speaking countries in the feld of education.
According to a well-known German example, within the three common basic
problem areas of education, which are education in general, psychology of edu-
cation and sociology of education, general education consists of pedagogics and
didactics (Pädagogik und Didaktik), and the latter is usually seen as a subdisci-
pline concentrating on the questions of teaching (Röhrs, 1969). In German
literature, Didaktik and educational psychology are clearly separate felds with
different representatives. The situation in Great Britain and the USA is quite
the contrary (Kansanen, 1995).
A hallmark of education as a discipline or as a feld of science, as it is re-
garded in British educational literature, is the frst independent chair of education
at the University of Halle in 1779. The frst professor of education, Ernst Chris-
tian Trapp’s (1745–1818) idea in ‘Versuch einer Pädagogik’ was to no longer
base education on philosophy and theology but on the nature of man and on
contemporary society. It took about 100 years before independent professorships
were established in England, Scotland and the USA. By the end of the nineteenth
century, American educational research had many contacts with German re-
search, however, these soon ruptured. Accordingly, the conceptualization took
different routes leading to quite different understandings of the basic concepts
of education (Kansanen, 1995).
The differences between Anglo-American and continental approaches became
evident in the interpretation and application of Herbartian thoughts. According
to Bowen (1981: 366–74), Charles de Garmo brought German educational
thought to America at the end of the nineteenth century and in the writings of
McMurry these thoughts moulded into a new form. At that time, American edu-
cational research had many contacts with German research. These contacts
suddenly ended at the beginning of the twentieth century. Bowen suggests that
one can identify two fundamental differences between Herbart’s ideas and their
American adaptation.
2
Whereas Herbart’s doctrine was ‘conceived within the
holist view that man is a part of nature and learns by organic interrelationship’,
McMurry, instead, accepted, without critical analysis, the separation of man and
nature as well as mind and body. He also stated that ‘all the forces and bounties
of nature are to be made serviceable to man’. These ideas became the corner-
stones of positivistic tradition of the educational psychology in the USA.
Education became known as a science of instruction with pedagogy as its tech-
nology. It narrowed Herbartian pedagogy to a fve-step teaching model deduced
from fve basic laws.
This made it unnecessary to have an own concept for focus on learning, its
bases and processes. Hamilton (1999: 135) arrived at a similar conclusion in
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 103
his article ‘The pedagogic paradox – why no didactics in England?’. He claims
that due to an instructional change the focus turned to teaching rather than
learning. Consequently, the European discourse on didactics became very close
to the Anglo-American discourse on pedagogics. Pedagogy, on the other hand,
was sometimes taken as a synonym for the science of education (for example,
Moss, 2002).
This new ‘scientifc’ pedagogy did not gain dominance without challenge.
On the contrary, at the beginning of the twentieth century, progressive move-
ments both in Europe and the USA tried to fnd solutions to the unsolved
problem of dualism. In Europe, perhaps the most prominent representative was
Maria Montessori, who, infuenced by Pestalozzi, Froebel and Rousseau, created
holist, child-centred pedagogy that was based on the European cultural tradition
that assumed the goal of all educational procedures was a cultivated adult (Bo-
wen, 1995: 397–407).
In the USA, pragmatism represented the progressive movement especially in
the works of Charles S. Pierce (1839–1914), William James (1842–1910) and
John Dewey (1859–1952). Their efforts were fundamentally different, compared
with their European counterparts, in two respects. First, they were more infuenced
by the British empiricism and Francis Bacon than continental Naturphilosophers
and, second, they contradicted Plato’s defnition of knowledge as a well-justifed
true belief assuming that truth is stable, independent of time, based on empiricism
or rationalism. Instead of defning the subject, content and object of knowledge
as the elements of a process, they focused on the process itself. They strove to
understand reality through action. For them, truth was an acquired quality. For
Dewey (1951), it is something that is happening to an idea while verifying it,
while for James (1913), it is the same as a process of verifcation. At that time
pragmatism did not gain a foothold in the dominating discussion, but was criti-
cized from two directions. On the one hand, it was regarded as too eclectic and,
on the other hand, its idea of ‘usefulness as a criteria of truth’ was critiqued.
The consequences of these developments emerged as the disappearance of
the term ‘didactics’ in the American tradition. Kansanen (1995) noted that
in British, as well as in American, educational literature, the sub-area of Didaktik
seems to be lacking. Much of its content belongs to educational psychology. In the
American literature of research on teaching, the problems of teaching and learning
in general are usually held together without any theoretical model building. Attention
is paid to the methodological problems, and there the various background principles
can be seen … The predominant approach to the problems of teaching has been re-
search on teacher and teaching effectiveness. Along these lines there has been a series
of model building … The purpose of this kind of thinking has been an attempt to fnd
those teachers who could attain the best possible results and to determine those factors
which are crucial in planning and acting in the teaching process. On the theoretical
level, the development of theoretical models has concentrated on empirical research
and on testing these in real situations. (Kansanen, 1995)
104 Newness in methodological approaches
This might be one of the reasons for the dominant position of cases in studies
of entrepreneurship education. Böhm (1995) suggests that returning to philo-
sophical questions might be a solution to this problem.
The era of scientifc positivism, as Bowen (1981: 529) describes it, which
brought along ‘the concept of education as an investment and, human capital’,
burgeoned in the early 1960s. It was followed by such ideas as, for example,
that education is an industry enhancing economic growth (Bowen, 1981: 530–
31). This era belongs to a larger modern time period, when entrepreneurship
was not valued and its infuence on the success of society was marginal (Kyrö,
2002). Towards the 1970s the situation changed in some respects. Bowen (1981:
543) claims that Illich’s Deschooling Society, published in 1971, was responsi-
ble for making educators in the early 1970s look more closely at their arguments
about school and its practices and move towards improvement. Illich’s argument
for ‘deschooling’ society deserves to be considered as a signifcant innovation
in Western educational thought, even though we still lack any reasonable histori-
cal perspective in which to assess it. It is possible, though, to combine the idea
of the deschooling society with the postmodern transition, when we have also
experienced a re-emergence of entrepreneurship and the new phenomenon of
entrepreneurship education.
Both education and entrepreneurship experienced fundamental changes dur-
ing the Enlightenment and again during the current, postmodern transition.
Between these transitions the Anglo-American and continental debates on edu-
cation parted. Consequently, the core concepts have different, culture-bound
meanings in contemporary debates even though they once used to have a close
interplay with each other.
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN AND CONTINENTAL
APPROACHES TO CONCEPTUALIZATION
Combining the different routes of educational concepts with the debate on en-
trepreneurship education provides two different approaches.
The concepts dealing with the philosophical bases are ontology, axiology and
epistemology. Etymologically, ‘logos’ refers to ‘explanation’ or ‘the word by
which the inward thought is expressed, the inward thought itself’ (Audi, 1995;
McKechnie, 1977). In Greek philosophy, it took on the meaning of ‘reason,
thought of as constituting the controlling principle of the universe and as being
manifested by speech’ (McKechnie, 1977: 1250). The ‘-logy’ refers to a specifc
kind of speaking like a doctrine, science, theory of, and ‘onto-’ in Greek means
existence or being. Ontology originally referred to the branch of metaphysics
dealing with the nature of being and reality (for example, McKechnie, 1977).
In short, ontology refers to our ideas of reality and how it is constituted.
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 105
Epistemology, in turn, is interested in how we can acquire knowledge about
that reality. The Greek word, ‘episteme’, refers to knowledge (for example,
McKechnie, 1977). Epistemologists try to identify the essential, defning com-
ponents of knowledge (Audi, 1995). Thus, both of these provide bases for
learning and teaching, and they appear in learning theories and/or, vice versa,
what we understand by learning and teaching leads to ontological and episte-
mological assumptions.
Epistemology is sometimes discussed in entrepreneurship education context,
but ontology as a concept is still rare. For example, Alberti (1999) considers
knowledge creation to be a core of his concept of entrepreneurship education.
An example of ontological consideration and its relationship to epistemology
can be found in methodological discussion of entrepreneurship, from Hill and
Wright’s (2000) article, ‘A qualitative research agenda for small to medium-
sized enterprises’.
In addition to ontology and epistemology, there is a third concept of axiology
that relates to value theories (Audi, 1995: 830–31). It considers the values re-
lated to both ontology and epistemology. In its broad sense in the context of
ontology, it addresses questions such as what is considered valuable in our world
and our existence in it. Further, in the context of epistemology, it addresses the
question of what is valuable knowledge in that world and what means are valued
in order to gain that knowledge. Thus, it brings the moral aspect to scientifc
discourse. Explicit axiological discussion is quite unknown in debates of entre-
preneurship education. The situation is quite the opposite in educational debates.
For example, Böhm (1995) points out that ethical questions are the very base
of all educational discourses, be they theoretical or practical. Education is so-
ciety’s media for manifesting its ideas (Bowen, 1981). The ideas educational
systems adopt refect what society regards as valuable for its success and
welfare.
Considering the two basic dimensions of how and what to learn (see ‘Ele-
ments of entrepreneurship education’ section), axiology and its interplay
between ontology and epistemology offers a third dimension, which focuses on
the question of why learn. This brings along the question of whether it is possi-
ble to advance the conceptual debate or debates unless we explicate our implicit
assumptions underlying the elements of entrepreneurship education. In order
to understand the concepts and their differences, we ultimately, implicitly or
explicitly, turn to the interplay between ontology, axiology and epistemology.
This short review of the history of education revealed that the continental
approach of education as a science focuses explicitly on the dynamics of this
interplay and furthermore explicates in the context of pedagogy and didactics
its contribution to learning and teaching. The Anglo-American approach, on the
other hand, takes, as a point of departure, educational practices and, as Kansanen
(1995) described it, at the theoretical level focuses on model construction, ef-
106 Newness in methodological approaches
fective teaching practices and consequently concentrates on empirical research
and on testing these in real situations. Thus, the points of departure, the focus
and the direction to proceed are different in these traditions. Consequently, the
Anglo-American approach puts more stress on what and how questions, whereas
the continental approach deduce its bases from why questions. These percep-
tions and conclusions are summarised in Figure 6.2.
These historical differences give a reason to suggest that the interplay between
what, how and why questions might give some ideas for revising the concept
of entrepreneurship education. It might also sow some seeds for reuniting the
Anglo-American and the continental conceptual debates on entrepreneurship
education, thus making a contribution to both felds of science – entrepreneur-
ship and education.
Figure 6.2 The Anglo-American and the continental approaches to
education
CONTINENTAL
APPROACH
Ontology
Axiology
Epistemology
Theories of learning
and teaching
Pedagogy and
didactics
Learning and
teaching practices
Explicit focus
ANGLO-AMERICAN
APPROACH
Ontology
Axiology
Epistemology
Models of learning
and teaching
Pedagogy
Learning and
teaching practices
Implicit focus
W
H
Y
W
H
A
T
&
H
O
W
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 107
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this study was, on the one hand, to delineate the basic conceptual
elements of entrepreneurship education and, on the other hand, to approach their
dynamics through the concepts of pedagogy and didactics. This was assumed
to advance the educational debate on conceptualizing entrepreneurship educa-
tion and raise some expectations for future developments.
Identifying three basic elements of entrepreneurship education through its
terminology organized the conceptual frame of the entrepreneur, the process
and the enterprise, that further focused on two dimensions – what and how to
learn. Refecting these fndings on the debates of entrepreneurship and entre-
preneurship education indicated that it was hard to fnd a conceptual approach
that would allow advancing the discourses on the dynamics of these
elements.
Employing educational concepts revealed cultural differences between the
Anglo-American and the continental debates and brought along a third dimen-
sion of entrepreneurship education, namely, the question of why learn, which
offers some ideas for revising the concept of entrepreneurship education. Thus,
the assumption that the interplay between two felds of science – entrepreneur-
ship and education – would advance the conceptualization seems to be
valid.
When evaluating the results of this study from a methodological perspective
it is possible to argue that the adopted descriptive, interpretative concept method
was valid as well, since its aim to further develop the concepts and their defni-
tions turned out to be possible. Efforts to fnd a new angle for conceptualizing
problems of entrepreneurship education provided insights to further develop-
ments of conceptualization in entrepreneurship education.
Even though this study succeeded in its basic tasks, it is a very preliminary
effort and many of its aspects are disputable, waiting for further studies, which
provides expectations for the future.
The brief historical overview left too many options in the shadows. In this
respect there is a need to conduct more thorough studies in this feld for really
advancing the conceptual debate. Also, these might reveal interesting differences
between countries and cultures.
Considering the educational discussion on entrepreneurship, the rough outline
here is far too simplistic and narrow, and needs to be further studied and re-
fected on both theoretically and empirically. This requires a more careful and
extensive study within existing literature on both entrepreneurship and entre-
preneurship education than was possible in this study.
108 Newness in methodological approaches
IMPLICATIONS AND SOME FUTURE EXPECTATIONS
The question of what kind of future expectations for conceptual development
this study offers can be approached through its theoretical and practical
implications.
The cultural differences in educational concepts invite us to study whether
similar differences occur in the literature of entrepreneurship education. This
would contribute to both felds of science – entrepreneurship and education.
Assuming that conceptual differences appear in learning practices, this would
also have practical implications.
Also, combining philosophical bases with conceptualization brings along the
question of whether it is possible to advance the conceptual debate or debates
unless we explicate our implicit assumptions underlying the concepts. It might
also sow some seeds for reuniting the Anglo-American and the continental
conceptual debates on education.
From a practical perspective this indicates how important it is in every study
to explicate and refect on the philosophical bases of the concepts that we use.
The history of education indicates how the conceptual debate has experienced
fundamental changes that can be identifed as a development before and after
the positivistic, technology-orientated era as Bowen named it. During the transi-
tion towards this era, the continental and Anglo-American debates were not
parted.
Considering the relationship between educational concepts and entrepreneur-
ship education, we can notice that, at the moment, we are experiencing a new
transition that is trying to unite educational and entrepreneurship debates.
The most promising expectation for the future concerns the interplay between
different felds of science not only through books, but also through human be-
ings and institutions. We can learn from history that when human chains
between researchers separated, the scientifc discussions separated as well. This
modest conceptual study indicates that Richards’s (1995) words were more than
needed. We do need international dialogue, and by examining the differences
in our basic concepts we can begin to ask what might be missing in our own
perspective.
NOTES
1. I use the term ‘entrepreneurship’ as a general term being aware that it is disputable. Alberti
(1999) solved a similar terminological problem by applying the term ‘e-EDU’ while defning
it.
2. Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841) was a German philosopher and educator at the University
of Göttingen and is considered among the founders of modern scientifc pedagogy.
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 109
REFERENCES
Alberti, F. (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship education: scope and theory’, in Entrepreneurial
Knowledge and Learning: Conceptual Advances and Directions for Future Research,
JIBS Research report no. 1999–6, pp. 64–84, Jönköping.
Audi, R. (gen. ed.) (1995), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Barreto, H. (1989), The Entrepreneur in Microeconomic Theory: Disappearance and
Explanation, London and New York: Routledge.
Bowen, J. (1995), A History of Western Education. The Modern West, Europe and the
New World, vol. 3, 1st edn 1981, London: Methuen.
Böhm, W. (1995), Theory, Practice and the Education of the Person, OEA/Coleccion,
Washington, DC: Interramer.
Brush, C.G. (1992), ‘Research on women business owners: past trends, a new perspective
and future directions’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 16 (4), 5–30.
Carland, J.A.C. and J.W. Carland (1991), ‘The empirical investigation into the distinc-
tions between male and female entrepreneurs and managers’, International Small
Business Journal, 9 (3), 62–72.
Davidsson, P., F. Delmar and J. Wiklund (2002), ‘Entrepreneurship as growth: growth
as entrepreneurship’, in M. Hilt and D. Ireland (eds), Strategic Entrepreneurship,
Oxford: Blackwell.
Dewey, J. (1951), Experience and Education, 13th edn, New York: Macmillan.
Dillard, D. (1967), Economic Development of the North Atlantic Community: Historical
Introduction to Modern Economics, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Drucker, P.F. (1986), Innovation and Entrepreneurship, London: Heinemann.
Erkkilä, K. (2000), Entrepreneurial Education, New York: Carland.
European Commission (2002), Final Report of the Expert Group ‘Best Procedure’ Project
on Education and Training for Entrepreneurship, November, European Commission,
Enterprise Directorate General.
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘Setting up a favourable environmental framework to promote and
develop entrepreneurship education’, paper presented at the ICSB World Conference,
7–10 June, Brisbane.
Fayolle, A., P. Kyrö and J. Uljin (eds) (2005), Entrepreneurship Research in Europe:
Perspectives and Outcomes, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Gartner, W.B. (1990), ‘What are we talking about when we talk about entrepreneurship?’,
Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 15–28.
Gibb, A. (1993), ‘The enterprise culture and education: understanding enterprise educa-
tion and its links with small business, entrepreneurship and wider educational goals’,
International Small Business Journal, 11 (3), 11–24.
Gibb, A. (2001), ‘Creating conducive environments for learning and entrepreneurship:
living with, dealing with, creating and enjoying uncertainty and complexity’, paper
presented at the First Conference of the Entrepreneurship Forum Entrepreneurship
and Learning, Naples, 21–24 June.
Gorman, G. and D. Hanlon (1997), ‘Some research perspectives on entrepreneurship
education, enterprise education and education for small business management: a ten-
year literature review’, International Small Business Journal, 15/3, 56–77.
Grant, Alan (1998), ‘Entrepreneurship – the major academic discipline for the business
education curriculum for the 21st century’, in M.G. Scott, P. Rosa and H. Klandt (eds),
Educating Entrepreneurs for Wealth Creation, Lyme, USA: Ashgate, pp. 16–28.
Hamilton, D. (1999), ‘The pedagogic paradox – why no didactics in England?’, Peda-
110 Newness in methodological approaches
gogy, Culture and Society, 7 (1), 135–51, www.mtsu.edu~^ tvs2/quesnay.html, 24
March 1999.
Hill, J. and L. Wright (2000), ‘A qualitative research agenda for small to medium-sized
enterprises’, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 19 (6/7), 432–43.
James, W. (1913), Pragmatismi, Helsinki: Otava.
Kansanen, P. (1995), Discussion on Some Educational Issues, research report 145, De-
partment of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki,http://www.helsinki.
fi/~pkansane/deutsche.html, 22 February 2005.
Kyrö, P. (1997), Yrittäjyyden muodot ja tehtävä ajan murroksissa, Jyväskylä Studies in
Computer Science and Economics and Statistics nr. 38, University of Jyväskylä.
Kyrö, P. (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship and education search for each other in the postmodern
transition’, in Sigvart Tosse, Pia Falkencrone, Arja Puurula and Bosse Bergstedt (eds),
Challenges and Development: Adult Education Research in Nordic Countries, Trond-
heim: Tapir Academic Press, pp. 69–98.
Kyrö, P. (2000), ‘Entrepreneurship in the post modern society’, Wirtschafts Politiche
Blätter, 47, Jahrgang, Wien: Wirtschaftskammer Österreich.
Kyrö, Paula (2002), ‘The transitional development of entrepreneurship in Finland’, in
G. Braun and Chr. Diensberg (Hg), Entrepreneurship im Ostseeraum. Unternehmertum
als Motor von Wachstum und Integration, Germany: Sigma 2002.
Lämsä A.-M. and T. Takala (2001), ‘Interpretative study of concepts’, www.metodix.
com, 24 February 2001.
Leskinen, P.-L. (1999), ‘Yrittäjällä on koko elämä kiinni yrityksessä – Opiskelijoiden
yrittäjyyskäsitykset ja niiden muutokset yritysprojektin aikana’, Acta Wasaensia No
71, Liiketaloustiede 27, Johtaminen ja organisaatio, Vaasan yliopisto.
Lindeqvist, K.O. (1905), Yleinen historia, Porvoo: Uusi Aika, WSOY.
McKechnie, J.L. (ed.) (1977), Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 2nd
edn, Cleveland: Collins.
Menzies, T. and Y. Gasse (1999), ‘Entrepreneurship and the Canadian universities’, report
of a National Study of Entrepreneurship Education, Canada.
Moss, G. (2002), ‘Critical pedagogy: translation for education that is multicultural’, in
F. Schultz (ed.), Annual Editions: Multicultural Education 03/04, 10th edn, Guilford,
CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, pp. 74–84.
Nevanperä, E. (2003), Yrittäjyys Suupohjan opiskelijanuorten ajattelussa. Tutkimus
Suupohjan seudun nuorisoasteen opiskelijoiden yrittäjyysnäkemyksistä sekä yrittä-
jyysopetuksen opetussuunnitelman kehittämispyrkimyksissä, published in series of
Jyväskylä studies, Business and Economics no. 24, Jyväskylä: University of
Jyväskylä.
Pihkala, J. (1998), Yrittäjyyskasvatus koulussa – näkökulmana Suomen ja Englannin
koulujärjestelmien yrittäjyyshankkeet sekä suomalaisten opiskelijoiden yrittäjäorien-
taatio, Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.
Remes, L. (2003), Yrittäjyyskasvatuksen kolme diskurssia. Studies in Education, Psychol-
ogy and Social Research no.213, Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.
Richards, A. (1995), ‘Introduction’, in W. Böhm, Theory, Practice and the Education of
the Person, OEA/Coleccion, Washington, DC: Interramer, www.iacd.oas.org/Intera-
mer/Interamerhtml/bohmhtml/Bohm_Intro.htm, 22 February 2005.
Röhrs, H. (1969), Allemaine Erziehungswissenshaft, Bltz: Weinhamn.
Scott, M.G., P. Rosa and H. Klandt (1998), ‘Educating entrepreneurs for wealth creation’,
in M.G. Scott, P. Rosa and H. Klandt (eds), Educating Entrepreneurs for Wealth Crea-
tion, Lyme, USA: Ashgate.
Soininen, L. (2000), Yrittäjyyskasvatuksen juurilla – yrittäjyyskasvatuksen kriittinen
The continental and Anglo-American approaches 111
analyysi ammatillisen peruskoulutuksen näkökulmasta, University of Jyväskylä,
Faculty of Education.
Venkataraman, S. (1997), ‘The instinctive domain of entrepreneurship research’, in J.A.
Katz (ed.), Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence and Growth, vol. 3, Lon-
don: JAI Press, pp. 119–38.
Vesper, K.H. and W.B. Gartner (1999), University Entrepreneurship Programmes 1999,
Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Southern California.
112
7. Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an
education intervention
Asko Miettinen
INTRODUCTION
The roots of the mentoring programmes for entrepreneurs in Finland date back
to 1993, when the country was recovering from the deep economic recession
of the early 1990s. A year earlier the Prime Minister’s Offce published a report
by a working group consisting of eminent industrialists for industrial investment,
development and operational environment: ‘Finland needs a programme for
reindustrialization’. Based on this report, the mentor programme was launched
to council entrepreneurial enterprises having growth potential (Järvinen, 1998).
This programme started simultaneously in two regions: in the Greater Helsinki
area, where the focus was on a selected group of small high-technology entre-
preneurs into rapid global growth (www.innopoli.f/english/mentor.htm) and in
the Pirkanmaa region (about 100 miles north-west of Helsinki), where the selec-
tion criteria were less exclusive. This chapter explores the latter mentoring
programme.
There is also a third effort organized by the Association of Finnish Local and
Regional Authorities. This mentor programme started in 1996 and is based on
tripartite principle (municipality, enterprise and mentor) and aims to promote
the economic life of local communities. The mentor (often a senior or retired
executive having roots or a summer cottage in the municipality) functions typi-
cally as a sparring partner, coach or adviser. The mentors form a network making
it possible to beneft from the many-sided experience represented by the men-
tors. The focus is on the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector.
Improving regional and industry co-operation is one of the goals of this pro-
gramme. It operates free of charge for the mentee enterprise and local business
communities, as do the two other mentoring programmes mentioned above
(www.kuntaliitto.f/yrityskummit, in Finnish).
This programme became a registered association named ‘Corporate Mentors’
in 2001 to continue the activities already started The new association has almost
400 mentors and more than a third of municipalities in Finland (totalling 442)
and some institutional actors are its members.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 113
In addition to the above three programmes there are several programmes in
companies and a few initiated by professional organizations. Some of these are
focused on a special group such as female managers or women entrepreneurs.
At least one of them is operating across borders: the Nordic women entrepre-
neurs have started a mentoring programme for their colleagues in the Baltic
countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
THE MANY FACES OF MENTORING
Mentoring is generally defned as a developmentally orientated relationship
between a senior and junior or peers that involves advising, role-modelling,
sharing contacts and giving general support. Mentoring relationships always
begin from the needs of a mentee and aims to develop him or her (Greer, 2001;
Gómez-Mejía et al., 2001). The roots of mentoring are actually in ancient
Greece, with Socrates and Plato as examples (Lindgren, 2000). Another well-
known if mythical mentor–protégé relationship was between conjurer Merlin
and young King Arthur (Savidge, 1993).
The medieval apprentice–master relationship and its modernized version
in our apprenticeship training systems recommended by the European Union
(EU) follow the same tradition. Within companies, senior mentoring pro-
grammes are supporting programmes in which senior managers identify
promising employees (and women and minority employees underrepresented
in managerial and executive ranks) and play an important role in nurturing
their career progress and professional growth. Mentoring can be either vol-
untary or involuntary. Informal mentoring (close to informal giving and
receiving help in one’s job) is considered to be more effective than mentoring
done solely as a formal responsibility, though there are situations in which a
formal mentoring programme may be the better choice (Gómez-Mejía et al.,
2001).
Wunsch (1994) and Kerry and Shelton Mayes (Shaw, 1995) have remarked
that mentoring is used in various contexts. There are common elements, how-
ever, whether the term used is ‘mentoring’ or ‘supervising’ and used in business
life, schools or social and health care. An essential working tool is a discussion
between the mentor and mentee. Mentoring means a purposeful, fexible learn-
ing process and is usually a rewarding experience for both sides (Shaw, 1995).
The fact that both individuals, the mentee and the mentor, can beneft from the
relationship makes it vital and signifcant.
In contrast to expectations, mentoring activity tends to increase during times
of enterprise stress, such as economic decline or downsizing. This is because,
for the mentor, the activity provides a source of esteem perhaps not otherwise
available owing to curtailed opportunities for advancement, and the like (Kram
114 Newness in methodological approaches
and Hall, 1989). The situational determinants for using mentoring should be
further explored.
A mentor relationship has the potential to enhance professional development
and psychosocial development of both the mentee and the mentor. Through en-
trepreneurial career functions, including sponsorship, coaching, protection,
exposure and visibility, and challenging business opportunities, an entrepreneur
is assisted in learning the running of a business under competitive conditions.
Through psychosocial functions including role-modelling, acceptance and
confrmation, and counselling, an entrepreneur is supported in developing a
better sense of competence, confdence and effectiveness in his or her entrepre-
neurial and managerial roles.
Kram (1983) has empirically built a model that illustrates how a mentor re-
lationship moves through the phases of initiation, cultivation, separation and
redefnition. Each phase, although not entirely distinct, is characterized by par-
ticular affective experiences, developmental functions, and interaction patterns
that are shaped by individual’s needs and surrounding organizational circum-
stances. During the initiation phase the relationship starts; in the cultivation
phase the range of functions expand to maximum; in the separation phase the
established nature of the relationship is substantially altered by structural
changes in the enterprise or organizational context and/or by psychological
changes within one or both individuals involved in the mentoring process. Last
but not least, in the redefnition phase the relationship evolves a new form that
is signifcantly different from the past, or the relationship ends entirely.
The initial organizing categories in the mentoring relationship are level of
commitment, intensity of relationship, issues worked on and needs satisfed
(Kram and Isabella, 1985). Among the primary functions of the relationship,
information sharing, job-related feedback, emotional support and confrmation
have been demonstrated to be important. On the other hand, mentoring relation-
ship involves a one-way helping dynamic. Conventionally, mentors are most
important in the early life of a new venture. Considerable shifts in some relation-
ships may occur over time but there may be little change in others.
Mentors are supposed to be able to occupy multiple roles such as:
l catalyst
l visionary forecaster
l technology strategist
l expert in contract law
l expert in internationalization
l expert in fnancing
l marketing specialist
l expert in patenting
l developer of organization and organizational processes
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 115
l management developer
l human resource management expert
l attitude educator
l idea generator
l network builder
l coach
l councillor
l and so on.
Nobody can master all these multiple roles, and it may not be easy to achieve
role clarity and role consensus. The relationship between mentor and mentee
also changes during the process calling for role fexibility from both sides. Hav-
ing more than one mentor, or having an opportunity to get a new mentor when
the situation changes, provides more fexibility from the point of view of an
enterprise with the mentor programme.
MENTORING AS INTERVENTION
Mentoring is a special kind of helping relationship. Like process consultation
(Schein, 1999), the ultimate goal of mentoring is the establishment of an effec-
tive helping relationship. Generally, consultation and helping processes can be
distinguished by analysing the tacit assumptions they make about the client, the
nature of help, the role of the consultant and the nature of the ultimate reality
in which the helping relationship operates. In the mentoring process, the mentor
is supposed to choose from one moment to the next which role to be in or which
model of helping to use.
Mentoring efforts are always interventions. To intervene means to enter into
an ongoing system of relationships or objects for the purpose of helping. There
is an implicit assumption in this defnition: the system exists independently of
the intervener (Argyris, 1983). Taking the situation and expectations into ac-
count, virtually everything the mentor does is an intervention. There is no such
thing as pure diagnosis or business analysis. If diagnosis involves any contact
with the client system, the intervention process has actually begun. Thus, how
to go about diagnosis should be considered from the point of view of what pos-
sible consequences the diagnostic interventions conducted will have (Schein,
1999).
The interdependencies between the mentor and mentee should be acknowl-
edged but at the same time should focus on how to maintain, or increase, the
mentee’s autonomy to take his or her own decisions; how to differentiate the
boundaries between the client system and the intervener. This view values the
client system as an ongoing, self-responsible unity that has an obligation to be
116 Newness in methodological approaches
in control over its own destiny. Thus, an intervener tends to assist a system to
become more effective in problem-solving, decision-making and decision im-
plementation in such a way that the system can continue to be increasingly
effective in these activities and actually have a decreasing need for the
intervener.
According to Argyris (1983), there are some basic or necessary processes
that must be fulflled regardless of the substantive issues involved. One condition
is the generation of valid information. Without valid information, it would be
diffcult for the mentee to learn and for the mentor to help. A second condition
is that intervention activity should be so designed and executed that the client
system can maintain its discreteness and autonomy. That is, free, informed
choice is a vital process in effective intervention activity. Thirdly, the client’s
commitment to learning, choices and change to be made has to be more than
temporary. Valid information, free choice and internal commitment are generic
parts of any intervention activity, no matter what the substantive objectives
worked on are. Argyris calls these processes ‘the primary intervention tasks’.
In addition to these primary intervention tasks there is the question of the
depth of intervention. Depth here means the extent to which the change target
is the formal system (such as goals, procedures, structures, tasks, rules and
policies), the informal system or the self. There is a continuum of intervention
in terms of their depth based on accessibility and individuality. Accessibility
means the degree to which the data are more or less public versus being hidden
or private, and the ease with which the intervention skills can be learned. Indi-
viduality means the closeness to the person’s perceptions of self and the degree
to which the effects of an intervention are in the individual in contrast to being
in the enterprise. It can be assumed that the closer one moves on this continuum
to the sense of self, the more inherent processes have to do with emotions, values
and hidden matters and, consequently, the more potent they are to do either good
or harm. It requires careful consideration to determine that these interventions
are appropriate and relevant. If they are inappropriate they may be destructive
or, at a minimum, will be unacceptable to the client.
To minimize these kind of risks, Harrison (1983) has suggested two criteria
for determining the appropriate depth of intervention. First, to intervene at a
level no deeper than that required to produce enduring solutions to the problems
at hand and, second, to intervene at a level no deeper than that at which the en-
ergy and resources of the client can be committed to problem-solving and to
change. These criteria actually require that the interventionist proceeds no faster
or deeper than the legitimization he or she obtains from the client system culture
and that he or she stays at the level of consciously felt needs.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 117
GOALS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE PIRKANMAA
MENTORING PROGRAMME
The main goal of the Mentor Programme in the Pirkanmaa region is to help se-
lected SMEs to grow and develop through a mentoring process (www.
yrityskummit.net, in Finnish only). Enterprises involved in this programme are
coached by experienced managers and experts free of charge for fve to ten days
each year. The participating enterprises pay a small annual fee of 500 euros to
cover the administrative costs of the programme. The programme started in the
Technology Centre Hermia (a technology centre in the city of Tampere), but
later became an independent registered association.
The central organizing unit of this non-proft programme is a council selecting
the mentor(s) for an enterprise after a screening procedure and monitoring the
work of mentors now totalling about 90 – equal roughly to the member active
frms attending the mentoring programme. The other responsibilities of the
council are to select the mentor(s) for each participating frm, to follow up and
evaluate the work of mentors, to take care that the knowledge and experience
represented in the mentor network are available for each active mentor for the
beneft of each participating enterprise, to deliver information to mentors and
participating frms, and to look for new competent mentors.
The principles of the mentoring programme are as follows:
l The programme helps enterprises when they ask for mentoring.
l The programme offers an experienced ‘sparring partner’ to look for vari-
ous options.
l Co-operation is based largely on reasoning and planning.
l The programme utilizes expertise and experience available in the Pirkan-
maa region.
As ethical principles,
l the mentor tries to be objective and to present his or her view from the
starting points of the mentee based on his or her best knowledge
l the work of the mentor takes place on enterprise’s conditions and abso-
lutely confdentially
l the difference between mentoring and normal commercial consulting is
kept clear.
Typical motives of frms joining the programme are, for example, clarifying
their strategy and business concept, managing growth and going international.
In some cases a mentoring relationship changes to become a formal agreement
of membership on the board of the frm, which is another matter.
118 Newness in methodological approaches
MENTOR PROGRAMME IN ACTION
The mentoring process starts with the screening phase. Potential mentee frms
that have indicated their interest in participating in the programme contact the
management of the programme. Then an event called ‘an enterprise clinic’ is
organized. During the clinic three to fve experienced mentors, selected accord-
ing to the nature and background of the potential mentee, listen to the
presentation of the candidate and interview him or her. Sometimes the manage-
ment group of the candidate’s enterprise is present. The clinic takes about two
hours on average and after the clinic the decision is taken by the council. For
the time being, a majority of the candidates are accepted to attend the mentor
programme. The main reasons for rejections are that the business is still in too
preliminary a phase or there is only a business idea so far, the business is without
any development perspective or potential.
The council also decides who will be recommended to become the mentor
or mentors. This is an important matching task, which has sometimes not
worked for various reasons. The mentor’s background, business experience and
personal attributes are the main selection criteria. The mentee meets the mentor
before the co-operation begins.
The mentor meets the mentee fve to ten times a year, usually in the enterprise
of the mentee. A typical session lasts from two to three hours. The mentee has
prepared reports, memos, issues and questions which he or she has sent the
mentor in advance. Often there is also a plan for a longer period (six months or
one year), which is followed in a fexible way in order to be able to take unex-
pected events or incidents into account. Between the meetings, there are often
email communications and phone calls.
The co-operation continues for as long as it benefts both parties. In some
cases it has lasted only a few meetings, but the longest relationships have lasted
several years. Another development has been that the mentor becomes a board
member (meaning that the relationship changes) or a part-owner of the frm in
the course of time. The board case is more common: some 10 per cent of men-
tors have become board members.
Mentoring activities occur in two basic forms: a single mentor in the feld or
several mentors making up an expert group. In some meetings, additional ex-
perts can be invited to join for specifc issues (such as special technology,
contract law or internationalization questions).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODOLOGY
This chapter is an evaluation study of the results and outcomes of the programme
at the end of the frst decade of its existence (1993–2003). Multiple methods
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 119
have been used to explore the pros and cons of the programme: a survey sent
to the mentors (in 2001), a critical incident-based survey (2003) to the mentees
(managers in mentored enterprises) and participating observation (the author is
an active mentor and a member of the council).
The samples are relatively small (45 responses in the 2001 postal survey from
mentors; 20 personal or phone interviews in the 2003 study). This limits the use
of statistical analysis and emphasizes the qualitative side of the results. Further-
more, they are two separate samples collected at two separate times making it,
unfortunately, not possible to match the responses of the mentors and
mentees.
In the 2001 survey sent only to the mentors, the motives of mentors, benefts
to them, possible experienced disadvantages, orientation to mentoring, their
learnings, transfer of their managerial experience over to the mentees’ enter-
prises and overall satisfaction were explored. The questionnaire was sent to 78
mentors, of which 45 (58 per cent) replied. The age of the respondents varied
from 45 to 70 with an average age of 60 years. Twenty-two respondents were
retired and 23 were still working. They had been active mentors for from two
months to seven years; three years on average. There was only one female men-
tor among the respondents (Tuuri, 2001).
The chairman of the Committee and the Executive Director of the association
selected 20 enterprises for the 2003 study. Thirteen of these were still participat-
ing in the mentor programme and seven had left. A semi-structured interview
questionnaire (there were a number of open questions) consisting of 30 items
was presented in four interviews. The fnalized questionnaire was sent in ad-
vance to the mentees (Maunula, 2003).
All interviewed entrepreneurs represented small and medium-sized enter-
prises. There were four information and communication technology (ICT) frms,
one from the transportation industry, one from the environmental protection
industry and the rest in the sample from the following industries: chemicals,
machinery and equipment, food, electromechanical equipment, metals, furniture-
making and other production. The frms employed from one to 60 with an
average of 14 employees. The range of annual turnover varied from zero to 4.1
million euros. The mean turnover was 1.4 million euros (Maunula, 2003).
A good number of the enterprises in the sample had only been in business
for a few years (Table 7.1). However, number of years participation in the men-
tor programme varied considerably from one year to almost 10 years. The
average length of attendance was 5.4 years (Maunula, 2003).
120 Newness in methodological approaches
RESULTS
The 2001 Survey (Mentors)
The frst item in the survey was a question about the motivation to join the Pir-
kanmaa Mentor Programme. The answers to this open-ended question can be
categorized in six groups:
l invitation (n = 25; 45.5 per cent)
l interest in mentoring (14; 25.5 per cent)
l will to help (7; 12.7 per cent)
l will to transfer own experience (4; 7.3 per cent)
l willing to learn new things (4; 7.3 per cent)
l engaged earlier in the Pirkanmaa Mentor Programme (1; 1.7 per cent).
The message for recruiting new mentors is clear: personal contacts in the busi-
ness community together with personal interest in mentoring activity explain
over 70 per cent of the total variance of the answers. This is important for the
continuation of the mentoring programme, because half of the mentors are al-
ready retired and presumably no longer willing to go on for several years. There
is also a risk of losing an intimate connection with the business world in the
case of most senior mentors.
Respondents’ attitudes towards the need for orientation to mentor activities
and role was asked through three alternatives (I should not have needed orienta-
tion; it had been useful; and it could have been useful in my case). Sixty per
cent of the respondents announced that they should not have needed this, pre-
sumably trusting their long experience in a managerial role. Twenty-two per
cent answered that it had been useful and another 18 per cent that it could have
been of use. In terms of content required in future orientation, the role and tasks
of a mentor was most frequently mentioned (52.6 per cent), followed by a wish
Table 7.1 The age of the enterprises in the 2003 sample
Age of enterprise N %
0–4 years 6 30
5–9 years 4 20
10–14 years 6 30
15+ years 4 20
Total 20 100
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 121
to become acquainted with other mentors (21 per cent), problems of SMEs (16
per cent) and how the Tampere Technology Centre Hermia operates (the Mentor
Programme started in connection with this technology centre).
The mentors had benefted personally in many ways from their mentoring.
The most frequent answers to this item were: receiving new knowledge and
perspectives (25 per cent); maintaining contact with the business world (22 per
cent); contacts with other mentors’ enterprises in the programme (17 per cent);
pleasure from helping (15 per cent); experience of being personally important
and mentally vigorous; and an opportunity to share one’s experiences. The
mentoring programme has clearly provided a socially acceptable and appreci-
ated ‘cooling off’ opportunity for senior executives during the transition period
from managerial lifestyle to senior citizenship. It seems to be a win-win oppor-
tunity as well, because the enterprises engaged in the programme have also
benefted from the co-operation as the results of the 2003 survey to be reported
later in this chapter clearly indicate. As a critical point, however, two mentors
still actively working experienced that there was no point in being a mentor.
On the other side of the same issue, 62 per cent did not experience any harm
or disadvantage from being a mentor. Some negative effects have occurred in
the opinion of some mentors: problems in time management (eight replies), in-
direct loss of earnings (three replies), passiveness and lack of appreciation on
the part of enterprises (two replies), feeling of inadequacy (one reply) and con-
ficts of interest (one reply). Mentoring is a special kind of a helping relationship,
as noted before. About a third had experienced some unexpected or uneasy in-
cidents in their mentoring activity. This may call for some orientation or
exchange of experiences with other mentors before starting. Interestingly
enough, the proportion of the mentors who encountered things mentioned above,
equals the proportion of respondents who had benefted or thought could have
benefted from organized orientation to mentoring activities.
The next item in the questionnaire surveyed the meaning of multiple mentor
practice – whether it had been useful and rewarding or caused various kinds of
problems. About one-ffth did not respond to this question and two of them did
not like it because of lack of time and experienced problems in maintaining the
trust in the mentee enterprise. Anyway, a majority had positive experiences such
as broadening of perspectives (10 replies), benefts for the enterprise (six re-
plies), an opportunity to help the frms (six replies), challenge (four replies),
contacts with other mentors (three replies) and maintaining contact with the
business world (two replies).
Mentoring is supposed to represent a potential transfer of experience from
the mentor to the mentee enterprise. Seventeen respondents did not want to an-
swer this question because of their short period as mentors. Four mentors
presumed that it is better to ask the mentees. Anyway, a good third of the re-
spondents (35.6 per cent) evaluated that the transfer had succeeded well, 15.6
122 Newness in methodological approaches
per cent assessed it to have taken place in a satisfactory way and 8.9 per cent
replied that it varied. A further 11.1 per cent had faced problems in this
process.
Many mentors found it problematic to evaluate what they had learned from
mentoring. Two said that they had learned nothing and another eight did not
want to assess it, mainly because of the short period of their activity as mentors.
The remaining 35 respondents gave fve categories of answers, as follows:
l learning from industry and products (23 replies)
l learning in interaction (eight replies)
l contacts (four replies)
l recognizing the validity of ‘old wisdom’ (three replies)
l new ways of operating and new perspectives (three replies).
A further concluding item was the overall satisfaction with mentoring. The scale
used in this item was from one to 10 (1 meaning ‘I am very dissatisfed’ and 10
‘I am very satisfed’). Forty-one respondents scored 8.1 on average with a mini-
mum of 1 and maximum of 10. The mode was 8 (17 replies)
Table 7.2 Motives for joining the mentoring programme
Motives to join the programme Participating
mentees; no. of
answers
Mentees who left
the programme;
no. of answers
Utilization of experience 7 (31.8%) 1 (12.5%)
Need for an outside adviser 5 (22.7%) —
Interesting idea 3 (13.6%) 1 (12.5%)
Help and advice in acquisitions
and mergers
3 (13.6%) —
Getting customers and co-
operation partners
— 2 (15%)
Guidance for strategic planning 2 (9.1%) —
Need for an outside board 1 (4.6%) —
Need for a ‘sparring partner’ 1 (4.6%) —
Lack of business know-how — 1 (12.5%)
Others’ positive experiences — 1 (12.5%)
Need for a sparring partner for
next generation
— 1 (12.5%)
Request from the mentors — 1 (12.5%)
Total 22 (100%) 8 (100%)
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 123
Table 7.3 Anticipations of mentees towards mentoring
Anticipations Participating
mentees; no. of
answers
Mentees who left
the programme;
no. of answers
Partner for discussions 5 (20.8%) —
No clear anticipations 5 (20.8%) —
Benefting from the views of a
more experienced person
3 (12.5%) 1 (10%)
Benefting from mentor’s
network to get new customers
and partners
— 4 (40%)
Help and support in important
decisions
2 (8.3%) 1 (10%)
Widening one’s perspective 2 (8.3%) —
To get an outside and reliable
board member
2 (8.3%) —
Market and sales information — 2 (20%)
Outsider’s opinion to the next
generation
— 1 (10%)
Clarifying strategy 1 (4.2%) 1 (10%)
Advice concerning general
management
1 (4.2%) —
‘Sparring’ help 1 (4.2%) —
Help in idea generation 1 (4.2%) —
Solving conficts among owners 1 (4.2%) —
Total 24 (100%) 10 (100%)
The 2003 Interviews (Mentees)
The frst few interview questions explored the motives of the mentees for joining
the programme and their expectations of mentoring. Table 7.2 shows what kind
of primary motives were found. The answers are given in two groups of mentees,
those who still participate in it (n = 13) and those who have left the programme
(n = 7). Each comment is included and percentages in relation to the total
number of answers in each group are calculated. Because these results were
obtained by semi-structured interviews classifed by the researcher (Maunula,
2003), the number of observations varies in Tables 7.2–7.4.
Comparisons between the two sub-samples can only be indicative because
of the small number of observations. There is quite a bit of variance, and maybe
124 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 7.4 Fulflment of expectations
Participating mentees Those who left the programme
Well 8 (61.5%) —
Satisfying 2 (15.4%) 1 (14.3%)
Badly 1 (7.7%) 6 (85.7%)
Diffcult to say 2 (15.4%) —
Total 13 (100%) 7 (100%)
the only suggestive notion is the more general character or less specifc nature
of the motivations (‘open mind’ vs, for example, marketing help) shown in the
case of still participating mentees. Same kind of notion (‘not clear anticipa-
tions’) occurs in Table 7.3.
Fulflment of expectations was asked by using four alternatives: well, satisfy-
ing, badly and diffcult to say. The frst alternative was chosen in 62 per cent of
cases; 15 per cent said satisfying; a few (8 per cent) answered badly and another
15 per cent ‘diffcult to say’. Thus, about 80 per cent were satisfed with co-op-
eration with mentors. A clear difference can be seen, however, if those who still
participate in the mentor programme are separated from those who left it (Table
7.4).
One result was that it seems to be very hard to change the mentor and to admit
that it would evidently work better with someone else. The feeling is the same
on both sides indicating the sensitivity of this issue as some kind of losing face.
The programme management could actually add the opportunity to change the
mentor as a normal operating practice and emphasize that this matter is not any
kind of failure.
A typical unsatisfying case was described as follows:
We got ‘a sparring partner’, but no concrete know-how or advice. One crucial point
is that here are no IT specialists among the mentors. Mentors did not have much to
give to the frm. General business know-how is not enough, but knowledge about the
industry sector should have been a requirement. If the mentor does not have this
know-how, that’s it. Mentoring should be based on one’s own solid experience and
if there is none, co-operation cannot continue.
It is worth mentioning that information technology is a rapidly growing business
area in the Pirkanmaa region. But it is also a brand new industry – poorly known
to most senior mentors. As a more serious case there was a mentor who accord-
ing to the mentee only tried to beneft from the mentee enterprise. This
co-operation was quickly ended.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 125
A partly overlapping question is what kind of benefts the mentees have ex-
perienced from the co-operation with their mentor. To summarize, 80 per cent
(16) of the mentees had experienced it as useful and the remaining 20 per cent
(4) not. Out of the four mentees who did not experience any use at all, three
have left the programme and the fourth has just started a new promising mentor-
ing relationship. More specifcally, in the positive cases the benefts were as
shown in Table 7.5.
Table 7.5 The benefts experienced by the mentees
Experienced benefts No. of answers %
Opinions and advice from an experienced senior 5 22.8
New contacts 4 18.3
Mental support 3 13.7
Support in decision-making 3 13.7
Improved board meetings 1 4.5
Computerization of production management 1 4.5
Successful implementation of generation change 1 4.5
Clarifed strategy 1 4.5
Implementation of organization structure change 1 4.5
Improved fnancial reporting 1 4.5
Start-up of a new venture 1 4.5
Total 22 100.0
The most general topic according to the interviews has been strategy. About
a half of the respondents mentioned this theme. Other general topics covered
general management, organization design, marketing and sales. Internationaliza-
tion, fnancing, training and education, production management, R&D and board
issues were mentioned less frequently, only once each.
A great majority (80 per cent) of the interviewed entrepreneurs recommended
mentoring to other similar enterprises, as shown in Table 7.6. This was seen as
most important in the start-up and right after the start-up phase. Both those
mentees who answered ‘probably not’ or ‘absolutely not’ had already left the
programme.
The following were typical additional comments:
If the business channels well and fnds proper people, mentoring can be very useful.
It is really nice that know-how is utilized and shared. Seniors have a huge data bank
from which others may beneft. A small country like Finland cannot afford to keep
her vigorous seniors redundant. This also provides an opportunity for the mentors to
remain active. Able seniors have something to do, because they just can’t be idle.
126 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 7.6 Would you recommend mentoring to a similar enterprise you are
running?
No. of answers %
Absolutely 13 65
I suppose yes 3 15
Diffcult to say 2 10
Probably not 1 5
Absolutely not 1 5
Total 20 100
It depends quite a bit on entrepreneur’s own professional skills how much he or she
can beneft from mentoring. Mentoring cannot worsen activities in an enterprise, but
rather the opposite. Mentoring provides many opportunities. There should be a har-
mony between a mentor and a mentee for the beneft of the entrepreneur.
The entrepreneurs were also asked to describe, what kind of attributes they
expect from a good mentor. The limitations of this approach have already been
noticed in leadership studies over the past few decades, but some descriptive
information was achieved. Generally, a good mentor was expected to be credi-
ble, active and motivated to mentoring. He or she was expected to have broad
experience in general management in order to be able to help the entrepreneur
in many ways. Former SME entrepreneurs were found to be good potential
mentors. Specialists in narrow sectors it was suggested should concentrate on
enterprise clinic activities and multiple-mentor situations to support the mentor
in their own feld in single problematic situations. Some interviewed entrepre-
neurs stated that it would be an asset if mentors were already retired, because
then they have time for mentoring. Others found that mentors would be better
coming from working life with their updated information and knowledge. An-
other source of disagreement was the question of whether the mentor should
know the industry sector or come from outside it. Good social skills and ade-
quate motivation were also mentioned as expected qualities.
The managing director of the programme employed in 1998 (n = 43) and
1999 (n = 57) a survey of the overall satisfaction of the mentees with the men-
toring, using a numerical scale from 1 (very dissatisfed) to 10 (very satisfed).
Only participating mentees were included in this survey. The average in 1998
was 8.4 and in 1999 8.5, respectively. To get further comparative data, the same
item was presented for the participants in the 2003 survey as well. The mean
was 8.3 for those who participated in the programme, but only 6.1 for those who
had left the programme. The same question was presented to the mentors in the
2001 survey, giving the mean 8.1 (n = 41) (Tuuri, 2001). One can conclude that
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 127
the overall satisfaction of the mentees who have stayed in the mentor programme
and that of the mentors have both been maintained at a relatively high level.
As to additional points in the 2003 interview-based survey, information about
the mentoring programme was generally found insuffcient, but well worth im-
provements. By mid-2003, an Internet-based catalogue representing the mentors
and their experience and special know-how was launched. The physical distance
between the residence of the mentor and enterprise was found to be a critical
issue in terms of time and travelling costs. It was stated that the regional idea
is a good one, but the mentoring idea could be extended to become nation-wide.
Networking activities with the more well-known high-tech mentoring pro-
gramme in the Greater Helsinki area was seen as a potentially valuable idea. A
generous promise was also made: some mentees are willing to give a lecture
about their experiences in local universities.
DISCUSSION
During its frst decade the mentor programme has become established and
achieved institutional status. Formal training and education includes structured
and organized forms of learning provided by educational institutes. Those learn-
ing events that are provided by oneself or by others, but do not aim to achieve
any formal degrees, belong to the area of non-formal training and education:
there are no clear boundaries, because they include elements from informal and
formal learning. Informal learning represents learning that takes place in various
everyday situations, such as in one’s own job. It is training that is not systemati-
cally planned nor organized.
Informal learning does not compensate but rather supplements formal training
and education. The problem with most formal learning, from an entrepreneurial
point of view, is that it is insuffcient in that it is based mostly on, and aims to
provide, generative, broad applications where ‘thinking’ tends to dominate over
‘action’. Entrepreneurial work is mostly action orientated. It is also often so
tightly bounded that opportunities to attend formal training and education are
limited. Unlike formal training and education, an entrepreneur’s own activity
context tends to determine his or her learning needs, often relating to informal
learning rather than being dependent on formal training. The problems the en-
treprenur encounters require mostly immediate solutions. Thus, there is no time
to wait for a proper course or other formal training to fnd the key to his or her
problems.
In entrepreneurs’ training and education, learning and work could be in a
continuous interaction. On-the-job learning is based on interaction between the
learner and his or her environment. Even ‘useful’ mistakes can be a source of
learning. A strongly protective and non-experimental attitude can be a bad op-
128 Newness in methodological approaches
Refection included Refection not included
Action included Informal learning Occasional learning
Action not included Formal learning Non-learning
Figure 7.1 Different forms of learning
tion in entrepreneurial life. Ellström (1996) has talked about ‘the learning
potential of a task’ as a concept describing the qualities of task-promoted
learning.
Mentoring belongs clearly to the category ‘informal training and education’
providing informal rather than formal learning. Informal learning is actually a
variant of action learning, where learners seek meaning for things they have
experienced. Entrepreneurs spend the majority of their time in ‘informal
actions’.
Watkins and Marsick (1992) have presented a typology of learning depending
on action orientation and refection (Figure 7.1).
Occasional learning is totally unplanned, unintentional and takes place in
addition to other activities. In can occur unconsciously and sometimes in the
form of ‘serendipity’. The role of refection is more diffcult to evaluate than
the formal–informal dimension in the model. When refecting on one’s experi-
ences, it is possible to become aware of what one learns. Refection can be more
effective by applying concepts to practice. Gerber et al. (1995) have emphasized
that critical refection is needed to discover hidden norms, values and assump-
tions guiding one’s behaviour. It is badly needed in situations deviating from
ordinary routines.
Traditionally, however, the prevailing idea of rigorous professional knowledge
has been based on technical rationality (Schön, 1991). Technical rationality
holds that practitioners are instrumental problem-solvers who select technical
means best suited to particular purposes. Most mentors share this background
in terms of their managerial experience in larger companies. The interviews
actually revealed rather little open and active refection. This may stem from
the fact that part of the interviews were administered by phone instead of in
face-to-face interviews.
On the other hand, based on participating observation in the active mentoring
process by the author, there was more refection than indicated by the results of
the interviews. This observation challenges the educational consciousness of
the mentor emphasizing subjective experience as a base for learning. ‘Pure’
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 129
experience needs refection in order to turn experience into learning. Refection
actually means conscious focus on one’s own associations and thinking in the
context of actual events. Thus, one of the primary tasks of the mentor is to sup-
port and advance the mentee to refect and to explore the meanings he or she
has given to various events and matters. It was Dewey (1951) who described
refection by such descriptions as ‘searching for’, ‘asking’, ‘hunting’ and ‘fnd-
ing material’. Refection comes close to the traditional concept of introspection.
‘Caring’ could be added as a further description of the mentor–mentee relation-
ship. Another notion worth more detailed investigation is to consider the
mentoring process as a ‘quality control’ (Obholzer and Roberts, 1994).
Depending on one’s disciplinary background, organizational role, past history,
interests and political/economic perspectives, problematic situations are framed
in different ways. Furthermore, a problematic situation presents itself as a
unique case. Entrepreneurs in particular have a strong tendency to consider their
problems unique, although there may be general rules to solve them. Some
problematic situations are situations of confict among values, as indicated in
some reported lack of consensus between the mentor and the mentee. Mentors
also face and experience the tension between knowing and not knowing what
to do in a particular situation. This is owing to the fact that the very nature of
entrepreneurial as well as managerial decision-making is that most decisions
are taken under uncertain conditions.
The most common theme in the mentoring situations was strategy followed
by marketing, general management and organization design issues. Lesser, but
to some extent more personal, impressions were debated. In terms of the depth
of interventions made by mentors, they tended to be more organizational and
formal than educational and informal, although it is sometimes diffcult to rec-
ognize any boundary between the two. This may be due to the often lacking
pedagogical skills of the mentors feeling more familiar in their managerially
orientated role. Yet most of the mentors agree with the principle that in a long-
run learning concept emphasizing the autonomy and self-direction of the mentee
is a much better developmental path than to increase his or her dependence on
the mentor.
As indicated earlier, one cannot completely separate the stages of data-gather-
ing and intervention. Both occur simultaneously: how one gathers data
constitutes an intervention, and the kind of intervention one chooses will reveal
new data derived from the reaction to the intervention. Broadly, three kinds of
interventions were employed by the mentors: feedback of presented data,
agenda-setting interventions (such as agenda review and testing procedures;
conceptual inputs) and coaching or counselling of individuals.
A further interesting issue is timing of interventions, the challenge of ‘or-
ganizational entry’. The initiative to start the co-operation always comes from
the mentee. The general guidelines of the mentor programme (also communi-
130 Newness in methodological approaches
cated to the possible participants of the programme) state that the focus is on
relatively small, young frms willing to grow and more established small and
medium-sized enterprises facing major problems. Large companies are outside
the scope of the programme, because they usually have the resources to use
other professional help. According to the mentees, early stages of a frm’s de-
velopment provide a natural arena for mentoring. Context of the development
phase naturally determines the emphasis of the mentoring activity.
In parallel with the development phase of the enterprise, there are phases in
the mentor relationship. In Kram’s (1983) empirically built model, a mentor
relationship moves through the phases of initiation, cultivation, separation and
redefnition. A good start is a matter of a suitable matching process between the
mentor and the mentee. The initiation phase seems to be a fragile one, where
disappointments after an inspiring frst contact may appear, particularly if the
mentee had very specifc ‘functional’ or industry-specifc expectations. Another
problem is that of separation: how to defne when the mentor has given what he
or she can provide and fnish the relationship. Far too often the relationship
seems to last too long and a change of mentor seems to be very diffcult for both
partners. Personal interdependence developed over the menoring period appears
to be strong, although there was no new opening in terms of business issues,
making it diffcult to fnish the relationship. On the other hand, if the separation
stage was well worked through, it could also be a fruitful basis for redefnition
and a start for a new relationship sooner or later, or to stand much more inde-
pendently than at the beginning of the mentoring process.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Any entrepreneur who has started up a venture has likely encountered a variety
of developmental tasks that involved concerns about running the business, or
about self and family. A mentor relationship can signifcantly enhance develop-
ment in the different life cycle phases by facilitating work on these tasks. The
mentor can provide a variety of functions that support, guide and counsel the
entrepreneur.
In the empirical part of this chapter, a great majority (some 80 per cent) of
both mentors and mentees found the mentor relationship very benefcial and
were ready to recommend it to other entrepreneurs and to be extended country-
wide. Mentoring was defned as informal training and education based on
learning in a work context, supplementing formal education. It called for trust
and constructive feedback. Most mentees found the co-operation with an expe-
rienced senior very useful and mentors found it rewarding, although the helping
activities were run free of charge. There were, however, some less successful
cases, where the mentoring relationship ended for various reasons.
Mentoring for entrepreneurs as an education intervention 131
Owing to the relatively small samples in the two surveys (2001 and 2003)
reported, the analysis was mainly descriptive with some further insights from
interviews and participation observations employed. Mentoring was also con-
sidered an intervention activity requiring the generation of valid information,
free informed choice and internal commitment to be successful. The nature of
the mentoring relationship as a special kind of helping relationship is one that
deserves further attention. It would be interesting, for example, to delineate how
individual differences in developmental tasks, self-concepts and attitudes to-
wards intimacy and authority, as well as other individual attributes, shape the
nature of the mentoring relationship that is needed and maintained, through
multiple qualitative case studies. The need for longitudinal studies is also
inevitable.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author wishes to thank Ms Pirjo Tuuri (University of Tampere) and Ms Mari
Maunula (Tampere University of Technology) for their contribution in conduct-
ing the feldwork in 2001 and 2003, respectively.
REFERENCES
Argyris, C. (1983), ‘Intervention theory and method’, in W.L. French, C.H. Bell, jr and
R.A. Zawacki (eds), Organization Development: Theory, Practice, Research, Plano,
TX: Business Publications, Inc., pp. 86–9.
Dewey, J. (1951), Experience and Education, New York: Macmillan.
Ellström, P.-E. (1996), ‘Rutin och refektion. Förutsättningar och hinder för lärande i
dagligt arbete’ (in Swedish), in P.-E. Ellström, B. Gustavsson and S. Larsson (eds),
Livslångt lärande, Lund: Studentlitteratur, pp. 142–79.
Gerber, R., C. Lankshear, S. Larsson and L. Svensson (1995), ‘Self-directed learning in
work context’, Education + Training, 37 (8), 26–32.
Gómez-Mejía, L.R., D.B. Balkin and R.L. Cardy (2001), Managing Human Resources,
3rd edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Greer, C.R. (2001), Strategic Human Resource Management: A General Managerial
Approach, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Harrison, Roger (1983), ‘Choosing the depth of the organizational intervention’, in W.L.
French, C.H. Bell, jr and R.A. Zawacki (eds), Organization Development: Theory,
Practice, Research, Plano, TX: Business Publications, Inc., pp. 412–21.
Järvinen, S. (1998), ‘Benefts of mentoring in the international growth of new, technol-
ogy-based companies: case companies from the National Technology Mentor
Programme’, unpublished master’s thesis, Helsinki School of Economics and Business
Administration.
Kerry, T. and A. Shelton Mayes (1995), Issues in Mentoring, London: Routledge and
Open University.
132 Newness in methodological approaches
Kram, K.E. (1983), ‘Phases of the mentor relationship’, Academy of Management Jour-
nal, 26 (4), 608–25.
Kram, K.E. and D.T. Hall (1989), ‘Mentoring as an antidote to stress during corporate
trauma’, Human Resource Management, 28 (4), 493–510.
Kram, K.E. and L.A. Isabella (1985), ‘Mentoring alternatives: the role of peer relation-
ships in career development’, Academy of Management Journal, 28 (1), 110–32.
Lindgren, Ulla (2000), En empirisk studie av mentorskapinom högre utbildning i Sverige.
Innebörd, utformning och effecter (in Swedish), Åbo Akademis förlag, Turku: Åbo
Akademis Tryckeri.
Maunula, Mari (2003), ‘Tutkimus asiakasyritysten kokemuksista Pirkanmaan yritys-
kummitoiminnas- ta’ (in Finnish), unpublished report, Tampere University of
Technology, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.
Obholzer, A. and V.Z. Roberts (eds) (1994), The Unconscious at Work: Individual and
Organizational Stress in the Human Services, New York: Routledge.
Savidge, J. (1993), The Pathmaster Guidebook: New Resources for Mentors, Coaches,
Gurus and Angels, Jyväskylä: Gummerus and the Finnish Academies of Technology.
Schein, E.H. (1999), Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship,
Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Schön, D.A. (1991), Educating the Refective Practitioner, San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Shaw, R. (1995), ‘Mentoring’, in T. Kerry and A.S. Mayes (eds), Issues in Mentoring,
London: Routledge and Open University, pp. 260–67.
Tuuri, P. (2001), ‘Kun antaa niin saa itsekin. Tutkimus mentoreiden kokemuksista Pir-
kanmaan yrityskummitoiminnasta’ (in Finnish), unpublished seminar paper, University
of Tampere.
Watkins, K.E. and V.J. Marsick (1992), ‘Towards a theory of informal and incidental
learning in organizations’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 11 (4),
287–300.
Wunsch, M.A. (1994), ‘Developing mentoring programs: major themes and issues’, in
M.A. Wunsch (ed.), Mentoring Revisited: Making an Impact on Individuals and In-
stitutions, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 57, San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass, pp. 27–34.
133
8. Can you teach entrepreneurs to write
their business plan? An empirical
evaluation of business plan
competitions
Benoît Gailly
INTRODUCTION: THE RELEVANCE OF BUSINESS PLAN
COMPETITIONS
A large diversity of private and public organizations have been put in place to
help prospective entrepreneurs to design and launch new business ventures.
Among those, business plan competitions focus on rewarding promising ven-
tures identifed through the evaluation of their initial business plans and
providing expert advice and training services aimed at teaching them how to
complete/improve those plans. However, there appears to be limited empirical
evidence regarding the impact of business plan competitions.
In this context, the aim of this chapter is to discuss empirical evidence on the
effciency (do they help the right businesses) and effectiveness (do they provide
relevant support) of business plan competitions as a way to teach entrepreneurs
how to write their business plan, based on the empirical analysis of the case of
‘123Go’, a business plan competition organized yearly since 2000 in four Eu-
ropean countries.
1
In particular, we will discuss whether the two aspects of a
business plan competition (selecting ventures based on an initial business plan
and teaching them how to improve it) can actually be justifed from an empirical
point of view, that is, ‘can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan?’
and ‘will that be of any help regarding the success of their venture?’
We will detail frst in the next section from a theoretical perspective the issues
of new venture evaluation, the target public of early-stage ventures and how a
notion of success can be defned for those ventures. We will then present our
hypotheses and methodology and, fnally, discuss our results and their implica-
tions for practitioners and researchers.
134 Newness in methodological approaches
NEW VENTURE EVALUATION
From a theoretical point of view the identifcation of the factors that can be
linked to the emergence of new ventures and therefore that should be taken into
account by entrepreneurship teaching programmes has generated a signifcant
stream of research since entrepreneurship emerged as a relevant research feld
(Bull and Willard, 1993). Among those, many researchers have focused on the
key issue of the characteristics of the entrepreneur and his or her team in terms
of background, experience or profle. Specifc characteristics that have been
analysed include, for example, the entrepreneur’s psychology and personality
(Begley and Boyd, 1987; Hornaday and Wheattley, 1971; Kets de Vries, 1977;
Sexton and Bowman, 1986); his motivation (Dubini, 1989; Durand and Shea,
1974; Smith and Miner, 1984); his risk-taking attitude (Brockhaus, 1980); his
creativity (Bruyat, 1994; Filion, 1991); his training and professional experience
(Hebbar, 2001; Fayolle, 1994; Julien and Marchesnay, 1996; Schefczyk and
Gerpott, 2000) and his personal abilities (Freeman et al., 1983; Timmons, 1999)
in particular in relation with his environment (Aldrich, 1990; Guth, 1991; Van
de Ven, 1984).
On the other hand, several researchers have analysed the decision criteria
used by investors, business angels and/or venture capitalists to screen and/or
evaluate potential investments (Hall and Hofer, 1993; Macmillan et al., 1985;
Tyebjee and Bruno, 1984). Those researchers have highlighted that while the
characteristics of the entrepreneur and his or her team are taken into account by
early-stage investors, other factors also play a signifcant role. According to
those investors the success of a potential new venture appears to be driven not
only by the characteristics of the entrepreneur and/or his or her team but also
by multiple factors linked to the perceived opportunity, including management,
strategy and industrial context (Gartner, 1985). Understanding how the quality
of the perceived opportunity, as can be described in a business plan, can be in-
fuenced by a business plan competition and how it affects the ulterior success
of the venture therefore appears relevant.
Limited evidence is available concerning the link between the characteristics
of the business opportunity, as identifed by the venture team and presented in
their business plan, and the success of the venture, in particular at the seed or
start-up stages. Regarding more mature ventures (beyond start-up stage) several
researches have been completed, mainly using qualitative and quantitative data
through questionnaires. Gartner et al. (1999) have analysed whether the quality
of a new venture as described in the popular press is a good predictor of its
success. Covin and Slevin (1990) found a correlation for new ventures in emerg-
ing industries between performance and both strategic posture (conservative
versus entrepreneurial) and structural form (organic versus mechanistic). Duch-
esneau and Gartner (1990), expanding initial papers from Van de Ven (1984),
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 135
Buzzel and Gale (1987), Sandberg and Hofer (1987) and Timmons (1999),
looked at 26 fresh juice ventures in the USA. They identifed as discriminant
factors between successful and unsuccessful ventures, among others, a clear
broad business idea, broad planning effort (although most frms did not have a
formal business plan) and the use of outside help and advice. An extensive list
of papers regarding the impact of those factors at the start-up stage can be found
in Duchesneau and Gartner (1990).
Regarding the evaluation criteria used to assess the quality of a business plan,
several researchers have, as mentioned above, looked at the decision criteria
used by investors, business angels and/or venture capitalists to screen and/or
evaluate potential investments. Those decision criteria can be grouped in the
following categories (Muzyka et al., 1996):
1. Financials (expected returns, payback, break-even, exit options).
2. Product-market positioning (market growth and attractiveness, product
uniqueness and ft to market).
3. Strategy and competitiveness issues (barriers to entry, competitive
intensity).
4. Investment fund and deal requirements (fund constraints, strategy, location,
deal stage and structure).
5. Management team skills and capabilities (composition, leadership, industry
expertise and track record, functional capabilities).
Among those the most relevant criteria in the context of an early-stage business
plan competition are those related to the categories of criteria 2 and 3, related
respectively to the product-market positioning and to the strategy and competi-
tiveness issues. Indeed, the fourth category (investment fund and deal
requirements) relates to the strategy and positioning of the investor and not di-
rectly to the venture characteristics. Moreover, the ffth category relates to the
management team itself, which is mostly assessed through interviews and not
directly taken into account in most business plan competitions. Finally, regard-
ing the frst category (fnancials), those criteria are often of limited relevance at
the seed stage. Indeed, at the seed or early stages ventures tend to have limited
(if any) formal reporting or are often very reluctant to provide ‘hard’ perform-
ance data (Fiorito and LaForge, 1986). Moreover such ‘hard’ data on small frms
tend to be diffcult to interpret (Cooper, 1979).
Regarding how the notion of success can apply to early-stage ventures, we
defne, for the purpose of this research, ‘success’ as the creation of a viable
commercial activity in the near future, without taking into account actual fnan-
cial performance. This is obviously not a suffcient condition of success from
the point of view of prospective investors. Investors will rather consider as suc-
cessful only ventures whose fnancial returns are satisfying with regard to their
136 Newness in methodological approaches
risk profle and which offer an attractive exit opportunity. However, this defni-
tion of ‘success’ can still be considered a satisfying measure for organizations
interested in teaching entrepreneurship and is at least a necessary condition of
success for investors.
Regarding the type of new ventures considered in the context of a business
plan competition, early or seed stage can be defned as a distinct stage when the
initial opportunity is developed and tested (Carrier, 2000; Fonrouge, 1999; Jeng
and Wells, 2000). Companies at the seed stage are neither organized nor ‘in
business’ (Bachher and Guild, 1996) and fnancing is needed to evaluate the
perceived opportunity, for example, to prove a concept or develop a prototype.
The key issue then for potential investors is to analyse the characteristics of the
proposed venture in order to fnd ways to predict whether a given venture is
worth supporting and/or investing in, as the seed stage is characterized by an
absence of track record and fnancial history.
HYPOTHESES AND METHODOLOGY
Having defned the objectives and theoretical background of this research we
defne hereafter our research hypotheses, related to the effciency and effective-
ness of business plan competitions, and discuss how to test those hypotheses
from an empirical point of view.
Hypothesis 1
The evaluation of the initial business plan of early-stage ventures along the cri-
teria of (1) product-market positioning and (2) strategy and competitiveness are
relevant with respect to the future success of those ventures.
Product-market positioning and strategy and competitiveness are the criteria
that have been identifed in our literature review as relevant in this context. The
effciency of the business plan competition implies a link between the evaluation
criteria used by the competition and its objective – support the creation of viable
businesses. This hypothesis tests whether the evaluation criteria used are relevant
in the sense that the results of the evaluations of the perceived business oppor-
tunity are signifcantly correlated with the a posteriori emergence of a business.
From a practical point of view it tests whether business plan competitions ‘select
the right potential ventures’.
As the support provided by business plan competitions focuses primarily on
improving the quality of the business plans submitted by the entrepreneurs, our
second hypothesis focuses on whether ‘better’ business plans actually lead to
ventures that are more likely to be successful.
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 137
Hypothesis 2
The criteria of product-market positioning and strategy and competitiveness are
valuable indicators of the quality of an early-stage business opportunity, that is,
they can be used to increase signifcantly the probability to select successful
ventures.
This hypothesis which is a refnement of Hypothesis 1 tests whether it is
possible to actually estimate the likelihood of success of a venture based on the
evaluation of its early-stage business plan. If this is the case then improving the
(perceived) quality of a business plan along those criteria – as the support pro-
vided by business plan competition aims at – should increase the probability of
success of an early-stage venture.
Having defned Hypotheses 1 and 2 regarding the link between the evaluation
criteria related to the business opportunity and the likelihood of success, we
present hereafter the sample, evaluation process and measurement of success
that allowed us to collect and use empirical data in the context of this study. We
then present the statistical approach used to test the hypotheses.
We used a sample of 119 business plans that were collected in the context of
‘123Go’, a business plan competition organized in France, Belgium, Germany
and Luxembourg since 2000. All the business plans submitted in the 2000–01
edition of this competition by the voluntary participants were taken into account
in our sample. The criteria for accepting business plans used by the organizers
were the following:
l The project must originate from the local region (including Luxembourg
and the neighbouring regions, that is, the North of France, the South of
Belgium and the South-West of Germany).
l It must be innovative (that is, there is no similar business active in the
considered region).
l It must not yet be fnanced by risk capital.
l It must be economically feasible (there should be a priori a potential
market).
The criteria were frst broadly evaluated by the organizers to eliminate fanciful
projects. The business plans submitted described perceived new venture op-
portunities from the four countries considered and related to a broad range of
sectors (see Table 8.1). We found no systematic bias in our sample between the
sector, the country, the evaluations (detailed hereafter) or the success of the
venture.
The business plans collected were text documents ranging from fve to 25
pages where the participants were required by the organizers to describe their
business model, the value to the prospective customers, the competitive differ-
138 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.1 Number of business plans submitted
Sector Belgium France Germany Luxemburg Total
Biotechnology 1 1 2
Construction 1 2 1 4
Environment 6 3 2 1 12
Finance 1 1 2 4
Food 2 1 3
Health care 3 1 1 1 6
Information technology 6 3 4 5 18
Manufacturing 1 6 3 2 12
Material sciences 1 1 2
Media 1 3 1 1 6
Services 12 7 5 11 35
Telecommunication 1 1 2
Not specifed 6 5 1 1 13
Total 41 31 21 26 119
entiation versus existing offers, the target market and the potential competitors.
No personal details about the venture team members were included in the
plan.
Each business plan was sent by the organizers to experts for evaluation and
feedback on a double-blind basis. At the end of this evaluation process the par-
ticipants were given the results of the evaluations and invited to submit an
improved version of their business plan which would again be evaluated. The
whole process lasted from September 2000 to June 2001 and 63 participants
chose to present a ‘revised’ version of their business plan based on the feedback
they had received. These ‘revised’ versions were then evaluated following the
same process. Hence the sample used for this research included 119 business
plans initially submitted and 63 ‘revised’ ones.
Regarding the evaluation process, the organizers of the business plan competi-
tion had gathered a list of about 250 experts, consultants, bankers, managers or
academics, who volunteered to evaluate business plans relevant to their feld of
expertise. Based on the sector of activity of the venture, each plan was sent by
the organizers as an electronic document to two (in the initial evaluation phase)
or three (for the ‘revised’ versions of the plans) evaluators. The names and
contact details of the entrepreneurs were not transmitted to the evaluators and
the entrepreneurs did not know who would evaluate them. Each evaluator was
required to fll electronically an evaluation form that included seven criteria and
to give for each criteria an evaluation on an 11-point Likert scale ranging from
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 139
0 (worst) to 10 (best) and provide a short written comment. To avoid excessive
bias from severe or generous evaluators and/or differences in discrimination
about what is considered important, a short text indicating the meaning of each
score was provided to the evaluators for each score and for each criterion. The
seven criteria used by the organizers to evaluate each business plan were:
1. Exciting concept: does the business plan introduce an exciting concept for
potential investors?
2. Key issues addressed: are all key issues of the venture addressed in the
business plan?
3. Value to the customers: is the interest of the value proposition for the target
customers demonstrated?
4. Competitive differentiation: is the value proposition clearly differentiated
versus available offers?
5. Attractive market: is the target market attractive in terms of size and/or ex-
pected growth?
6. Competitive intensity: what is the current and expected level of competition
in the target market?
7. Overall quality: what is the overall quality of the business plan?
While the criteria had been selected a priori by the organizers of the competition
on the basis of their personal experience, we can note that criteria 3 to 6 corre-
spond to the ‘business-opportunity’ criteria discussed in our literature review.
In particular criteria 3 and 4 correspond to the categories of criteria related to
the product-market positioning of the venture, and criteria 5 and 6 correspond
to the categories of criteria related to its strategy and competitiveness. The ag-
gregated data from the evaluation process for both the initial and revised samples
of business plans as well as the absolute and relative differences between those
two samples are presented in Table 8.2.
Finally the proxy for success used in the context of this research is the crea-
tion of an actual commercial activity. Among the potential ventures described
in the business plans considered, ‘successful’ ventures were defned as those
that had led to the creation of an actual commercial activity within the time
frame of the analysis, that is, 30 months after the submission of the initial busi-
ness plan. Those therefore considered as ‘unsuccessful’ were all the ventures
that failed to lead to any actual business activity within the considered period.
Using this criterion 20 ‘successful’ ventures were identifed within the ‘initial’
sample of 119 business plans (17 per cent) and 18 within the 63 ventures of the
‘revised’ sample (29 per cent).
140 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.2 Evaluation data
Criterion Initial sample Revised sample Difference
scores scores
(0 to 10 scale) (0 to 10 scale)
Mean Std dev. Mean Std dev. Abs. Rel.
1. Exciting concept 5.04 1.73 6.26 1.39 1.22 24%
2. Key issues covered 4.51 1.85 5.82 1.49 1.31 29%
3. Value to customers 4.88 2.11 6.50 1.39 1.62 33%
4. Competitive diff. 3.45 2.18 5.71 1.63 2.26 65%
5. Attractive market 5.61 1.88 6.63 1.21 1.02 18%
6. Competitive intensity 4.25 1.88 5.26 1.44 1.01 24%
7. Overall quality 4.85 2.07 6.21 1.44 1.35 28%
VALIDATION OF THE HYPOTHESES
To test Hypothesis 1 we used a discriminant univariate analysis comparing the
mean value of the evaluation criteria across the two samples of successful versus
unsuccessful ventures (Duchesneau and Gartner, 1990; Van de Ven 1984). We
computed the 95 per cent confdence interval of the difference between the mean
score of successful versus unsuccessful ventures for each criterion using the
SPSS software package. A given criterion is deemed as relevant (hence Hypoth-
esis 1 is validated for this criterion) if this confdence interval excludes the value
zero.
To confrm those results we also computed the correlation between a binary
‘success’ variable (0 for unsuccessful ventures and 1 for successful ones) and
the scores obtained according to each of the evaluation criteria. A given criterion
is confrmed as relevant if the correlation is signifcant (p < 0.05). Indeed, an
‘irrelevant’ evaluation criteria would lead to scores that are on average not sig-
nifcantly different for successful versus unsuccessful ventures and that show
no signifcant correlation with the binary ‘success’ variable.
To test Hypothesis 2 we computed a binary logistic regression linking the
estimated probability of a given venture to be successful to the scores obtained
according to the experts’ evaluations. Given the limited size and heterogeneity
of the samples considered we used a ‘self-validating’ approach
2
using a classi-
fcation table to test the reliability of our fndings rather than splitting the initial
sample between two ‘estimation’ and ‘validation’ samples. After having checked
any variable correlation and reliability effect we built a ‘frst choice’ subset with
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 141
the ventures whose estimated probability of success was higher than a cut value.
That value was chosen equal to the average success probability of the sample,
17 per cent. The evaluation is deemed as ‘valuable’ (hence Hypothesis 2 is vali-
dated) if the proportion of successful frms among the ‘frst choice’ subset is
signifcantly higher than the average for the whole sample. Indeed, a higher
share of successful frms within the ‘frst choice’ subset indicates that ventures
that are perceived to be better by the evaluators of the competition are actually
more likely to be successful.
We tested the validity of Hypotheses 1 and 2 on both the initial and revised
samples of business plans in order to measure the effect of the evaluation and
support process provided by the business plan competition.
RESULTS FROM THE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
ANALYSIS
The fndings resulting from the validation of Hypotheses 1 and 2 are presented
hereafter, both for the business plans initially submitted (‘initial sample’) and
for those re-submitted after the venture teams had been taught how to improve
their business plan (‘revised sample’). Please note that in addition to the criteria
analysed for the purpose of this research, the organizers of the competition also
used other criteria (criteria 1, 2 and 7) that are mentioned as complementary
information.
Validation of Hypothesis 1 for the Initial Sample
Regarding the validation of Hypothesis 1 for the initial sample Table 8.3
presents, among the business plans initially submitted and for each of the seven
evaluation criteria considered, the difference between the average score for the
two subsets of unsuccessful and successful ventures (‘mean difference’). It then
presents, either or not assuming that the score variances of the two samples are
equal, the standard error and the confdence interval of this difference. Accord-
ing to those results all the evaluation criteria appear relevant except two, which
both include the value zero in the confdence interval of the mean difference.
Those are criteria 5 and 6 relative respectively to the attractiveness and the
competitive intensity of the target market. In other words for those two evalua-
tion criteria there was no signifcant difference between the initial experts’
evaluation of ‘successful’ versus ‘unsuccessful’ ventures.
Table 8.4 presents the results of the correlation analysis for the initial sample
of business plans. For each criterion the correlation between the success variable
and the evaluation score is presented as well as the signifcance level. In this
table if the signifcance level is very small (p < 0.05) this indicates that the two
142 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.3 Mean comparison – initial sample
Criterion Mean Equal Std error 95% CI of the difference
difference variance difference
assumed Lower Upper
1 –0.94 Yes 0.42 –1.77 –0.12
No 0.37 –1.70 –0.18
2 –1.16 Yes 0.44 –2.03 –0.28
No 0.40 –1.98 –0.33
3 –1.61 Yes 0.50 –2.60 –0.63
No 0.40 –2.43 –0.80
4 –1.95 Yes 0.51 –2.95 –0.95
No 0.51 –2.99 –0.91
5 –0.77 Yes 0.46 –1.67 0.13
No 0.40 –1.58 0.03
6 –0.42 Yes 0.46 –1.34 0.49
No 0.52 –1.49 0.64
7 –1.53 Yes 0.49 –2.50 –0.56
No 0.46 –2.47 –0.59
Table 8.4 Correlation – initial sample
Criterion 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Correlation 0.21 0.24 0.29 0.34 0.15 0.09 0.28
Signifcance 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.09 0.36 0.00
variables are signifcantly correlated. The analysis of the correlation confrms
the mean comparison results, that is, that all criteria except criteria 5 and 6 are
relevant as all but those two are signifcantly correlated with the success varia-
ble. In other words, for criteria 5 and 6 success is not linked with higher
evaluation scores. Hence for the initial sample Hypothesis 1 is validated for two
of the four criteria considered. ‘successful’ ventures obtain evaluation scores
that are signifcantly better (higher) than ‘unsuccessful’ ones along the criteria
of ‘value to the customer’ (criteria 3) and ‘competitive offer’ (criteria 4).
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 143
Validation of Hypothesis 1 for the Revised Sample
Regarding the validation of Hypothesis 1 for the revised sample, Table 8.5
presents the same information as Table 8.3 but this time considering the ‘revised’
business plans. According to those results none of the evaluation criteria appear
relevant as all the confdence intervals for the mean differences include the zero
value, which corresponds to an equal average score for successful and unsuc-
cessful frms. Hence, contrary to the initial sample, for the business plans that
were re-submitted after the entrepreneurs had been taught how better to write
them, the successful frms did not obtain signifcantly higher scores than unsuc-
cessful ones along any of the evaluation criteria. In other words, among the
ventures that had received and integrated the support of the business plan com-
petition, while the perceived quality of their business plan did actually improve
(see Table 8.2), there was no longer a link between the perceived quality of their
business plan and the ulterior success of those ventures.
Table 8.5 Mean comparison – revised sample
Criterion Mean Equal Std error 95% CI of the difference
difference variance difference
assumed Lower Upper
1 –0.53 Yes 0.38 –1.30 0.24
No 0.41 –1.38 0.32
2 –0.54 Yes 0.41 –1.36 0.29
No 0.45 –1.45 0.38
3 –0.35 Yes 0.39 –1.13 0.43
No 0.41 –1.20 0.50
4 –0.54 Yes 0.45 –1.44 0.36
No 0.43 –1.42 0.34
5 –0.49 Yes 0.33 –1.16 0.18
No 0.33 –1.15 0.17
6 –0.68 Yes 0.39 –1.47 0.11
No 0.39 –1.48 0.12
7 –0.71 Yes 0.39 –1.50 0.08
No 0.37 –1.46 0.04
Table 8.6 presents the results of the correlation analysis for the revised busi-
ness plans. The analysis of the correlation confrms the mean comparison results,
that is, that none of the evaluation criteria appear signifcantly correlated with
the success variable. Hence, for the revised sample Hypothesis 1 cannot be
144 Newness in methodological approaches
Table 8.6 Correlation – revised sample
Criterion 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Correlation 0.17 0.16 0.12 0.15 0.18 0.22 0.23
Signifcance 0.18 0.20 0.37 0.24 0.15 0.09 0.08
validated as none of the evaluation criteria considered appears relevant for this
sample. We will discuss in more detail in the following section the implications
of that observation.
Validation of Hypothesis 2
As Hypothesis 1 has been rejected for the revised sample and Hypothesis 2 is
a refnement of Hypothesis 1, we only tested Hypothesis 2 for the initial sample.
The results of the frst iteration of the logistic regression are presented in Table
8.7. Given the results of the validation of Hypothesis 1 for the initial sample
that identifed only criteria 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 as potentially relevant, we computed
the logistic regression using only the variables corresponding to those fve cri-
teria. In this table are included for each criterion and for the constant parameter,
the value of the corresponding coeffcient in the logistic regression (‘coeff-
cient’), its exponential (‘expon.’), the standard error of the coeffcient and the
Wald statistic.
3
For this regression, the Cox and Snell R-square and the
Nagelkerke R-square values (which are proxies for the corresponding R-square
measure used for linear regressions) are respectively 12.4 per cent and 20.8 per
cent.
These frst regression results highlight that the variables corresponding to
criteria 3 and 4 are by a factor of more than 10 the most relevant ones. We
therefore tested a second regression using only those variables. The results of
Table 8.7 First logistic regression (criteria 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7)
Criterion Coeffcient Expon. Standard error Wald
1 –0.04 0.96 0.27 0.02
2 –0.04 0.96 0.27 0.02
3 0.31 1.37 0.24 1.73
4 0.40 1.49 0.22 3.47
7 –0.11 0.89 0.31 0.13
Const. –3.96 0.02 1.03 14.84
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 145
this second logistic regression are presented in Table 8.8. The Cox and Snell
R-square and the Nagelkerke R-square values for this second logistic regression
are respectively 12.2 per cent and 20.4 per cent. The small variation of those
two statistics compared with the frst regression confrms that limited informa-
tion was lost when removing the variables corresponding to criteria 1, 2 and 7
in the regression.
The results of the regression analysis show that an estimate of the probability
of ‘success’ can be computed based on the results of the experts’ evaluations
along criteria 3 and 4. Using this regression formula we then computed the
predicted probability of success of all the projects and produced a classifcation
table using as cut-off value the average success probability of the whole sample
(17 per cent). The results are presented in Table 8.9. This table reveals that a
process selecting potential ventures based on a predicted probability of success
computed using the experts’ evaluation would select 46 ventures out of the 119
available. Of those, 14 or 30 per cent will actually lead to the creation of a busi-
ness. This is nearly twice the success ratio of a random selection within the
initial sample (17 per cent). Hence a selection process using the results of the
evaluation by the experts of the business plans along criteria 3 and 4 would
signifcantly increase its probability to pick successful ventures.
Table 8.9 Classifcation table (cut-off 17 per cent)
Observed Predicted
Failure Success Total
Failure 67 32 99
Success 6 14 20
Total 73 46 119
Table 8.8 Second logistic regression (criteria 3 and 4)
Criterion Coeffcient Expon. Standard error Wald
3 0.22 1.25 0.17 1.66
4 0.33 1.39 0.16 4.42
Const. –4.18 0.02 0.94 19.78
146 Newness in methodological approaches
INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS
Our analysis highlighted that for the set of ‘initial’ business plans there is a
signifcant (positive) correlation between the experts’ evaluations of the initial
business plans and the measure of success considered (Hypothesis 1). In par-
ticular fve of the seven evaluation criteria used (exciting concepts, key issues
addressed, value to the customers, competitive differentiation and overall qual-
ity) were signifcantly correlated with the success variable, while the two
remaining ones (attractive market and competitive intensity) were positively
correlated but not signifcantly.
The relevance of the criteria regarding ‘the idea’, that is, exciting concepts,
key issues addressed and overall quality, confrms that experts are relatively
able to spot whether an idea ‘makes sense’ in a given sector. Indeed, let us
remember that for each venture the evaluators were selected as experts in the
sector of the proposed venture. This corroborates common industry practice
by early-stage venture capitalists and business angels to invest in specifc
sectors (Murray and Marriott, 1998) or geographical areas rather than ‘across
the board’ (Gorman and Sahlman, 1989). In those sectors or geographical ar-
eas they have or can develop market expertise (Bygrave and Timmons, 1992)
allowing them to reduce the cost of informational asymmetries and monitoring
(Amit et al., 1998; Lerner, 1995). This observation is also particularly relevant
for business plan competitions organized within corporations, where the
projects and the evaluators will often come from the same sectors.
The relevance of the criteria regarding ‘product’ issues, that is, the value to
the customers and the competitive differentiation, confrms earlier fndings that
successful entrepreneurs must above all understand their customers and com-
petitors (Gartner et al., 1999). It also confrms earlier fndings that early-stage
investors tend to attach more importance to product uniqueness than later-stage
ones (Elango et al., 1995). It is also a reminder of the importance of a basic rule
of management: that a key success factor for a new business idea is not neces-
sarily to be original or creative but to correspond to (or generate) an unfulflled
market demand.
Finally, the fact that the criteria regarding ‘market issues’, that is, attractive
market and competitive intensity, are not signifcantly relevant seems to
contradict common industry practice, previous studies having identifed high-
growth markets as a key decision criteria for early-stage investors (Elango et
al., 1995). One possible explanation is that the absence of signifcant market
research performed by most of the venture teams at this early stage meant
that they provided limited information about their potential target markets.
Hence this limited information did not allow the evaluators to discriminate
ventures with small and large or high-growth potential markets. In contrast,
the other product- and competitor-related features were by nature better de-
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 147
scribed in the business plans and therefore probably easier for the evaluators
to assess.
Overall those fndings provide an empirical basis for the practice of business
plan competition to select the ventures they support through an evaluation of
their initial business plan. Our preliminary conclusions are therefore that the
business plan competition approach to select potential ventures based only on
their business plan (excluding interviews with the entrepreneur) appears rela-
tively effcient in the sense that this process helps to select the right business to
support. Moreover it would suggest that teaching entrepreneurs how to improve
their business plans along the evaluation criteria considered would increase their
probability of success.
Our analysis of the revised sample addresses this point. It highlights some of
the effects of the support that was provided by the business plan competition to
the participants. While improving the overall ‘quality’ of the plans in terms of
the evaluation criteria (see Table 8.2) this support had the effect of actually
rendering those evaluations irrelevant from the point of view of the future suc-
cess of the venture. Successful ventures became unrecognizable from
unsuccessful ones by the evaluators. In other words, the business plans appear
to have become ‘better’ (according to the evaluation criteria) but the ventures
with a ‘better’ plan are no more likely to be successful. This may indicate that
when venture teams are aware of the evaluation criteria used, such as in the case
of a business plan competition, it can have perverse effects. The teams might
focus on improving their business plan in a way that is consistent with the evalu-
ation criteria, but that does not necessarily improve the probability of success
of their business.
As a consequence, our fndings indicate that the support provided by the
business plan competition (expert support and training) to the entrepreneurs to
teach them to better design their business plan appears not to be effective in the
sense that it does not signifcantly increase the probability of success of the
venture. In other words, with some training many people could probably write
a credible business plan, although (obviously) only a few could probably build
a business. This result also confrms why, as mentioned in our literature review,
business plan-related criteria only come second to management team-related
criteria in the typical due diligence process of early-stage investors. As industry
insiders like to say, ‘I would rather invest in an excellent team with an average
idea than in an average team with an excellent idea’. Moreover, this potential
perverse effect of teaching the entrepreneurs how to write their initial business
plan confrms industry practice where venture capitalists focus on supporting
the entrepreneur in ‘running’ the business once launched (Barney et al., 1996;
Gorman and Sahlman, 1989) rather than evaluating and planning it extensively
upfront. These investors support the venture in, among others, getting access to
a strategic network and developing the management team (Davila et al., 2000;
148 Newness in methodological approaches
Elango et al., 1995; Gulati et al., 2000; Sapienza and Timmons, 1989) rather
than fne-tuning the initial plans.
Finally, regarding the link between business opportunity and ‘success’, our
analysis highlighted that, at least for the frst set of ‘initial’ business plans, the
evaluation of the opportunity could be used to estimate the success probability
of a venture and hence help to pick a priori successful ventures (Hypothesis 2).
More precisely, using those evaluations could nearly double the probability of
picking a venture that will lead to a ‘successful’ business among a similar set
of potential investments. However, the results also indicate that the predictive
power of the initial business plan evaluations remains relatively weak, with
about 32 per cent (32 + 6 out of 119) ventures being ‘mis-classifed’ in our
sample (see Table 8.9). Moreover in a real-life setting one would only have ac-
cess a priori to an estimate of the link between success probability and evaluation
scores, based on historic data from comparable ventures. This would decrease
further the predictive power of estimations based on business plan evaluations
(as in our case the regression was computed a posteriori). The reliability of the
business plan evaluation as a predictor of venture success is therefore as one
would expect, real but limited. This and the potential perverse effects of ‘busi-
ness plan coaching’, highlighted above, confrms observed industry practice
that the evaluation of the business plan should only be a small part of the due
diligence process of early-stage ventures. It must be completed by other factors
such as an evaluation of the management team or a test of the quality of the
product and/or technology proposed (Gorman and Sahlman, 1989).
LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
In this chapter we discussed empirical data regarding the effciency and effec-
tiveness of business plan competitions. We considered the evaluations by experts
of two subsets of early-stage venture business plans along business plan-related
criteria such as product-market positioning as well as strategy and competitive-
ness issues. We analysed whether there was a signifcant relationship between
those evaluations and the a posteriori success of the ventures, defned as the
existence of an actual business activity 30 months after the initial submission
of the business plan.
The frst subset of initial business plans contained the description of 119
perceived business opportunities which were submitted voluntarily and evalu-
ated on a double-blind basis by independent experts. Some of the teams that
had submitted a plan received feedback and some coaching and chose to re-
submit a revised, more complete, version of their business plan. This second
iteration led to a second set of 63 ‘revised’ business plans that were again evalu-
ated and whose evaluation scores were analysed in a similar way.
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 149
For the initial sample of business plans, two of the four business plan evalu-
ation criteria considered were signifcantly correlated with ‘success’ and a
success probability estimate was computed using a logistic regression. A selec-
tion process using this estimate on a similar sample of potential ventures could
nearly double the probability of selecting a priori a ‘successful’ investment. This
indicates that a business plan competition’s approach of selecting ventures based
on an evaluation of their initial business plan is a relatively effcient process.
However, for the revised sample of business plans, those which had received
support from the business plan competition and were hence taught how better
to write their business plan, we found different results. While overall the busi-
ness plans received better evaluations, none of the evaluation criteria were
correlated with success. One possible explanation is that the teams had actually
learnt better to ‘ft’ their business plan along the evaluation criteria rather than
to improve the quality of the venture itself. As a consequence, business plans
with better evaluation scores were not signifcantly more likely to correspond
to ‘successful’ businesses.
Those results should be considered in the light of the study’s inherent limita-
tions, in particular regarding the data sample and the evaluation process.
Regarding the sample of business plans, we were not able to test whether this
sample could be considered representative of the population of early-stage
ventures at the national or international level. Indeed, while our sample size was
relatively large compared with similar researches and represented a wide array
of sectors and four different countries, it cannot necessarily be directly general-
ized to any set of early-stage ventures. In particular, there may be a problem
with response bias, which could not be tested because of the unavailability of
data regarding the characteristics of non-participant ventures. Moreover, the
success rate of our sample (17 per cent) is quite high compared with typical
projects submitted to venture capitalists, who tend to invest in 1 per cent of the
projects submitted to them (Gifford, 1997). However, this comparison must be
considered with caution. Indeed, the success criterion considered here – the ini-
tial business plan led to the creation of an actual business within 30 months – is
much less restrictive than those used by early-stage investors and therefore
should lead to a higher success rate. Early-stage investors obviously expect not
only the ‘birth and survival’ of the business they invest in, but also a signifcant
rate of return for their investments through exit options (Mason and Harrison,
2002).
Regarding the evaluation process, there could be a bias emerging from the
fact that the specifc context of the evaluation – a regional business plan com-
petition – is not the same as the due diligence processes performed in the context
of entrepreneurship teaching programmes. While no systematic bias was ob-
served among evaluators (each plan was evaluated by two or three evaluators
and each evaluator evaluated no more than three business plans), there might
150 Newness in methodological approaches
be an overall bias of giving generous evaluations due to the voluntary dimension
of the evaluation. However, this should affect randomly both successful and
unsuccessful frms and therefore not infuence our conclusions. Moreover it is
clear that the evaluators’ perspective might be different from teachers’ or train-
ers’, as they come from a different background and have different implications
for the projects.
We still believe that, although those limitations are signifcant and should not
be disregarded, this study led to interesting results relative to the effciency and
effectiveness of business plan competitions, and to the design of business plan
teaching programmes in particular. The results therefore have some implications
for entrepreneurship support programmes, seed investors and researchers.
For the sponsors of entrepreneurship support programmes such as business
plan competition or incubators the results have several implications. First, they
validate common practice to select the ventures that will beneft from their sup-
port based on preliminary business plan evaluations, as this analysis confrmed
a signifcant relationship between such evaluations and the a posteriori ‘success’
of the venture. Such an approach appears therefore to be effcient. However, it
also highlighted that the support provided to early-stage ventures can have per-
verse effects, in particular regarding the elaboration of their business plan. Our
research highlighted that while improving the apparent quality of the plan, the
coaching provided to the venture could actually be ineffective.
While this was not the focus of our research, extensive anecdotal evidence
gathered from participants during our research indicates that the business plan
competition is very effective in providing support to the entrepreneur in terms
of networking, in particular through contacts with other prospective entrepre-
neurs and with the experts involved in the process. This opens future research
questions regarding the design, role and effectiveness of teaching programmes
aimed at supporting entrepreneurship.
For investors those results have several implications. First, it confrms indus-
try practice to include the assessment of initial business plans as part – but only
as a small part – of the due diligence process for early-stage venture. Moreover
it provides some indications of the relative value, in terms of contribution to
success rate, of the information that can be extracted from those evaluations. It
can therefore contribute to the inherent problems of balancing the opportunity
cost of due diligence versus the ‘limited attention’ that can be provided by in-
vestors for existing investments (Gifford, 1997) and to consider the risk of
overconfdence arising from the availability of this information (Zacharakis and
Shepherd, 2001).
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 151
CONCLUSIONS
The main contribution of this research has been to provide some empirical evi-
dence on the effciency and effectiveness of business plan competitions, through
a case study based on a competition organized since 2000 in four European
countries. While the business plan evaluation criteria used in those competitions
appear similar to those known to be taken into account by seed investors, they
have received limited empirical validations, in particular by comparison to
management team-related criteria that have been extensively analysed.
Three of the limitations of this research are the potential bias of the sample
of venture analysed versus the population of early-stage ventures, the success
criteria used (survival) and the proxy of the due diligence process adopted
(regional business plan competition). Further research leading to some gener-
alization of the fndings outlined here could allow not only validating
business-plan approaches to entrepreneurship support programmes, but also
potentially improving them. Among other research avenues, the exploitation
of the available data about business plan evaluations through multivariable
approaches such as bootstrapping models could be used as a decision aid
(Shepherd and Zacharakis, 2002) for intermediary organizations facing similar
types of early-stage ventures.
While there is still a long way before we completely understand the process
of emergence of early-stage venture from perceived opportunities and how to
best support it, the author hopes to have contributed, through this discussion, a
small step in the right direction.
NOTES
1. The author would like to thank ‘Business Initiative’, the organizers of this competition, for
their help and support and access to their primary data.
2. Meaning that the regression formula is estimated and tested on the same sample.
3. The Wald statistic is the ratio of the coeffcient to the standard error squared; it is a measure of
the usefulness of the coeffcient.
REFERENCES
Aldrich, H.E. (1990), ‘Using an ecological perspective to study organizational founding
rates’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 14 (3), 7–24.
Amit, R., J. Brander and C. Zott (1998), ‘Why do venture capital frms exist? Theory
and Canadian evidence’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13, 441–66.
Bachher, J. and P. Guild (1996), ‘Financing early-stage technology based companies:
investment criteria used by investors’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1996,
Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
152 Newness in methodological approaches
Barney, J.B., L.W. Busenitz, J.O. Fiet and D.D. Moesel (1996), ‘New venture teams’
assessment of learning assistance from venture capital frms’, Journal of Business
Venturing, 11 (4), 257–72.
Begley, T.M. and D.P. Boyd (1987), ‘Psychological characteristics associated with per-
formance in entrepreneurial frms and smaller businesses’, Journal of Business
Venturing, 2 (1), 79–93.
Brockhaus, R.H. (1980), ‘Risk taking propensity of entrepreneurs’, Academy of Manage-
ment Journal, 23, 509–20.
Bruyat, C. (1994), ‘Contribution épistémiologiques au domaine de l’entrepreneuriat’,
Revue Française de Gestion, Novembre–décembre, 101, 87–99 (in French).
Bull, I. and G. Willard (1993), ‘Towards a theory of entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 8, 183–95.
Buzzel, R.D. and B.T. Gale (1987), The PIMS Principles, New York: Free Press.
Bygrave, W.D. and J.A. Timmons (1992), Venture Capital at the Crossroads, Boston,
MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Carrier, C. (2000), ‘L’exploration d’une idée d’affaires: première stratégie à maîtriser
par le futur entrepreneur’, IX Conférence Internationale de Management Stratégique,
Montpellier (in French), 24–26 May.
Cooper, A.C. (1979), ‘Strategic management: new ventures and small businesses’, in
D.E. Schendel and C.W. Hofer (eds), Strategic Management: A New View of Business
Policy Planning, Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.
Covin, J. and D. Slevin (1990), ‘New venture strategic posture, structure and perform-
ance: an industry life cycle analysis’, Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 123–35.
Davila, A., G. Foster, and M. Gupta (2000), ‘Venture-capital fnancing and the growth
of startup frms’, Stanford University working papers, 43.
Dubini, P. (1989), ‘The infuence of motivations and environment on business start-ups:
some hints for public policies’, Journal of Business Venturing, 4, 11–26.
Duchesneau, D. and W. Gartner (1990), ‘A profle of new venture success and failure in
an emerging industry’, Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 297–312.
Durand, D. and D. Shea (1974), ‘Entrepreneurial activity as a function of achievement
motivation and reinforcement control’, Journal of Psychology, 88, 57–63.
Elango, B., V.H. Fried, R.D. Hisrich and A. Polonchek (1995), ‘How venture capital
frms differ’, Journal of Business Venturing, 10 (2), 157–79.
Fayolle, A. (1994), ‘La trajectoire de l’ingénieur entrepreneur’, Revue Française de
Gestion, Novembre–décembre, 101, 113–25 (in French).
Filion, L.-J. (1991), Vision et relations: clefs du succès de l’entrepreneur, Montréal: Les
éditions de l’entrepreneur (in French).
Fiorito, S.S. and R.W. LaForge (1986), ‘A marketing strategy analysis of small retailers’,
American Journal of Small Businesses, 10, 7–17.
Fonrouge, C. (1999), ‘La question de l’étendue et de la nature des choix stratégiques
d’entrée: le cas des entreprises nouvellement créées’, VIIIème Congrès de l’Associa-
tion Intenationale de Management Stratégique, Paris (in French), 26–28 May.
Freeman, J., G.R. Carroll and M.T. Hannan (1983), ‘ The liabilities of newness: age de-
pendence in organization death rates’, American Sociological Review, 48, 692–710.
Gartner, W.B. (1985), ‘A conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new
creation’, Academy of Management Review, 10 (4) , 696–706.
Gartner, W.B., J.A. Starr and S. Bhat (1999), ‘Predicting new venture survival: an analysis
of “anatomy of a start-up” cases from Inc. Magazine’, Journal of Business Venturing,
14 (2), 215–32.
Can you teach entrepreneurs to write their business plan? 153
Gifford, S. (1997), ‘Limited attention and the role of the venture capitalists’, Journal of
Business Venturing, 12 (6), 459–82.
Gorman, M. and W.A. Sahlman (1989), ‘What do venture capitalists do?’, Journal of
Business Venturing, 4 (4), 231–48.
Gulati, R., N. Nohria and A. Zaheer (2000), ‘Strategic networks’, Strategic Management
Journal, 21 (3), 203–16.
Guth, W.D. (1991), ‘Cognition, enactment and learning in the entrepreneurial process’,
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1991, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Hall, J. and C.W. Hofer (1993), ‘Venture capitalists’ decision criteria in new venture
evaluation’, Journal of Business Venturing, 8 (1), 25–42.
Hebbar, K. (2001), ‘Les compétences clés de l’entrepreneur innovateur: l’infuence de
l’expérience pré-entrepreneuriale’, Xième Conférence de l’Association Internationale
de Management Stratégique, Québec (in French), 13–15 June.
Hornaday, R.W. and W.J. Wheattley (1971), ‘Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs’,
Personnel Psychology, 24 (2), 141–53.
Jeng, L. and P. Wells (2000), ‘The determinants of venture capital funding: evidence
across countries’, Journal of Corporate Finance, 6, 241–89.
Julien, P.A. and M. Marchesnay (1996), L’entrepreneuriat, Economica, Paris (in
French).
Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (1977), ‘The entrepreneurial personality: a person at the cross-
roads’, Journal of Management Studies, 14 (1), 34–57.
Lerner, J. (1995), ‘Venture capitalists and the oversight of private frms’, Journal of Fi-
nance, 50, 301–18.
Macmillan, I., R. Siegel and P.N. Subba Narasimha (1985), ‘Criteria used by venture
capitalists to evaluate new venture proposals’, Journal of Business Venturing, 1,
119–28.
Mason, C.M. and R.T. Harrison (2002), ‘Is it worth it? The rates of return from informal
venture capital investments’, Journal of Business Venturing, 17 (3), 211–36.
Murray, G. and R. Marriott (1998), ‘Why has the investment performance of technology-
specialist, European venture capital funds been so poor’, Research Policy, 27,
947–76.
Muzyka, D., S. Birley and B. Leleux (1996), ‘Trade-offs in the investment decisions of
European venture capitalists’, Journal of Business Venturing, 11 (4), 273–87.
Sandberg, W. and C. Hofer (1987), ‘Improving new venture performance: The role of
strategy, industry structure and the entrepreneur’, Journal of Business Venturing, 2,
5–28.
Sapienza, H.J. and J.A. Timmons (1989), ‘The role of the venture capitalist in new ven-
tures: what determines their importance?’, Academy of Management Best Paper
Proceedings, Pace University, NY, 74–8.
Schefczyk, M. and T. Gerpott (2000), ‘Qualifcation and turnover of managers and
venture-capital-fnanced frm performance: an empirical study of German VC invest-
ments’, Journal of Business Venturing, 16, 145–63.
Sexton, D.L. and N.B. Bowman (1986), ‘Validation of a personality index’, Frontiers of
Entrepreneurship Research 1986, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Shepherd, D.A. and A. Zacharakis (2002), ‘Venture capitalists’ expertise: a call for re-
search into decision aids and cognitive feedback’, Journal of Business Venturing, 17
(1), 1–20.
Smith, N.R. and J.B. Miner (1984), ‘Motivational considerations in the success of tech-
nologically innovative entrepreneurs’, Wellesley, MA: Frontiers of Entrepreneurship
Research 1984.
154 Newness in methodological approaches
Timmons, J.A. (1999), New Venture Creation, McGraw-Hill: Boston.
Tyebjee, T.T. and A.V. Bruno (1984), ‘A model for venture capitalist investment activity’,
Management Science, 30 (9), 1051–66.
Van de Ven, A.H. (1984), ‘Designing new business startups: entrepreneurial, organiza-
tional, and ecological considerations’, Journal of Management Studies, 10 (1),
87–107.
Zacharakis, A.L. and D.A. Shepherd (2001), ‘The nature of information and overconf-
dence on venture capitalists’ decision-making’, Journal of Business Venturing, 16 (4),
311–32.
155
9. Skills demonstrations: a possibility for
meaningful co-operation with work-
life in internationalizing vocational
education
Seija Mahlamäki-Kultanen
INTRODUCTION
Three succeeding Finnish governments, the governments of Lipponen, Jäätten-
mäki and Vanhanen, have decided to implement national skills demonstrations
in initial vocational secondary level education after pilot projects and careful
examination of the possible system. Based on a common agreement on the main
principles, 59 development projects have been conducted, the frst of them start-
ing in 2000. National material for the skills demonstrations is produced in
co-operation with vocational institutions, teacher education polytechnics, labour
unions and educational authorities under the governance of the National Board
of Education in Finland. They have been funded by the European Social Fund
and the Finnish Ministry of Education. A lot of information about the initiative
and the projects on it can be found on the Internet page of the National Board of
Education (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt, 2005).
The educational administration authorities and politicians have agreed on
the Act on Skills Demonstrations, mainly because of differing opinions about the
share of duties and the funding of the system. After much experience from the
pilot projects it can be concluded that students, business owners and other rep-
resentatives of working life and educational institutions fnd the system very
useful, but also demanding (Nyyssölä, 2002; 2003). This chapter is based on
the mid-term reports of the development projects and one case example, in
which skills demonstrations were tested and material for national purposes was
developed. Three reports about the projects have already been published
(Nyyssölä, 2002; 2003; Suursalmi, 2003). The author is now responsible for
fourth and ffth reports on the skills demonstration projects going on during
2004; reports by Hakala and Nyyssölä are still in progress. The report by
Nyyssölä analyses the results of the pilot projects and the report by Hakala
156 Newness in methodological approaches
analyses how the skills demonstrations will change learning and teaching meth-
ods in vocational institutions.
The experiences and exemplar material will hopefully illustrate the ways by
which small and medium-sized entrepreneurial ventures can work co-operatively
with educational institutions despite signifcant differences in their perspectives.
To put the system into a real-life context, both the process and experiences of
material development and some illustrative material and insights into an entre-
preneurial culture in one, fairly new, entrepreneurial feld (home economics)
are presented.
WHY SKILLS DEMONSTRATIONS?
‘Skills demonstrations’ has been adopted as the offcial English translation for
the Finnish word ‘näyttö’. The emphasis in assessing is on the practical skills
required by work-life and business owners. The purpose of the new concept is
to make a difference between adult education (competence-based assessment)
and the education of young people (skills demonstrations). In skills demonstra-
tions, the emphasis is on the assessment of both the process and results of
learning, while in competence-based assessment it is more on the learning
results.
The targets of the new accountability system – skills demonstrations – are
based on the Copenhagen Declaration convened by the European ministers of
Vocational Education and Training. The declaration calls for a more European
dimension, transparency, comparability, recognition of competences and/or
qualifcations, and quality assurance in vocational education (Copenhagen
Declaration, 2002). Demonstrating vocational skills in working life before get-
ting the diploma from vocational institutions can be regarded as a natural
extension of the recent trend towards more workplace learning and regular co-
operation between vocational institutions and small and medium-sized
entrepreneurial ventures. In Finland, where vocational education has previously
been largely institutionalized and has included only a few weeks of on-the-job
training, this is a challenge. The change is not an easy task anywhere else either.
In an attempt to compare the systems of England and Holland, Van de Stege
(2003) suggests that England has a fairly complicated system of qualifcations
and related methods of accreditation, assessment and verifcation, which for-
eigners especially fnd diffcult to understand. It is diffcult to increase the
mobility of a workforce without a transparent, common competence system.
Marja-Liisa Stenström and European colleagues are now searching for a coher-
ent analysis of the systems to assess learning outcomes and the quality of
work-based learning in Europe in a Leonardo da Vinci project (QUAL PRAXIS,
2005).
Skills demonstrations 157
More accountability for vocational education has been sought in the USA
and Australia. For example, an American school district developed a system, in
which an entrepreneur can, without any cost, send an employee back to the vo-
cational institution to study more if she or he is not performing according to the
vocational diploma from the skills tests (Husain, 1998).
DIFFERENT INTERESTS HAVE TO MEET IN
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
The educational core values of our country refect humanism. Every individual
with her or his specifc needs is provided with a vocational secondary level edu-
cation and given the necessary support. It is necessary to take into account
individual learning styles and students with special needs. At the same time,
each vocational degree should provide the prerequisites for independent busi-
ness-ownership (Vocational Education Act and Decree 630/98, 1998). The
development principles established for the skills demonstration material given
by the National Board of Education state that the students’ skills have to be
demonstrated as large work-processes in authentic work environments and not
as separate skills. Every student must also demonstrate the necessary skills for
entrepreneurship before receiving a diploma. The skills to be demonstrated
should include only the critical competence areas, which should and have been
defned by representatives of work-life (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt,
2005). For an individual vocational institution and teacher, skills demonstrations
are a challenge because they force the system to meet all these specifcations
and still speak the language of entrepreneurs.
The pilot projects have discovered that the perspectives of entrepreneurs,
students, teachers and administration staff in vocational institutions and national
educational authorities are, and will remain, rather different (Nyyssölä, 2002;
2003). Even the entrepreneurs themselves do not all share the same point of
view. There are also differences between business sectors, and entrepreneurs do
not share common attitudes and opinions about students and vocational educa-
tion (Mahlamäki-Kultanen, 2005).
The assessment should be carried out as a tripartite co-work between the
employee, employer and the vocational educational institution (Figure 9.1) The
student should also contribute to the assessment and make his or her own
self-evaluation.
The leading principle behind the tripartite assessment in vocational education
is seen as only partially fulflling (Suursalmi, 2003). When it comes to a typical
Finnish entrepreneur or a small business owner as a partner and participant in
the students’ learning and skills demonstration environment, her or his reality
is sometimes quite different from the educational plans. A typical situation is
158 Newness in methodological approaches
that the entrepreneur is the one and only busy person, who is both the employer
and employee trying to fnd a proftable market segment in a sector of low
prestige and low proft. That is why the entrepreneur in practice is often both
the tutor of the student and the assessor of the competence gained. The respon-
sibility of the student to be a self-evaluator of her or his own competence should
be partially supplementing for the missing third partner, especially where a feld
demanding self-supportiveness and self-criticism is concerned. There is no room
for an objective committee in a small enterprise.
360-DEGREE ASSESSMENT ALLOWS FOR DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES
Because of the somewhat differing perspectives of entrepreneurs, developers in
the feld, educators, authorities and vocational students, a 360-degree assessment
methodology was adopted for our development pilot, the case briefy presented
in this chapter. The 360-degree assessment is based on the idea of differences
as a fruitful ground for future development. The 360-degree assessment has
been used in business life, typically in performance appraisal and staff develop-
ment (Wilson, 1997). In the skills demonstration procedure we recommend it
to facilitate objective evaluation, but also to enhance the student’s vocational
and personal growth and to guide the growth process throughout her or his
studies (cf. Armstrong et al., 2000; Brown, 1997; Fletcher, 1997; Funderburg
and Levy, 1997).
The advantage of the 360-degree assessment is that it is possible to evaluate
a person or a process and use several targets, criteria and evaluators in it. This
increases the reliability of the evaluation (Wilson, 1997). To identify your own
competence and development needs it is crucial to know how others view you
(Milliman and Zawacki, 1994; Ward, 1995). It is necessary to instruct the stu-
dents to ask for feedback and to make use of it (Funderburg and Levy, 1997).
Figure 9.1 Tripartite assessment
Representative of the
employer
Representative of the
vocational institution
Representative of the
employee
Skills demonstrations 159
This competence area is also emphasized in the vocational degree (Opetushal-
litus, 2000). In the customer and service-orientated sectors the evaluation and
concepts are always highly personal. The 360-degree assessment makes the
evaluation of abstract and personal issues more coherent (Antonioni, 1996). It
is necessary to remind the evaluators about the importance of critical feedback,
because otherwise it can be left out (Goodge, 2000: 2). In testing the material,
the workplace tutors were happy with the ready-made verbal expressions of
poor performance, which they felt made their task easier.
The scientifc concepts of inner entrepreneurship proved to be particularly
diffcult to express in everyday language and to defne the practical criteria for
different competence levels. However, a reasonable number of evaluators, clear
roles and transparent concepts and criteria are essential to guaranteeing the va-
lidity of evaluation (Milliman and Zawacki, 1994). A compact format, brief
texts with simple illustrations and the opportunity to briefy describe and justify
the numerical ratings were appreciated by the entrepreneurs interviewed in our
project, as well as by Milliman and Zawacki (1994).
SKILLS DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE FIELD OF
HOUSEHOLD AND CONSUMER SERVICES
As a practical case I present some examples from the national skills demonstra-
tion material created for the Vocational Qualifcation in Household and
Consumers Services; the certifcate being Household Services Entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship in the feld of home economics is fairly new. It emerges from
the service needs of modern busy people and from the restructuring of what
were previously mainly public welfare services. The feld is growing rapidly in
Finland and elsewhere in Europe, and there are many possibilities for segmenta-
tion. In Finland, this kind of entrepreneurship is now supported by the state,
with many initiatives and a tax reduction system for the customers who buy
services under certain conditions.
The entrepreneurs in this feld have not organized themselves into any perma-
nent union, although various networks have been created in an effort to enhance
this kind of entrepreneurship. The national core curriculum was published in
2000 (Opetushallitus, 2000). The frst students received their certifcates in the
spring of 2003. The Certifcate of Household Services Entrepreneur indicates
that graduating students have the ability to market, plan and sell household
services. The Certifcate of Consumer Adviser indicates that graduating students
are able to plan and organize information and presentation events for customers
in accordance with a company’s business plan and to present and sell consumer
goods. The study programme includes 90 credits of vocational studies, of which
20 credits are in on-the-job learning, 20 credits are in core subjects and 10 credits
160 Newness in methodological approaches
are in elective studies. The upper secondary vocational qualifcation falls within
level 3 of the European Commission classifcation.
The entrepreneurs in home economics, according to an earlier study, generally
do not hold common values, as some of them nurture effciency and economy
as frst priorities at the same time and many of them share too humble an attitude
to business. The study on entrepreneurial culture showed that there is an entre-
preneurial cultural transformation going on and also remarkable diversity in the
opinions of entrepreneurs. There is a diversity of opinions about the ability of
young vocational students to become entrepreneurs in this feld at all, and also
a lot of hesitation; they are only expecting effcient practical skills (Mahlamäki-
Kultanen, 2005.)
PRODUCTION OF THE MATERIAL
Projects in all subject areas and also the case of the Vocational Qualifcation in
Household and Consumers Services started their work based on common de-
velopment principles and a common general structure for the materials, as
required by the National Board of Education (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit.
Näytöt, 2005). The targets evaluated in skills demonstrations are the same in
every degree:
1. Command of working methods, tools and material.
2. Command of work processes (includes planning, performing, evaluating
and developing the work).
3. Command of the knowledge that forms the foundation for work.
4. Occupational safety.
5. Core competence (one or more of the following, depending on the module
of the programme: learning skills, problem-solving skills, interaction and
communication skills, co-operation skills, ethical, aesthetic and emotional
skills).
6. Common emphasis (one or more of the following, depending on the module
of the programme: internationality, promotion of sustainable development,
utilization of technology and information technology, entrepreneurship,
high-quality and customer-focused activity, consumer skills, management
of occupational health and safety).
The targets have to be defned and demonstrated in a context- and subject-spe-
cifc way after consultation and negotiation with representatives of working life
and entrepreneurs.
The process for the production of the material is presented in the Figure 9.2
and further clarifed in the following section.
Skills demonstrations 161
Figure 9.2 The process of skills demonstration material production
Analysis of core work processes
Interviews (entrepreneurs)
National curriculum, Vocational qualifcation in
Household and Consumer Services
Teams of vocational
teachers from other
vocational institutions
give feedback
Teams of vocational
teachers and home
economics
entrepreneurs
Team of a researcher
and vocational teacher
Tests in three vocational institutions
Vocational students demonstrate their skills
in enterprises and use the material in practice
Feedback from entrepreneurs, teachers and
students
National quality assurance made by
the National Board of Education
National skills demonstration
material
Skills demonstration materials for each
vocational module
Core work processes written in the language of vocational education
Analysis of critical work processes in real working life
Interpretation into the language of practice in the enterprises
162 Newness in methodological approaches
The individual projects have been allowed to organize their work as they wish
but transparency, quality systems, testing the material in two independent vo-
cational institutions, and internal and external evaluation of the project were
required in all cases. All the plans, transcribed interviews with the entrepreneurs,
analysis of the modules of the national curriculum, manuscripts from each phase
of the production, memos from meetings and seminars, completed testing ques-
tionnaires and other feedback from the production and testing process had to
be documented. The data concerning the process of material production have
been exposed twice to internal and to external auditing. The Vocational Teacher
Education College of the Häme Polytechnic is responsible for the auditing. All
the parts of the material have been tested in three vocational institutions with
three student groups. Two of the colleges are independent. Feedback has been
requested from workplace tutors and entrepreneurs, students and teachers. Ir-
respective of the material, the biggest challenge has been the language; that is,
how to write understandable yet technically precise texts that fulfl the needs of
all parties?
Because of our earlier experience with busy entrepreneurs, the project was
organized to minimize their time and effort and to focus on the most important
issues. The project was organized as four teams of two or three teachers and
two to four consulting entrepreneurs for each vocational subject area. The au-
thor, with a project worker, co-ordinated the work, edited the texts, wrote the
general guidelines, and was responsible for the fulflment of the common
principles.
As a starting point for production of the materials, three teachers interviewed
nine entrepreneurs using a fairly open, qualitative methodology to clarify com-
petence needs, entrepreneurial culture and expectations for the future. The
national vocational curriculum was also presented to them and they were asked
for their opinions about the core work and entrepreneurial processes in it. The
results were then provided to teachers from 28 other vocational institutions, in
which entrepreneurs in home economics were educated, with a request for their
comments on how the data should inform the skills demonstration material
production process.
The work processes of the vocational curriculum were then analysed once
again. The processes were presented to selected entrepreneurs without any
comment or quality grading. The purpose was to ask for their translation of the
processes into practical working language and the reality of their enterprises.
After the meetings, the teachers’ memos were edited for the frst drafts of the
skills demonstration material. They included descriptions of work environments
and practical procedures in skills demonstrations, the quality criteria for the ar-
rangements, the targets and criteria for assessment for the modules of the
vocational curriculum. The materials were tested in skills demonstrations at
enterprises and other workplace learning environments. The students’, teachers’
Skills demonstrations 163
and entrepreneurs’ opinions of these materials were asked before and after test-
ing. The materials were developed using the feedback from all the stakeholders,
including educational authorities. The materials are delivered freely to other
vocational institutions via the Internet (Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt,
2005).
EXAMPLES OF SKILLS DEMONSTRATION MATERIAL
To make the differing perspectives of the entrepreneurs, work colleagues, teach-
ers and students visible a 360-degree assessment circle was introduced and
tested in all the skills demonstrations. An example is presented in Figure 9.3.
To make the evaluation feasible and the 360-degree evaluation process visible,
the same visual model is used for all skills demonstrations. The form is com-
pleted by marking the relevant scores of each evaluator, and drawing a line
connecting them if desired. The differences between the scores of each evaluator
should form the starting point for developing a feedback discussion and not be
a question of only averaging the means. The model has received very favourable
feedback from workplace tutors, entrepreneurs, students and teachers because
of its clarity and ease of use.
A big challenge in implementing a new evaluation system, the national skills
demonstrations is to educate and initiate the entrepreneurs and solve the problem
of sharing duties and responsibilities locally. The illustrative division of labour
between teachers from the vocational institutions and workplace tutors tested
in our project is presented in Table 9.1. It was negotiated with a number of rep-
resentatives from both parties to match the needs and realities of vocational
institutions and entrepreneurs. The principles behind this division of duties and
tasks are to stress the objective and individual treatment of each student as well
as to meet the demands and possibilities of individual enterprises.
FINAL REMARKS
Because of the somewhat mixed political situation, results and fnal conclusions
about the new system cannot be presented and the discussion is far more tenta-
tive. Thus, all the material presented is preliminary, refecting the experiences
and result from the projects to date.
Although we are still witnessing a period of development and waiting for
the actual implementation of skills tests, it is already clear that skills demon-
strations will not be ‘only’ an assessment system. They will also bring a
remarkable cultural change into the co-operation between work-life and voca-
tional education. They will defnitely make it more meaningful and add to the
164
F
i
g
u
r
e
9
.
3
A
3
6
0
-
d
e
g
r
e
e
a
s
s
e
s
s
m
e
n
t
t
o
o
l
4
.
O
c
c
u
p
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
s
a
f
e
t
y
6
.
C
o
m
m
o
n
e
m
p
h
a
s
i
s
(
l
i
k
e
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
,
h
i
g
h
-
q
u
a
l
i
t
y
a
n
d
c
u
s
t
o
m
e
r
-
f
o
c
u
s
e
d
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
)
1
.
C
o
m
m
a
n
d
o
f
w
o
r
k
i
n
g
m
e
t
h
o
d
s
,
t
o
o
l
s
a
n
d
m
a
t
e
r
i
a
l
s
5
.
C
o
r
e
c
o
m
p
e
t
e
n
c
e
s
(
l
i
k
e
p
r
o
b
l
e
m
-
s
o
l
v
i
n
g
s
k
i
l
l
s
)
2
.
C
o
m
m
a
n
d
o
f
w
o
r
k
p
r
o
c
e
s
s
e
s
(
p
l
a
n
n
i
n
g
,
p
e
r
f
o
r
m
i
n
g
,
e
v
a
l
u
a
t
i
n
g
a
n
d
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
i
n
g
t
h
e
w
o
r
k
)
3
.
C
o
m
m
a
n
d
o
f
t
h
e
k
n
o
w
l
e
d
g
e
t
h
a
t
f
o
r
m
s
t
h
e
f
o
u
n
d
a
t
i
o
n
f
o
r
w
o
r
k
5
5
5
5
5
5
3
3
3
3
3
3
Skills demonstrations 165
Table 9.1 The duties of the teacher responsible for skills demonstrations
and the workplace tutor
Duties of the vocational teacher Duties of the workplace tutor in
enterprises
To master the skills demonstration plan
offcially approved by the tripartite
committee for each student group
To plan the individual skills demonstra-
tion tasks according to the national
material
To initiate the students before the skills
demonstration and to tutor them
after
To approve each student’s individual
skills demonstration plan and to
decide whether she or he is compe-
tent enough to go further in the
procedure and to apply the plan in
the workplace
To organize skills demonstration
environments for each student in
enterprises, or in the vocational
institution in some relevant cases
To master the occupational safety
issues and arrangements
To organize the revised skills demon-
stration when necessary
To initiate the workplace tutors into
their duties and tasks
To make the drafts for documents used
in the skills demonstrations based on
the national material
To organize the assessment as a co-
operative process between the
student, workplace tutor and teacher
To collect and analyse feedback from
students, workplace tutors, other
teachers and the tripartite committee
To develop skills demonstrations,
curriculum and teaching based on
the analysed feedback
To make drafts for the students’ skills
demonstration diplomas.
To deliver the information necessary
about the skills demonstration
procedures to the other people (staff,
customers) at the workplace
To master the individual skills demon-
stration material (description of the
possible environments and tasks, the
forms to record observations), to
mark the fnal ratings and to give
feedback, the evaluation criteria on
each competence level
To provide the student with the relevant
tasks for each skills demonstration
To guarantee the occupational health
issues for the individual workplace
To approve each student’s fnal skills
demonstration plan, to check that it
fts the conditions in the workplace
and is realistic, and to guide the
student to complement it if
necessary
To document and evaluate the skills
demonstration procedure for each
student
To follow the student in the course of
the skills demonstration and to guide
him or her if necessary and docu-
ment the guidance given.
To interrupt the procedure if necessary,
when the safety of the student,
customer or staff in the workplace
cannot be guaranteed or when it is
self-evident that the student will not
be able to perform the skills
demonstration
To provide each student with numerical
and verbal remarks and oral feed-
back in the evaluation discussion
between the student, responsible
teacher and tutor in the workplace
after the skills demonstration.
166 Newness in methodological approaches
value already obtained from workplace learning. The positive qualitative feed-
back and increased motivation of students show that there is no reason for
vocational institutions to be afraid of opening the doors for more co-operation
with entrepreneurs (Nyyssölä, 2002; 2003). The 360-degree assessment model
makes it possible to solve the problem of differing priorities, but it is not a
quick fx. There can sometimes be cases where the teacher from the vocational
institution is more entrepreneurial than the business owner who is the work-
place tutor in this feld. The testing of material has shown that one of the real
challenges for the educational system in future co-operation is deceptively
simple: the teachers need to learn to use language that is more understandable
and appealing to entrepreneurs.
The targets of the Copenhagen Declaration, especially transparency of voca-
tional competence, will also become more meaningful year by year. The
mobility of Finnish vocational students and its labour force is very limited. Only
2.8 per cent of vocational students, altogether around 4 000 students, annually
train abroad for a short period. At the same time, around 2000 students come
to Finland to study. The number of Finnish students training abroad has been
about the same during the years 1999–2003, while the number of foreign stu-
dents coming to Finland to study is growing slightly every year. The
internationalizing process is progressing in all vocational institutions (Mahla-
mäki-Kultanen, 2003; Virtanen and Janhola, 2004). Still, taking part in the
common European initiative will inevitably mean us Finns also achieving
meaningful development and an improvement in the quality of vocational
education.
REFERENCES
Ammatilliset ESR-projektit. Näytöt (2005), www.oph.f/ammatillinenesr, 29 March.
(Vocational Development Projects funded by the European Social Fund.)
Antonioni, D. (1996), ‘Designing an effective 360-degree appraisal feedback process’,
Organizational Dynamics, 25 (2), 24–39.
Armstrong, T., S.Y. Blake and C. Pitrowski (2000), ‘The application of a 360-degree
feedback managerial development program in higher education: the Florida model’,
Education, 120 (4), 691–5.
Brown, A. (1997), ‘All-round, all-purpose feedback for the future’, People Management,
3 (20), 59–61.
Copenhagen Declaration (2002), ‘Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational
Education and Training, and the European Commission, convened in Copenhagen on
29 and 30 November 2002, on enhanced European co-operation in vocational educa-
tion and training’.
Fletcher, C. (1997), ‘The dangers of judging managers by their peers’, People Manage-
ment, 3 (17), 50–51.
Funderburg, S.A. and P.E. Levy (1997) ‘The infuence of individual and contextual
Skills demonstrations 167
variables on 360-degree feedback system attitudes’, Group and Organization Man-
agement, 22 (2), 210–33.
Goodge, P. (2000), ‘How to manage 360-degree feedback’, People Management, 6 (4),
50–52.
Husain, D.D. (1998), ‘Accounting for results’, Techniques: Making Education and Career
Connections, 73 (7), 30–33.
Mahlamäki-Kultanen, Seija (2003), ‘Leonardo da Vinci. Ohjelman 1 vaiheen pitkän aika-
välin vaikuttavuuden arviointi. Ohjelman toisen vaiheen väliarviointi’, Opetusministeriön
julkaisuja 2003:43. (Evaluation of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. Ministry of
Education.)
Mahlamäki-Kultanen, Seija (2005), ‘Gender and sector effect on Finnish rural entrepre-
neurs’ culture: some educational implications’, in Alain Fayolle, Paula Kyrö and Jan
Ulijn (eds), Entrepreneurship Research in Europe: Outcomes and Perspectives, Chel-
tenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 292–312.
Milliman, J.F. and R.A. Zawacki (1994), ‘Companies evaluate employees from all per-
spectives’, Personnel Journal, 73 (11), 99–103.
Nyyssölä, Niina (2002), ‘Näytöt ammatillisessa peruskoulutuksessa. Väliraportti näyt-
töprojektien toiminnasta vuosina 2000 ja 2001’, Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (Skills
demonstrations in the vocational education. Report on the development projects during
the years 2000 and 2001.)
Nyyssölä, Niina (2003), ‘Näytöt ammatillisessa peruskoulutuksessa 2002. Väliraportti
näyttöprojektien toiminnasta’, Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (Skills demonstrations in the
vocational education. Report on the development projects.)
Opetushallitus (2000), ‘Kotitalous- ja kuluttajapalvelujen perustutkinto. Ammatillisen
peruskoulutuksen opetussuunnitelman ja näyttötutkinnon perusteet’. (National Board
of Education. Core curriculum. The Vocational Qualifcation in Household and Con-
sumers Services.)
QUAL PRAXIS (2005), ‘Quality assurance and practice-oriented assessment in voca-
tional education and training’, www.pedanet/veraja/qualpraxis, 29 March.
Suursalmi, Pentti (2003), ‘Kolmikantaperiaatteen toteutuminen ammatillisen peruskou-
lutuksen näytöissä’, Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (Fulflment of the tripartite principle in
the skills demonstrations.)
Vocational Education Act and Decree 630/98 (1998).
Van de Stege, C. (2003), ‘The work-based learning route in Netherlands and in England:
comparing ideas and meanings’, Compare, 33 (4), 483–95.
Virtanen, Terttu and Laura Janhola (2004), ‘Selvitys valtion tuen vaikutuksesta amma-
tillisen peruskoulutuksen kansainvälistymiseen, Hanketoiminta vuosina 2000–2003’,
Opetushallitus, Helsinki. (The impacts of the government subsidy on the development
of international activities of vocational upper secondary education and training in
Finland during the years 2000–2003.)
Ward, P. (1995), ‘A 360 degree turn for the better’, People Management, 1 (3), 20–22.
Wilson, J.L. (1997), ‘360 appraisal’, Training and Development, 51 (6), 44–5.
168
10. Pathways to new business
opportunities: innovations and
strategies for the entrepreneurial
classroom
Jill Kickul
At the forefront of adaptation and growth of new markets, entrepreneurship has
always been a vibrant force in the global economy. The current business envi-
ronment is continually searching for new innovative models that deal with frm
organization, production and overall market institutions. To prepare for future
opportunities and technological advancements, entrepreneurs need fully to un-
derstand their business and operating environment in order to develop and
capitalize on emerging ideas and opportunities.
The overall purpose of this chapter is to highlight a new entrepreneurship
course, ‘Contemporary entrepreneurial opportunities’. This course focuses
on new opportunity initiation and creation along with the critical factors in-
volved in the conception and development of new business ventures. The
introduction and framework of the course is based on the belief that entre-
preneurship is more than a set of tools and techniques for starting and growing
a business: it is a mindset, a way of looking at things that is opportunity fo-
cused and creative. In addition to discussing and profling this course, we
also begin to examine why this type of entrepreneurship course is essential
to building the skills and abilities, specifcally the self-effcacy, of future
entrepreneurs.
More specifcally, within the development and framework of this course, we
wanted to explore the role that entrepreneurial self-effcacy and alertness have
on a student’s ability to conceive, initiate and develop ideas and innovations for
a new venture. Many entrepreneurial models describing the contexts of entre-
preneurial intentionality can be revised and strengthened by including the
concept of self-effcacy as a means of explaining both the development of en-
trepreneurial intentions and the conditions under which these intentions may be
translated into actions. That is, the individual who has identifed key effcacy
perceptions about starting a business may set higher personal goals and may be
Pathways to new business opportunities 169
more persistent in overcoming entrepreneurial challenges and obstacles, par-
ticularly early on in the launch of the venture.
THE BEGINNINGS OF A NEW COURSE:
CONTEMPORARY ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Some of the topics covered within this new entrepreneurship course include:
(1) identifying new ideas and innovations, (2) market potential analysis for
products and/or services, and (3) initial fnancing and organizing of the business
opportunity. Figure 10.1 displays the ‘Contemporary entrepreneurial opportuni-
ties’ model that emphasizes both the recognition and evaluation of new
opportunities and innovations.
During the duration of the course, students conduct a knowledge of industry
check (KIC) that allows them to examine and understand a chosen industry (for
example, students review an industry’s recent performance, its current status
and the outlook for the future).
When their KIC is completed, students then develop an opportunity organi-
zational proposal (OOPs) that specifes how they will exploit an opportunity
uncovered after they have analysed their industry. Students discuss their organi-
zational description (the management team, key roles), market and competitor
analysis (which stems from the KIC), market, product, manufacturing descrip-
Figure 10.1 Contemporary entrepreneurial opportunities model
Asymmetries in knowledge,
awareness and information
Opportunity recognition Opportunity evaluation
Opportunity surplus and
resource scarcity
Industry
needs
170
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
0
.
2
F
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
a
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
R
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
a
n
d
G
u
i
d
e
s
o
n
B
l
a
c
k
b
o
a
r
d
,
f
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
o
v
e
r
v
i
e
w
,
e
v
a
l
u
a
t
i
o
n
(
p
d
f
f
l
e
)
M
a
r
k
e
t
,
p
r
o
d
u
c
t
a
n
d
m
a
n
u
f
a
c
t
u
r
i
n
g
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
o
n
M
a
r
k
e
t
s
e
r
v
e
d
(
i
.
e
,
d
e
m
o
g
r
a
p
h
i
c
s
a
n
d
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
/
s
e
r
v
i
c
e
c
o
n
c
e
p
t
(
R
&
D
,
p
r
o
p
r
i
e
t
a
r
y
f
e
a
t
u
r
e
s
,
a
n
d
t
h
e
v
a
l
u
e
a
d
d
e
d
b
y
y
o
u
r
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
)
O
p
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
s
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
o
n
O
O
P
s
…
d
e
t
e
r
m
i
n
i
n
g
t
h
e
f
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
F
i
n
a
n
c
i
a
l
A
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
o
f
s
t
a
r
t
-
u
p
c
o
s
t
s
(
i
n
v
e
s
t
i
g
a
t
e
s
i
m
i
l
a
r
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
e
s
)
F
i
n
a
n
c
i
n
g
a
l
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
v
e
s
(
d
e
b
t
/
e
q
u
i
t
y
f
n
a
n
c
i
n
g
,
l
i
s
t
i
n
g
o
f
p
o
s
s
i
b
l
e
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
)
C
o
m
p
a
n
y
D
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
o
n
O
v
e
r
v
i
e
w
a
n
d
p
h
i
l
o
s
o
p
h
y
o
f
c
o
m
p
a
n
y
O
v
e
r
a
l
l
m
i
s
s
i
o
n
a
n
d
s
t
r
a
t
e
g
i
c
i
n
t
e
n
t
M
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
t
e
a
m
K
n
o
w
l
e
d
g
e
,
S
k
i
l
l
s
a
n
d
A
b
i
l
i
t
i
e
s
(
K
S
A
s
)
s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h
s
,
e
x
p
e
r
i
e
n
c
e
O
r
g
a
n
i
z
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
s
t
r
u
c
t
u
r
e
(
h
o
w
w
i
l
l
r
e
s
p
o
n
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
i
e
s
b
e
d
i
v
i
d
e
d
?
)
M
a
r
k
e
t
a
n
d
C
o
m
p
e
t
i
t
o
r
A
n
a
l
y
s
i
s
M
a
r
k
e
t
g
r
o
w
t
h
I
n
d
u
s
t
r
y
i
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
K
e
y
c
o
m
p
e
t
i
t
o
r
s
,
s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h
s
a
n
d
w
e
a
k
n
e
s
s
e
s
o
f
e
a
c
h
I
d
e
a
Pathways to new business opportunities 171
tion and fnancial analysis (for example, start-up costs; possible fnancing
alternatives). All components of this course are designed to assist new and future
entrepreneurs in fnding creative ways to explore and discover new opportunities
as they introduce and continually redesign their products, services and processes
for their respective industries (see Figure 10.2).
For a description of the entire process, see the following outline:
From KIC to OOPS …
1. From your knowledge of the industry (KIC), list your strengths (S), weak-
nesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats inside the matrix.
2. Develop a tactical IDEA package around your SO, WO, ST, WT strategies
(your tactical package).
Strengths (S)
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
Weaknesses (W)
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
Opportunities
O1
O2
O3
O4
O5
SO STRATEGIES WO STRATEGIES
Threats
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
ST STRATEGIES WT STRATEGIES
3. Arrive at 4–5 possible IDEAS from SO, ST, etc. strategies.
4. On to OOPs, actual evaluation of IDEAS …
172 Newness in methodological approaches
Each OOPs should contain (at the minimum):
1. Executive summary
2. Company description (the management team, key roles)
3. Market and competitor analysis (stems from the KIC)
4. Market, product, and manufacturing description
5. Financial analysis (for example, start-up costs; possible financing
alternatives)
An Example (and its components)
l Executive summary: overview of all areas below including fnal recom-
mendation on the feasibility of the venture
l Company description
l Overview and philosophy of company
– Overall mission and strategic intent
l Management team
– Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs), strengths, experience
l Organizational structure (how will responsibilities be divided?)
l Market and competitor analysis
l Market growth (investigate trends in industry, customer needs)
l Industry information (social, economic, technological trends)
l Key competitors (listing of top strengths and weaknesses of each)
l Market, product, and manufacturing description
l Market served (that is, demographics and location)
l Product/service concept (description of products and/or services, R&D,
proprietary features, and the value added by your business)
l Operations description (especially relevant, of course, if manufacturing
products)
l Financial analysis
l Estimate of start-up costs (investigate similar businesses), fnancing al-
ternatives (debt/equity fnancing, listing of possible resources)
THE NEED FOR THIS COURSE IN THE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP CURRICULUM
Many entrepreneurship courses focus on commonly identifed entrepreneurial
management and planning skills, but often ignore entrepreneurial skills such as
innovation and risk-taking. The teaching of entrepreneurial skills tends to be
technical, with insuffcient attention paid to the cognition and belief systems of
173
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
0
.
3
B
u
i
l
d
i
n
g
e
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
e
l
f
-
e
f
f
c
a
c
y
M
a
r
s
h
a
l
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
5
:
R
a
i
s
e
m
o
n
e
y
t
o
s
t
a
r
t
a
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
6
:
C
o
n
v
i
n
c
e
o
t
h
e
r
s
t
o
i
n
v
e
s
t
i
n
y
o
u
r
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
7
:
C
o
n
v
i
n
c
e
a
b
a
n
k
t
o
l
e
n
d
y
o
u
m
o
n
e
y
t
o
s
t
a
r
t
a
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
8
:
C
o
n
v
i
n
c
e
o
t
h
e
r
s
t
o
w
o
r
k
f
o
r
y
o
u
i
n
y
o
u
r
n
e
w
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
U
n
c
e
r
t
a
i
n
t
y
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
m
e
n
t
I
n
t
e
r
p
e
r
s
o
n
a
l
a
n
d
n
e
t
w
o
r
k
i
n
g
m
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
O
p
p
o
r
t
u
n
i
t
y
r
e
c
o
g
n
i
t
i
o
n
P
r
o
c
u
r
e
m
e
n
t
a
n
d
a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
c
r
i
t
i
c
a
l
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
D
e
v
e
l
o
p
m
e
n
t
a
n
d
m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e
o
f
a
n
i
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
v
e
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
D
e
N
o
b
l
e
’
s
f
a
c
t
o
r
s
C
h
e
n
’
s
f
a
c
t
o
r
s
R
i
s
k
-
t
a
k
i
n
g
I
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
o
n
F
i
n
a
n
c
i
a
l
c
o
n
t
r
o
l
M
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
M
a
r
k
e
t
i
n
g
S
e
a
r
c
h
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
1
:
C
o
n
c
e
i
v
e
a
u
n
i
q
u
e
i
d
e
a
T
a
s
k
2
:
I
d
e
n
t
i
f
y
m
a
r
k
e
t
o
p
p
o
r
t
u
n
i
t
i
e
s
P
l
a
n
n
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
3
:
P
l
a
n
a
n
e
w
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
4
:
W
r
i
t
e
a
f
o
r
m
a
l
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
p
l
a
n
I
m
p
l
e
m
e
n
t
i
n
g
p
h
a
s
e
T
a
s
k
9
:
M
a
n
a
g
e
a
s
m
a
l
l
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
T
a
s
k
1
0
:
G
r
o
w
a
s
u
c
c
e
s
s
f
u
l
b
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
174 Newness in methodological approaches
the entrepreneur. Educators should take into account entrepreneurial attitudes
and perceptions when designing or assessing their entrepreneurship programmes
and course objectives.
One of the ways to understand the new venture creation process that can assist
educators in the design of an entrepreneurship curriculum is to examine the role
of entrepreneurial self-effcacy. Self-effcacy may play an important role in un-
covering the essential skill set needed throughout the various stages of the
entrepreneurial life cycle, from the searching to the implementing phase of the
business (see Figure 10.3). The following section discusses the various compo-
nents of entrepreneurial self-effcacy within the entrepreneurship literature.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SELF-EFFICACY
The construct of self-effcacy has been widely applied in psychology as an in-
dividual difference variable. Self-effcacy is believed to be related to one’s
choice of activities, one’s effort and persistence, thought processes, and emo-
tional reactions when confronted by obstacles (Bandura, 1997; Lent et al.,
1994). Self-effcacy is defned by Bandura (1997) as people’s judgements of
their capabilities to organize and execute courses of actions required to attain
designated types of performances. It is concerned not with the skills one has
but with the judgements of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses.
Self-effcacy is acquired gradually through the development of complex cogni-
tive, social, linguistic and/or physical skills that are obtained through experience
(Bandura, 1982; Gist, 1987). Thus, the acquisition of skills through past
achievements reinforces self-effcacy and contributes to higher aspirations and
future performance (Herron and Sapienza, 1992). Research examining self-ef-
fcacy and knowledge gain, or similar outcomes, has found that pre-training
self-effcacy measures positively predict learning (for example, Gist et al.,
1989; Martocchio and Webster, 1992).
Self-effcacy has a number of practical and theoretical implications for en-
trepreneurial success since initiating a new venture requires unique skills and
mindset. In the entrepreneurial self-effcacy research by De Noble et al. (1999),
they identifed the following six theoretical dimensions of entrepreneurial self-
effcacy, including:
l risk and uncertainty management skills
l innovation and product development skills
l interpersonal and networking management skills
l opportunity recognition
l procurement and allocation of critical resource
l development and maintenance of an innovative environment.
Pathways to new business opportunities 175
Many of these factors may be associated with many of the critical tasks/roles
that have been identifed within the entrepreneurial life cycle. In particular, in-
novation and product development skills as well as opportunity recognition
skills may play a key role in the early stages of the life cycle. Because the
‘Contemporary entrepreneurial opportunities’ course focuses on opportunity
development and innovation, we examined and assessed the students’ abilities
and awareness on several of these skill areas and the early stages of entrepre-
neurial life cycle (for example, the searching phase; see Figure 10.4).
METHOD AND ASSESSMENT
Overview
Undergraduate students who were enrolled in the contemporary entrepreneurial
opportunities course over Winter 2003 participated in the assessment study. All
students were given a questionnaire at the end of the course, asking them to
provide their beliefs and attitudes regarding entrepreneurial ventures as well as
their perceived skills in performing entrepreneurial roles and tasks.
Figure 10.4 Early stages of the entrepreneurial life cycle
Searching
phase
Task 1: Conceive a
unique idea for a
business
Task 2: Identify
market opportunities
for a new business
Entrepreneurial
self-effcacy
opportunity
recognition
Alertness
opportunity
development
The Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Effcacy and Alertness on Business Planning
176 Newness in methodological approaches
Measures
Entrepreneurial self-effcacy
We used De Noble et al.’s (1999) self-effcacy measure to assess their opportu-
nity recognition and development skills. The following is a list of the items
used:
l I can originate new ideas and products.
l I can see new market opportunities for new products and services.
l I can discover new ways to improve existing products.
l I can identify new areas for potential growth.
l I can react quickly to take advantage of business opportunities.
l I can create products that fulfl customers’ unmet needs.
l I can formulate a set of actions in pursuit of opportunities.
Students rated themselves on how capable they believe they are in performing
each task using a 7-point Likert scale where 1 represents ‘strongly disagree’
and 7 represents ‘strongly agree’.
Entrepreneurial alertness
We assessed the students perceived entrepreneurial alertness (towards opportuni-
ties) using Hills et al.’s measure (1995; 5 items) of self-perceived entrepreneurial
alertness. Sample items include, ‘I have a special alertness or sensitivity toward
opportunities’ and ‘I enjoy just thinking about and/or looking for new business
opportunities’. For each statement, students rated themselves using a 7-point
Likert scale where 1 represents ‘strongly disagree’ and 7 represents ‘strongly
agree’.
Entrepreneurial life cycle tasks and roles
Cox et al.’s (2002) scale was used to measure the participants’ perceptions of
their ability to perform many of the instrumental tasks/functions within each
stage of the entrepreneurial life cycle (please refer to their tasks in Figure 10.3).
Participants were asked to think about the process of starting a new business
venture. For each statement within the searching phase (task 1 and task 2), they
rated their level of confdence on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = ‘not confdent’; 7
= ‘completely confdent’).
Pathways to new business opportunities 177
INITIAL ASSESSMENT: EXAMINING THE
RELATIONSHIPS
To examine the relationship between opportunity recognition self-effcacy,
alertness, and entrepreneurial tasks, we conducted correlational analyses. Table
10.1 shows the descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations.
Table 10.1 (a) Descriptive statistics. (b) Correlations
(a) Descriptive statistics
Mean Std. Deviation
Effcacy: opportunity recognition 5.5854 .9150
Entrepreneurial alertness towards
opportunities
4.7877 .7515
Searching-task 1 5.1205 1.5333
Searching-task 2 5.4699 1.3555
(b) Correlations
Effcacy:
Opportunity
Recognition
Alertness
Towards
Opportunities
Searching-
task1
Searching-
task2
Effcacy: opportunity
recognition
1.000
Entrepreneurial
alertness towards
opportunities
.583** 1.000
Searching-task 1 .410** .587** 1.000
Searching-task 2 .470** .589** .806** 1.000
Note: ** Correlation is signifcant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Our results revealed that self-effcacy was associated with entrepreneurial
alertness. Both entrepreneurial self-effcacy (opportunity recognition) and en-
trepreneurial alertness were related to both tasks involved in the searching for
new ideas, innovations for a new venture. From our correlational analyses, we
also examined how the building of entrepreneurial self-effcacy ‘adds’ to entre-
preneurial alertness in a student’s ability to perform the tasks involved in the
178 Newness in methodological approaches
searching phase of the life cycle. Figures 10.5 and 10.6 display the incremental
infuence self-effcacy has on these tasks beyond entrepreneurial alertness. When
entrepreneurial self-effcacy is high (for example, EFFEC = 1), students have
higher perceived abilities in fnding unique ideas for the business (searching
phase, task 1) and identifying market opportunities for a new business (searching
phase, task 2).
DISCUSSION
The opportunity recognition process itself has been described as multidimen-
sional, incorporating the search process for new ideas as well as the recognition
of feasible business opportunities. While some entrepreneurs start ventures prior
to identifying opportunities, beyond start-up this process becomes vital to the
venture’s growth capability as it confronts environmental changes and seeks
new innovations for the business (Zietsma, 1999). This chapter takes a frst step
in outlining a new opportunity recognition course that focuses on building the
skills and abilities of future entrepreneurs, particularly as they become involved
in the planning and launch of their venture.
Figure 10.5 Perceived ability in fnding unique idea for the business
6.5
6.0
4.0
5.5
5.0
4.5
.00 1.00
5.4
4.2
5.9
5.2
Estimated marginal means of searching-task 1
EFFEC
Pathways to new business opportunities 179
Considering the relationship between the entrepreneurial self-effcacy and
entrepreneurial life-cycle tasks, one can expect to enhance their ability to perform
these tasks by putting systematic and continuous emphasis on entrepreneurial
self-effcacy. As mentioned earlier, many entrepreneurship courses focus on
commonly identifed entrepreneurial management and planning skills, but often
ignore entrepreneurial skills, such as innovation and risk-taking. Inadequate at-
tention is given to the cognition and belief systems of the entrepreneur, and skill
development tends to be very technical. Entrepreneurship educators should take
into account entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions when designing or assess-
ing their entrepreneurship programmes and curriculum.
In order to increase a student’s entrepreneurial self-effcacy, educators should
also work on an environment that allows potential and actual entrepreneurs to
share, debate and assess the feasibility of their business ideas. An environment
perceived to be more supportive will also increase entrepreneurial self-effcacy
because individuals assess their entrepreneurial capacities in reference to per-
ceived resources, opportunities and obstacles existing in the environment (see
Figure 10.7).
In addition to building a supportive environment, educators should consider
the role that others have in infuencing entrepreneurial self-effcacy. Social
learning theory (SLT) proposes that one way learning can occur is vicariously,
Figure 10.6 Perceived ability in identifying market opportunities for a new
business
6.5
6.0
4.5
5.5
5.0
.00 1.00
5.5
4.6
6.2
5.7
Estimated marginal means of searching-task 2
EFFEC
180
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
0
.
7
C
o
n
c
e
p
t
u
a
l
f
r
a
m
e
w
o
r
k
N
e
w
v
e
n
t
u
r
e
c
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
l
F
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
l
P
r
o
p
o
s
a
l
o
f
i
d
e
a
(
s
)
l
E
v
a
l
u
a
t
i
o
n
T
h
e
f
o
u
n
d
e
r
s
T
h
e
t
e
a
m
F
I
T
v
s
G
A
P
S
P
l
a
n
n
i
n
g
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
r
e
q
u
i
r
e
m
e
n
t
s
O
p
p
o
r
t
u
n
i
t
y
r
e
c
o
g
n
i
t
i
o
n
(
i
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
o
n
s
)
N
e
w
v
e
n
t
u
r
e
P
r
e
/
p
o
s
t
l
a
u
n
c
h
l
C
h
a
l
l
e
n
g
e
l
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
r
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
a
n
d
a
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
P
r
o
g
r
a
m
m
e
i
n
i
t
i
a
t
i
v
e
s
(
P
e
d
a
g
o
g
y
,
r
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
,
o
u
t
r
e
a
c
h
)
S
k
i
l
l
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
m
e
n
t
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
s
e
l
f
-
e
f
f
c
a
c
y
Pathways to new business opportunities 181
through the observation of behaviors in others, referred to as role models (Ban-
dura, 1977). Adapting the principles of SLT to entrepreneurial role models in
the form of mentors would indicate that individuals having greater exposure to
other entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial ventures and
activities (Schaver and Scott, 1991). Entrepreneurial mentors may appear in the
form of family members, employers, teachers or anyone whom the individual
has had an opportunity to observe (Sexton and Smilor, 1986). Over time and
using a longitudinal approach, it would be interesting to examine how these re-
lationships evolve and infuence an aspriring and future entrepreneur so that
they launch and grow their own ventures. Programme initiatives can be designed
which allow students to evaluate their opportunities, build an effective manage-
ment team and garner the necessary resources to start the new business. Setting
up a supportive environment and opportunities to incorporate entrepreneurial
role models (Figure 10.8), beginning in our classrooms, that focus on essential
skills, tasks and abilities, may give future entrepreneurs the necessary competen-
cies and confdence needed to launch and grow their businesses within a
marketplace that demands agility and continual innovation.
REFERENCES
Bandura, A. (1977), Social Learning Theory, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A. (1982), ‘Self-effcacy mechanism in human agency’, American Psychologist,
37 (2), 122–47.
Figure 10.8 Entrepreneurial role models
Factors that are taken into account
in the chapter
Factors that could be explored in
further discussion or research
Correlations
demonstrated in the chapter
Links to be explored in future research
Supportive environment
I have a positive
attitude towards
I am confdent
about doing
Someone I admire
explains to me
I think I can
(SE)
I do/I learn
how to do
Someone I like
helps me to do
182 Newness in methodological approaches
Bandura, A. (1997), Self-Effcacy: The Exercise of Control, New York: W.H. Freeman.
Cox, L.W., S.L. Mueller and S.E. Moss (2002), ‘The impact of entrepreneurship educa-
tion on entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship
Education, 1 (2), 229–45.
De Noble. A.F., D. Jung and S.B. Ehrlich (1999), ‘Entrepreneurial self-effcacy: the de-
velopment of a measure and its relationship to entrepreneurial action’, www.babson.
edu/entrep/fer/papers99/index99/index99.html, accessed 20 April 2005.
Gist, M.E. (1987), ‘Self-effcacy: implication for organizational behavior and human
resource management’, Academy of Management Review, 17 (2), 183–211.
Gist, M.E., C. Schwoerer and B. Rosen (1989), ‘Effects of alternative training methods
on self-effcacy and performance in computer software training’, Journal of Applied
Psychology, 74 (6), 884–91.
Herron, L. and H.J. Sapienza (1992), ‘The entrepreneur and the initiation of new venture
launch activities’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 17 (1), 49–55.
Hills, G., T. Lumpkin and R. Singh (1995), ‘Opportunity recognition: Perceptions and
behaviors of entrepreneurs’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley, MA:
Babson College.
Lent, R.W., S.D. Brown and G. Hackett (1994), ‘Toward a unifying social cognitive
theory of career and academic interest, choice and performance, Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 45 (1), 79–122.
Martocchio, J.J. and J. Webster (1992), ‘Effects of feedback and cognitive playfulness
on performance in microcomputer software training’, Personnel Psychology, 45,
553–78.
Sexton, D. and R. Smilor (1986), The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, Cambridge,
MA: Ballinger.
Shaver, K. and L. Scott (1991), ‘Person, process, and choice: the psychology of the new
venture creation’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 16, 23–45.
Zietsma, C. (1999), ‘Opportunity knocks – or does it hide? An examination of the role
of opportunity recognition in entrepreneurship’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Re-
search, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Pathways to new business opportunities 183
APPENDIX: CONTEMPORARY ENTREPRENEURIAL
OPPORTUNITIES
Dr Jill R. Kickul
Email: [email protected]
Web address: www.depaul.edu/~jkickul
Course Description
Entrepreneurship is more than a set of tools and techniques for starting and
growing a business. It is a mindset, a way of looking at things that is opportunity
focused and creative. It is about passion – doing what you love. It is about creat-
ing wealth in all its forms: money, independence, power and innovation. It is
about challenge and persistence. And it is about creativity and writing new ex-
ecution strategies for the way things are done.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart, the timid, those who hate am-
biguity and those who want everything in black and white. It is for those who
are self-motivated, independent, persistent, have a sense of humour, can learn
and bounce back from failure and are willing to take and manage calculated
risks.
This course focuses on new opportunity initiation and the preparation of an
opportunity study that can be used to begin operations in a new business enter-
prise. It examines the critical factors involved in the conception, initiation, and
development of new business ventures. The topics covered include:
l Identifcation of characteristics of prospective entrepreneurs.
l Identifying innovations.
l Market potential analysis for new products or services.
l Initial fnancing, organizing, and operating a new business.
The course objectives are:
l To provide training and education regarding the feasibility, planning, and
implementation of a new business idea and venture.
l To improve your managerial and organizational skills through application
of theories to real entrepreneurial problems.
l To develop a basic understanding and appreciation of entrepreneurs as a
vital part of the American society.
184 Newness in methodological approaches
Course Requirements
Idea journal
Every week, students will have the opportunity to write/document their entre-
preneurial ideas (at least one per week). Ideas can come from multiple sources,
at any time, and anywhere (it may be handy to have pen/paper/scratch paper/
palm (real and electronic) nearby. Check out: www.creativitypool.com/.
Also, to get you jump-started, consider the following questions, from Osborne
(1963):
Put to other uses? New ways to use as is?
Other uses if modifed?
Adapt? What else is like this?
What other idea does this suggest?
Does the past offer parallel?
What could I copy?
Whom could I emulate?
Modify? New twist?
Change meaning, colour, motion, sound, odour, form,
shape?
Other shapes?
Magnify? What to add?
More time?
Greater frequency?
Stronger?
Higher?
Longer?
Thicker?
Extra value?
Plus ingredient?
Duplicate?
Multiply?
Exaggerate?
Minify? What to subtract?
Smaller?
Condensed?
Miniature?
Lower?
Pathways to new business opportunities 185
Shorter?
Lighter?
Omit?
Streamline?
Split up?
Understate?
Substitute? Who else instead?
What else instead?
Other ingredient?
Other material?
Other process?
Other power?
Other place?
Other approach?
Other tone of voice?
Rearrange? Interchange components?
Other pattern?
Other layout?
Other sequence?
Transpose cause and effect?
Change pace?
Change schedule?
Reverse? Transpose positive and negative?
How about opposites?
Turn it backward?
Turn it upside down?
Reverse roles?
Change shoes?
Turn tables?
Turn other cheek?
Combine? How about a blend, an alloy, an assortment, an ensem-
ble?
Combine units?
Combine purposes?
Combine appeals?
Combine ideas?
186 Newness in methodological approaches
Knowledge of industry check (KIC): your beginning to understanding
the industry and the ideas within them
A complete industrial analysis usually includes a review of an industry’s recent
performance, its current status, and the outlook for the future. Many analyses
include a combination of text and statistical data.
There are many sources of industry analysis: investment frms, business and
trade periodicals, trade associations, and government agencies. To conduct a
thorough industry analysis, include a variety of sources (resources to get you
started).
l MultexNET. Provides real-time and full-text investment, corporate and
industry reports supplied by over 700 brokerage frms, investment banks
and independent research providers. Examples include Merrill Lynch,
Morgan Stanley, and Salomon Smith Barney. You can limit searches to
‘industry reports only’ and use the pull-down menu for industry types, or
enter keywords. The advanced search page provides additional options.
Most of the reports are in PDF format. For emerging market reports, see
also ISI Emerging Markets.
l Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys
l U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook
l Hoover’s Industry Group Snapshots
l Internet Intelligence Index. Created by the Fuld & Company Library, this
site provides ’links to nearly 600 intelligence-related Internet sites, cover-
ing everything from macro-economic data to individual patent and stock
quote information’. Notice the sections on ‘Industry-Specifc Internet Re-
sources’ and ‘International Internet Resources’ further down the page. Fuld
& Company offers management consulting in competitive intelligence.
l Business.com. Covers over 28 industries, from accounting to utilities.
Business.com provides a directory of industry websites.
Opportunity organizational proposal (OOPs!)
If you plan to start a business, every business professional and investor you meet
– lawyers, bankers, accountants, other entrepreneurs, business ‘angels’ of all
types – will ask the same thing, ‘Is it feasible?’ The OOPs and a business plan
defne the essence of entrepreneurship or small business as taught in America’s
business schools today. Thus, a central component of this course is the oppor-
tunity for the students to develop a venture OOPs which will be presented for
evaluation. Each OOPs should contain (at the minimum):
1. Executive summary
2. Company description (the management team, key roles)
3. Market and competitor analysis (stems from the KIC)
Pathways to new business opportunities 187
4. Market, product, and manufacturing description
5. Financial analysis (for example, start-up costs; possible financing
alternatives).
Presentations of KIC and OOPs
Many studies indicate that presentations that combine words with graphics help
to get the points across better and faster, assist groups to reach consensus sooner
and help individuals remember key points longer. Students should develop
professional text and graph charts for the presentation material. It is recom-
mended that the team conduct the presentation in as professional a manner as
possible. It is also recommended that a creative, innovative, multi-method
presentation be made (for example, graphics, handouts, statistics, and so on).
Small group and class participation
The success of this course depends not only on your attendance, but also on
your participation. The more you participate, the more fun and valuable the
course will be for all of us. For every class, students are expected to read the
supplemental readings and cases. Participation is measured using several crite-
ria. These include actively participating individually during the ‘discussion’ part
of our sessions, in small group meetings, and in group presentations.
The instructor’s evaluation of your participation is worth 10 per cent towards
your fnal course grade, and will be evaluated using these criteria:
l When questions or cases were presented to the class, how active (as op-
posed to inactive) was your participation?
l When you answered questions or commented on reading-related or dis-
cussion-related material in class, how accurately (as opposed to
inaccurately) did you use concepts previously discussed?
l When you asked questions or commented on reading-related or discus-
sion-related material in class, how creative (as opposed to redundant or
repetitive) was your thinking?
l When you were asked to answer case questions to solve organizational
problems (a career as an organizational consultant offers big bucks by the
way), how specifc, hence implementable (as opposed to vague, hence
useless), were your suggested remedies to problems raised in class?
l When you criticized others’ ideas (including the instructor’s), how con-
structively (as opposed to destructively) did you state your criticism?
l How many times were you absent when your small group was working
on in-class and live case (so that your group missed your contributions)?
One group absence may not adversely affect your participation grade;
more class absences will lower your fnal grade.
188 Newness in methodological approaches
Breakdown of Course Requirements
Idea journal 15%
KIC 25%
KIC presentation 10%
OPPs 25%
OPPs presentation 15%
Class participation 10%
Total 100%
REFERENCE
Osborne, A. (1963), Applied Imagination, 3rd edn, New York: Scribner.
PART THREE
Diffusing and Promoting Entrepreneurial
Culture and Developing Entrepreneurial
Potential
191
11. Developing an entrepreneurial spirit
among engineering college students:
what are the educational factors?
Caroline Verzat and Rémi Bachelet
Although engineers are often associated with innovation, they tend to create far
fewer businesses than business schools graduates (Fayolle, 2001). Most notice-
ably, the career model for French engineers has for a long time been orientated
towards technical or managerial functions within large companies (Bouffartigue,
1994).
Considering the importance of innovative business creation in the economy,
the North Region in France initiated a research programme to study entrepre-
neurship education for engineers. Our research is carried out within the
framework called ‘Pôle Régional de Recherche sur l’Entrepreneuriat’ set up by
Conseil Régional du Nord Pas de Calais. The initial question was to fnd out
how to promote an entrepreneurial spirit among new engineers and fnd the
factors that can be infuential.
Arguably, the most widely recognized factor favouring entrepreneurship is
family background, but this is typically a factor that cannot be infuenced by
education. Another advanced approach is based on the identifcation of entre-
preneurial ftness and skills (Carter et al., 1995; Gartner, 1988; Lorrain et al.,
1998), but this approach does not make it possible to predict the occurrence of
the phenomenon or to detect entrepreneurs. More interestingly for us, a number
of authors emphasize the part to be played by the educational system in the
promotion of an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ prior to the intention to set up a business
(Albert and Marion, 1997; Fayolle, 2000).
Our own experience of teaching grande école engineers at Ecole Centrale de
Lille shows that very few students choose to join the Entrepreneurship Master
Course, which requires applicants to have a personal business project (about 2
per cent of students), and when they do, it is not on impulse but the result of a
process over a period of time (Verzat et al., 2002). Within this process, which
we call, as Fayolle does, the ‘awakening of an entrepreneurial spirit’, a major
part is played, by a hands-on project management experience during the two
frst years of their curriculum.
192 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
The purpose of this chapter is to further what can be called the ‘entrepre-
neurial spirit’. Indeed these words, although widely used, have not yet been
properly defned in the literature as to how it is created, and what precise aspects
can be enhanced through teaching activities. It is a matter of suggesting hypoth-
eses in order to build up a model of how an entrepreneurial spirit is engendered
among newly trained engineers.
Our chapter is divided into four sections. The frst deals with the question of
the defnition of the entrepreneurial spirit: how does it arise prior to the decision
to set up a business? How can the components of an entrepreneurial spirit be
defned? We suggest a dynamic model. The second section deals with the factors
leading to an entrepreneurial spirit among young engineers: what is the rele-
vance of the educational background? What are the possible teaching method
variables within engineering college training? The third section presents meth-
odological features of our research. The fourth section presents some early
results about the projective dimensions of our model of engineering students in
2004. As a conclusion, we present theoretical and practical implications of our
research.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT: A SUGGESTED DYNAMIC
MODEL TO EXPLORE THE BEGINNINGS OF THE
ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS
How should entrepreneurial spirit or entrepreneurial spirit be defned? Although
this notion has been widely used, it has still to be properly defned. We believe
this could very much help in understanding what happens prior to the declared
intention of creating a business. In that regard, this is a new insight into the be-
ginnings of the entrepreneurial process.
The Unknown Beginnings of the Entrepreneurial Process
For a few years, researchers in entrepreneurship have suggested the idea that
setting up a business can be understood as a process (Gartner, 1985; 1988,
Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990). Fayolle (2002) shows that this vision of entre-
preneurship is frst justifed by the fact that entrepreneurship is a rather
complex phenomenon. Indeed, it includes psychological, social, economic and
organizational dimensions. Secondly there is a large diversity of entrepre-
neurial situations, because entrepreneurs and their projects differ greatly.
This vision of entrepreneurship as a process is important because it allows
research in entrepreneurship to go ahead of a dual conception of entrepreneur-
ship. On one side is the functional approach of economists (Baumol, 1993)
where the entrepreneur is described as an innovator, an organizer and a risk-
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 193
taker. On the other is the psychological approach where the entrepreneur is
defned by his or her personality, motivations and behaviours, looking for an
entrepreneurial personality type.
Our research is based on the idea that becoming an entrepreneur is more about
how a person builds up a vision of what he or she is capable of and what he or
she wants to become in relation to an environment that will confrm this project
or not. It is much more a process than a predetermination.
Talking about an entrepreneurial process is nevertheless a very large subject,
because it can take many steps and years from the frst idea to the effective set-
ting up of the frm. Tounès 2003 suggests a representation of the entrepreneurial
process in fve stages (see Figure 11.1). Our choice is to explore the uphill stages
of this process prior to the decision of setting up.
Many authors have already explored the frst stages of the process around the
notion of intention. Most research is based either on Ajzen’s theory of planned
behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; 2002) applied to the intention to create a business or
on the theory of the predictability of the entrepreneurial event by Shapero and
Sokol (1982). According to Ajzen, any behaviour fnds expression in an intention
to adopt this behaviour. This intention springs from positive attitudes as regards
this behaviour, normative beliefs and a feeling of control from this behaviour,
which results in a ‘control locus’ on the one hand, and in the perception of a
‘self-effcacy’ (Bandura, 1982) on the other. This is the way, for instance, he
analyses the intention to give up smoking. According to Shapero and Sokol, the
entrepreneurial intention derives from the perceptions of its desirability and its
feasibility. Krueger and Carsrud (1993), Autio et al. (1997), Wang et al. (2001),
Peterman and Kennedy (2003) and Tounès (2003) try to explain the intention
to set up a business.
Our position is that this model is very important but not suffcient to approach
the early stages of the entrepreneurial process, because in many cases awareness
of this intention occurs very late. We already know from Fayolle (1994) that
many engineers become entrepreneurs late in their careers. We also know from
Source: Tounès (2003)
Figure 11.1 Representation of the entrepreneurial process by Tounès
Entrepreneurial skills
Entrepreneurial
predispositions
Entrepreneurial
intention
Decision to
set up
Effective
setting up
Entrepreneurial
behaviours
Pursuit or abandonment
194 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Wang et al. (2001) that students in Singapore, who have declared their intention
to set up a business do not do it when the economic environment offers better
job opportunities. We also believe that deeper or earlier infuences may exist.
For instance, Fayolle (2001) notes that many engineers setting up a business
had taken responsible positions in associations when at school. As far as we are
concerned, we noted in our exploratory research that most newly trained engi-
neers embarking on setting up a business had beein in a decisive leadership
position for two years within their innovation project team (Verzat et al.,
2002).
We can thus hypothesize that the stages before the business setting-up deci-
sion refer to something that can be named an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. But how
can we defne it?
According to Albert and Marion (1997): ‘the entrepreneurial spirit consists
– for business as well as for all human activities – in identifying opportunities,
in gathering resources of various natures, in order to create a wealth that meets
a solvable demand’. Other authors defne the entrepreneurial spirit as a set of
positive attitudes as regards the notion of ‘enterprise’ or of ‘starting a business’,
or as regards the entrepreneurial spirit, which involves taking initiatives and
action (Léger-Jarniou, 2001). The entrepreneurial spirit also defnes the basic
characteristics of an entrepreneur, who is different from the manager or the in-
ventor (Fayolle, 2002), regarding the activation of mental images allowing an
organization to develop (Fonrouge, 2002). A set of personality features, of abili-
ties, values and attitudes which reveal entrepreneurial behaviours are to be found
in these models.
So there is no clear consensus as to the defnition of an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’,
and the defnitions that can be found in the literature seem to be closer to the
consequences of an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ than to the concept itself. Our ap-
proach is to understand the dynamics that contribute to building up such a
‘spirit’. When students arrive at the engineering college, very few know about
their future career or their specifc abilities. The three years they spend in college
help them to develop professional competence and to build up their professional
identity. So our main hypothesis about the entrepreneurial spirit is that it is
progressively built up through a dual elaboration of professional identity and
of specifc attitudes, behaviours and competence feelings. Our model tries to
encompass these two dimensions in a dynamic process of elaboration.
Suggestion of a Dynamic Model
The model of the entrepreneurial spirit we propose can be roughly drawn in a
diagram (Figure 11.2).
Through academic and pre-professional experiences (internships, activities
in associations) the young student will progressively understand what he or she
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 195
is capable of and what are his or her values or beliefs towards what is good for
him or her. That will help him to choose orientations for the future and progres-
sively summarize his professional project. At each step, we postulate that some
features can be identifed as entrepreneurial. Let us summarize all those features
as regards professional projections and abilities in a broad sense.
Building Up Entrepreneurial Professional Projections
We have noted, through our exploratory interviews, the importance of a projec-
tion of an identity and/or professional type which shows through some assertions,
such as: ‘I have known for a long time that I have an entrepreneur profle’ or ‘I
don’t feel myself as a classical technology or large business minded engineer’
or else ‘there are many business creators in my family, and I am interested in it
too’. How can we give an account of those implicit professional models?
All the more so as, for some authors such as Gottfredson (1981 [1996])
(quoted by Guichard and Huteau, 2001), the professional and career choices
are, frst, an attempt for the person to realize a ‘social self’ and, secondarily, the
realization of a ‘psychological self’. Using the related story of life, Rae and
Carswell, 2000) reveal the importance of building up a meaning for oneself in
front of other people in the entrepreneur’s learning process: becoming an en-
trepreneur is building up values/incentives with precise objectives, so, once they
have been achieved, the successful realizations feed a self-confdence and the
ability to be successful, which is close to Bandura’s ‘self effcacy’ concept.
Becoming an entrepreneur may be approached on the basis of the double
transaction identity-building theory (Dubar, 1991). In fact, we can identify
here:
1. On the one hand, a biographic transaction in which the engineering college
student sees a possible future continuing or breaking up with his or her
Figure 11.2 Model of the entrepreneurial spirit
First professional
experience
Entrepreneurial professional projections
Precursory behaviours: taking responsibilities
Identify projection as an engineer-entrepreneur
Intention to set up a business
First steps towards entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial abilities
Entrepreneurial attitudes
Entrepreneurial beliefs
Entrepreneurial competence feelings
Entrepreneurial spirit
Setting up a
business?
196 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
former experience (family experiences, the choice for an engineering col-
lege, activities with associations, projects, and so on).
2. On the other hand, a relational transaction in which the engineering college
student has the legitimacy of his or her aspirations (career and life projects)
recognized by a favourable environment (parents, relatives, friends, other
students ready to get involved, outside potential partners, lecturers helping
to build up a business plan or confrming the feasibility of a creation idea)
among which the college’s culture plays an important part.
For many of the students, the professional projects build up slowly, through
explorations and trial and error where some encouragement can occur to explore
the trail, and then confrmation of the feasibility of a business setting-up project
by the lecturers.
In that respect, the way some career guidance psychologists analyse the
building up of a professional project is interesting. For Ginzberg et al. (1951,
quoted by Guichard and Huteau, 2001) building up one’s professional project
is a process including ‘realistic choices’. This process goes through three stages:
an exploratory phase, along which frst-year students carry out an active search
for information, taking part in discussions with well-informed people such as
lecturers or career advisers in order to elaborate on a professional choice. The
second phase is a crystallization phase, in which students – generally fourth-year
students – crystallize their choices and experience, which then enable them to
draw up a hierarchy of their choices and to identify their tendencies. The last
phase of the process is called ‘specifcation’ and corresponds to the expression
of the ‘professional tendency’; fnal-year students choose a profession and de-
vote many hours of work to the project they are interested in.
To sum up, several hypotheses can be set out about the way to defne the
projections of an entrepreneurial spirit prior to the decision to set up a
business:
H1. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself through an intention to set up a
business.
H2. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself, during study at college, through
precursory behaviours such as taking responsibilities in associations or
taking the leadership of a project team.
H3. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself through an identity projection
which can be spotted through claims to other people of what one is or
wants to be, as opposed to the technology-minded engineer model.
H4. An entrepreneurial spirit expresses itself through a professional project
gradually built up around the setting up of a business: with frst-year stu-
dents, it expresses itself in an information search exploratory phase. With
second-year students, it fnds expression in a search for opportunities,
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 197
advice and training related to the project. As soon as they get to the third
year, the students have roughly completed their project work (contacts
have been established with banks or partners; they have turned towards
the Business-setting up Master Course.
Building up entrepreneurial abilities
An important literature deals with the psychological profle of the entrepreneur
or his or her necessary competence. All authors using Ajzen’s theory describe
various components of the intention to be an entrepreneur: (1) favourable atti-
tudes as regards entrepreneurship; (2) internalized social standards related to
an entrepreneurial behaviour; (3) the feeling of having entrepreneurial skills,
self-control and the ability to become successful.
We tried to take all these dimensions into account, and ended up with three
features of a potential entrepreneur:
l specifc attitudes, which refer to internal predispositions to act in certain
ways and account mainly for specifc personality traits
l normative beliefs as regards entrepreneurship
l feeling of having entrepreneurial skills (self-effcacy).
Tables 11.1 and 11.2 show details of these three features.
Entrepreneurial attitudes In order to estimate someone’s attitude as regards
an entrepreneurial behaviour, we have selected eight attitudes in the relevant
literature so as to be able to work out the students’ attitudes regarding entrepre-
neurial behaviour (Table 11.1).
For each attitude, a series of questions are asked, evoking precise situations,
on the basis of the biodata technique (Mael, 1991), which makes it possible to
ask factual questions about real issues, involving opinions, attitudes and values
in a historical perspective.
Normative beliefs towards entrepreneurship The normative beliefs concept in
Ajzen’s intention model refers to the person’s internalized values, which are
confrmed by his or her social models and referents. The person’s ‘relevant oth-
ers’ are the people who are important to the person as regards career and
professional projections, but also to a favourable environment supporting the
person in his or her project.
The questions we ask in our questionnaire aim to identify the professional
reference models and the favourable environment towards the student’s build-
ing-up of a project (parents, relatives, close friends, lecturers, former students,
banks, school friends) on the one hand and, on the other, fnding out whether
these reference models support the student’s entrepreneurial project.
198 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 11.1 Entrepreneurial skill estimating variables
Attitude estimating
variables
References A few situations evoked in the
questionnaire
Autonomy Craid (1990),
Cromie (1987)
Working on one’s own or with a
group, preferring to be ‘framed’
when working on a project
Need for fulflment McClelland (1961),
Koh (1996)
Setting up personal challenges,
working more than required to
Dynamism Craid (1990) Extra curricular activities, with
associations
Risk-taking Koh (1996) Aversion or not to risk
Initiative-taking Cromie (2000) Initiatives within a class, a
group, the family
Responsibility McClelland (1961) Responsibilities within an
association, class representative
functions
Innovation Koh (1996), Craid
(1991)
Favourable to changes, to new
working methods
Will, determination Cromie (2000) Achieving one’s objectives at all
costs
The feeling of having entrepreneurial skills The estimation of this aspect goes
through two sub-aspects:
1. Self-effcacy: within the scope of our study, we have defned self-effcacy
in relation to entrepreneurs’ key skills as identifed in the relevant literature
(Table 11.2). Our purpose is to identify the potential existence of those en-
trepreneurial skills among students, through our questionnaire.
2. The locus of control: this notion refers to the feeling of controlling the
causes and running of an event, or taking them for granted (Braukhaus,
1982; Rotter, 1966). The purpose of our questionnaire is to test these aspects
on two levels:
(a) The internal locus of control: this aspect is tested through questions
helping to fnd out whether the person takes his or her own control of some
events (his or her ability, efforts).
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 199
Table 11.2 Self-effcacy estimating variables
Entrepreneurs’ skills References A few situations evoked
in the questionnaire
Seizing and making up
opportunities
Herron (1990), Vesper
(1990), Baum (1995)
Opportunity of a
placement or
employment, vacancy
opportunity
Working with a team Chandler and Jansen
(1992), Lorrain et al.
(1998)
Working on one’s own or
with a team, dealing with
tensions within a group
Developing and
maintaining a network
Aldrich et al. (1987),
Herron (1990)
Relationships with
friends, school friends;
developing further
acquaintances
Technological skills Baum (1995), Herron
(1990), Chandler and
Jansen (1992)
Solving technical
problems (computers)
Working intensely Chandler and Jansen
(1992)
Working so as to comply
with deadlines, physical
efforts
Organizational skills Lorrain et al. (1998),
Deeks (1976)
Organizing events at
school or with a group of
friends
Self projection into the
future
Hambrik and Crozier
(1985), Milton (1989)
Having a personal idea of
a professional project
after college, anticipating
diffculties pertaining to
the project activity
Making decisions Deeks (1976), Hoffer
and Sandberg (1987)
Making a decision with
little information
(b) The external locus of control: the questions asked to estimate this as-
pect help to fnd out whether the person sees the running of some events as
due to external causes (chance, luck, omnipotence of others).
200 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
So our hypothesis is that the entrepreneurial spirit builds up through different
entrepreneurial features related revealed or confrmed through entrepreneurial
projections. But this does not explain why such a spirit can arise. So the second
part of this model is to investigate the possible causes and especially to identify
what factors can be acted on during the engineering college curriculum.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT INFLUENTIAL FACTORS
Two main factors can be found: the personal past of the person and the peda-
gogical factors during college. We have to look carefully at both to weight the
role of teaching methods and other features at college.
The Identity-building Past
In Ajzen’s intention model, the identity and dynamics only partly appears
through the normative beliefs aspect. With the model we suggest, the identity-
building dynamics are to be considered at two levels. On the one hand is the
identity displayed (self-defnition, particularly as a would-be engineer, and
projections into the future), which builds up interactively with other people (see
above). On the other hand is the identity-building past, which is related to legacy
and identifcation models drawn from the social and family backgrounds: par-
ents being – or not – entrepreneurs, parents’ career as experienced by themselves
and their child, entrepreneurial – or not – social background.
These aspects are spotted as model entry variables: they may have an infu-
ence upon entrepreneurial spirit, but we do not see them as determining factors.
Our hypothesis is that, with some students, the past may constitute a kind of
predisposition which will develop during their studies. With others, there may
be a deliberate break with the past, which may also be seen as some sort of de-
termination. With others, we admit the hypothesis that university education can
provide the opportunity to develop an entrepreneurial spirit in a student who
has not had an entrepreneurial spirit background. This hypothesis is supported
by a few examples of paths followed by students we have met in the course of
the qualitative phase of our research.
Now let us see how university education can be of some infuence upon this
starting point, whether it be favourable or not, in relation to the development of
an entrepreneurial spirit.
The Infuence of Training
There is a rich literature about the construction of an educational and entrepre-
neurial paradigm (Leitch and Harrison, 1999; MacMullan and Long, 1983;
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 201
Sexton and Bowman, 1984). There are also a great deal of reports, syntheses
and evaluations of educational experiments in the feld of university entrepre-
neurial training (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994; Gorman et al., 1997). It is
remarkable that the reported experiments mainly concern management training
at a university level, even though an awareness of entrepreneurial attitudes in-
volving initiative-taking and an approach to changes can – and should – be
addressed very early (Neunreuther, 1979).
As regards entrepreneurship teaching objectives, many authors insist on the
necessity of avoiding any mechanistic type of teaching that would bring entre-
preneurship down to a set of techniques and ignore the students’ incentives
(Hynes, 1996). With Gibb (1993), teaching methods should not just transfer
knowledge, but develop the building-up of skills and attitudes in favour of en-
trepreneurship. They are different from other career objectives because they are
multiple and because of a necessary pluridisciplinarity. They represent a specifc
challenge, particularly for engineering college students whom we are dealing
with, as the point is to forget risk-aversion attitudes induced by analytic ap-
proaches and approaches consisting of searching for a unique solution to cope
with a well-defned problem. In fact, we have noticed, in the course of our
qualitative study, that the students interested in entrepreneurship are less focused
on technology and more open to a selection of the courses they wish to attend.
In the relevant literature, learning entrepreneurial skills and attitudes can be
carried out through a teaching method that puts the student in a real problem-
solving position. Numerous empirical researches show that certain types of
teaching are more favourable than others in the training of entrepreneurs: ‘action
learning’, ‘learning by doing’, learning through experience, learning from one’s
own mistakes, learning from other people (Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994;
Hartshorn and Hannon, 2002; Leitch and Harrison, 1999). Reviewing various
works about learning styles, Gibb (1993) suggests seeing entrepreneurs as
characterized by a learning style that would rather be focused on real-life experi-
ence and either on action (pragmatic/intuitive mode) or thinking (refexive/intuitive
mode). In their life-story telling approach, Rae and Carswell (2000) mention
that the entrepreneurs interviewed are typically fond of learning, and quick and
keen on applying the knowledge and skills acquired. They even build up their
own theory about the way to learn and to make their own decisions.
Our frst qualitative research has enabled us to identify the actual links be-
tween an active teaching method and the training to achieve an entrepreneurial
spirit. The project activity at EC Lille is a central activity in the curriculum (300
hours per student). The students’ interviews have shown that this teaching
method, which applies to groups, was seen by the students as the best to encour-
age an entrepreneurial spirit. The intention to become an entrepreneur, when
the time has come for the person to make that decision, has appeared to be in-
fuenced by two major experiences: (1) in the course of the project activity the
202 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
student discovers his or her ability to lead a group, which is an essential asset
for a would-be entrepreneur; (2) through the project activity the student discov-
ers product, market and customer opportunities which drive him or her to reveal
– and confrm to him or herself – his or her ability to create, decide and develop
a social network.
In the light of these theoretical elements and of our frst qualitative research,
we produce several hypotheses regarding the selection of courses and the learn-
ing style which are typical for the students with an entrepreneurial spirit.
H5. The students with an entrepreneurial spirit reveal more varied choices
regarding the available courses than others. They prefer non-technological
courses.
H6. The students choose active teaching activities, such as project or place-
ments, as opposed to lectures.
Beyond the learning styles which rely on variables of a socio-cognitive type,
Gibb (1993) supposes that an entrepreneurial spirit builds up within a specifc
environment. More precisely, he evokes a culture with which all actors (lecturers,
students, career advisers, various partners) support the setting-up of businesses
and entrepreneurs. Likewise, in his study about entrepreneurial engineers, Fay-
olle (2001) also mentions that the college’s own culture is a factor to be taken
into account when considering the decision to set up a business. A study carried
out among Quebec management college students estimates the impact of the
choice of courses (business plan or feld study) on the desirability and feasibility
of an entrepreneurial career (Audet, 2002). In our preliminary research, the
students who have decided to join the Business Setting-up Master Course appear
to see the college’s culture as rather favourable to entrepreneurship.
In a similar feld, Curran and Stanworth (1989) put forward an aspect which
we feel to be of some importance in the training leading to the choice of a career:
the ‘affective socialization element’ conditioning ‘the inculcation of attitudes,
values, psychological mind sets and strategies necessary for the subsequent
taking on of the occupational role in question’. In our qualitative research, we
have been able to observe the infuence of a group on the decision to go into the
business setting-up process. Some students who had not revealed any predisposi-
tion at frst sight, eventually turned towards the setting-up of a business,
following the leader of their project work team.
Relying on these two results and of our frst research, we provide several hy-
potheses regarding the part played by the students’ environments in the
building-up of an entrepreneurial spirit:
H7. The students with an entrepreneurial spirit see the college’s culture as
favourable to entrepreneurship.
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 203
H8. The students with an entrepreneurial spirit belong to a group of close
friends who are favourable to entrepreneurship.
Thus, the part played by teaching methods is an action variable which our
questionnaire will test at two levels:
1. On the one hand, it will test the students’ perception of the interest and
contribution of the various teaching methods provided by the college.
2. On the other hand, the updating of the questionnaire every three years will
make it possible to identify the impact of the various types of teaching
provided by the college as regards entrepreneurial projections, skills and
attitudes. It is then possible to put forward the hypothesis of an evolution
of the management of the college curriculum that would be more or less
favourable to the development of an entrepreneurial model internalized by
students.
To sum up, Figure 11.3 presents the different factors that can infuence the
building-up of an entrepreneurial spirit.
The model in Figure 11.3 is an exploratory model that points out the different
elements that interact in the building up of the entrepreneurial spirit. The way
it can be tested and how it can lead to more precise explanation models needs
some methodological explanations.
Figure 11.3 Exploratory model of the entrepreneurial spirit
First professional
experience
Entrepreneurial professional projections
Precursory behaviours: taking responsibilities
Identify projection as an engineer-entrepreneur
Intention to set up a business
First steps towards entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial abilities
Entrepreneurial attitudes
Entrepreneurial beliefs
Entrepreneurial competence feelings
Setting up a
business?
Infuential factors during college
Choice of varied and non-technical optional courses
Preference for active pedagogy
College culture favourable to entrepreneurship
Group of friends favourable to entrepreneurship
Personal past
Parents entrepreneurs or not
Feelings towards parent’s career
Entrepreneurial social background
204 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
In the methodological issues, there are four different levels:
1. The balance between quantitative data and qualitative data.
2. The creation of a questionnaire that can encompass reliable quantitative
data on the relevant dimensions in the context of students’ life.
3. The administration of the questionnaire to obtain reliable longitudinal
data.
4. The different steps and statistical procedures we are using to test the links
between a tremendous amount of variables.
A Balance between Qualitative and Quantitative Data
The frst approach of our research was qualitative (Verzat et al., 2002; Frugier
et al., 2003). We wanted to explore the students’ attitudes, representations and
beliefs towards entrepreneurship and their links with the family-social and edu-
cational trajectory of the students.
We did two hours, semi-directive interviews with 11 engineering students at
different stages in our curriculum. Some of them had been taking the entrepre-
neurial course and others had not. These gave us two major results (Bachelet et
al., 2004):
1. A frst modelling of the building up of the professional project of our engi-
neering students, showing three major dimensions: the professional
projection related to specifc values and beliefs, on the one hand, and knowl-
edge and skills on the other. All these dimensions were gradually internalized
and confrmed through signifcant experiences at four stages of the student’s
path: infuence of his or her family environment, secondary school, ‘classe
preparatoire’ stage (= two frst years of college in France before taking the
elitist ‘concours’), and college years at the French High School.
2. The identifcation of three different types of attitudes and projections to-
wards entrepreneurship:
(a) Type 1: the determined entrepreneur = older students who have chosen
to take the entrepreneurial course in their third year to prepare setting
up their business after school. Their intention to create had been
awakened during the project experience at school, where they took a
leading role, and stems from deep values inherited from their family
environment; but the parents or close family are not necessarily en-
trepreneurs themselves.
(b) Type 2: the potential entrepreneur = young students who declare their
intention to set up a business at some time but have not taken any step
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 205
in that direction so far. For the time being they do not see themselves
in a project leader’s position but they are ready to take on risks in an
associate’s position. They reveal entrepreneurial abilities (autonomy,
taking initiatives) but need either an opportunity to go forward or more
information on business creation.
(c) Type 3: the students (at any stage of the curriculum) who are not in-
terested in entrepreneurship: they declare no intention to create a
business, they consider it too complicated and risky. They seek secu-
rity for their future career.
These data were very interesting but could not decide on the cause–effect re-
lationships between factors and the diversity of trajectories could not be
combined in clear actionable paths. This is the reason why we launched a large
study of full intakes of students to obtain quantitative longitudinal data so as
to explore more systematically these complex relationships between factors
and trajectories.
When we drew conclusions about types of spirits or trajectories, we also
planned to come back to interview ‘typical’ students to complete our under-
standing. Indeed, our questionnaire involves a question at the end to ask the
student if he or she will take part in a future interview.
Another major issue is to go beyond the vision that entrepreneurial spirit is
a result of an individual process. As matter of fact, the experiences of several
engineering students of our school really setting up businesses show a major
infuence of group dynamics within students’ project teams. To study this lead,
we chose specifc methodological options:
l For quantitative data, we added specifc questions in our questionnaire
about how teamwork was carried out (roles and attitudes in the group,
motivation and satisfaction). But we also included the means to analyse
questionnaire data at group level, not just at individual level.
l As to qualitative data collection, individual interviews are not the best way
to study a group process. Instead we need to use another methodology,
namely, focus groups (Morgan, 1998; Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990).
The Creation of the Questionnaire
Different types of data needed to be gathered, as we have seen in the exploratory
model. How were they transformed into a valid questionnaire? We followed the
classical procedure (Churchill, 1979):
1. Defnition of the concept (entrepreneurial spirit), its dimensions and ac-
tionable factors (intention, projections, attitudes, self-effcacy, social
206 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
background, pedagogy and so on) based on the literature and the related
hypotheses.
2. Defnition of each variable and of indicators for each variable.
3. Choice of number and nature of questions related to each construct (see
below for details) and elaboration of questions for each variable. This was
done in teamwork with two students and three researchers in entrepreneur-
ship and psychology. The student’s help was important to imagine the kind
of situations that were relevant in the students’ life.
4. Test of those questions on paper with 50 students: observation of students
flling in the form and discussion afterwards between the researchers and
the students who had taken part about the questions that had not been
understood.
5. Conclusions on the version of the questionnaire to be launched for the
complete intake (200 students).
A specifc problem we had to face concerned the type and nature of questions
to investigate such personal and social factors.
On a large number of constructs, we decided to associate self-evaluation
questions on opinions (answers on a Likert scale) and biodata questions to in-
vestigate historical, objective and verifable features (Mael, 1991). The following
example of the self-effcacy ‘capacity to build on opportunities’ explains the
different kinds of questions using the two techniques. These are some of the
questions we asked:
– If somebody offers me an unexpected but attractive project, I take the opportunity
immediately and think it over afterwards, I:
l totally agree
l slightly agree
l slightly disagree
l totally disagree.
– One of my father’s friends came to dinner at home in the last six months. His ac-
tivity branch interests me for a potential traineeship.
l I seized the opportunity to talk about my traineeship and make an
appointment.
l The next day I asked my father to talk to him about my traineeship.
l I waited for another occasion to meet him.
The Administration of the Questionnaire
The 180 questions-long questionnaire has been launched through Computer
Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) for frst-, second- and third-year students
at Ecole Centrale de Lille (200–250 students per year), for frst-year students
at ITEEM (Institut Technologique Européen d’Entrepreneuriat et de Manage-
ment) (50 students) and at Ecole Centrale de Paris (450 frst-year students).
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 207
The same questions (except those not expected to change, like the person’s
past for example) are asked of the same students during each year of their cur-
riculum so as to explore what has evolved or not. After three years of completing
this questionnaire at the different stages of the curriculum, we will be able to
analyse the individual and collective evolutions and link them to factors at
college.
The Statistical Procedures
At frst, we used classical correlation analysis and data mining to single out
variables which were linked. To try to build a typology of students or of their
evolution, factorial component analysis was implemented on selected items.
In the near future, more sophisticated techniques will be used:
l odd-ratios and log-linear analysis to separate the impact of different vari-
ables (and eliminate the effect of factors education cannot act upon, like
family background)
l structural equations to try to confrm or disconfrm more complex models,
like Ajzen’s.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
In this section, we show preliminary results that were obtained in 2003–04 for
the three then current intakes at Ecole Centrale de Lille:
l 197 frst-year students (= third year of higher education because French
students take an examination to enter the Grandes Ecoles after two years
of classes préparatoires), who represent 81 per cent of the intake.
l 200 second year students (= fourth year of higher education) who repre-
sent 81 per cent of the intake.
l 125 third year students (= ffth year of higher education). who represent
73 per cent of the present intake (since many students go abroad for this
last year of their curriculum).
At this stage, the results we can show cover only the projective dimensions of
the students’ representation of the engineer, the professional activities envi-
sioned by engineering students, the kind of career they imagine and their
intention to set up a business. The main conclusions we can draw at this stage
are detailed below.
208 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 11.3 Students’ vision of the engineer
First-year students’ vision of the
engineer
Third-year students’ vision of the
engineer
Mastering technical knowledge only
= 15%
Mastering technical knowledge +
management role = 68%
Management role only = 17%
Mastering technical knowledge only
= 12%
Mastering technical knowledge +
management role = 58%
Management role only = 24%
Table 11.4 Students’ preferences for their professional role
First-year students’ preferences for
their professional role
Third-year students’ preferences for
their professional role
Team manager (hierarchical role) =
41%
Project manager = 35%
Technical expert = 24%
Team manager (hierarchical role) =
30%
Project manager = 48%
Technical expert = 21%
The Student’s Vision of the French Engineer is a Manager with a
Privileged Status, the Technical Dimension is Dominant but Not
Necessary
Unsurprisingly, the identity projection of French engineering students of
Grandes Ecoles is linked to the historical fgure of the engineer as a member of
the elite. For most students, the engineer evokes a privileged status (87–90 per
cent in the different intakes). Among all other questions about what being an
engineer evokes, this is the dominant feature.
The mastering of technical knowledge is also a very important feature, but,
as Table 11.3 shows, it is not as important as the management role, although it
usually goes together. It seems that the managerial aspect of the engineer in-
creases each year (this will be confrmed in the longitudinal analysis with the
same students).
Asked about the kind of role they would prefer for their future job, the stu-
dents detail what they understand by the managerial dimension: project
management, gains as opposed to the classical hierarchical role of the manager,
popularity during the studies. We suggest that this may be infuenced by their
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 209
experience of project activity during the frst two years of the curriculum at
Ecole Centrale de Lille. Most of them love this experience of teamwork, which
gives them a clearer vision of daily work in design engineering. Compare this
with other colleges/universities where there is no such pedagogy (Table 11.4).
But these visions are built up very progressively. Indeed, the building up of
the professional project is a lengthy process.
The Elaboration of the Engineer’s Professional Project is a Long Process
Few students have a precise project when entering college. Sixty-seven per cent
declare they have no precise idea about their future job. In the third year, 34 per
cent still remain in this position, even though they will have to choose a job a
few months later. We believe this is partly due to the specifcity of generalist
engineering studies. In Ecole Centrale de Lille, the students have the opportunity
to acquire technical knowledge in all felds of engineering disciplines (from
electronics to mechanics, automatics, chemical engineering, civil engineering
and so on) and this leads to many possible jobs. The students who choose that
kind of Grandes Ecoles do so mainly because in France it offers more prestige
and broader job opportunities, but also because it delays the choice of a profes-
sional speciality. As such they choose to make no choice yet and thus keep all
opportunities open.
However, as they advance in the curriculum, student’s choice of career be-
comes progressively more precise. Table 11.5 shows the progression in what
the students think of doing when the time comes to leave college.
Most students want to occupy managerial positions in technical felds. An-
other group will choose to become management executives in non-technical
Table 11.5 Expected occupation after leaving college
What frst-year students think they
will probably do when leaving
college
What third-year students think they
will probably do when leaving
college
R&D executive = 23%
Technical executive = 15%
Business or fnance executive = 11%
Sales or marketing executive = 6%
Entrepreneur = 8%
Other studies = 11%
No idea = 26%
R&D executive = 22%
Technical executive = 25%
Business or fnance executive = 10%
Sales or marketing executive = 4%
Entrepreneur = 5%
Other studies = 20%
No idea = 14%
210 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
felds, and many students want to go into further studies, which can be inter-
preted in two ways: either as a way of delaying a choice of profession a bit
longer or to acquire more knowledge in specifc felds (often in management),
which is often appreciated in French engineers’ curricula.
Some students still have no idea, which means they rely very much on op-
portunities in their job search. But what is more striking for our subject is the
case of potential entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is the Minority’s Choice but it can be Infuenced by
College Experience
Entrepreneurship might appear as a potentially attractive job opportunity for a
few frst-year students (8 per cent), but this is less the case for third-year students
(5 per cent).
The standard career model of French engineers is still to stay in the same
frm: 55 per cent for frst-year students and 53 per cent of third-year students
envisage such a career. In the frst year the remaining students either think of
changing regularly (21 per cent) or build up their own evolution by setting up
a business or being independent (24 per cent). But in the third year only 14 per
cent still envisage building up their evolution, whereas 32 per cent think of
changing regularly.
In fact, when we ask further questions about what they think of doing after
a few years in their frst job, the majority (46 per cent) give an opportunistic
answer (‘I will see later’). The other more precise answers (‘I envisage staying
in the same frm’/‘I think of going into another frm’/‘I think of setting up my
own business’) are much less attractive. The last possibility (setting up a busi-
ness) attracts only 7.5 per cent of frst-year students and 6.4 per cent of third-year
students.
All these fgures tend to confrm many studies about potential entrepreneurs:
the longer the studies, the less attractive entrepreneurship appears because many
other and less risky job opportunities show up. This hypothesis needs confrma-
tion with longitudinal analysis for the same students.
However, it could also indicate a ‘generation effect’ between the two intakes,
suggesting that entrepreneurship is more popular now than it used to be two
years ago. Indeed, since a majority of students do not know very much about
their future job when entering college, they can be infuenced to a certain extent
by opportunities in the curriculum that offers more and more choices. In fact,
the creation of a third-year option in entrepreneurship in 2002 might have modi-
fed the perception of the attractiveness of entrepreneurship for actual frst-year
students.
However, the main fgures confrm that engineering students have a low level
of entrepreneurial intentions, and these intentions seem to decline between the
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 211
different intakes. Figure 11.4 shows the intentions to set up a business (at any
time during their career) for the three intakes.
Again, the results must be interpreted with prudence since a generation effect
might be present. This needs further examination using longitudinal data from
the same students. Apart from the very small proportion of ‘totally agree’, two
dimensions are striking in Figure 11.4. First, is the clear progression of ‘totally
disagree’, which coincides with the progressive precision of the professional
project. Second, is the stable proportion of ‘slightly agree’ which can reveal a
potential for entrepreneurs in the long term. In fact, very few engineers in France
create a business just after graduation. France is known to specialize in older
entrepreneurs (Fayolle, 2004).
So effective intentions are really low, but another interesting fgure concerns
the question on the intention to start a business with a partner. Compared with
the pessimistic vision shown above, this question paints a very different picture,
as Figure 11.5 shows.
At this stage of analysis the surprising result in Figure 11.5 is diffcult to in-
terpret with certainty. But we formulate the hypothesis that project work
experience during engineering studies has an infuence on student’s perception
of their future career and jobs attractiveness. Qualitative interviews with students’
teams show that when this project work experience is successful, many students
of the same group choose the same job or curriculum orientation, or engage on
management responsibilities in students’ societies. And, in our experience,
among students who effectively set up businesses at the end of their curriculum
at college, a signifcant share did it in teams that originated in the project activity
at Centrale. A further exploration of more precise intentions of common groups
of students will be proposed in the near future, to test this hypothesis.
Figure 11.4 Engineering students’ intentions to set up a business
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1st year 2nd year 3rd year
Totally disagree
Slightly disagree
Slightly agree
Totally agree
212 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
CONCLUSIONS
A number of papers study the intention of setting up a business. The choice we
made in this research was to fnd out what happens before this intention, during
undergraduate and postgraduate engineering studies. Indeed, the genesis of the
entrepreneurial spirit starts very early in life, but we posit that the university
years are decisive. We also posit two other things:
1. There is more to entrepreneurship than business creation since this can oc-
cur late in a career. Entrepreneurial spirit and behaviour can show up early
in other ways, like taking initiatives in students’ unions and simply having
certain attitudes towards studies and students’ life.
2. Beyond well-explored factors like the personality of the entrepreneur,
business opportunities, and so on, other variables must be studied: col-
lege/university culture, professional identity as an engineer, attraction for
certain courses of pedagogies within the curriculum and so on.
That is why we decided to defne and explore the concept of entrepreneurial
spirit, studying how university years affect the individual.
Our preliminary results about the projections students make about their career
and professional identity unsurprisingly show that entrepreneurial orientation
is weak in engineering students in the French context of Grandes Ecoles. But
we also see that the professional identity is progressively built up and there
Figure 11.5 Engineering students’ intentions to set up a business with
somebody they trust: ‘if somebody I trust proposes me, I am
ready to start up a business with him’
Totally disagree
Slightly disagree
Slightly agree
Totally agree
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1st year 3rd year
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 213
might be some ways to infuence this progression towards entrepreneurship.
The choices the students make in the curriculum and the experience they gain
from teamwork could infuence them a great deal.
This has some practical implications for entrepreneurship education:
1. We point out the importance of group dynamics during the curriculum. This
is an issue we will explore in the future. Setting up these project activities
is probably a major factor for developing entrepreneurial spirit. But we need
to know precisely under which conditions such a dynamic can appear. As
far as we have seen on a qualitative basis, stimulating characteristics of
such projects could be innovation objectives, real stakes (market and cus-
tomer) and signifcant weight in the curriculum in terms of available
resources (time, consultant teachers and so on).
2. Another important practical implication for entrepreneurship education
concerns the evaluation of pre-entrepreneurship education. The current
tendency in entrepreneurship education evaluation is to measure differences
in students’ intentions to set up a business. Other actionable dimensions,
like choices in the curriculum could be also measured. The longitudinal
analysis of our questionnaire will probably help us to defne such interesting
variables that occur before the intention to set up a business.
On the methodological level our research offers new perspectives in entrepre-
neurship education research:
1. To measure more than a difference in intentions, specifc methodologies
must be used: questionnaires with a wide range of dimensions tested, as-
sociation of opinion/self-evaluation and biodata questions, longitudinal
studies to follow the life path of students.
2. We also see that entrepreneurial spirit is not only to be studied at the indi-
vidual level, nor at the cultural level, but also in the group dynamic. This
needs a specifc statistical analysis of the questionnaires (group analysis),
and qualitative focus groups methodologies might also be of use to refne
our results.
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I. (1991), ‘The theory of planned behavior’, Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.
Ajzen, I. (2002), ‘Perceived behavioural control, self-effcacy, locus of control and the
theory of planned behaviour’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1–20.
Albert, P. and S. Marion (1997), ‘Ouvrir l’enseignement à l’esprit d’entreprendre’, Les
Echos, 19–20 septembre.
214 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Aldrich, H., B. Rosen and W. Woodward (1987), ‘The impact of social networks on
business founding and proft: a longitudinal study’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship
Research, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Audet, J. (2002), ‘A longitudinal study of the entrepreneurial intentions of university
students’, in Cahiers de la recherché de LINRPME, Université Québec Trois Rivières,
juin.
Autio, E., R.H. Keeley, M. Klofsten and T. Ulfstedt (1997), ‘Entrepreneurial intent among
students: testing an intent model in Asia, Scandinavia, and USA’, Frontiers of Entre-
preneurship Research, 133–47.
Bachelet, R., C. Verzat, D. Frugier and A. Hannachi (2004), ‘Mesurer l’esprit
d’entreprendre des élèves ingénieurs’, Actes du 3ème congrès de l’académie de
l’entrepreneuriat ‘Itinéraires d’entrepreneurs’, Lyon, 31 mars–1er avril.
Bandura, A. (1982), ‘Self effcacy mechanism in human agency’, American Psychologist,
37 (2), 122–47.
Baum, J.R. (1995), ‘The relation of traits, competencies, motivation, strategy and struc-
ture to venture growth’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley, MA:
Babson College.
Baumol, W.J. (1993), Entrepreneurship, Management, and the Structure of Payoffs,
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Macmillan.
Bouffartigue, P. (1994), ‘Ingénieur débutant à l’épreuve du modèle de carrière: trajectoire
de socialisation et entrée dans la vie professionnelle’, Revue Française de Sociologie,
35 (1), 69–100.
Braukhaus, R.H. (1982), ‘The psychologie of the entrepreneur’, in S. Cromie (2000),
‘Assessing entrepreneurial inclinations: some approaches and empirical evidence’,
European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1), 7–30.
Carter, N., W.B. Gartner and P.D. Reynolds (1995), ‘Exploring start-up events sequenc-
es’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley, MA: Babson Collge,
pp. 118–33.
Chandler, G.N. and E. Jansen (1992), ‘The founder’s self-assessed competence and
venture performance’, Journal of Business Venturing, 7, 223–36.
Churchill, G.A. (1979), ‘A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing con-
structs’, Journal of Marketing Research, 16 (1), 64–73.
Craid, S. (1990), ‘What does it mean to be entrepreneurial?’, British Journal of Manage-
ment, 1, 137–45.
Craid, S. (1991), ‘The entrepreneurial tendency of occupational groups’, International
Small Business Journal, 9, 75–81.
Cromie, S. (1987), ‘Motivations of aspiring male and female entrepreneurs’, Journal of
Organisational Behaviour, 8, 251–61.
Cromie, S. (2000), ‘Assessing entrepreneurial inclinations: some approaches and empiri-
cal evidence’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 9 (1),
7–30.
Curran, J. and J. Stanworth (1989), ‘Education and training for enterprise: some problems
of classifcation, evaluation, policy and research’, International Small Business Jour-
nal, 7 (2), January/March, 11–15.
Deeks, J. (1976), The Small Firm Owner-manager: Entrepreneurial Behaviour and
Management Practices, New York: Praeger.
Dubar, C. (1991), La socialisation et la construction des identités sociales et profession-
nelles, Paris : Armand Colin.
Fayolle, A. (1994), ‘La trajectoire de l’ingénieur entrepreneur’, Revue Française de
Gestion, novembre-décembre no. 101, 113–25.
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 215
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘Exploratory study to assess the effects of entrepreneurship programs
on French students’ entrepreneurial behaviours’, Journal of Entrepreneurial Culture,
8 (2), June, 169–85.
Fayolle, A. (2001), ‘D’une approche typologique de l’entrepreneuriat chez les ingénieurs
à la reconstruction d’itinéraires d’ingénieurs entrepreneurs’, Revue de l’entrepre-
neuriat, 1 (1), 77–98.
Fayolle, A. (2002), ‘Du champ de l’entrepreneuriat à l’étude du processus entrepreneurial
quelques idées et pistes de recherche’, 6th congrès international Francophones sur la
PME, October HEC, Montréal.
Fayolle, A. (2004), Entrepreneur: Apprendre à Entreprendre, Paris: Dunod.
Fonrouge, C. (2002), ‘Les recherches en entrepreneuriat: problématiques processuelles
et transversales’, in 2
ème
congrès de l’entrepreneuriat, Champs de l’entrepreneuriat et
dynamique des sociétés, Bordeaux, 17–18 April.
Frugier, D., C. Verzat, R. Bachelet and A. Hannachi (2003), ‘Helping engineers to be-
come entrepreneurs. Attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, skills: what are the educational
factors in their entrepreneurial spirit?’, paper presented at IntEnt Internationalizing
Entrepreneurship Education and Training Conference, Grenoble, France, 8–10
September.
Garavan, T.N. and B. O’Cinneide (1994), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training
programmes: a review and evaluation, part 1’, Journal of Industrial Training, 18 (8),
3–12.
Gartner, W.B. (1985), ‘A conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new
venture creation’, Academy of Management Review, 10, 696–706.
Gartner, W.B. (1988), ‘Who is an entrepreneur? is the wrong question’, American Small
Business Journal, 13 (Spring), 11–32.
Gibb, A.A. (1993), ‘Enterprise culture and education: understanding enterprise education
and its links with small business Entrepreneurships and Wider Educational Goals’,
International Small Business Management Journal, 11 (3), 11–34.
Ginzberg, E., S. Ginsburg, S. Axelrad and J. Herma (1951), ‘De l’imaginaire au réalisme’
in J. Guichard and M. Huteau (2001), Psychologie de l’orientation, Paris: Éditions
Dunod, pp. 122–5.
Gorman, G., D. Hanlon and K. Wayne (1997) ‘Some research perspectives on entrepre-
neurship education, enterprise education and education for small business manage-
ment: a ten-year literature review’, International Small Business Journal, April/June,
56–77.
Gottfredson, L.S. (1981 [1996]), ‘La carte cognitive des professions, la circonscription
et le compromis’, in J. Guichard and M. Huteau (2001), Psychologie de l’orientation,
Paris: Éditions Dunod, pp. 141–52.
Guichard, J. and M. Huteau (2001), Psychologie de l’orientation, Paris : Éditions
Dunod.
Hambrick, D.C. and L.M. Crozier (1985), ‘Stumbles and stars in the management of
rapid growth’, Journal of Business Venturing, 1, 31–45.
Hartshorn, C. and P. Hannon (2002), ‘Paradoxes in entrepreneurship education: chalk
and talk or talk and cheese?’, paper presented at the 25th ISBA National Small Firms
Conference, ‘Competing perspectives of Small Business and Entrepreneurship’,
Brighton, 1–19 November.
Herron, L.A. (1990), ‘The effects of characteristics of entrepreneur on new venture per-
formance’, thesis, University of South California.
Hoffer, C.W. and W.R. Sandberg (1987), ‘Improving new performance: some guidelines
for success’, American Journal of Small Business, 11, 11–25.
216 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Hynes, B. (1996), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training: introducing entrepreneurship
into non-business disciplines’, Journal of European Industrial Training, 20 (8),
8–10.
Koh, H.C. (1996), ‘Testing hypotheses of entrepreneurial characteristics: a study of Hong
Kong MBA students’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 11 (3), 12–25.
Krueger, N.F. and A.L. Carsrud (1993), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions: applying the theory
of planned behaviour’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 5, 315–30.
Léger-Jarniou, C. (2001), ‘La création d’entreprise par les jeunes: mythes ou réalités?’,
7
ème
séminaire annuel de la direction des statistiques d’entreprise de l’INSEE, 6
décembre.
Leitch, C.M. and R.T. Harrison (1999), ‘A process model for entrepreneurship education
and development’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research,
5 (3), 8–10.
Lorrain, J., Belley, A. and L. Dussault (1998), ‘Les compétences des entrepreneurs:
élaboration et validation d’un questionnaire QCE’, in congrès international francoph-
one sur la PME, Nancy, 22–24 octobre.
McClelland, D. (1961), The Achieving Society, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
MacMullan, W.E. and W.A. Long (1983), ‘An approach to educating entrepreneurs’, The
Canadian Journal of Business, 4 (1), 6–32.
Mael, F.A. (1991), ‘A conceptual rationale for the domain and attributes of biodata items’,
Personnel Psychology, 44, 763–92.
Milton, D.G. (1989), ‘The complete entrepreneur’, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Prac-
tice, 13, 9–19.
Morgan, D.L. (1998), The Focus Group Guidebook, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publica-
tions, The Focus Group Kit vol. 1.
Neunreuther, B. (1979), ‘Peut on enseigner l’attitude entrepreneuriale?’, Enseignement
et Gestion, nouvelle series no. 11, 7–13.
Peterman, N.E. and J. Kennedy (2003), ‘Enterprise education: infuencing students per-
ceptions of entrepreneurship’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 28 (2),
129–44.
Rae, D. and M. Carswell (2000), ‘Using a life-story approach in researching entrepre-
neurial learning: the development of a conceptual model and its implication in the
design of learning experiences’, Education and Training, 42(4/5), 220–28(9).
Rotter, J.B. (1966), ‘Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of re-
inforcement’, in Psychological Monographs, 80 (1, Whole No. 609).
Sexton, D.L. and N.B. Bowman (1984), ‘Entrepreneurship education suggestions for
increasing effectiveness’, Journal of Small Business Management, 22 (2), April,
18–25.
Shapero, A. and L. Sokol (1982), ‘The social dimensions of entrepreneurship’, in C.A.
Kent, D.L. Sexton and K.H. Vesper (eds), Encyclopedie of Entrepreneurship, Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 72–90.
Stevenson, H.H. and J.C. Jarillo (1990), ‘A paradigm of entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial
management’, Strategic Management Journal, 11, 17–27.
Stewart, W. and P.N. Shamdasani (1990), Focus Group Theory and Practice, London:
Sage Publications.
Tounès, A. (2003), ‘L’intention entrepreneuriale’, thèse de doctorat ès science de gestion,
université de Rouen.
Verzat, C., S. Quenehen, R. Bachelet, D. Frugier and Y. Giry (2002), ‘Developing entre-
preneurship among students in colleges of engineering’, paper presented at
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students 217
‘Entrepreneurship in Europe: Specifcities and Perspectives’, Summer University,
ESISAR, 19–22 September.
Vesper, K.H. (1990), New venture strategies 2nd edn, Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Wang, C.K., P.K. Wong and Q. Lu (2001), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions and tertiary educa-
tion’, paper presented at conference on Technological Entrepreneurship in the
Emerging Regions of the New Millennium, Singapore, 28–30 June.
218
12. Undergraduate students as a source of
potential entrepreneurs: a comparative
study between Italy and Argentina
Sergio Postigo, Donato Iacobucci and
María Fernanda Tamborini
INTRODUCTION
Business creation and the encouragement of an entrepreneurial culture have
become fundamental topics on the agenda of politicians, economists and aca-
demics in all countries. This interest is based on existing evidence that new
businesses contribute to job creation, political and social stability, innovation
and economic development (OECD, 1998; Reynolds et al., 2000; 2002; Schum-
peter, 1934; Wennekers and Thurik, 1999: 27).
Different samples including Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries over different time periods have attained con-
sistent results; increases in entrepreneurial activity tend to result in subsequent
higher growth rates and in a reduction of unemployment (Audretsch and Thurik,
2001).
However the sources of economic growth in today’s world are very different
from those of the past (OECD, 2000). In this context, where innovation and
knowledge are the main sources for growth and economic development, new
frms play a critical role as generators of innovation. There is also a growing
consensus that in the knowledge and information society education is one of
the key variables for the emergence of new ventures and their development
prospects (Kantis et al., 2002b).
The relationship between education and entrepreneurship has been examined
at length in different studies.
1
Some of these have found a positive relationship
between individuals’ educational level and their probability of becoming entre-
preneurs (Cowling and Taylor, 2001: 167; Delmar and Davidsson, 2000: 1; Gill,
1988: 229; Karcher, 1998; Lafuente and Salas, 1989: 17; Rees and Shah, 1986;
Robinson and Sexton, 1994: 141).
2
Another group of studies analyses types of entrepreneurs such as those who
are technology based and have a relatively high level of education (Colombo
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 219
and Delmastro, 2001: 177; Litvak and Maule, 1976: 31). There are also several
surveys designed to evaluate the impact of entrepreneurial university courses
and the characteristics of the businesses started up by graduate entrepreneurs
(Charney and Libecap, 2000; Clark et al., 1984: 26; Kolvereid and Moen, 1997:
154; Levie et al., 2001; Lüthje and Franke, 2002; Tackey et al., 1999; Upton et
al., 1995).
The increasing interest in the relationship between entrepreneurs’ education,
their businesses and their prospects of success is evidence of the growing im-
portance of graduates and undergraduates as a source of potential entrepreneurs,
especially in the emergence of new knowledge and technology-based frms.
Veciana (2002), states that education will be increasingly needed for the creation
of new ventures and emphasizes that empirical evidence shows a positive rela-
tionship between formal education and venture success.
3
Veciana also explains that the failure rate for new frms started up by individu-
als with low levels of education is almost 80 per cent, while the failure rate for
ventures started up by graduates is well under 20 per cent. In addition he points
out that there is an imminent need for entrepreneurship programmes as an in-
dependent feld of teaching and researching, and a requirement for promoting
entrepreneurial culture inside academic institutions.
Other authors, such as Kourilsky (1995), state that the economic growth of
countries will hinge on the ability to create new jobs through entrepreneurship.
Effective initiatives in entrepreneurship education will be increasingly critical
for expanding the fow of potential entrepreneurs from the educational
system.
According to Laukkanen (2000), the introduction of entrepreneurial education
at an undergraduate level can be thought of as the strategic response of universi-
ties and business schools to the recent more demanding environment and the
ongoing evolution of societies that make entrepreneurial capabilities and action
increasingly useful, even necessary.
In this context many universities have recognized the signifcance of this
phenomenon and have included in their curricula contents initiatives to promote
entrepreneurship as a legitimate career option and to encourage closer relation-
ships with the productive sector.
Several authors have analysed the extraordinary increase in the quantity and
importance of entrepreneurship programmes over the past 25 years (Fayolle,
1998; Finkle and Deeds, 2001; Kolvereid and Moen, 1997; Lüthje and Franke,
2002; Vesper and Gartner, 1997).
4
In recent years even some governments have
been developing programmes and initiatives orientated to promoting entrepre-
neurship potential through universities and research institutes.
5
Business creation by university graduates is particularly crucial in emerging
countries like Argentina because the industrial structure is based on traditional
frms with relatively low or moderate technological content. Such frms do not
220 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
play a signifcant role as ‘incubators’ for dynamic new entrepreneurs (Kantis et
al., 2002b).
A recent study of business creation in Latin America has shown that 50 per
cent of the most dynamic frms were created by university graduates (Kantis et
al., 2002a). Therefore there exists a need for signifcant changes in the education
system in order to produce a change in the culture and values necessary to
stimulate entrepreneurship (Postigo and Tamborini, 2002; 2003).
Traditionally the Argentinian educational system did not promote or motivate
the skills necessary for developing entrepreneurs. Students were not shaped with
an entrepreneurial attitude because education and social aspiration were mainly
orientated to working in large corporations. In the past decade this trend has
started to reverse, presenting changes in the university education system. One
sign is the increased interest in entrepreneurship within the educational system
and society in general. Moreover in the context of high unemployment and
economic recession, individuals and institutions consider encouraging entre-
preneurship as a vital answer to the crisis.
6
In the past ten years there has been a progressive increase in courses, chairs,
incubators and other activities orientated to promoting entrepreneurship in the
USA. Currently, in Argentina, around 33 per cent of public institutions and 25
per cent of private ones are engaged in some kind of activity concerning this
subject, but these initiatives are still geographically concentrated. The major
obstacles to these initiatives are rigid curricula, lack of funding and diffculty
in fnding academics specializing in this feld (Postigo and Tamborini, 2003).
A characteristic feature of the Argentina case is that the emergence of entre-
preneurship programmes within universities is not a response to a specifc
government policy. Although general economic conditions in Italy are quite
different from those in Argentina, Italy faces similar problems concerning en-
trepreneurship development and education. According to several surveys, Italy
has one of the highest frm birth rates in European countries (Reynolds et al.,
2000).
Since small and medium-sized frms (SMEs) play an important role as incu-
bators of new frms, this is partly the result of the large presence of SMEs in the
Italian economy. Indeed, entrepreneurial rates are particularly high in the North-
Eastern and Central (NEC) regions that are dominated by the presence of SMEs
organized in industrial districts (Garofoli, 1992: 101).
Despite the high birth rate of new frms, entrepreneurial activity in Italy faces
several problems. The majority of new frms are started by former employees,
most of whom have a technical background. These new entrepreneurs typically
show good skills in managing the production process but a low level of formal
education and little ability in other key management functions (like marketing
or fnance). This is one of the reasons why new frms, and SMEs in general,
have little aspiration and ability to grow (Accornero, 1999).
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 221
The lack of managerial competence in SMEs is partly compensated by their
belonging to networks of frms or industrial districts. These districts are mostly
concentrated in traditional sectors (like textiles and clothing, footwear, furniture,
ceramics and so on). As the majority of new frms develop from existing ones,
they normally belong to the same sector of activity. Adding to this, there is
growing concern in Italy that frms in these sectors will experience increasing
competitive pressure from emerging countries.
It is widely acknowledged, therefore, that in order to improve the development
prospects of SMEs it is necessary to stimulate the creation of new frms in other
sectors of activity, mainly those associated with new technologies. In this case,
entrepreneurs spinning out from universities and research centres are expected
to play a greater role than entrepreneurs spinning out from existing companies
do (Postigo and Tamborini, 2003).
Despite acknowledging the potential impact of graduate entrepreneurs, very
little has been done in Italy to favour entrepreneurial education within universi-
ties and just a few attempts have been made to create infrastructures (like
incubators) to support university spin-offs.
In the feld of entrepreneurial education the situation in Italy is rather
anomalous when compared with that of North American countries and even
with that of other European countries. In the past 25 years there has been an
explosion of interest in the USA for the entrepreneurship feld which has re-
sulted in the institution of courses, research centres and degrees at
undergraduate and graduate levels (Katz, 2003; Solomon et al., 2002; Vesper
and Gartner, 1997).
In 1997 there were 160 permanent entrepreneurship chairs in the USA, a clear
indication of the fact that it was considered a separate discipline. The majority
of European countries have followed the same trend, though with some delay.
Entrepreneurship courses have grown in the last decades in all the main indus-
trialized countries. Moreover, a larger presence of entrepreneurial courses within
the curricula of business and engineering students has been supported by several
academic and governmental studies (Beranger et al. 1998; Department of Trade
and Industry, 1998).
In a comparison made in 1996 of the number of entrepreneurship chairs in
the main European countries, Italy, along with Denmark and Hungary, was not
far from the top of the list, with the UK holding more than 12 chairs, and France
and Finland 11. Moreover, while in most European countries the development
of entrepreneurial courses has continued to grow in the past few years, the Italian
situation has remained practically unchanged.
Given this situation there is plenty of scope in Italy for introducing entrepre-
neurial courses into university curricula. Since the main aim is to foster new
frm creation in the high-tech sector, engineering and science schools should be
the ones to primarily encourage these courses.
222 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
The main objective of this study is to analyse the opinions and attitudes of
undergraduate students concerning entrepreneurship in Argentina and Italy.
Specifcally the chapter aims at analysing the infuence of different contexts –
developed and developing countries – on:
1. The attitude towards entrepreneurship (whether and why students consider
creating their own business desirable) and the influence of social
background.
2. The perception of the impact of the social and economic environment (posi-
tive or negative factors) on business creation.
3. The image students hold about entrepreneurs.
Considering the student populations and demographic characteristics, two
groups of students, one from San Andrés University (Argentina) and the other
one from Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy) were analysed. The infor-
mation was obtained from a survey carried out between March and May 2003
on 260 students from both countries. Students from different courses, levels of
education, gender and ages were surveyed.
This chapter is organized as follows. In the next section we review the litera-
ture on the infuence of education, demographic factors, culture and role models
in infuencing perception and attitudes concerning entrepreneurship. In the third
section we describe the methodology used to collect and analyse the data. In
the fourth section we present the results of the survey and in the ffth section
we draw the main conclusions of the study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The Role of Universities in Promoting an Entrepreneurial Culture
The creation of a business is a complex process. Within the large number of
variables that can be considered, at least, three conditions are required for the
conception of a new venture: the existence of entrepreneurs, an entrepreneurial
culture and an adequate environment. Education has a fundamental role in the
frst two (Postigo and Tamborini, 2002).
Universities should promote entrepreneurial activities in partnership with their
students and the business community with the aim of encouraging self-employ-
ment as a career path as well as giving young people the basic competencies, skills
and knowledge required for the creation of a new venture. All students are poten-
tial entrepreneurs who need a university environment to foster their growth and
development. A university fulfls its duty to society and to its students by providing
a rich entrepreneurial learning experience (Ussman and Postigo, 2000).
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 223
Labour market structures are currently changing; fnishing college is no
longer a guarantee of employment. Currently, young people have to face the
uncertainty and complexities of the labour market. Universities can help reduce
unemployment by developing entrepreneurs.
In brief, entrepreneurship education can be a way to (1) legitimize entrepre-
neurship and develop an entrepreneurial culture with the purpose of fostering
economic growth, (2) develop and stimulate entrepreneurial skills, and (3) pre-
pare students for a dynamic labour market.
Culture
Hofstede (1980; 2001) defnes culture as a set of shared values, beliefs and ex-
pected behaviour. An entrepreneurial culture implies a society with a high
entrepreneurial birth rate and with an important degree of acceptance of entre-
preneurs. The cultural aspect is relevant, especially because some cultures
produce more entrepreneurs than others. Authors like Mueller and Thomas
(2000) see a relationship between values, beliefs and behaviour, and point out
that differences in culture may infuence the decision of whether or not to be-
come an entrepreneur.
Institutions are another relevant factor. They are made up of formal (laws and
regulations) and informal (behavioural rules) limitations. Institutions, according
to North (1994, 112), are ‘the humanly devised constraints that structure human
interaction’. Family, education, and political and economic systems are the in-
stitutions that defne the incentive structure for society as a whole.
Finally, the social recognition of the business career is an essential part of
culture. According to Wilken (1979), the degree of approval or disapproval of
business activity will infuence its emergence and characteristics, being favoured
by those environments in which entrepreneurs enjoy greater legitimacy. Never-
theless this does not imply that norms and values alone are enough to cause or
to inhibit the rise of entrepreneurship, but their infuence should be considered
and integrated in the context of other non-economic factors.
Role Models
Minniti and Bygrave (1999) explain that as it occurs with other human decisions,
the individual choice to become an entrepreneur is determined by the informa-
tion available to the individual. Such individuals or ‘economic agents’ are
heterogeneous and have different information, and therefore have different
perceptions about the uncertainty and costs of becoming an entrepreneur.
Randomly each individual is endowed with an initial set of characteristics
(biological and sociological). These characteristics, as well as social circum-
stances such as prospects of employment and education, infuence the attitude
224 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
of people towards entrepreneurship. Moreover role models play a fundamental
part in the determination of entrepreneurial choices. Role models can originate
from society, family, friends and other social networks.
The reasoning is as follows: those who have higher possibilities and opportuni-
ties to observe entrepreneurs directly are more likely to become entrepreneurs,
given that the perception and opportunity cost of the business activity decreases.
This is a consequence of two main factors. The frst is related to networking and
tends to decrease transaction costs. The second is that the presence of role models
increases the probability that new entrepreneurs will appear.
When an individual does not have entrepreneurial role models in his or her
family, universities via courses and teaching methods can promote an entrepre-
neurial culture.
Motivation
Gibb and Ritchie (1982) make a distinction between three critical aspects of
entrepreneurship: motivation, infuences on the decision to become an entrepre-
neur, and identifcation and validation of the business idea. Acquisition of
motivation is the result of infuences stemming from social background, family,
education, career, and so on.
Shapero (1984) presents a model that indicates the following necessary condi-
tions for the creation of a business: displacement, disposition to act, credibility
and availability of resources. Displacement means that each business action
originates from some type of displacement or change in the course of life.
It is a fact that this situation impacts on a prior condition of stability and leads
to action. The factors that cause these changes can be categorized into positive,
like a need for achievement, or negative, such as unemployment. The disposition
to act depends on certain personal characteristics of the entrepreneur, the pres-
ence of role models and of a positive environment.
In conclusion the main factors to be analysed concerning university students’
attitude towards entrepreneurship are the role of universities in fostering entre-
preneurship, the culture, the role models and motivation.
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
Data were collected through a direct interview survey conducted between March
and May 2003 on a sample of students from Universidad de San Andrés (Ar-
gentina) and from the Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy).
The Argentina sample is made up of 100 students at the Business and Eco-
nomics Schools from San Andrés University. The students mainly come from
the province of Buenos Aires where more than 30 per cent of the total popula-
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 225
Table 12.2 Students by country and gender
Argentina Italy
Number % Number %
Male 57 57.0 139 85.8
Female 43 43.0 23 14.2
Total 100 100.0 162 100.0
Table 12.1 Students by country and age (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total %
17–19 47 47 94 35.9
20–22 51 87 138 52.7
23–25 2 28 30 11.4
Total 100 162 262 100.0
tion of the country lives. It is the most prosperous region with a great deal of
industrial activity. Most students surveyed from Argentina are less than 22 years
old (Table 12.1) with a slight prevalence of males over females (Table 12.2).
The Italian sample is made up of 162 students from the School of Engineer-
ing, Ancona University. The students mainly come from the Marche region (of
which Ancona is the capital). The Marche region is a small, highly industrialized
region in central Italy. It belongs to the set of north-east-central (NEC) Italian
regions which, following the Second World War, experienced an intensive proc-
ess of industrialization mostly based on small frms concentrated in industrial
districts. Like the other NEC regions, the Marche specializes in ‘traditional’
industries (clothing, footwear, furniture).
The Italian sample is basically divided into two groups: the frst group is made
up of frst-year students on the Mechanical Engineering course. They are mostly
19 or 20 years old. The second group consists of students from several engineer-
ing courses (Mechanics, Electronics), aged between 23 and 25 (Table 12.1).
Male students dominate the Italian sample because engineering courses in Italy
are still mainly undertaken by males rather than females (Table 12.2).
Besides the differences in courses being taken by age and gender, another
important difference between the Argentinian and the Italian samples is the
students’ social background. In the Argentinian sample there is a prevalence of
students whose parents are entrepreneurs, professionals or executives, while in
226 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.3 Father’s occupation (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
Professional 15.3 16.7 16.1
Entrepreneur 37.8 7.7 19.3
Executive 24.5 15.4 18.9
Manual worker 0 12.2 7.5
Offce worker 5.1 26.3 18.1
Civil servant 4 5.1 4.7
Other* 13.3 16.7 15.4
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Note: * Includes retired people.
Table 12.4 Mother’s occupation (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
Professional 24.0 5.7 12.6
Entrepreneur 10.4 2.5 5.5
Executive 8.3 4.5 5.9
Manual worker 1.0 10.8 7.1
Offce worker 3.1 25.5 17.0
Civil servant 4.2 14.6 10.7
Other* 49.0 36.3 41.1
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Note: * Includes retired people and housewives.
the Italian sample there is a prevalence of students whose parents are offce or
manual workers (Tables 12.3 and 12.4). The Italian distribution of parents’ oc-
cupation is similar to the average in the population, while the Argentinian
sample is biased towards the higher income classes.
The survey questionnaire was organized in three sections. The frst section
collected general information about the student: age, gender, courses being
taken, work experience, parents’ occupation, and so on. The second section was
dedicated to analysing the career prospects of students, with specifc emphasis
on their intention to become entrepreneurs, that is, to start up their own frm. In
this section questions were also asked concerning the perceptions students hold
of entrepreneurs and of the obstacles and possible reasons for becoming entre-
preneurs. The third section was intended to obtain information on how students
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 227
understand the general environment with regard to facilitating or hindering
entrepreneurship.
Data analysis is based on descriptive statistics and on mean comparisons be-
tween sub-groups of students. We were specifcally interested in analysing the
role of some demographic variables in the attitudes towards entrepreneurship,
and in studying the differences between Argentinian and Italian students.
RESULTS
The discussion of results is organized in three parts: (1) career aspiration and
propensity to starting up a frm; (2) perceptions of entrepreneurs and reasons
for starting (or not starting) an entrepreneurial career; (3) environmental factors
that facilitate or hinder entrepreneurship.
Career Aspiration and Propensity to Starting up a Firm
Argentinian and Italian students show both similarities and differences when
asked about their prospective careers.
The similarities are in their possibility of becoming employees, in large as
well as in small frms or in the civil service. One-third want to enter a large frm,
while only a small percentage considers entering the public sector or a small
frm (the higher percentage of Italian students considering entering a small frm
can be explained by the large presence of SMEs in the Marche region). Students
from both countries also agree that frms no longer guarantee lifelong occupation
and so everyone should be prepared to work for more than one frm (Table
12.5).
Differences between the Italian and the Argentinian students can be observed
regarding three aspects:
l intention to do a Master’s after graduation
l propensity to work abroad for a period (true for 85 per cent of Argentini-
ans and only for 55 per cent of Italians)
l propensity to starting up a frm.
The low percentage of Italian students intending to do a Master’s after gradua-
tion is explained by two factors: the frst is that Italian universities did not offer
Master’s degrees until the last year of a student’s academic career; the second
is the good prospects for engineering students of getting a job soon after gradu-
ation. The latter aspect can probably also explain the lower percentage of Italian
students interested in working abroad. The answer to this question is apparently
more dependent on the country than on the students’ social background.
7
228 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.5 Students who agree on the following statements about their
future career (percentage)
Argentina Italy
Master or PhD 83.0 31.6
Clear idea about future job 18.2 30.2
Enter a large frm 34.0 34.8
Enter an SME 3.1 9.6
Enter the public sector 9.2 10.1
Work for more than one frm 65.0 53.2
Work abroad for a period 85.0 53.1
No plan for my career 10.2 38.8
Start up a frm soon after graduation 13.3 3.1
Start up a frm in a few years 34.3 3.8
Start up a frm after a few years of work 43.4 16.9
Start up a frm if opportunity arises 63.6 31.6
No interest in starting up a frm 0.0 11.3
Firms do not guarantee lifelong occupation 35.1 32.1
Work will not require all my intellectual capacities 28.9 40.1
The Argentinian students show a remarkably higher propensity to start up
a frm than do Italian students. The difference is particularly high in the case
of creating a new frm some years after graduation or if the opportunity arises.
It seems that Argentinian students are more eager to enter an entrepreneurial
career (although as future entrepreneurs) and more prepared to take on this
opportunity.
There are two possible reasons for this result. First, is that the high unemploy-
ment rate in Argentina has reduced the opportunity cost of self-employment.
Second, the educational system in Argentina does not provide work experience.
As a result students prefer to gain some experience in the labour market before
starting their own businesses (Table 12.6).
The high propensity of Argentinian students starting up their own frm also
emerges from the answer to whether they have ever taken into consideration the
idea of starting up a frm. While in both samples almost half of the students have
only vaguely thought about the matter, 47 per cent of Argentinian students de-
clare they have ‘serious’ intentions to do so, compared with 17 per cent of Italian
students. Among the Italian students there is also one-third who have never
thought about this possibility (Table 12.7).
The propensity to start up a frm shows a clear relationship with the social
background of students (Table 12.8). The percentage seriously thinking about
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 229
Table 12.7 Interest in starting up a new frm (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
No, never 8.0 29.2 20.6
Yes, a little 45.0 53.7 50.2
Yes, seriously 32.0 8.2 17.8
Yes, I plan to create my own frm 15.0 8.8 11.4
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Table 12.6 Firm start up (percentage of students who agree with the
following statement)
Argentina Italy
Start up a frm soon after graduation 13.3 3.1
Start up a frm in a few years 34.3 3.8
Start up a frm after a few years 43.4 16.9
Start up a frm if opportunity arises 63.6 31.6
Table 12.8 Interest in starting up a frm considering father’s occupation
(percentage)
8
No, never Yes, a little Yes* Total
Professional 17.1 53.7 29.3 100
Entrepreneur 16.3 46.9 36.7 100
Executive 11.4 52.3 36.4 100
Manual worker 35.3 58.8 5.9 100
Offce worker 31.7 43.9 24.4 100
Civil servant 30.0 50.0 20.0 100
Other 16.2 56.8 27.0 100
Total 20.1 51.0 28.9 100
Note: * Seriously thinking of creating a business or have already planned it.
it or who have already planned this career path is signifcantly higher for stu-
dents whose parents are entrepreneurs or executives, compared with students
whose parents are manual or offce workers.
230 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.9 Students whose fathers are entrepreneurs or executives by
country and interest in starting up a frm (percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
No 9.8 21.9* 14.0
Yes, a little 50.8 46.9 49.5
Yes 39.3 31.3 36.6
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Note: * Includes students who do not think of starting up their own frm but who plan to enter the
family business.
If we analyse the social background of students (parents’ occupation) much
of the country difference disappears. Unfortunately, this analysis can only be
done for students whose parents are entrepreneurs or executives, because we
have just a few Argentinian students whose parents’ occupation is manual or
offce work (Table 12.9).
Overall family background seems to play a more important role in the entre-
preneurial attitude of students than general cultural variables associated with
the country. At the same time it is interesting to note that even after controlling
for social background Argentinian students show a slightly higher propensity
to start up their own frm than do their Italian counterparts.
Society’s Perception of Entrepreneurs and Reasons for Becoming
Entrepreneurs
Concerning the issue of the perception they have of entrepreneurs, Italian and
Argentinian students show similarities and differences. Overall the image of
entrepreneurs’ personal attributes is similar in both countries: students agree
that entrepreneurs are skilful people (they are dynamic, able to tolerate risks,
have good entrepreneurial vision) but have a low sense of social justice and
honesty (Table 12.10).
Students seem to think of entrepreneurs as clever people who use their skills
and abilities in ways that are not always, or completely, socially acceptable.
This homogeneity is remarkable given that the majority of Argentinian students
have entrepreneurs as parents while the majority of Italian students have em-
ployees as parents.
With regard to the differences between Argentinian and Italian students, two
issues are worth mentioning. The frst is the social and economic role of entre-
preneurs: a larger percentage of Italian students, compared with Argentinian
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 231
Table 12.10 Students who agree with the following statements (percentage)
Argentina Italy
Entrepreneurs are dynamic 95.7 95.9
Entrepreneurs have good entrepreneurial vision 79.7 93.0
Entrepreneurs are honest 41.4 31.3
Entrepreneurs have a clear sense of social justice 29.1 19.7
Entrepreneurs talk with their employees 69.9 43.4
Entrepreneurs are able to tolerate risks 88.3 86.3
Entrepreneurs are innovative 81.7 66.9
Entrepreneurs know organizations 81.9 72.9
Entrepreneurs have fnancial and management skills 70.4 74.3
Entrepreneurs are fnancial investors 75.3 98.0
Entrepreneurs are professional 55.9 46.5
Entrepreneurs earn a lot of money 40.5 86.4
Entrepreneurs contribute to economic development 80.7 91.4
Entrepreneurs create jobs 77.2 88.7
students, think that entrepreneurs create jobs and contribute to the country’s
economic development. Perhaps this difference can be attributed to the different
economic conditions in Argentina and Italy.
A higher percentage of Italian students agree that entrepreneurs earn a lot of
money. This seems to contrast with their low interest towards pursuing an en-
trepreneurial career compared with Argentinian students. This paradox is only
apparent because earning money does not represent the main reason for becom-
ing an entrepreneur.
Indeed, both Argentinian and Italian students indicate non-economic reasons
as the most important ones for starting up their own frm. It is remarkable that
the frst three reasons rank in the same order in both countries and are all related
to personal rather than economic attainment (Table 12.11).
At the same time it is worth noting that the Italian students assign more im-
portance to economic reasons than do Argentinian students. In the case of
diffculties in starting up their own frm the differences between Argentinian
and Italian students are more evident. Among the frst fve diffculties, they agree
on three items: the perception of too much risk, the lack of initial funding and
the presence of too much competition (Table 12.12).
Following these problems the Italian students also indicate the fear of being
unsuccessful and of fscal pressure, while the Argentinian students put forward
doubts about their entrepreneurial abilities and the bad prospects after retire-
ment. The differences in the importance of fscal pressure or the prospects after
232 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
retirement could be attributed to differences in the institutional situations in the
two countries. The other two items are connected to a certain extent considering
that the fear of being unsuccessful is linked with a lack of confdence in personal
capabilities.
Obstacles and Incentives for Starting up a New Firm
In both countries the majority of students think that it is more diffcult to start
up a frm now than it was in the past (Table 12.13).
The percentage that believes this is higher for Italian students. Even in this
case the difference depends on the lower percentage of Italian students coming
from entrepreneurial families (Table 12.14). Indeed, if we consider only the
students whose parents are entrepreneurs, the difference between the two coun-
tries disappears (Table 12.15). It is worth noting that, even in this case,
two-thirds of the students think that creating a frm at present is more diffcult
than it was in the past.
Except for the case of excessive competition, the obstacles perceived by stu-
dents for the start-up phase of new frms are very different in the two countries.
Table 12.11 Reasons for starting up a frm (percentage of students
indicating the reasons as important or very important)
Argentina Italy*
% Rank % Rank
To put into practice own ideas 86.0 1 71.6 1
Personal independence 80.0 2 66.0 2
To create something of one’s own 76.0 3 64.8 3
To be the head of an organization 57.0 4 34.6 6
Economic independence 47.0 5 34.7 7
To earn more than an employee 39.0 6 55.6 4
To accumulate a personal fortune 33.0 7 38.9 5
Diffculty in getting a satisfying job 32.0 8 24.7 10
Not satisfed with current job 25.0 9 14.8 12
To get a salary that corresponds to abilities 22.0 10 34.0 8
Social status 20.0 11 29.6 9
Family tradition 15.0 12 7.4 13
To invest family assets 15.0 13 15.4 11
Other 11 14 3.7 14
Note: * Answers were limited to fve items.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 233
Table 12.12 Obstacles for starting up a frm (percentage of students
indicating the obstacles as important or very important)
Argentina Italy*
% Rank % Rank
Too much risk 64.0 1 77.2 2
Lack of initial funding 60.0 2 83.3 1
Too much competition 50.0 3 59.9 4
I doubt my entrepreneurial abilities 49.0 4 30.2 6
Bad prospects after retirement 26.0 5 4.9 13
Lack of minimum salary 23.0 6 27.1 8
Good career prospects as an employee 21.0 7 12.3 11
Fear of being unsuccessful 21.0 8 70.4 3
Too much work 19.0 9 25.9 9
Negative image attached to entrepreneurship 17.0 10 8.6 12
Fiscal pressure 16.0 11 50.0 5
No regular income from entrepreneurial activity 16.0 12 27.2 7
Problems with employees 12.0 13 16.0 10
Other 8.0 14 1.9 14
Note: * Answers were limited to fve items.
Table 12.13 Diffculty in starting up a frm compared with the past
(percentage)
Argentina Italy Total
Easier 38.5 23.2 29.1
More diffcult 61.5 76.8 70.9
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
Argentinian students point out general economic factors like globalization, the
presence of uncertainty and the diffculties in penetrating markets (market con-
centration and market saturation).
Italian students point out more specifc factors like fscal pressure, diffculty
in raising adequate funding for the start-up phase, competition from large frms
and bureaucracy (Table 12.16). These differences can be clearly explained by
the differences in the general economic conditions in the two countries.
234 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 12.14 Diffculty in starting up a frm compared with the past
segmented by father’s occupation (percentage)
Easier More diffcult
Entrepreneur 35.4 64.6
Professional 35.0 65.0
Executive 30.4 69.6
Offce worker 22.7 77.3
Manual worker 21.1 78.9
Civil servant 18.2 81.8
Other 27.8 72.2
Total 29.1 70.9
Table 12.15 Diffculty in starting up a frm compared with the past
(percentage values for students whose parents are
entrepreneurs)
Argentina Italy Total
Easier 36.1 33.3 35.4
More diffcult 63.9 66.7 64.6
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0
In neither of the two countries is lack of education considered to be one of
the main obstacles for entrepreneurial activity. This seems coherent with the
image of entrepreneurs as people with special personal attributes but without
specifc education and training.
CONCLUSIONS
This chapter is a preliminary study of the factors infuencing how undergraduate
students perceive entrepreneurship and of their attitude to starting an entrepre-
neurial career. It is also intended to assess how country differences infuence
these perceptions and attitudes. The main conclusions can be summarized as
follows.
The social background of students (specifcally, parents’ occupation) plays a
crucial role in the attitude of students towards becoming entrepreneurs, while
country specifcity has little impact on it.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 235
On the contrary, social background has less impact on the image of entrepre-
neurs. This image shows remarkable similarities in both countries: entrepreneurs
are seen as people with specifc personal attributes who use their skills and
abilities in ways that are not always, or completely, socially acceptable (lack of
honesty or sense of social justice).
The different country environments infuence the image of the economic role
of entrepreneurs in creating jobs and fostering economic development: a role
that is more recognized by Italian than Argentinian students.
Remarkable similarities between the two groups of students are also observed
in the reasons for creating their own frm. Both groups stress personal attainment
– that is, putting their own ideas into practice, personal independence, creating
something of their own – rather than economic reasons (earning or accumulating
money). The latter reasons are considered important by a larger percentage of
Italian than Argentinian students.
Table 12.16 Obstacles for starting up a frm
Argentina Italy
% Rank % Rank
Globalization 64.0 1 13.6 15
Competition 44.0 2 43.8 1
Lack of planning skills 36.0 3 14.2 14
Economic trend 31.0 4 30.2 9
Uncertainty 29.0 5 32.7 8
Market concentration 24.0 6 6.2 18
Market saturation 22.0 7 30.2 9
Risk aversion 20.0 8 29.0 11
Entry barriers 19.0 9 22.8 13
Other 17.0 10 0.6 19
Legislation 14.0 11 13.0 16
Lack of information 13.0 12 6.8 17
Lack of education 13.0 12 25.9 12
Problems in raising funds 8.0 14 34.6 7
Lack of experience 8.0 14 35.2 6
Fiscal pressure 6.0 16 42.0 2
Bureaucracy 5.0 17 36.4 5
Large frms 3.0 18 37.7 4
Insuffcient funding at start-up 3.0 18 39.5 3
236 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
The perceived obstacles in starting up their own frm are also similar: both
Argentinian and Italian students emphasize the risk associated with venture
creation combined with the lack of initial funding. Among the main obstacles
they also consider fear of being unsuccessful (Italian students) and doubts about
their entrepreneurial skills (Argentinian students).
Overall in both countries students emphasize reasons related to their personal
status or to the characteristics of the ventures they are going to start up rather
than variables related to the general environment (only in the case of Italian
students is fscal pressure indicated as an important obstacle).
More than two-thirds of the students believe that it is more diffcult to create
a frm at present than it was in the past. The result is highly dependent on the
social background of students and not on the country in which they live. Stu-
dents coming from entrepreneurial, professional and executive families seem
more confdent about the possibility of starting up their own frm than students
coming from other social backgrounds. On this point it is interesting to note
that even the former two-thirds of students perceive the present situation as more
diffcult than in the past.
The major differences between the two countries emerge with reference to
the obstacles to entrepreneurial activity in general. Argentinian students point
out general economic factors – for example, the effect of globalization and the
presence of uncertainty – while Italian students point out more specifc factors
like fscal pressure, diffculty in raising adequate funding at start-up and com-
petition from large frms.
Overall the results of the study show that there are more similarities than
differences between Argentinian and Italian students in their perception of en-
trepreneurship and in their attitude towards starting up their own frms. The
differences concerning these aspects can be mainly attributed to the social
background of the students – specifcally to their parents’ occupation – rather
than to the country. This has two important consequences.
The frst consequence is similarities between the two countries allow the de-
sign and experimentation of similar university programmes for entrepreneurship
development. The second, and most important, consequence is that the problems
and attitudes shown by students concerning their prospective career as entre-
preneurs seem to give a considerable scope for entrepreneurship programmes
and several interesting indications about the aims and contents of these
programmes.
The importance of family background on the propensity to take up an entre-
preneurial career strongly supports the importance of university courses
designed not only to develop specifc entrepreneurial skills, but also to give
students the opportunity to obtain a general knowledge of entrepreneurship and
to interact directly with entrepreneurs by promoting role models.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 237
With regard to entrepreneurial skills, courses on entrepreneurship should
address the following topics:
1. Improvement of personal capabilities and confdence in managing the risks
associated with the creation of new ventures.
2. Information about the possibilities and instruments for raising external
funds for new ventures.
3. Development of a business plan with specifc regard to the evaluation and
control of entrepreneurial risks.
4. Socio-cultural aspects of entrepreneurship and the forces encouraging or
inhibiting it.
This study has several limitations that indicate areas for further development
both at a theoretical and an empirical level. At an empirical level the main limi-
tation concerns the sample size and the lack of variability for some demographic
aspects. In order to overcome this limitation we intend to enlarge the sample to
include a larger typology of students in terms of university curricula, social
background and countries.
At a theoretical level more data is needed to identify the different factors
(demographic, cultural, personal) infuencing perceptions and attitudes towards
entrepreneurship and the mechanisms through which they operate.
NOTES
1. We adopt the following defnition of entrepreneurship: ‘the perception and creation of new
economic opportunities’ combined with ‘decision-making on the location, form and use of re-
sources’ (Wennekers and Thurik, 1999: 27).
2. According to Baumol (1968; 1993), entrepreneurs are people who identify new ideas and set
them in motion. They are the people who lead and are the source of inspiration in the develop-
ment of a new business. Finally, Bygrave (1997) defnes an entrepreneur as someone who
perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to exploit it.
3. In Kantis et al. (2002a) Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: The Creation and Develop-
ment of New Firms in Latin America and East Asia, Inter-American Development Bank.
4. In a study on nine countries, Vesper and Gartner (1997) show that the number of universities
with entrepreneurship courses grew from 16 in 1970 to 400 in 1995.
5. Examples of such schemes are the German EXIST Programme, the Business Birth Rate Strategy
in Scotland, Brasil Emprende, IG in Italy.
6. Unemployment started to grow in the 1990s. In 1990 the rate was set around 8.6 per cent, in
1993 9.9 per cent, reaching 18.4 per cent two years later. In 2002 it reached 21.5 per cent, with
18.6 per cent of sub-employment (INDEC, 2002). In addition to the problem of unemployment,
gross domestic product (GDP) has been declining since 1999. The available information indi-
cates that its decrease was 3.4 per cent in 1999, approximately 1 per cent in 2000, 4.4 per cent
in 2001 and 11.2 per cent in 2002 (IMF, 2002).
7. Anyway in both countries students from high-income families (entrepreneurs, executives and
professionals) show a higher propensity to working abroad for a period of time.
238 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
8. Given the high level of correlation between father’s and mother’s occupation and the fact that
a high percentage of mothers do not work, we have used the father’s occupation to analyse the
social background.
REFERENCES
Accornero, A. (1999), ‘Poter Crescere E Voler Crescere: I Piccoli Imprenditori Ex
Dipendenti’, in F. Trau (ed.), La ‘Questione Dimensionale’ Nell’industria Italiana,
Bologna: Il Mulino.
Audretsch, D.B. and R. Thurik (2001), ‘Linking entrepreneurship to economic growth’,
STI working papers 2001/2.
Baumol, W.J. (1968), ‘Entrepreneurship in economic theory’, American Economic Re-
view, 58 (2), 64–71.
Baumol, W.J. (1993), ‘Formal entrepreneurship theory in economics: existence and
bounds’, Journal of Business Venturing, 8 (3), 197–210.
Beranger, J., R. Chabbal and F. Dambrine (1998), Report Concerning Entrepreneurial
Training of Engineers, Paris: Ministère de l’Economie, Finance et Industrie.
Bygrave, W.D. (1997), The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, 2nd edn, New York: John
Wiley and Sons.
Charney, A. and G. Libecap (2000), ‘Impact of entrepreneurship education’, Insights: A
Kauffman Research Series, Rockhill Road, Kansas: Kauffman Center for Entrepre-
neurship Leadership.
Clark, B., C. Davis and V. Harnish (1984), ‘Do courses in entrepreneurship aid in new
venture creation?’, Journal of Small Business Management, 22 (2), 26–32.
Colombo, M. and M. Delmastro (2001), ‘Technology-based entrepreneurs: does Internet
make a difference?’, Small Business Economics, 16 (3), 177–90.
Cowling, M. and M. Taylor (2001), ‘Entrepreneurial women and men: two different
species?’, Small Business Economics, 16 (3), 167–75.
Delmar, F. and P. Davidsson (2000), ‘Where do they come from? Prevalence and char-
acteristics of nascent entrepreneurs’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development,
12 (1), 1–23.
Department of Trade, and Industry (1998), Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowl-
edge Driven Economy, Command Paper 4176, London: The Stationery Offce.
Fayolle, A. (1998), ‘Teaching of entrepreneurship: outcomes from an innovative experi-
ence’, paper presented at the Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and
Training Conference, IntEnt98, Oestrich-Winkel, Germany, 27–29 July.
Finkle, T. and D. Deeds (2001), ‘Trends in the market for entrepreneurship faculty, 1989-
1998’, Journal of Business Venturing, 16 (6), 613–31.
Garofoli, G. (1992), ‘New frm formation and local development: the Italian experience’,
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 4, 101–25.
Gibb, A. and J. Ritchie (1982), ‘Understanding the process of starting small business’,
European Small Business Journal, 1, 122–32.
Gill, A. (1988), ‘Choice of employment status and the wages of employees and the self-
employed: some further evidence’, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 3, 229–34.
Hofstede, G. (1980), Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work Related
Values, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Hofstede, G. (2001), Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions
and Organizations Across Nations, 2nd edn, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Undergraduate students as a source of potential entrepreneurs 239
Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INDEC) (2002), www. indec.mecon.gov.
ar., accessed April 2003.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2002), www.imf.org/external/pubs/B/WEO/2002/02,
accessed April 2003.
Kantis, H., M. Ishida and M. Komori (eds) (2002a), Entrepreneurship in Emerging
Economies: The Creation and Development of New Firms in Latin America and East
Asia, Inter-American Development Bank, Department of Sustainable Development,
Micro, Small and Medium Business Division.
Kantis, H., S. Postigo, J. Federico and M.F. Tamborini (2002b), ‘The emergence of uni-
versity graduates entrepreneurs: what makes the difference? Empirical evidences from
research in Argentina’, paper presented at the RENT XVI Conference, Barcelona,
Spain, 21–22 November.
Karcher, B. (1998), ‘Does gender really matter? The infuences of gender and qualifca-
tions on self-employment and their implications on entrepreneurship education’, paper
presented at the Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education and Training Confer-
ence, IntEnt98, Oestrich-Winkel, Germany, 27–29 July.
Katz, Jerome A. (2003), ‘The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American Entre-
preneurship education 1876–1999’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18 (3), 283–301.
Kolvereid, L. and O. Moen (1997), ‘Entrepreneurship among business graduates: does
a major in entrepreneurship make a difference?’, Journal of European Industrial
Training, 21 (4–5), 154–7.
Kourilsky, M.L. (1995), ‘Entrepreneurship education: opportunity in search of curricu-
lum’, Business Education Forum, 50, 11–15.
Lafuente, A. and V. Salas (1989), ‘Types of entrepreneurs and frms: the case of new
Spanish frms’, Strategic Management Journal, 10, 17–30.
Laukkanen, M. (2000), ‘Exploring alternative approaches in high-level entrepreneurship
education: creation micro mechanisms for endogenous regional growth’, Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 12, 25–47.
Levie, J., W. Brown and L. Steele (2001), ‘How entrepreneurial are Strathclyde Alumni?’,
paper presented at the International Entrepreneurship: Researching New Frontiers
Conference, University of Strathclyde, 21–23 September.
Litvak, I. and C. Maule (1976), ‘Comparative technical entrepreneurship: some perspec-
tives’, Journal of International Business Studies, 7 (1), 31–8.
Lüthje, C. and N. Franke (2002), ‘Fostering entrepreneurship through university educa-
tion and training: lessons from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’, paper presented
at the 2nd Annual Conference of the European Academy of Management, Stockholm
School of Entrepreneurship, Sweden, 9–11 May.
Minniti, M. and W.D. Bygrave (1999), ‘The microfoundations of entrepreneurship’,
Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 23 (4), 41–52.
Mueller, S.L and A.S. Thomas (2000), ‘Culture and entrepreneurial potential: a nine
country study of locus of control and innovativeness’, Journal of Business Venturing,
16, 51–75.
North, D.C. (1994), ‘Economic performance through time’, American Economic Review,
84 (3), 112–19.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1998), Fostering
Entrepreneurship: The OECD Jobs Strategy, Paris: OECD.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2000), OECD
Employment Outlook, Paris: OECD.
Postigo, S. and M.F. Tamborini (2002), ‘Entrepreneurship education in Argentina: the
case of university of San Andrés’s’, paper presented at the Conference International-
240 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
izing Entrepreneurship Education and Training, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 8–10
July.
Postigo, S. and M.F. Tamborini (2003), ‘Entrepreneurship education in Argentina: lessons
from the experience of University of San Andrés’s’, paper presented at the Annual
National Conference of the United States Association for Small Business and Entre-
preneurship, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA, 23–6 January.
Rees, H. and A. Shah (1986), ‘An empirical analysis of self-employment in the UK’,
Journal of Applied Econometrics, 1, 95–108.
Reynolds, P.D., H. Michael, S.M. Camp and E. Autio (2000), Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor. 2000 Executive Report, Wellesley, MA: Babson College.
Reynolds, P.D., W.D. Bygrave, E. Autio, L. Cox and M. Hay (2002), Global Entrepre-
neurship Monitor: 2002 Executive Report, Wellesley, MA: Babson College, London
Business School and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Robinson, P. and E. Sexton (1994), ‘The effect of education and experience self-employ-
ment success’, Journal of Business Venturing, 9 (2), 141–57.
Schumpeter, J.A. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development, Cambridge, MA: Har-
vard University Press.
Shapero, A. (1984), ‘The entrepreneurial event’, in C.A. Kent (ed.), The Environment
for Entrepreneurship, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 21–40.
Solomon, George T., S. Duffy and A. Tarabishy (2002), ‘The state of entrepreneurship
education in the United States: a nationwide survey and analysis’, International Jour-
nal of Entrepreneurship Education, 1 (1), 1–22.
Tackey, N., S. Perryman and H. Connor (1999), Graduated Business Start-Ups, Institute
for Employment Studies, Brighton.
Upton, N., D. Sexton and C. Moore (1995), ‘Have we made a difference? An examination
of career activity of entrepreneurship majors since 1981’, working paper, Baylor
University, Baylor, TX.
Ussman, A. and S. Postigo (2000), ‘O Papel da universidade no fomento da funçao em-
presarial’, Anais universitarios, Ciencias Sociais e Humanas. 1990–2000 Yearbook
Special Issue, Beira Interior, Portugal: Universidades de Beira Interior.
Veciana, J. (2002), ‘Comentarios sobre los resultados de la investigación comparada
sobre la empresarialidad entre América Latina y el Este de Asia’ (‘Comments on the
results of the comparative study of entrepreneurshop between East Asia and Latin
America’, in H. Kantis, M. Ishida and M. Komori, Entrepreneurship in Emerging
Economies: The Creation and Development of New Firms in Latin America and East
Asia, Inter-American Development Bank, Department of Sustainable Development,
Micro, Small and Medium Business Division.
Vesper, K. and W. Gartner (1997), ‘Measuring progress in entrepreneurship education’,
Journal of Business Venturing, 12 (5), 403–21.
Wennekers, A.R.M. and A.R. Thurik (1999), ‘Linking entrepreneurship and economic
growth’, Small Business Economics, 13, 27–55.
Wilken, P. (1979), Entrepreneurship: A Comparative and Historical Study, Norwood,
NJ: Ablex.
241
13. Entrepreneurship education among
students at a Canadian university: an
extensive empirical study of students’
entrepreneurial preferences and
intentions
Yvon Gasse and Maripier Tremblay
INTRODUCTION
Though certain studies have determined the entrepreneurial potential in the gen-
eral population (Reynolds, 1997), few have concentrated on university settings.
This fact is all the more noteworthy in the context of a knowledge economy in
which university students increasingly see entrepreneurship as a valid career
choice. Laval University, which has a student population of close to 36 000, al-
ready provides services for student entrepreneurs, but the entrepreneurial potential
of this population is, as of yet, not that well known. The goal of the present study
was thus to compare the entrepreneurial potential of Laval University students
with that of the general population and to verify the students’ specifc interests,
expectations, intentions, prevalence and needs. We likewise attempted to see how
the students’ values, attitudes and behaviour, that is, their entrepreneurial poten-
tial, could predispose them to founding a company, creating their own job or
having the intention to do so. Consequently, we also tried to better understand
what learning methods could stimulate the entrepreneurial approach and what
type of support and follow-up would be likely to interest the students.
MODEL OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS
New companies are created and developed by entrepreneurs, that is, those who
bring together and manage human and physical resources with the goal of creat-
ing, developing and implementing solutions that help to meet people’s needs
(Cooper et al., 1990). Entrepreneurs harness and organize these resources to
start up and then develop the companies that will respond to these needs.
242 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Several studies have shown that company founders have certain particular
characteristics (Gasse and D’Amours, 2000); however, upon closer analysis,
these attributes can vary according to the type of entrepreneur (Krueger, 2000).
Moreover, we must also recognize that these entrepreneurial predispositions are
infuenced by the environment in which the person works (Reynolds, 1995).
The act of founding a company results from a decision made by an entrepre-
neur (Bhidé, 2000). The various infuences that bear on this decision are to be
found in three crucial aspects, namely:
l desirability
l feasibility
l creation.
Figure 13.1 is an attempt to represent the main elements of the model of the
entrepreneurial process. The interest of this fgure lies in the light it sheds on a
very complex and dynamic reality. The different levels of analysis not only bring
out the numerous links and causalities but also the constant interpenetration of
individual and social problems. A model, even a descriptive one, is only a partial
and simplifed representation of reality, its only goal being to help people better
understand the phenomenon in question. Real life teaches us that each person,
situation and environment has its own particularities. Even though these par-
ticularities cannot be generalized, they can serve as illustrations of general
concepts.
Our objective in this study is to verify the role played by certain, specifcally
chosen variables in the entrepreneurial process of university students. The other
elements presented in Figure 13.1 are only shown to give an overall view of the
phenomenon’s complexity.
Desirability (Values)
Since entrepreneurship is above all a matter of individuals, and people are
largely shaped by the environment in which they evolve, it is important to better
determine the factors of the surrounding environment that can infuence the at-
tractiveness and even the desirability of entrepreneurship. Social and cultural
factors directly affect the perceived desirability of a given behaviour or action
(OECD, 1998). When entrepreneurship is promoted in a community, such as
that of the university, the people who make up this community then tend to have
a positive perception of this activity (Davidsson and Honig, 2003). There are
two dimensions to this desirability: frst, the perception that the benefts of an
entrepreneurial behaviour will be personally desirable and, second, the percep-
tion that they will also be socially desirable (Shapero and Sokol, 1982). In a
university context, we can see how faculties, programmes, courses, pedagogical
243
F
i
g
u
r
e
1
3
.
1
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
i
a
l
p
r
o
c
e
s
s
m
o
d
e
l
C
H
A
R
A
C
T
E
R
I
S
T
I
C
S
D
E
T
E
R
M
I
N
I
N
G
S
O
C
I
A
L
F
A
C
T
O
R
S
M
A
J
O
R
I
N
F
L
U
E
N
C
E
S
E
L
E
M
E
N
T
S
S
T
A
G
E
S
D
E
C
I
S
I
O
N
S
P
R
O
C
E
S
S
E
S
C
u
l
t
u
r
e
F
a
m
i
l
y
R
e
l
i
g
i
o
n
E
d
u
c
a
t
i
o
n
S
o
c
i
a
l
s
t
r
u
c
t
u
r
e
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
t
y
I
n
s
t
i
t
u
t
i
o
n
s
(
u
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
i
e
s
)
A
s
s
o
c
i
a
t
i
o
n
s
:
P
r
o
f
e
s
s
i
o
n
a
l
I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
C
o
n
s
u
l
a
r
M
e
d
i
a
C
o
m
m
u
n
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
n
e
t
w
o
r
k
s
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
o
r
g
a
n
i
z
a
t
i
o
n
s
A
c
h
i
e
v
e
m
e
n
t
I
n
i
t
i
a
t
i
v
e
s
S
e
l
f
-
c
o
n
f
d
e
n
c
e
D
e
t
e
r
m
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
C
r
e
a
t
i
v
i
t
y
E
n
e
r
g
y
E
n
t
r
e
p
r
e
n
e
u
r
s
h
i
p
R
i
s
k
s
G
r
a
t
i
f
c
a
t
i
o
n
R
e
c
o
g
n
i
t
i
o
n
L
i
f
e
s
t
y
l
e
A
c
c
e
s
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
I
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
A
d
v
i
c
e
M
a
n
a
g
e
m
e
n
t
F
u
n
d
i
n
g
N
e
t
w
o
r
k
T
e
c
h
n
o
l
o
g
y
F
a
c
i
l
i
t
y
F
e
e
d
b
a
c
k
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
N
e
e
d
s
U
s
e
f
u
l
n
e
s
s
D
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
V
a
l
u
e
a
d
d
e
d
M
a
r
k
e
t
a
b
l
e
P
r
o
f
t
a
b
l
e
P
r
o
m
i
s
i
n
g
(
t
r
e
n
d
)
M
a
n
a
g
e
a
b
l
e
I
n
n
o
v
a
t
i
v
e
C
i
t
i
z
e
n
S
a
t
i
s
f
a
c
t
o
r
y
M
o
d
e
r
n
D
e
s
i
r
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
F
e
a
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
y
C
r
e
a
t
i
o
n
I
d
e
a
s
P
r
o
j
e
c
t
B
u
s
i
n
e
s
s
P
e
r
c
e
p
t
i
o
n
s
(
a
t
t
i
t
u
d
e
s
)
V
a
l
u
e
s
M
e
a
n
s
E
N
V
I
R
O
N
M
E
N
T
A
N
D
E
N
T
R
E
P
R
E
N
E
U
R
S
H
I
P
244 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
methods and extra-curricular activities can infuence this desirability. It is like-
wise important to take into account certain antecedents such as age, gender,
work experience – especially experience related to entrepreneurship and SMEs
– as well as the level and feld of study.
Feasibility (Perceptions)
Several external factors that are outside of a person’s control infuence entrepre-
neurship. It is clear that the interaction between these factors can foster or hinder
business creation (Fortin, 2002). An entrepreneur must not only perceive the de-
sirability of the entrepreneurial act, this act must also be reasonably feasible.
Feasibility depends on whether or not the means and resources needed to create
a business are seen to be readily accessible. Though some of these means can be
related to an entrepreneur’s abilities, many stem from the surrounding environ-
ment. Accordingly, feasibility should be refected in entrepreneurial intentions
(Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). In a university context, the probability of owning
one’s own company, the factors facilitating entrepreneurship and the perceived
obstacles to creating a business are examples of entrepreneurial intentions.
Creation (Means)
Desirability and feasibility are necessary but not suffcient conditions for creat-
ing companies. To take action, potential entrepreneurs must bring together the
relevant means and resources at the right time and in the right place. These re-
sources can be human, fnancial, material and informational (Filion, 2002).
Environments in which these resources are reasonably available have a clear
advantage in terms of company creation (Carter et al., 1996). In a university
context, the university and its components can play a determining role for en-
trepreneurs. We do not only wish to know how students perceive their university
or what they expect from it, we also want to determine the entrepreneurial inci-
dence rate. Accordingly, it would be worthwhile to compare the entrepreneurial
intensity of the students on campus to that of the general population.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND UNIVERSITIES
Studies are regularly conducted to determine how university programmes,
courses and specializations in entrepreneurship are evolving (Fayolle, 2000). In
the USA, for example, Vesper and Gartner (2001) showed that more than 100
universities offer entrepreneurial programmes, but that as many as 800 universi-
ties and colleges offer courses on this subject. In Canada, a study by Menzies
(2000) indicated that all universities and colleges offered either entrepreneurial
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 245
courses or programmes. In France, universities, business and administration
schools, specialized schools and the ‘grandes écoles’ have been offering more
and more programmes and courses in entrepreneurship in the past ten years
(Fayolle, 2003). Moreover, Europe has developed the most innovative pedagogi-
cal initiatives of the last few years, as Albert et al. (1999), Goujet and Marion
(1999) and Obrecht (1998) have reported. In North America, it would seem that
the traditional pedagogical methods are still predominant, such as the writing
up of a business plan, case studies, lectures and guest entrepreneurs (Fiet, 2001a;
Katz, 2003; Solomon et al., 2002). Furthermore, few studies have examined
what students actually learn in courses on entrepreneurship in terms of entre-
preneurial behaviour, suitable attitudes and acquired abilities (see, for example,
Bechard and Toulouse, 1998; Chen et al., 1998; Cox et al., 2003; Ehrlich et al.,
2000; Gorman et al., 1998). It would seem, nonetheless, that students who take
entrepreneurial courses show a better acquisition of certain entrepreneurial
characteristics than those who do not take these courses. For example, there is
a signifcant relationship between taking entrepreneurial courses and displaying
entrepreneurial intentions (Fayolle, 2002; Kolvereid, 1996a). Likewise, Noel
(2001) found a relationship between entrepreneurial teaching, entrepreneurial
intentions and the perception of ‘self-effcacy’. Finally, Hansemark (1998) at-
tempted to associate the need for accomplishment and an internal locus of
control with entrepreneurial courses.
A certain number of studies have shown rather interesting entrepreneurial
intention rates in Canada and elsewhere. For instance, Filion et al. (2002)
showed that 57.7 per cent of the students at a French-speaking Québec university
intended to start their own business. Furthermore, Audet (2001) found that only
8 per cent of the students at an English-speaking Québec university intended to
create their own business in the short term, but that 45 per cent of these students
estimated their chances of one day starting up their own business at 75 per cent.
This data is similar to that for student clientele in Russia and Norway (Kolv-
ereid, 1996b; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999).
APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
The students were selected randomly from a complete list of the Laval Univer-
sity students enrolled in the 2002 winter session.The data were collected by the
professional polling frm SOM Surveys, Opinion Polls and Marketing.
Target Population and Sample
The target population for this research was all of the students enrolled at Laval
University for the 2002 winter session. The sample was determined using fles
246 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
provided by Laval University. So as to conserve the confdentiality of the stu-
dents’ telephone number, the Registrar Service at Laval University randomly
picked the students in the study by means of a computer.
Questionnaire
1
The frst draft of this questionnaire was developed by the authors. The SOM
Surveys, Opinion Polls and Marketing company then proceeded with a technical
revision and a pre-test of the questionnaire.
Data Collection and Treatment
A total of 600 interviews were conducted. The response rate was estimated at
69.2 per cent of the valid phone numbers that were supplied. A total of 20.5 per
cent of the people for whom we had a valid phone number could not be con-
tacted during the survey period and 10.4 per cent refused to participate. The
detailed results of the calls and the calculation of the response rate are presented
in Tables 13.1 and 13.2.
The statistical data analysis was conducted by the researchers. The data fle
was transmitted by SOM in an SPSS software format. The maximum error
margin in the sample results for the 600 respondents is, at most, 4 per cent with
a confdence level of 95 per cent.
Table 13.1 Sample data
A. Initial sample 962
B. Never reached during the data collection period 146
C. None in service or discontinued 55
D. Business numbers 7
E. Lines out of order 1
F. Non-eligible 8
G. Out of stratum 0
H. Disabilities/foreign languages 8
I. Not at home 46
J. Uncompleted 1
K. Household refusals 2
L. Respondent refusals 88
M. Completed interviews 600
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 247
RESULTS
Prevalence of Emerging Entrepreneurs and the Others’ Intentions
The data collected were used to determine the prevalence rate of emerging en-
trepreneurs on the campus. Of the 600 respondents, 3.2 per cent said they were
actively trying to start up a business.
Nonetheless, to compare the prevalence rate on the campus to that of the
National Study on the Entrepreneurial Process and Firms’ Birth,
2
two other
conditions had to be taken into account. The respondent had to, in addition to
being actively involved in a business start-up:
l have undertaken concrete endeavours to start up a business in the last 12
months
l be the owner or co-owner of the start-up business.
More than 73.7 per cent of the students who were actively trying to start up
a business had undertaken concrete endeavours in the last 12 months; 36.8
per cent were sole owners as opposed to 63.2 per cent who were part
owners.
Of the 600 students who were interviewed, 2.3 per cent met all the conditions.
The prevalence rate at Laval University was therefore 28 per cent higher than
that of the Canadian population, which was 1.8 per cent.
Entrepreneur: A Choice Considered by Many
The students who were not involved in starting up a business
3
were also polled
in order to know if they had already thought of starting up a business or one day
Table 13.2 Main response rates
N. Numbers not reached (B+E) 147
O. Numbers reached (A-(N+G)) 815
P. Non-usable numbers among reached (C+D+H) 70
Q. Usable numbers among reached (O-P) 745
R. Estimate of usable numbers not reached (NQ/O) 134
S. Estimated total of usable numbers (Q+R) 879
Estimated non-response (R+I/S) 20.5%
Refusal (J+K+L)/S 10.4%
Estimated response rate ((M+F)/S) 69.2%
248 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
being self-employed. The results show that 32.5 per cent of them had already
considered it.
Of this number, 42.9 per cent thought they would do it in the long term, 31.2
per cent in the three to fve years following their studies and 14.8 per cent in the
two years after their studies. Only 7.9 per cent thought they would start the
business or become self-employed during their studies. Finally, 3.2 per cent did
not respond to this question.
Concept of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a concept that can refer to several things. Moreover, the re-
spondents identifed several elements referring to this term; Table 13.3 shows
the frequency of the main traditional concepts of entrepreneurship.
Table 13.4 Other concepts of entrepreneurship (percentage)
Freedom, autonomy, and independance 26.6
Linked to business concept 20.7
Required qualities 10.8
Loss and requirement 9.4
Innovation, creation 8.2
Required skills 5.9
Status/job 4.1
Personal achievement 4.1
Linked to environment factors, social role (job creation) 3.4
Table 13.3 Various concepts of entrepreneurship (percentage)
New business creation 19.0
Purchase of an existing business 0.2
New product development 0.7
Creation of a not-for-proft organization 0.2
New project start-up 1.8
Business ownership 11.5
Other 57.0
As might be expected, it is above all the notions of business creation and
ownership that dominated. However, an analysis of the entrepreneurship concept
category ‘Other’ brought forward fairly diverse elements, as can be seen in Table
13.4.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 249
Many of these ‘other’ concepts refer to values, abilities, attitudes, lifestyles
and ways of being that indicate that people have or would like to have an in-
creasingly wider view of entrepreneurship.
Awareness of Entrepreneurship: Knowledge of the Services
Laval University offers certain entrepreneurial services for its students through,
among others, Entrepreneuriat Laval, a support organization for student entre-
preneurs. This section of the survey focused primarily on evaluating what the
students knew about these services and how they perceived and used them.
Among the entrepreneurship support services available for Laval University
students, those that stood out were primarily linked to learning, awareness and
follow-up. For example:
l 13.7 per cent of the respondents said they had already taken a course in
entrepreneurship
l 25.8 per cent had been informed about the career possibilities in
entrepreneurship
l 42.5 per cent of the polled students had acquired some knowledge about
the business world during their studies
l 40.7 per cent had heard of entrepreneurship at Laval University
l 21.7 per cent knew Entrepreneuriat Laval; of these, 33.1 per cent knew
where the organization’s offces where
l 6.5 per cent of the respondents knew of REEL, an association of student
entrepreneurs at Laval University that promotes entrepreneurship among
students.
Perceptions of the University’s Role
Since entrepreneurship is increasingly seen by the university student population
as a valid career choice, it was important to determine what role the students
felt the university should play in its development and stimulation. The survey
showed us that:
l 55.3 per cent of the respondents agreed that the university acknowledged
innovation, initiative and business creation. However, 96 per cent stated
that the university should formally acknowledge the students’ initiatives
to create their own business, for example, by providing course credits for
entrepreneurial activities
l 94.7 per cent stated that it is important to inform students about
entrepreneurship.
250 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Probability of Owning a Business
As concerns the probability of one day owning their business, the student survey
gave the results presented in Table 13.5.
Table13.5 Probability of owning their own business (percentage)
High 15.3
Medium 30.3
Poor 32.2
None 21.8
These perceptions about the probability of one day owning their own business
were similar to those obtained in previous studies of the Laval University student
population, as can be seen below.
Factors Involved in Owning a Business
As with any other human activity, entrepreneurship can be better developed
under certain facilitating conditions. Though several of these conditions were
identifed, only a few seemed quite signifcant.
Among the main factors mentioned, only one stood out, that is, fnancing,
with 24.2 per cent. Among the secondary factors that were mentioned, the most
notable ones were fnancing with 20.3 per cent and get the required knowledge
with 13.7 per cent.
These results are not surprising, given the importance that the media and f-
nancial, public and para-public institutions attribute to fnancing business
creation.
Obstacles to Owning a Business
The factors that facilitate owning a business can often act as obstacles if they
are not suffciently present. This study observed the same phenomenon, as can
be seen by the main obstacles: funding at 45.3 per cent and lack of interest at
6.7 per cent. Secondary factors that were mentioned included funding at 13.7
per cent, time (9.6 per cent) and competition (8.2 per cent).
Once again, the availability of funds was seen as a major obstacle and was
mentioned by close to half the respondents. Moreover, most of the new busi-
nesses were created with very limited personal funds.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 251
Main Motivations for Creating a Business
The main motivations for creating one’s own business and becoming self-em-
ployed are few in number and often the same. This study population was not
really an exception to this rule. The respondents’ principal motivations are
mentioned in Table 13.6.
Table 13.6 Motivations for creating a business (percentage)
Being one’s own boss 29.7
Independence and autonomy 13.8
Making money 7.2
Table 13.7 Secondary motivations for creating a business (percentage)
Being one’s own boss 14.3
Making money 13.7
Get power and control 11.9
Being one’s own boss seemed to be the main reason. This concept can none-
theless include several aspects, such as the need for achievement, which is
often identifed as the dominant motivation for business creators in the classic
studies of entrepreneurship. The selected defnitions would seem to have sev-
eral similarities. Table 13.7 presents the secondary motivations for creating a
business.
Activities that Could Develop Entrepreneurship
It was seen above that the students felt the university had a role to play in stimu-
lating and developing entrepreneurship. Realistically speaking, the respondents
were asked what activities and methods Laval University should put in place to
promote entrepreneurship. Table 13.8 shows the respondents’ support for various
entrepreneurship development activities that Laval University could provide.
The most strongly supported activities revolved around practical business
initiatives such as access to a business network, work terms with business own-
ers, counselling, mentoring and fnancial aid.
252 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Methods and Academic and Extra-academic Activities that Foster the
Development of Entrepreneurship
At university, several academic activities can help develop entrepreneurship. It
is nonetheless worthwhile to know the students’ interest in these activities. Table
13.9 summarizes this interest.
Table 13.8 Entrepreneurship development activities that Laval University
should support (percentage)
More training 84.3
Offcial recognition of entrepreneurial initiatives 93.2
Counselling 96.8
Offering space for students’ businesses 90.0
Business incubator 83.2
Help student entrepreneur to fnd funds 95.5
Networking 98.2
Work terms with entrepreneurs 96.7
Course credits for business projects 80.3
Mentoring programme 95.0
Table 13.9 Academic activities helping the development of entrepreneurship
Academic activities 1st
selection 2nd
selection
(%) (%)
Case studies in business start-ups 19.5 13.1
Visits of business enterprises 6.2 12.7
Conferences on business start-up 9.0 16.2
Meeting with practitioner 8.3 19.9
Work terms with entrepreneurs 42.5 17.1
Simulation of business enterprises 8.0 9.9
Once again, it was the activities that allowed the students to experience real
business conditions that aroused the most interest, as was the case with work
terms and case studies. As concerns extra-academic activities that helped de-
velop entrepreneurship, Table 13.10 shows how the students perceived some of
these activities. Here as well, the practical aspect dominated, with counselling
services and business plan competitions.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 253
Profle and Past History of the Respondents
Most studies of entrepreneurship pay special attention to entrepreneurs’ profles
and past history, this information primarily comprising age, education level,
areas of competence and relevant experience. Thus, in the Laval University
student population:
l 17.8 per cent of the respondents were self-employed
l 66 per cent of the respondents were studying full-time.
The students’ education level is presented in Table 13.11. The percentages are
fairly representative of the Laval University student population. Table 13.12
presents the areas of study in the sample. As can be seen in Table 13.13, more
than 70 per cent of the students were from 20 to 29 years of age.
Table 13.10 Para-academic activities helping the development of
entrepreneurship
Para-academic activities 1st selection 2nd selection
(%) (%)
Business plan competition 26.7 25.6
Participation in a student association 12.2 15.7
Student entrepreneurs association 19.2 26.3
Small business counselling services offering 41.0 30.8
students
Table 13.11 Education level (percentage)
Level of education %
Bachelor 62.7
Master 13.3
Doctorate 4.8
Diploma 0.5
Certifcate 11.5
Non-credited courses 3.2
254 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 13.12 Areas of study (percentage)
Letters 11.7
Administration 17.0
Education 11.0
Engineering 17.7
Social sciences 11.8
Table 13.13 Age categories (percentage)
Less than 20 years old 3.8
20–23 years old 45.7
24–29 years old 25.2
30 years old and more 25.3
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Prevalence Rate of Emerging Entrepreneurs
One of the goals of this research was to determine the prevalence rate of emerg-
ing entrepreneurs among Laval University students, and to compare this rate
with that of the Canadian population. This comparison was possible because
the same methodology and the same eligibility criteria were used for a general
study of Nascent Canadian Entrepreneurs (Menzies et al., 2002). As was men-
tioned above, the prevalence rate on the campus was 28 per cent higher than
that of the Canadian general population, that is, 2.3 per cent versus 1.8 per cent
respectively. Nonetheless, given the fact that, when their studies are fnished,
students often accept a job in their feld and drop their business project, it is
possible that several students who were actively involved in starting up a busi-
ness during their studies did so for monetary reasons and as a temporary
solution. This hypothesis could be tested with a longitudinal study.
Intentions to Start up a Business
The results concerning the Laval University students’ intentions to start up a
business can be compared to those obtained in a study conducted in 1995 by
the Groupe de recherche sur la PME
4
and in another study conducted in 2000
5
by Geneviève Tremblay for the same research group (see Table 13.14).
The differences between these results can be explained by the sample
choice. Indeed, in previous studies, the faculties and disciplines included in
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 255
the sample were limited to those that showed the greatest inclination towards
entrepreneurship. The main characteristic of the present study is its overall
representativeness, the sample being randomly chosen from the offcial list of
all Laval University students from all the different programmes, disciplines
and faculties.
The results show that a high percentage of the students were considering
starting up a business, thereby illustrating the fact that students saw entrepre-
neurship as a potential career choice. However, it should be understood that it
is intentions that are being discussed here, and that the gap in percentage terms
between those who were considering eventually creating their business and those
who actually did, was quite substantial. Indeed, as was previously shown, the
percentage of students who were actively trying to start a business was 3.2 per
cent whereas as the percentage of those who had already thought about starting
a business or becoming self-employed was 32.5 per cent. Moreover, most of
them thought they would start a business three or more years after fnishing their
studies. Considering that Laval University has a student population of 36 000,
this would mean that approximately 1152 students are presently involved in
starting up a business and 11 700 have already thought about eventually starting
a business or one day being self-employed. It bears repeating that 7.9 per cent
or 925 of these students have the intention to start up a business during their
studies.
Intentions According to Faculties
It would seem that the majority of the student entrepreneurs came from the ad-
ministrative sciences (21 per cent), sciences and engineering (15.8 per cent),
Table 13.14 Comparison of students’ start-up intentions at three different
times
2002* 2000 1995
(%) (%) (%)
Has ever thought to start a business 32.5 42 59
During schooling 7.9 n/a Short term 4
2 years after schooling 14.8 n/a Medium term 22
3 to 5 years after schooling 31.2 n/a Long term 33
In the longer term 42.9 n/a
Don’t know 3.02 n/a
Note: The labelling of the question in this study included both the intention to start a business and
to become self-employed.
256 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
and social sciences (21 per cent) faculties. These three faculties also had the
greatest percentage of students who had already thought about starting a
business.
Other faculties also had high percentages of students who had already thought
about starting a business, with numbers ranging from 66.7 per cent in dentistry
to 64.7 per cent in urban planning, architecture and visual arts, and 44.4 per
cent in pharmacy.
Some of these data are supported by data gathered in a previous study by the
small business research group, which came to the conclusion that the faculties
with the highest rate of intention were agriculture and food sciences (31 per
cent), sciences and engineering (23 per cent), administrative sciences (13 per
cent) and forestry (12 per cent).
Intentions for Women
Women were also well represented in the potential entrepreneurs category. The
study conducted in 2000 by the same Research Group showed that 39 per cent
of the women were potential entrepreneurs. In the present study, among the 3.2
per cent of the students who were actively trying to start a business, close to 37
per cent were women, as can be seen in Table 13.15.
Table 13.15 Start-up effort according to the gender
Male Female
(%) (%)
Is actively trying to start a business 63 37
Has ever thought to start a business 55 45
Moreover, of the 32.5 per cent of students who had already thought of start-
ing a business or becoming self-employed, close to 45 per cent were women.
These results demonstrate the growing presence of women in entrepreneur-
ship. As they are increasingly likely to go to university – women account for
52 per cent of the students at Laval University – this increase is not
surprising.
Awareness of Services
The results presented in Table 13.16 would seem to indicate that few students
at Laval University were aware of the entrepreneurial services on the campus.
As was mentioned above, Laval University has two main services for the stimu-
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 257
lation and development of entrepreneurship, namely, Entrepreneuriat Laval and
REEL (Regroupement des Étudiants Entrepreneurs de Laval – Laval student
entrepreneurs group).
It is noteworthy that these services are self-fnanced and that their advertising
and promotion budget is quite limited; moreover, students often confused them
with other services offered on campus. Nevertheless, these authors are a bit
surprised by the relatively low percentages (between 21 per cent and 29 per
cent) of awareness shown by the students.
Further research will be needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the various
awareness programmes and services available on the campus. It seems that
students are not attracted by programmes or activities targeted at entrepreneur-
ship, unless they are seriously considering entrepreneurship for themselves; for
those actively involved in entrepreneurial activities, they may even perceive
these services to be not well adapted to their needs.
Intentions Concerning Entrepreneurial Training
For several years now, Laval University has offered various courses and pro-
grammes in entrepreneurship, especially in the Faculty of Administrative
Sciences. They are for the most part credit courses that can be taken by all the
students on campus.
The intentions concerning entrepreneurial training were quite high among
the respondents. Indeed, 40.8 per cent of the respondents were interested in
taking credited courses. This fgure climbs to 75.5 per cent among respondents
who had already considered starting a business or becoming self-employed, as
can be seen in Table 13.17.
The learning style advocated by the respondents focused primarily on experi-
mentation and feld activities. As was seen above, work terms were by far the
most popular (42.5 per cent),
6
followed by case studies of business start-ups
Table 13.16 Awareness of services comparison according to start-up efforts
Knows
Entrepreneuriat
Laval
(%)
Knows REEL
(%)
All respondents 21.7 6.5
Is actively trying to start a business 26.3 0
Has ever thought to start a business or
become self-employed
29.1 11.6
258 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
(19.5 per cent). Respondents who were also actively trying to start up a business
also preferred work terms (36.8 per cent) and case studies (21.1 per cent).
These results are consistent with those of the 2000 study in which the students
showed a preference for workshops, simulations, company visits and meetings
with entrepreneurs. Potential entrepreneurs thus seemed to prefer practical
methods rather than theory and lecture courses.
Extra-academic Activities
The extra-academic activities preferred by students from the faculties
7
that had
the highest rates of interest in entrepreneurship were essentially the same. Table
13.18 presents the three most preferred activity categories by faculty.
Moreover, the choice of extra-academic activities according to the respond-
ents’ motivation to start up a business is presented in Table 13.19.
It would seem that there were unanimous opinions concerning the relevance of
three activities (SME counselling services, business plan competitions and student
entrepreneur clubs) with regard to their contribution to entrepreneurship.
CONCLUSION
This exploratory study is far from being exhaustive. Nonetheless, it gives a
good idea of the entrepreneurial potential of Laval University students, espe-
cially if an ‘Entrepreneurship Profile’ is set up on the campus (The
‘Entrepreneurial Profle’ is intended to be a series of credited courses and
projects which can be taken by any student on the campus; the label ‘Entre-
Table 13.17 Intention concerning entrepreneurial training according to
start-up efforts
Interested in
taking credited
courses
(%)
Not interested
in taking credited
courses
(%)
Is actively trying to start a business 57.9 42.1
Is not actively trying to start a business 40.3 59.7
Has ever thought to start a business or
become self-employed
75.5 27.5
Has never thought to start a business or
become self-employed
24.7 75.3
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 259
preneurial Profle’ will then be written on the Diploma of the students involved
in the ‘Profle’). It also provides an overall picture of entrepreneurship among
the students of a university campus. This university campus has a long experi-
ence of entrepreneurial training, research and services; it is presented here as
an illustration of what can be done in a particular setting, and does not pretend
to be representative of what should be done elsewhere. Entrepreneurship, as
we have shown in Figure 13.1, is infuenced by many environmental and social
factors; an entrepreneurial culture will emerge and evolve within a specifc
surrounding, and at a rate which is consistent with these dimensions. At Laval
University, for example, as was seen above, the prevalence rate of emerging
student entrepreneurs was 28 per cent greater than that of the general Canadian
population,
8
a sizeable portion of the students being actively involved in busi-
ness start-up or pre-start-up. Likewise, more than 32 per cent of the interviewed
Table 13.19 Preferred extra-academic activities according to start-up
efforts
Small business
counselling
services
(%)
Business plan
competition
(%)
Student
entrepreneurs
association
(%)
Is actively trying to
start a business
47.4 21.1 21.1
Is not actively trying to
start a business
40.8 26.9 19.1
Table 13.18 Preferred extra-academic activities according to the area of
study
Small business
counselling
services
(%)
Business plan
competition
(%)
Student
entrepreneurs
association
(%)
Administration 48.0 24.5 14.7
Engineering 42.5 26.4 18.9
Social sciences 35.2 32.4 16.9
Urban planning,
architecture and arts
42.1 36.8 10.5
260 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
students had already considered starting up a business or one day being
self-employed.
The main idea that emerged from this study was that Laval University students
would like academic and extra-academic support that is based on experiential
and practical methods. They would also like Laval University to become more
committed in its support for business start-up. Mentoring and support pro-
grammes, work terms, fnancing and business networks are methods that would
seem to respond to the students’ needs. Finally, respondents knew little or noth-
ing about the entrepreneurship support organizations at Laval University.
It bears repeating that the entrepreneurial potential of environments, be they
universities or not, can change over time. This potential can grow through various
initiatives and environmental changes that foster the emergence of entrepre-
neurial talent or make more effective use of existing talent.
Displaying a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship, expressing approval
in university programmes and the media, presenting entrepreneurship as a life-
style, promoting successful entrepreneurship through social recognition and
honours, reinforcing aptitudes, watching out for opportunities, and including
discovery, inventions and risk in pedagogical content, are all factors that will
help to promote entrepreneurship and increase our use of the creative capacities
that are already part of the university environment, because, ultimately, the evo-
lution of entrepreneurship depends on the interaction between individual
characteristics and socio-environmental factors.
NOTES
1. A copy of this questionnaire is available at the Centre d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME.
2. National Study on the Entrepreneurial Process and Firms’ Birth, Québec City, Centre
d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME, 2000.
3. 581 respondents were in this category.
4. Centre d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME, Laval University, Enquête pour la mise en place d’un
programme en entrepreneuriat technologique, November 1995.
5. Tremblay (2000).
6. The results correspond to the frst response choice of the respondents.
7. The faculties in question are administrative sciences, sciences and engineering, social sciences,
urban planning, architecture and visual arts.
8. According to the National Study on the Entrepreneurial Process and Firms’ Birth, conducted
by the Centre d’Entrepreneuriat et de PME in 2000.
REFERENCES
Albert, P., M. Bernasconi and F.X. Boucand (1999), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat
au CERAM: une histoire avec Sophia Antipolis’, in Bertrand Saporta (ed.), Actes du
premier congrès de l’Académie de l’entrepreneuriat, Lille.
Entrepreneurship education at a Canadian university 261
Audet, J. (2001), ‘Une étude des aspirations entrepreneuriales d’étudiants universitaires
québécois: seront-ils des entrepreneurs de demain?’, in Thomas A. Bryant (ed.), Actes
du Congrès de l’Association Canadienne des Sciences Administratives du Canada,
Section Entrepreneuriat et affaires familiales, Toronto, 22 (21), 31–41.
Bechard, J.P. and J.M. Toulouse (1998), ‘Validation of a didactic model for the analysis
of training objectives in entrepreneurship’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13 (4),
317–32.
Bhidé, A.V. (2000), The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses, New York: Oxford
University Press.
Chen, C.C., P.G. Greene and A. Crick (1998), ‘Does entrepreneurial self-effcacy distin-
guish entrepreneurs from managers?’, Journal of Business Venturing, 13 (4),
295–316.
Cooper, A.C., W.C. Dunkelberg, C.Y. Woo and W.J. Dennis (1990), New Business in
America: The Firms and their Owners, NFIB Foundation. Washington, DC.
Cox, L.W., S.L. Mueller and S.E. Moss (2003), ‘The impact of entrepreneurship educa-
tion on entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship
Education, 1 (2), 229–47.
Davidsson, P. and B. Honig (2003), ‘The role of social and human capital among nascent
entrepreneurs’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18 (2), 301–440.
Ehrlich, S.B., A.F. De Noble, D. Jung and D. Pearson (2000), ‘The impact of entrepre-
neurship training programs on an individual’s entrepreneurial self-effcacy’, Frontiers
of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.babson.edu/
entrep/fer, accessed 21 October 2001.
Fayolle, A. (2000), ‘L’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat dans le système éducatif
supérieur: un regard sur la situation actuelle’, Revue Gestion 2000, 3, 77–95.
Fayolle, A. (2002), ‘Les déterminants de l’acte entrepreneurial chez les étudiants et les
jeunes diplômés de l’enseignement supérieur français’, Revue Gestion 2000, 4,
61–77.
Fayolle, A. (2003), Le métier de créateur d’entreprise, Paris: Editions d’Organisation.
Fiet, J.O. (2001a), ‘The pedagogical side of teaching entrepreneurship’, Journal of Busi-
ness Venturing, 16 (2), 101–17.
Filion, L.J. (2002), Savoir entreprendre: douze modèles de réussite, Montréal, CA: Les
Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
Filion, L.J., D. L’Heureux, D. Kadji-Youaleu and F. Bellavance (2002), ‘L’entrepreneuriat
comme carrière potentielle: une évaluation en milieu universitaire’, Chaire
d’entrepreneurship Maclean-Hunter, Cahier de recherche 2002–04, Montreal,
HEC.
Fortin, P.A. (2002), La culture entrepreneuriale: un antidote à la pauvreté, Québec, CA:
Les Éditions de la Fondation de l’Entrepreneurship.
Gasse, Y. and A. D’Amours (2000), Profession: Entrepreneur, Montréal: Les Éditions
Transcontinentales.
Gorman, G., D. Hanlon and W. King (1998), ‘Some research perspectives on entrepreneur-
ship education, enterprise education and education for small business management: a
ten-year literature review’, International Small Business Journal, 3 (4), 56–77.
Hansemark, O.C. (1998), ‘The effects of an entrepreneurship program on need for
achievement and locus of control of reinforcement’, International Journal of Entre-
preneurial Behaviour and Research, 4 (1), 28–50.
Katz, J.A. (2003), ‘The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American entrepreneur-
ship education 1876–1999’, Journal of Business Venturing, 18, 283–300.
262 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Kolvereid, L. (1996a), ‘Prediction of employment status choice intentions’, Entrepre-
neurship Theory and Practice, 20 (3), 45–57.
Kolvereid, L. (1996b), ‘Organisational employment versus self-employment: reasons
for career choice intentions’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 20 (3), 23–31.
Krueger, N.F. (2000), ‘The cognitive infrastructure of opportunity emergence’, Entre-
preneurship Theory and Practice, 24, 5–23.
Krueger, N.F. and A.L. Carsrud (1993), ‘Entrepreneurial intentions: applying the theory
of planned behaviour’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 5, 315–30.
Menzies, T.V. (2000), Entrepreneurship Education in Canada, Montreal: John Dobson
Foundation.
Menzies, T.V., Y. Gasse, M. Diochon and D. Garand (2002), ‘Nascent entrepreneurs in
Canada: an empirical study’, ICSB 47th World Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Noel, T.W. (2001), ‘Effects of entrepreneurial education on intent to open a business’,
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference Proceedings, www.
babson.edu/entrep/fer, accessed 7 June 2001.
Obrecht, J.J. (1998), ‘Entrepreneurship education and training in France: a new challenge
to the universities’, 8th Global Inter-Ent Conference, Oestrich/Winkel, Germany.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1998), Stimuler
l’esprit d’entreprise, Paris: OECD.
Reynolds, P. (1995), ‘Explaining regional variation in business births and deaths: US
1976–88’, Small Business Economics, 7 (5), 153–227.
Reynolds, P. (1997), ‘Who starts new frms?’, Small Business Economics, 9 (1),
190–204.
Shapero, A. and L. Sokol (1982), ‘The social dimensions of entrepreneurship’, in C.
Kent, D. Sexton and K. Vesper (eds), The Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 72–90.
Solomon, G.T., S. Duffy and A. Tarabishy (2002), ‘The state of entrepreneurship educa-
tion in the United States: a nationwide survey and analysis’, International Journal of
Entrepreneurship Education, 1 (1), 65–87.
Tkachev, A. and L. Kolvereid (1999), ‘Self-employment intentions among Russian stu-
dents’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 11 (3), 269–80.
Tremblay, G. (2000), ‘Profl des entrepreneurs potentiels de l’Université Laval’, essay,
September, Université Laval, Quebec.
Varela, R. and J.E Jimenez (2001), ‘The effect of entrepreneurship education in the uni-
versities of Cali’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson Conference
Proceedings, www.babson.edu/entrep/fer, accessed 8 December 2001.
Vesper, K.H. and W.B. Gartner (2001), Compendium of Entrepreneur Programs, Los
Angeles, CA: Lloyd Grief Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Southern
California.
263
14. Motivations and drawbacks
concerning entrepreneurial action: a
study of French PhD students
Jean-Pierre Boissin, Jean-Claude Castagnos
and Bérangère Deschamps
Over the last few years the number of hours dedicated to the entrepreneurial
awareness of students in schools and universities has greatly increased. It is true
that France was responsible for a certain delay in this domain (see, for example,
action run in Quebec; Menzies, 2002), especially as during the last 10 years the
number of new ventures has declined or is stabilized (270 000 new ventures by
year). It is important to remember that the number of creation was over 304 000
in 1990 and over 280 000 in 1995. The French statistical institute (INSEE) in-
cludes new ventures from scratch, re-creations and takeovers in the global
fgures. The number of creations from scratch is increasing (178 000 in 2002,
200 000 in 2003). The latter (200 000) represents the known goal of the French
government with the Dutreil Law (2003). This good score can be infuenced by
this law or can be explained as a response of the economic recession: creating
one’s own frm is the way to create one’s own job. Due to this fact, the French
state has tried to implement measures (economic and fnancial) aimed at stimu-
lating and motivating the entrepreneurial mind and at stimulating innovation
and research.
The sixth measure of the Department of Industry and Research’s innovation
plan (2002) highlights the need to develop an entrepreneurial course aimed at
encouraging the entrepreneurial mind. One type of action involves the creation
of entrepreneurial centres on French university campuses. Grenoble is an ex-
perimental site with the creation of an entrepreneurial centre in 2002. Different
performance indicators are going to be used in this study, some of which show
how students’ entrepreneurial intentions have evolved. Databases will be con-
structed using this information, thus offering a wider range of data for
researchers, in particular CERAG (the management laboratory of Grenoble,
specializing in entrepreneurship). At the time of the proposition concerning a
prototype of the entrepreneurial centres (Boissin, 2003) and in continuation of
research by Fayolle (1999; 2001) and Verstraete (2000), a questionnaire was
264 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
distributed to 74 PhD students concerning their entrepreneurial intentions and
their perception of entrepreneurial awareness. This chapter analyses these data
in more depth by trying to class these PhD students by ‘type’ depending on their
perceived motivations and perceived drawbacks to start a business. These PhD
students are tomorrow’s researchers and represent those of the French popula-
tion targeted by the ministerial innovation plan. Knowing how PhD students of
the pure sciences view new ventures can help to provide better information and
to help make future students aware of this feld.
The frst section of this chapter details the theoretical and practical aspects
of the work carried out. There follows a description of the methods used, an
analysis of the results obtained and a discussion of potential future action to be
taken concerning students.
THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL AIMS
Starting a business is a process in which incentives is the most important (Bird,
1988; Katz and Gartner, 1988). Incentives models such as those of planed be-
haviour (Ajzen, 1987; 1991) seems consistent, simple and robust to understand
start-up processes (Krueger, 1993). This theory has recently been used in several
studies (Emin, 2003; Fayolle, 2004; Tounès, 2003). Anyway, this work is a frst
step as to state of minds of the students and the representation about new busi-
nesses of the PhDs. Incentives models will be used in further researches. The
aims of this work are important for many different reasons. In order to undertake
suitable action, students’ opinions concerning start-ups need to be known.
Contact with entrepreneurship can take place in three different ways: pure
awareness, specialization and experimentation (Albert and Marion, 1998).
However, these three levels of intervention depend also upon how students view
entrepreneurial action. Entrepreneurial intentions are most notably expressed
in diverse ways depending on a student’s level of study (degree, master’s, PhD,
and so on). At the moment in Grenoble, awareness methods differ throughout
the learning process.
An analysis of entrepreneurial typologies (Daval et al., 2002) shows that a
favourable attitude towards entrepreneurial action is closely linked to a per-
son’s background. This includes individuals intrinsic features (age, gender)
as well as values linked with their past (education, professional experience)
and relational elements which could also have infuenced the individual’s
choices (Lorrain and Dussault, 1998). An individual’s past conditions his or
her entrepreneurial capacity. His or her specifc attitude regarding entrepre-
neurial action is closely linked to his or her experience, education and
upbringing (Lafuente and Salas, 1989; Laufer, 1975). The students’ current
environment thus seems to have an infuence on their willingness to engage
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 265
themselves in an entrepreneurial action and also on their initial reaction to
entrepreneurial action. Students’ current environment is represented by their
university, their studies and by their extra-curricular activities. It is possible
to take action in order to orientate a student’s environment towards entrepre-
neurial action. To do this, it is essential to understand how the student views
new ventures in order to detect elements susceptible to reducing the student’s
wish to embark on entrepreneurial action and in order to detect elements sus-
ceptible to increasing this wish. This is a way to propose devices adapted to
individuals’ needs. Each entrepreneur and thus each future entrepreneur comes
from a different background and is motivated by different factors (Woo et al.,
1988).
Several factors come into play during entrepreneurial action, internal and
external, and negative (dissatisfaction at work, unwanted moves, technical
and creative frustrations) and positive (fnancial offers, offers of partnership)
(Baronet, 1996). These factors provide reasons both for and against entrepre-
neurial action. This chapter thus identifes and analyses the motivations of the
PhD students questioned and the drawbacks they perceive to starting a busi-
ness. Incentives have been researched a lot these past few years, particularly
in the feld of marketing the incentives of purchasing. We have seen that some
recent works have applied these theoretical models to entrepreneurship, no-
tably the incentives for creating (see Emin, 2004). This survey is a test for a
larger analysis of all the students in Grenoble who follow courses in entrepre-
neurship. The aim of this larger analysis is not to study the gap between
intention and action for several reasons. First, it seems impossible to trace
the students post-university; such a work would implicate personal involve-
ment to gain information that cannot be generalized. Second, some students
follow courses integrated in their whole curriculum. They have no choice but
to study this discipline, but some of them have no intention of starting a busi-
ness. Third, the success of training cannot be evaluated by the number of new
ventures just after this training. The curriculum can consolidate the building
of a favourable feld that could be exploited 10 years later. Thus this new
creation as it might be in 10 years’ time could not be taken into consideration
here.
METHODOLOGY
A questionnaire was sent to PhD students in 2003 attending university in Gre-
noble. Seventy-four PhD students flled out this questionnaire. Their profles
are very different: 65 per cent male, 35 per cent female. Of these 60.8 per cent
are currently studying pure sciences, 32.4 per cent are at the Engineering School.
Those studying social sciences and literature are few, 5.4 per cent and 1.4 per
266 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
cent respectively. Two-thirds of the sample is in the second year, the rest in the
fnal stages of their thesis. Our sample is quite heterogeneous, but regardless of
their education the students have in common that they have chosen the PhD
seminar in management.
The questionnaire was aimed at collecting information rapidly and on a
larger scale than that allowed by carrying out qualitative interviews concern-
ing PhD students’ perceptions of start-ups and educational actions aimed at
increasing students’ knowledge of entrepreneurial action. Different precau-
tions were taken in order to guarantee the robustness of the methodology used
and the understanding of the questions asked: the questionnaire was read by
several experts before being distributed to students (university lecturers, en-
trepreneurial representatives). The questionnaire includes closed, dichotomics
and multichotomics questions. The answers from the completed question-
naires have been coded using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences) version 10.0. The multichotomic questions have been phrased using
a 7-point Likert scale and are aimed at transforming qualitative information
into quantitative information (Lambin, 1994). These questions concern precise
points, for example, entrepreneurial motivations and drawbacks of start-ups.
They allow a multivariate statistical analysis in order to defne student
typologies.
The choices for a best statistical confguration take into account all factors
and groups retained for this study. This chapter details the statistical analysis
sequences for all questions related to students’ motivations. The same procedure
has been used in relation to drawbacks perceived by students.
In factor analysis, the number of observations must be superior, from 30 to
50, to the number of variables (Donada and Mbengue, 1999). This study com-
prised 74 observations for 19 variables. The Barlett test indicates a rejection of
the hypothesis of equality of interrelationship and identity matrices, and the test
of Kaiser Meyer and Olkin, minimum threshold equal to 0.5, is judged suffcient
(KMO: 0.525). The number of factors is determined using the Kaiser rule (ma-
trix identity values greater than one). Analysis of Cattell’s scree test has
confrmed this number. Six factors have been retained explaining the 66.4 per
cent variance. All variables have a representation quality greater than 0.5 (a
minimum requirement). The interpretation of all factors is carried out after rota-
tion of these factors according to the Varimax method.
For the typological analysis, following the analysis of the dendrogram by
Ward’s hierarchical procedure and a dynamic multitude, fve groups remain
(Table 14.1).
The Fisher test (permitting the testing of the validity of the typology) and the
analysis of the variance also cause us to keep this number of groups, as the sig-
nifcance of the factors is below 0.050. The fourth group contains more persons
than the others. The distribution of PhD students’ motivations is thus not ho-
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 267
mogenous. The interpretation of the different groups is thus delicate and requires
the complement of discriminative analysis.
In order to do a valid multiple discriminative analysis, the variable to be ex-
plained must be nominal (this is the case as we are dealing with quick cluster
as determined by the software during the factorial analysis) and the explanatory
variables measured on interval scales. Two statistical tests should be used. The
Bartlett test (result correct) and the Box test (compliant in so far as it rejects the
equality of the matrices). The highest identity values are associated with the
most discriminative functions. Our results show four mains axes (Table 14.2),
the frst two being the most discriminative: they explain 42 per cent and 28 per
cent respectively of the variance.
The factors 6, 3, 5 and 1 are the most discriminative in the construction of
the four axes.
RESULTS/DISCUSSION
The statistical analysis of the questionnaires determines the features of the type
of PhD student most likely to start a business. In order to complete these results,
multivaried analysis is used.
Table 14.1 Typology of students’ motivations
Final clusters Classe
1 2 3 4 5
REGR factor score
1 for analysis 1 2.03899 .07566 .28160 –.26662 –.34819
REGR factor score
2 for analysis 1 1.64990 –.17164 .22529 –.58821 .45584
REGR factor score
3 for analysis 1 –1.24083 .04081 1.19383 –.22208 –.60520
REGR factor score
4 for analysis 1 –.36240 .20824 –.72047 .30203 .18964
REGR factor score
5 for analysis 1 1.27904 –.31721 .09264 .56494 –1.05056
REGR factor score
6 for analysis 1 .69319 1.83593 –.26165 –.35450 –.51006
268 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
Table 14.2 Axes determined by the discriminative analysis (structure
matrix)
Function
1 2 3 4
REGR factor score
6 for analysis 1 .601* –.504 .197 –.513
REGR factor score
3 for analysis 1 .194 .584* –.119 –.532
REGR factor score
4 for analysis 1 –.136 –.234* .220 –.025
REGR factor score
5 for analysis 1 .193 .259 .637* .473
REGR factor score
2 for analysis 1 .136 –.074 –.535* .341
REGR factor score
1 for analysis 1 .295 .030 –.106 .368*
A Strong Link between Awareness and Intention to Create a Venture
We work on an enlarged defnition of entrepreneurship including a broad diver-
sity of entrepreneurial situations and forms, which is far from the traditional
view of the entrepreneur. However, this broad view of entrepreneurial action
also has its limits as far as the study of PhD students’ entrepreneurial intentions
is concerned. Indeed, no less than 75 per cent have entrepreneurial intentions
but only one-third concern the creation of a new business. It is therefore diffcult
to construct links between different variables (gender, sensitization) and entre-
preneurial intention, even if several interesting results appear concerning the
intention to create an enterprise.
Gender and entrepreneurial intention are closely linked. Men are more open
to start-up projects. In other words, drawbacks to entrepreneurial action as
perceived by women are an infuence early on, before the domestic role (preg-
nancy, motherhood, for example) becomes an issue or these variables are
anticipated.
In the same way, educational awareness of entrepreneurship is closely linked
to intention to create a business. This result is encouraging for entrepreneurial
awareness which also seems to be linked to a greater knowledge of the assist-
ance (incubators) and causes for people wishing to start an enterprise. However,
education and courses concerning start-ups do not seem to have much infuence
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 269
on entrepreneurial action. In other words, the action of awareness must aim at
informing people regarding the creation or takeover of a frm. For the remainder,
young people have perhaps less need to be informed. For instance, the actions
of the entrepreneurial centres should use the experiences of collective projects
as a means of awareness rather than treating them as an aim. Information pro-
grammes are much more frequent in engineering schools and in social science
courses at university than in pure science courses.
The Image/Perception of Motivations and Drawbacks to Enterprise
Creation
The main motivations are:
l the development of a project, a technique or an ability
l team spirit, group dynamics
l search for independence
l the idea of a challenge.
Other motivations proposed were less ‘favourable’:
l individualism, recognition, power
l fnancial gain, maximization of proftability
l risk.
The main drawbacks are:
l the risk
l the fnancial requirement and the lack of capital
l a lack of awareness during the education
l the administrative procedures.
The following drawbacks are quantitatively less important: French culture, the
appeal of a steady income, taking on new responsibilities and a lack of inspira-
tion for a new business.
Construction of a Typology of PhD Students According to their
Perception of Motivations and Drawbacks to Start-ups
A multivariate analysis identifes fve groups of motivations. These groups are
interpreted following the determination of six factors. Factor 1 re-groups moti-
vations concerned with a search for independence, autonomy, the absence of a
superior and a wish to control his or her professional environment. This factor
270 Diffusing and promoting entrepreneurial culture
correlates negatively with the variable ‘maximize proftability’. This factor is
linked to motivations generally identifed with start-ups and a wish for independ-
ence. These motivations are found in different entrepreneurial typologies
(Casson, 1991; Cooper and Artz, 1993; Dunkelberg and Cooper, 1982; Filion,
1997; Julien and Marchesnay, 1996; Lafuente and Salas, 1989; Laufer, 1975;
Siu, 1995; Woo et al., 1991).
Factor 2 is linked to fnancial and material aspects: maximization of wealth
and proftability, a search for fnancial gain and a motivation to create one’s own
job. To the authors mentioned for factor 1, one can add Miner (1997). The frst
two factors are much used in scientifc literature linked with entrepreneurial
actions.
Factor 3 concerns collective dynamics, team spirit and project development.
This factor is interesting in so far as it appears very little in literature.
Factor 4 is linked to two variables: a research for recognition and power (the
majority of authors agree on the choice of these two motivating factors).
Factor 5 includes variables concerned with the individual character of entre-
preneurial action: taking decisions alone, individualism, risk, the challenge (less
so as this variable is only weakly correlated – 0.493). These variables are linked
to a ‘locus of control’, particularly present in works by Bird (1986), Davidsson
(1988), Ray (1993), Deakins (1996) and Miner (1997).
Factor 6 comprises two variables: creation in order to exploit one’s knowledge
and for pleasure.
The identifcation of these factors enables us to interpret the fve groups of
PhD students concerning their motivations for enterprise creation (see Table
14.1).
The frst group only includes three people who judge that the motivations for
entrepreneurial action only concern gain, research of power and a control over
individual destiny. Factors 1, 2 and 4 are representative of this group, which
also manifests a negative score for Factor 3. For these students entrepreneurial
action is decidedly individual. This interpretation is confrmed by a discriminant
analysis as this group is negative on axis 2 which relates to team spirit. This
perception of entrepreneurship is brought by media which focus the entrepre-
neur’s testimony on proft and control of others.
The nine PhD students in group 2 consider motivations to create as being a
search for pleasure and the exploitation of personal knowledge. The relationship
between this group and factor 6 is strong. The discriminative analysis completes
this interpretation: the group is negative on the axis 4 which represents inde-
pendence. The entrepreneurial action therefore corresponds to an adventure
where the project initiator gains pleasure; independence is not a primary factor
of importance.
Typological and discriminative analyses converge for the interpretation of
the results for this group of 14 students, which are largely correlated with factor
Motivations and drawbacks concerning entrepreneurial action 271
3. Entrepreneurial action is seen as being a collective adventure. It is interesting
to notice that over half the members of this group have declared an entrepre-
neurial intention. The creation of an activity within an existing organization is
coherent with the idea that these students think about motivations to business
creation.
Twenty-two PhD students consider that motivations that push an individual
to undertake entrepreneurial action concern a search for an individual risk.
Discriminative analysis shows that this group is negative on axis 1, which is
concerned with a search for pleasure, this axis is the most discriminative. Two-
thirds of this group of students are not involved with an association. For them,
entrepreneurial action is motivated by risk that they, for the moment, are not
willing to take. Thirty-fve per cent of students who have already received in-
formation concerning entrepreneurial action are in this group.
The last group contains 14 students for whom entrepreneurial action is moti-
vated by a search for wealth and power but without risk. Scores are strongly
negative for factor 5, less so for factor 3. Factor 2 is weakly correlated (