Description
This criteria regarding teaching entrepreneurship the case for an entrepreneurial leadership.
TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE CASE FOR AN ENTREPRENEURIAL
LEADERSHIP COURSE
Martha Mattare
Department of Management
Frostburg State University
University System of Maryland - Hagerstown
32 W. Washington Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740
240-527-2747 or 301-668-9525
[email protected]
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ACADEMIC ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurship education is rapidly growing, both in the number of schools offering programs
and in the range of courses becoming available. As students become entrepreneurs, they will
need to wear a variety of “hats” and serve as the primary finance, marketing, human resource,
and operations person in their new ventures. High self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and well-
developed interpersonal skills have been shown to equate to a firm’s success; more concentration
on the development of these skills is needed in the entrepreneurship curriculum. This paper
presents the case for instituting a course that will facilitate entrepreneurship students’
development of self.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This paper argues that there is a need to integrate interpersonal skills, self-reflection, giving and
receiving feedback and areas of personal skills development into the entrepreneurship education
curriculum. There is evidence that those entrepreneurs who possess superior self-efficacy and
social and interpersonal skills tend to be more successful. Today, very few schools offer courses
that focus on development of self. Of the top 25 schools ranked by Entrepreneur magazine in
2006, only 4% had courses devoted specifically to entrepreneurial leadership and personal
development.
The entrepreneur must initiate and sustain critical firm relationships, hire and manage the right
people who will contribute to the business’s growth, and be able to reflect upon and learn from
mistakes -- and keep on trying. The successful entrepreneur must have a good knowledge of self:
personality characteristics, preferences, needs, strengths, weaknesses, and the ability to give and
receive feedback; he or she needs to develop in these areas as much as, or more than, learning to
read a balance sheet or value a company.
As a former small business executive and entrepreneur with years of experience and observation,
I witnessed firsthand the large difference in results between those entrepreneurs who possessed
superior interpersonal skills and those who struggled or failed from a lack of these skills. Now,
as an instructor in a university entrepreneurship program, I work with students who possess
considerable knowledge of finance, marketing, management, and human resources, but have
little understanding of self -- their own strengths and weaknesses, personal preferences, and
behavior patterns -- and how these characteristics can impact the venture.
A course in entrepreneurial leadership will help students develop the critical skills beyond the
technical to ensure success in their future ventures.
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INTRODUCTION
An entrepreneur needs many skills to succeed creating and maintaining a new business venture.
Research shows that entrepreneurial success is linked to the personal characteristics of
entrepreneurs more than any other factor (Allinson, Chell, & Hayes, 2000; Baron & Markman,
2000; Baum & Locke, 2004; Begley & Boyd, 1987; Bird, 1989; Blanchflower & Oswald, 1998;
Chattopadhyay, 2002; Crane, 2007; Gatewood, Shaver, Powers, & Gartner, 2003; McClelland,
1961). In their review of entrepreneurship and leadership literature, Fernald et al (2005) found
that many of the characteristics attributed to leaders are also associated with successful
entrepreneurs, and the characteristics most common are: being visionary, risk-taking,
achievement-oriented, able to motivate, creative, flexible, persistent, and patient. And, Kuratko
& Hodgetts (2007) developed a definition of entrepreneurship which includes these necessary
attributes: the willingness to take calculated risks, the ability to formulate an effective venture
team, the creative skills to marshal necessary resources, the skill to build a solid business plan,
and the vision to recognize opportunity when others just see chaos, contradiction, and confusion
(Kuratko, 2007; Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2007). Much of entrepreneurial behavior is essentially
leadership behavior (Fernald, Solomon, & Tarabishy, 2005). The concept of entrepreneurial
leadership may be considered a new paradigm (Fernald et al., 2005).
Entrepreneurship education is a relatively new business school discipline, most often falling into
management education. As of 2005, 1600 schools offered courses related to entrepreneurship
(Kuratko, 2005). Leadership has been part of the core business curriculum in most schools for
some time. However, with entrepreneurship on the rise and entrepreneurial behavior encouraged
to initiate new business startups and in the established organization, there are expanded
requirements for entrepreneurship education. We are in the process of sending ever greater
numbers of newly graduated entrepreneurship majors or minors into the world to start or run new
businesses. Although technically competent, are these students as fully self-developed as they
could be? Are they informed enough to capitalize on their strengths and supplement their
weaknesses? Have we prepared them for the challenging, turbulent, rollercoaster ride of being an
entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship courses are not like other courses typically taught in business schools. They
ought to be more focused on application rather than theory. A review of entrepreneurship
curricula indicates they fall into categories similar to the generic categories of subject areas in
business courses such as: finance, marketing, strategy, technology, and business plan creation.
David Kirby discusses the need for a paradigm shift in business schools from educating “about”
entrepreneurship to educating “for it” (Kirby, 2004). Kirby goes on to advocate a focus on
creativity and change rather than just new venture creation and small business management
(Kirby, 2004). My own experience as an entrepreneur supports this viewpoint; management of
change and creative thinking were often the differentiators between entrepreneurial success or
failure.
A review of the top 25 entrepreneurship undergraduate programs was conducted to determine the
range of courses offered. Only 4% of the top schools offer courses that specifically address
entrepreneurial leadership skills development.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
There are few areas of agreement as yet in entrepreneurship literature. According to Cornelius,
Landstrom, & Persson (2006), entrepreneurship research, as an emerging field and as a relatively
new area of research, is somewhere in its evolution between the technical approach to research
and the theoretical (Cornelius, Landstrom, & Persson, 2006). The earlier days of
entrepreneurship research looked singularly at the object or at the entrepreneur. Newer research
puts the entrepreneur into the context of the entrepreneurship practice (Cornelius et al., 2006).
The field of entrepreneur research is populated by several disciplines that range from economics,
psychology, and the social sciences to management science. The research themes found in
today’s literature are defined by Cornelius et al. (2006): innovation and regional development;
sociology and capitalistic endeavor; strategic entrepreneurship and management of resources;
ethnic entrepreneurship; legal and policy implications of entrepreneurship; self-employment and
regional development; finances; and an eclectic cluster of researchers who are considered
“insiders” in the field (Cornelius et al., 2006).
Cunningham and Lischeron offered an organized summary of the schools of entrepreneurship
research, differentiating the schools of thought as: the “great” person school, which believes that
entrepreneurs are born not made; psychological characteristics, which believes entrepreneurs
have unique attributes and values; classical, which holds innovation as the key to the
entrepreneur; management, which believes that entrepreneurship is organization, management,
and masters of risk; leadership, which believes that entrepreneurs are leaders of people; and,
intrapreneurship, or the entrepreneurial activity within the organization (Cunningham &
Lischeron, 1991).
In another analysis of the field of entrepreneurship as an academic study, Cooper, Markman, &
Niss (2000) stated that most of the conferences and journals on entrepreneurship have been
started in the last 20 years. The authors believed that the widespread interest in new venture
formation was due to the economy, which is more attuned technologically and structurally to
support this (Cooper, Markman, & Niss, 2000). Small firms tend to be more R & D efficient,
which provides a critical competitive edge in the global economy (Cooper, 1964 in (Cooper et
al., 2000).
There is much criticism of the research that is done in the field, such as the lack of agreement on
definitions and too much attention paid to validity and reliability of instruments used (Cooper et
al., 2000; Morris, 2002). Based on my experience both as an entrepreneur and a consultant to
small business startups, I maintain that entrepreneurship is a very broad area in which many
dramatically different types operate and which challenges any attempt to arrive at universal
definitions or methods of quantifying the field. Cooper et al. (2000) defined three potential paths
of future research on entrepreneurship: a traditional path, or “normal” science operating with
empirically tested hypotheses; a multiple-paradigm path that combines methods and theories
from many disciplines, such as economics, sociology, and psychology; and a pragmatic, less
theory-driven path that looks to address immediate and relevant questions flowing from the
classroom full of potential entrepreneurs (Cooper et al., 2000).
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In spite of the lack of agreement across the board of entrepreneurship research, a few areas are
agreed upon:
o The entrepreneur recognizes opportunity in different ways than others (Kickul & Gundry,
2002).
o The entrepreneur tends to be an MBTI iNtuitor (Caird, 1993; Carland, 1982; Mattare,
2006a).
o The entrepreneur typically has higher-than-average self-efficacy (Chen, Greene, & Crick,
1998; DeNoble, Jung, & Ehrlich, 1999; Mattare, 2006a).
o Training programs positively impact self-efficacy (De Noble, Jung, & Ehrlich, 1999;
Ehrlich, DeNoble, Jung, & Pearson, 2005).
o The entrepreneur has a high need for achievement (McClelland, 1961).
o Social skills can enhance entrepreneurs’ success (Baron & Markman, 2000).
TRENDS IN ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP COURSE OFFERINGS
The offering of an entrepreneurial leadership course in the undergraduate curriculum is, as
discussed, infrequent. Those courses that are offered primarily focus on entrepreneurial leaders
in a case-based format. None of the courses are theory-based, such as more typical business
leadership courses that review key leadership theories and applications. And, lastly, few of the
courses seem to be focused on developing students’ individual skills.
There are several programs that offer a major, minor, or certificate in entrepreneurial leadership.
However, most entrepreneurship programs provide no more than the general course in
Leadership that most business programs offer.
The review of Entrepreneur magazine’s 2006 top 25 undergraduate programs in
entrepreneurship found that the most frequent subject areas offered were introductory
entrepreneurship, finance, followed by marketing, then business plan development and selling.
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TABLE 1
Percentage of Course Types at the Top 25 Undergraduate
Schools of Entrepreneurship
SUBJECT AREAS OFFERED
PERCENT OF SCHOOLS THAT
OFFER SUBJECT AREA
Introduction to Entrepreneurship 44%
Finance 44%
Marketing 28%
Business Plan Development
16%
Selling
16%
Strategy 12%
Family Business
8%
Digital or e-Commerce 8%
Consulting for Small Businesses 8%
Legal Issues 8%
Risk Management
4%
Minority & Women-owned Businesses
4%
New Product Development
4%
Opportunity Development
4%
Leadership/Personal Development
4%
Source: (Entrepreneur.com, 2007)
A PROPOSED COURSE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP
The course, Entrepreneurial Leadership (EL), would build upon a business school’s other course
offerings in leadership, which are often a core of the business curriculum. The current courses
provide a broad view of leadership theory, along with a study of specific characteristics and
behaviors found in leaders. Although there is often an experiential element in leadership courses,
they are likely not dedicated 100%, or even primarily, to the development of individual student
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leadership skills. In EL, the proposed focus is on exploring the leadership qualities necessary for
successful entrepreneurship and developing the individual student’s specific skills as a potential
entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship, in the context of the EL course, is a behavior which may be
exhibited in many venues ranging from the home-based business venture to intrapreneurship.
As discussed by Kuratko (2007), in entrepreneurial ventures the ethical influence of the owner is
more powerful than in larger organizations because his or her leadership is not diffused through
organizational layers (Humphreys, 1993; Kuratko, Goldsby, & Hornsby, 2004 in (Kuratko,
2007). In this course, students will focus on the individual characteristics of the successful
entrepreneur, the fundamentals of ethical leadership, social responsibility, and the process of
leading business creation. Students will develop the knowledge, confidence, skills, and self-
image necessary to pursue entrepreneurial ventures, either their own or within the established
organizational environment.
There is also a need to address risk management issues, stress, and ego or what Kets de Vries
(1985) called the “dark” side of entrepreneurship. Kuratko (2007), building on Kets de Vries
(1985) exploration of the “darker side” of entrepreneurship, lays out three critical areas of self
entrepreneurs must understand:
o Confrontation with risk: financial, career, family and social, and psychic;
o Entrepreneurial stress: issues surrounding awesome responsibility, multiple role
demands, working alone, and resulting health issues;
o Entrepreneurial ego: the negative effects of an inflated ego (Kets de Vries, 1985;
Kuratko, 2007).
Baron & Markman (2000) make a strong case for the relationship between social and
interpersonal skills and entrepreneurs’ success. They suggest that those entrepreneurs who
receive training in impression management, persuasion and influence, managing performance,
social perception, and other areas may reap superior results. And, they advocate courses
dedicated to training students, who are future entrepreneurs, in these areas.
Self awareness and assessment, characterized as Use of Self (Seashore, 2004), involves a process
of self-assessment, a lot of feedback, and experiential practice in real life scenarios. What is
critical about the process of self-understanding is that it can be facilitated by others, in this case a
teacher or mentor, and that feedback is given and received in a safe place (Seashore, Seashore, &
Weinberg, 1997).
Seashore’s (2004) model portrays the flow from the unconscious self via the process of self-
understanding, achieved through reflection, feedback, and assessment, to the fuller more
competent self.
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Figure 1
Seashore Use-of-Self Model
(Seashore, 2004)
The specific areas proposed for students’ study and self-development are:
o Self esteem
o Self-efficacy
o Personality assessment
o Need to achieve
o Screening for opportunity
o Locus of control
o Goal orientation
o Optimism
o Courage
o Tolerance of ambiguity
o Strong internal motivation
o Dealing constructively with failure
o Need for inclusion and affection
o Giving and receiving feedback
o Cognitive orientation
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Based on my twenty-five years of small business startups and management, I suggest there are
10 key interpersonal skills that are possessed by effective entrepreneurs. Each of these critical
skills can be taught, enhanced, and improved in the classroom:
1) Understanding others (being able to accurately ‘read’ and understand others: reading non-
verbal messages; understanding others’ intentions, needs, wants).
2) Sending messages (giving others the impression you want them to have: look and act
professional; responding appropriately; making others feel good about themselves).
3) Listening (using active listening techniques that allow you to get the information you
need).
4) Providing feedback (being able to give and receive solid, constructive feedback for
greater learning). An example of a classroom exercise is provided in Exhibit A.
5) Empowering people (allowing others to develop under your guidance).
6) Promoting change (convincing others to follow your guidance and vision).
7) Persuading (being able to change others’ attitudes, beliefs, and behavior).
8) Resolving conflicts (having the ability to constructively address and resolve conflict,
deflect anger, and provide satisfaction with resolution).
9) Negotiating (being able to negotiate the outcome you desire and making it a ‘win-win’).
10) Generating excitement (being able to create a sense of excitement and enthusiasm in
others).
(Mattare, 2006b)
Significance of the Course
My conviction about the need for courses on entrepreneurial leadership is a result of my own
experiences in small business startups and management, a review of the small body of literature
that agrees on the relationship of the presence of certain attributes and successful or effective
entrepreneurship, and the surge in entrepreneurship, which demands entrepreneurial leaders.
These demands are more pressing and perhaps more challenging than ever before, and require a
“new breed” of entrepreneur who understands and is able to address these trends:
o there is a global perspective now in all business activities;
o trends are moving to knowledge-based enterprises versus industrial-based
enterprises;
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o there is a new company-employee relationship evolving;
o there is a shift from management to leadership;
o the focus is on the entrepreneurial organization.
Entrepreneurship slices across all areas of the business curriculum. Without question, successful
entrepreneurs must be “experts” in finance, marketing, strategy, human resource management.
The groundwork for understanding each of these areas is laid in the general courses offered in
the business curriculum that teach entrepreneurial finance, marketing, human resource
management, and leadership, and enhanced in those courses that dwell specifically on
entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs must also be leaders, and so a different approach must be taken in the
entrepreneurship classroom than is taken in other business school classrooms. There has been a
struggle to determine what is needed in the entrepreneurship classroom that goes beyond
traditional business courses (Solomon, Duffy, & Tarabishy, 2002). The entrepreneurship student
must learn to do, to act, to self-reflect and learn from mistakes by quickly regrouping, attempting
and re-attempting an action. The entrepreneurship student needs to have a good understanding of
self, tools for self-improvement, strong self-efficacy, and the ability to deal constructively with
failure, get up, and try again. These needs demand a not only different approaches in course
design but a much greater focus on the individual potential for full Use of Self.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Entrepreneurship in the US is on the rise. More than half of all businesses are small business
enterprises and the annual rate of startups is growing. The combined number of entrepreneurship
students for the 2006 top 25 undergraduate programs alone was close to 10,000. Not all of these
students will become entrepreneurs for sure, but the ones who do will need to be prepared in
ways that go beyond expertise in finance, marketing, and preparing business plans. What will
count is the “who” behind the business plan and how well that person will navigate the social
world.
Some entrepreneurship courses texts do discuss the “who” of entrepreneurship, such as
Timmons & Spinelli’s New Venture Creation and Buskirk et al’s Fast Trac® field guide
(Buskirk, Davis, & Price, 2004; Timmons & Spinelli, 2007). Many texts discuss the traits and
characteristics of entrepreneurs (Allen, 2007; Barringer & Ireland, 2006; Hitt, Ireland, Camp, &
Sexton, 2002; Katz & Green, 2007; Mariotti, 2007; Zimmerer & Scarborough, 2005). However,
none that I’ve reviewed spend time developing the self-knowledge, self-reflection, and
interpersonal skills that will be critical in practice.
So What
The EL classroom presents an opportunity to address both the “lighter” side and the “darker”
side of entrepreneurship by teaching core skills and anticipating extraordinary stresses. A good
portion of this course will be devoted to experiential learning rather than just discussion of what
constitutes entrepreneurial traits, characteristics, and behaviors. In fact, the student will learn the
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desired behaviors in settings using, for example, fish bowl exercises, role plays, simulations, and
games, The actual practice of skills in the safe setting of the classroom will arm the student with
an arsenal to take into the business world. The course, placed at the beginning of the
entrepreneurship curriculum, will prepare students for the unique challenges they will face not
only as students but ultimately as entrepreneurs. This premise builds on prior research, such as
that conducted by Kirby (2004), Baron & Markman (2000) and Fernald et al (2005) or the
perspectives put forth by Kuratko (2007), or the entrepreneurial leadership course outcomes
discussed by Okudan & Rzasa (2004), as well as my own personal experience (Baron &
Markman, 2000; Fernald et al., 2005; Kirby, 2004; Kuratko, 2007; Okudan & Rzasa, 2004). The
outcomes from instituting EL in the entrepreneurship curriculum will allow students to have
knowledge of self, coupled with real tools to develop self, so that they are able to consciously
employ use of self to build their new ventures. In a practical sense, if students understand who
they are and how they absorb, process, and act upon information, they will be able to do a better
job to build the infrastructure of support that fills in the gaps.
It will be important to determine the effect of adding such a course to the entrepreneurship
curriculum and there are a number of potential research opportunities that could measure the
relationship of small venture performance to EL courses:
o changes in self efficacy scores, either during the EL course or over the span of courses in
the curriculum;
o situational self-efficacy and the entrepreneurial venture (Mattare, 2006a);
o the role of self-reflection and entrepreneurial success;
o the relationships of various assessments, such as locus of control, emotional intelligence,
need for inclusion and affection and others to entrepreneurial success;
o social networks and entrepreneurial success.
My belief in the need for an entrepreneurial leadership course is based on many years of direct
experience as an entrepreneur, as a manager of entrepreneurial ventures, and as a consultant to
small business startups and growth opportunities. It is also based on the growing, although small,
body of literature that addresses the need for strong leadership capacities in the entrepreneurial
environment and the relationship of leadership skills to entrepreneurial success (Baron &
Markman, 2000; Fernald et al., 2005). The EL course will provide students the foundation that,
coupled with other business school learning areas such as finance, marketing, strategy, human
resource management, and growth management, will ensure their entrepreneurial success.
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EXHIBIT 1
An Experiential Exercise in Giving and Receiving Feedback
Step 1: Students form dyads.
Step 2: Using the SOFTEN Model (Johnson, 1999) of non-verbal communication style (Smile,
Open Posture, Forward Lean, Touch, Eye Contact, and Nod) each student practices the following
exercise using real classroom observations of one another to share.
Step 3: Rotate and repeat.
Step 4: Each dyad processes their feelings and experiences with the whole group.
Step 5: The whole class processes the exercise.
1. Say the person’s name.
2. Say, “I have some feedback for you. Would you like to hear it? Or ask, “Would you like
some feedback?”
3. The recipient says, "Yes.”
4. Say the person’s name again.
5. Next word is I.
6. Next word is “noticed,” or “observed,” or “saw,” or “heard.”
7. Describe behaviors in nonjudgmental, nonevaluative language. Avoid words with
negative connotations (I observed that you were “playing with the pen” – better, more
descriptive and nonconnotative: I observed that you were moving the pen back and forth
between your hands.”)
8. Recipient listens openly during the feedback and does not explain, justify, of defend
behaviors described.
9. When finished, ask “Do you have any questions?”
10. Recipient should then ask questions to clarify any ambiguities. Recipient may also
question other members of the group (“Did anyone else notice that?”), or may question
one member in particular (“John, what did you notice about my eye contact?”)
11. After asking all the questions he/she wants to, recipient says to observer, “Thank you for
the feedback.”
12. Say, “You’re welcome.”
Adapted from Reaching Out: Interpersonal Effectiveness and Self-Actualization (Johnson, 1999).
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and receiving feedback. Columbia, MD: Bingham Books.
Solomon, G. T., Duffy, S., & Tarabishy, A. (2002). The state of entrepreneurship education in
the United States: a nationwide survey and analysis. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship Education 1(1), 65-86.
Timmons, J. A., & Spinelli, J., Stephen. (2007). New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the
21st Century (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Zimmerer, T. W., & Scarborough, N. M. (2005). Essential of Entrepreneurship and Small
Business Management (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0093
doc_312534670.pdf
This criteria regarding teaching entrepreneurship the case for an entrepreneurial leadership.
TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE CASE FOR AN ENTREPRENEURIAL
LEADERSHIP COURSE
Martha Mattare
Department of Management
Frostburg State University
University System of Maryland - Hagerstown
32 W. Washington Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740
240-527-2747 or 301-668-9525
[email protected]
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0078
ACADEMIC ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurship education is rapidly growing, both in the number of schools offering programs
and in the range of courses becoming available. As students become entrepreneurs, they will
need to wear a variety of “hats” and serve as the primary finance, marketing, human resource,
and operations person in their new ventures. High self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and well-
developed interpersonal skills have been shown to equate to a firm’s success; more concentration
on the development of these skills is needed in the entrepreneurship curriculum. This paper
presents the case for instituting a course that will facilitate entrepreneurship students’
development of self.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This paper argues that there is a need to integrate interpersonal skills, self-reflection, giving and
receiving feedback and areas of personal skills development into the entrepreneurship education
curriculum. There is evidence that those entrepreneurs who possess superior self-efficacy and
social and interpersonal skills tend to be more successful. Today, very few schools offer courses
that focus on development of self. Of the top 25 schools ranked by Entrepreneur magazine in
2006, only 4% had courses devoted specifically to entrepreneurial leadership and personal
development.
The entrepreneur must initiate and sustain critical firm relationships, hire and manage the right
people who will contribute to the business’s growth, and be able to reflect upon and learn from
mistakes -- and keep on trying. The successful entrepreneur must have a good knowledge of self:
personality characteristics, preferences, needs, strengths, weaknesses, and the ability to give and
receive feedback; he or she needs to develop in these areas as much as, or more than, learning to
read a balance sheet or value a company.
As a former small business executive and entrepreneur with years of experience and observation,
I witnessed firsthand the large difference in results between those entrepreneurs who possessed
superior interpersonal skills and those who struggled or failed from a lack of these skills. Now,
as an instructor in a university entrepreneurship program, I work with students who possess
considerable knowledge of finance, marketing, management, and human resources, but have
little understanding of self -- their own strengths and weaknesses, personal preferences, and
behavior patterns -- and how these characteristics can impact the venture.
A course in entrepreneurial leadership will help students develop the critical skills beyond the
technical to ensure success in their future ventures.
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INTRODUCTION
An entrepreneur needs many skills to succeed creating and maintaining a new business venture.
Research shows that entrepreneurial success is linked to the personal characteristics of
entrepreneurs more than any other factor (Allinson, Chell, & Hayes, 2000; Baron & Markman,
2000; Baum & Locke, 2004; Begley & Boyd, 1987; Bird, 1989; Blanchflower & Oswald, 1998;
Chattopadhyay, 2002; Crane, 2007; Gatewood, Shaver, Powers, & Gartner, 2003; McClelland,
1961). In their review of entrepreneurship and leadership literature, Fernald et al (2005) found
that many of the characteristics attributed to leaders are also associated with successful
entrepreneurs, and the characteristics most common are: being visionary, risk-taking,
achievement-oriented, able to motivate, creative, flexible, persistent, and patient. And, Kuratko
& Hodgetts (2007) developed a definition of entrepreneurship which includes these necessary
attributes: the willingness to take calculated risks, the ability to formulate an effective venture
team, the creative skills to marshal necessary resources, the skill to build a solid business plan,
and the vision to recognize opportunity when others just see chaos, contradiction, and confusion
(Kuratko, 2007; Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2007). Much of entrepreneurial behavior is essentially
leadership behavior (Fernald, Solomon, & Tarabishy, 2005). The concept of entrepreneurial
leadership may be considered a new paradigm (Fernald et al., 2005).
Entrepreneurship education is a relatively new business school discipline, most often falling into
management education. As of 2005, 1600 schools offered courses related to entrepreneurship
(Kuratko, 2005). Leadership has been part of the core business curriculum in most schools for
some time. However, with entrepreneurship on the rise and entrepreneurial behavior encouraged
to initiate new business startups and in the established organization, there are expanded
requirements for entrepreneurship education. We are in the process of sending ever greater
numbers of newly graduated entrepreneurship majors or minors into the world to start or run new
businesses. Although technically competent, are these students as fully self-developed as they
could be? Are they informed enough to capitalize on their strengths and supplement their
weaknesses? Have we prepared them for the challenging, turbulent, rollercoaster ride of being an
entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship courses are not like other courses typically taught in business schools. They
ought to be more focused on application rather than theory. A review of entrepreneurship
curricula indicates they fall into categories similar to the generic categories of subject areas in
business courses such as: finance, marketing, strategy, technology, and business plan creation.
David Kirby discusses the need for a paradigm shift in business schools from educating “about”
entrepreneurship to educating “for it” (Kirby, 2004). Kirby goes on to advocate a focus on
creativity and change rather than just new venture creation and small business management
(Kirby, 2004). My own experience as an entrepreneur supports this viewpoint; management of
change and creative thinking were often the differentiators between entrepreneurial success or
failure.
A review of the top 25 entrepreneurship undergraduate programs was conducted to determine the
range of courses offered. Only 4% of the top schools offer courses that specifically address
entrepreneurial leadership skills development.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
There are few areas of agreement as yet in entrepreneurship literature. According to Cornelius,
Landstrom, & Persson (2006), entrepreneurship research, as an emerging field and as a relatively
new area of research, is somewhere in its evolution between the technical approach to research
and the theoretical (Cornelius, Landstrom, & Persson, 2006). The earlier days of
entrepreneurship research looked singularly at the object or at the entrepreneur. Newer research
puts the entrepreneur into the context of the entrepreneurship practice (Cornelius et al., 2006).
The field of entrepreneur research is populated by several disciplines that range from economics,
psychology, and the social sciences to management science. The research themes found in
today’s literature are defined by Cornelius et al. (2006): innovation and regional development;
sociology and capitalistic endeavor; strategic entrepreneurship and management of resources;
ethnic entrepreneurship; legal and policy implications of entrepreneurship; self-employment and
regional development; finances; and an eclectic cluster of researchers who are considered
“insiders” in the field (Cornelius et al., 2006).
Cunningham and Lischeron offered an organized summary of the schools of entrepreneurship
research, differentiating the schools of thought as: the “great” person school, which believes that
entrepreneurs are born not made; psychological characteristics, which believes entrepreneurs
have unique attributes and values; classical, which holds innovation as the key to the
entrepreneur; management, which believes that entrepreneurship is organization, management,
and masters of risk; leadership, which believes that entrepreneurs are leaders of people; and,
intrapreneurship, or the entrepreneurial activity within the organization (Cunningham &
Lischeron, 1991).
In another analysis of the field of entrepreneurship as an academic study, Cooper, Markman, &
Niss (2000) stated that most of the conferences and journals on entrepreneurship have been
started in the last 20 years. The authors believed that the widespread interest in new venture
formation was due to the economy, which is more attuned technologically and structurally to
support this (Cooper, Markman, & Niss, 2000). Small firms tend to be more R & D efficient,
which provides a critical competitive edge in the global economy (Cooper, 1964 in (Cooper et
al., 2000).
There is much criticism of the research that is done in the field, such as the lack of agreement on
definitions and too much attention paid to validity and reliability of instruments used (Cooper et
al., 2000; Morris, 2002). Based on my experience both as an entrepreneur and a consultant to
small business startups, I maintain that entrepreneurship is a very broad area in which many
dramatically different types operate and which challenges any attempt to arrive at universal
definitions or methods of quantifying the field. Cooper et al. (2000) defined three potential paths
of future research on entrepreneurship: a traditional path, or “normal” science operating with
empirically tested hypotheses; a multiple-paradigm path that combines methods and theories
from many disciplines, such as economics, sociology, and psychology; and a pragmatic, less
theory-driven path that looks to address immediate and relevant questions flowing from the
classroom full of potential entrepreneurs (Cooper et al., 2000).
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In spite of the lack of agreement across the board of entrepreneurship research, a few areas are
agreed upon:
o The entrepreneur recognizes opportunity in different ways than others (Kickul & Gundry,
2002).
o The entrepreneur tends to be an MBTI iNtuitor (Caird, 1993; Carland, 1982; Mattare,
2006a).
o The entrepreneur typically has higher-than-average self-efficacy (Chen, Greene, & Crick,
1998; DeNoble, Jung, & Ehrlich, 1999; Mattare, 2006a).
o Training programs positively impact self-efficacy (De Noble, Jung, & Ehrlich, 1999;
Ehrlich, DeNoble, Jung, & Pearson, 2005).
o The entrepreneur has a high need for achievement (McClelland, 1961).
o Social skills can enhance entrepreneurs’ success (Baron & Markman, 2000).
TRENDS IN ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP COURSE OFFERINGS
The offering of an entrepreneurial leadership course in the undergraduate curriculum is, as
discussed, infrequent. Those courses that are offered primarily focus on entrepreneurial leaders
in a case-based format. None of the courses are theory-based, such as more typical business
leadership courses that review key leadership theories and applications. And, lastly, few of the
courses seem to be focused on developing students’ individual skills.
There are several programs that offer a major, minor, or certificate in entrepreneurial leadership.
However, most entrepreneurship programs provide no more than the general course in
Leadership that most business programs offer.
The review of Entrepreneur magazine’s 2006 top 25 undergraduate programs in
entrepreneurship found that the most frequent subject areas offered were introductory
entrepreneurship, finance, followed by marketing, then business plan development and selling.
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0083
TABLE 1
Percentage of Course Types at the Top 25 Undergraduate
Schools of Entrepreneurship
SUBJECT AREAS OFFERED
PERCENT OF SCHOOLS THAT
OFFER SUBJECT AREA
Introduction to Entrepreneurship 44%
Finance 44%
Marketing 28%
Business Plan Development
16%
Selling
16%
Strategy 12%
Family Business
8%
Digital or e-Commerce 8%
Consulting for Small Businesses 8%
Legal Issues 8%
Risk Management
4%
Minority & Women-owned Businesses
4%
New Product Development
4%
Opportunity Development
4%
Leadership/Personal Development
4%
Source: (Entrepreneur.com, 2007)
A PROPOSED COURSE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP
The course, Entrepreneurial Leadership (EL), would build upon a business school’s other course
offerings in leadership, which are often a core of the business curriculum. The current courses
provide a broad view of leadership theory, along with a study of specific characteristics and
behaviors found in leaders. Although there is often an experiential element in leadership courses,
they are likely not dedicated 100%, or even primarily, to the development of individual student
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0084
leadership skills. In EL, the proposed focus is on exploring the leadership qualities necessary for
successful entrepreneurship and developing the individual student’s specific skills as a potential
entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship, in the context of the EL course, is a behavior which may be
exhibited in many venues ranging from the home-based business venture to intrapreneurship.
As discussed by Kuratko (2007), in entrepreneurial ventures the ethical influence of the owner is
more powerful than in larger organizations because his or her leadership is not diffused through
organizational layers (Humphreys, 1993; Kuratko, Goldsby, & Hornsby, 2004 in (Kuratko,
2007). In this course, students will focus on the individual characteristics of the successful
entrepreneur, the fundamentals of ethical leadership, social responsibility, and the process of
leading business creation. Students will develop the knowledge, confidence, skills, and self-
image necessary to pursue entrepreneurial ventures, either their own or within the established
organizational environment.
There is also a need to address risk management issues, stress, and ego or what Kets de Vries
(1985) called the “dark” side of entrepreneurship. Kuratko (2007), building on Kets de Vries
(1985) exploration of the “darker side” of entrepreneurship, lays out three critical areas of self
entrepreneurs must understand:
o Confrontation with risk: financial, career, family and social, and psychic;
o Entrepreneurial stress: issues surrounding awesome responsibility, multiple role
demands, working alone, and resulting health issues;
o Entrepreneurial ego: the negative effects of an inflated ego (Kets de Vries, 1985;
Kuratko, 2007).
Baron & Markman (2000) make a strong case for the relationship between social and
interpersonal skills and entrepreneurs’ success. They suggest that those entrepreneurs who
receive training in impression management, persuasion and influence, managing performance,
social perception, and other areas may reap superior results. And, they advocate courses
dedicated to training students, who are future entrepreneurs, in these areas.
Self awareness and assessment, characterized as Use of Self (Seashore, 2004), involves a process
of self-assessment, a lot of feedback, and experiential practice in real life scenarios. What is
critical about the process of self-understanding is that it can be facilitated by others, in this case a
teacher or mentor, and that feedback is given and received in a safe place (Seashore, Seashore, &
Weinberg, 1997).
Seashore’s (2004) model portrays the flow from the unconscious self via the process of self-
understanding, achieved through reflection, feedback, and assessment, to the fuller more
competent self.
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Figure 1
Seashore Use-of-Self Model
(Seashore, 2004)
The specific areas proposed for students’ study and self-development are:
o Self esteem
o Self-efficacy
o Personality assessment
o Need to achieve
o Screening for opportunity
o Locus of control
o Goal orientation
o Optimism
o Courage
o Tolerance of ambiguity
o Strong internal motivation
o Dealing constructively with failure
o Need for inclusion and affection
o Giving and receiving feedback
o Cognitive orientation
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Based on my twenty-five years of small business startups and management, I suggest there are
10 key interpersonal skills that are possessed by effective entrepreneurs. Each of these critical
skills can be taught, enhanced, and improved in the classroom:
1) Understanding others (being able to accurately ‘read’ and understand others: reading non-
verbal messages; understanding others’ intentions, needs, wants).
2) Sending messages (giving others the impression you want them to have: look and act
professional; responding appropriately; making others feel good about themselves).
3) Listening (using active listening techniques that allow you to get the information you
need).
4) Providing feedback (being able to give and receive solid, constructive feedback for
greater learning). An example of a classroom exercise is provided in Exhibit A.
5) Empowering people (allowing others to develop under your guidance).
6) Promoting change (convincing others to follow your guidance and vision).
7) Persuading (being able to change others’ attitudes, beliefs, and behavior).
8) Resolving conflicts (having the ability to constructively address and resolve conflict,
deflect anger, and provide satisfaction with resolution).
9) Negotiating (being able to negotiate the outcome you desire and making it a ‘win-win’).
10) Generating excitement (being able to create a sense of excitement and enthusiasm in
others).
(Mattare, 2006b)
Significance of the Course
My conviction about the need for courses on entrepreneurial leadership is a result of my own
experiences in small business startups and management, a review of the small body of literature
that agrees on the relationship of the presence of certain attributes and successful or effective
entrepreneurship, and the surge in entrepreneurship, which demands entrepreneurial leaders.
These demands are more pressing and perhaps more challenging than ever before, and require a
“new breed” of entrepreneur who understands and is able to address these trends:
o there is a global perspective now in all business activities;
o trends are moving to knowledge-based enterprises versus industrial-based
enterprises;
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0087
o there is a new company-employee relationship evolving;
o there is a shift from management to leadership;
o the focus is on the entrepreneurial organization.
Entrepreneurship slices across all areas of the business curriculum. Without question, successful
entrepreneurs must be “experts” in finance, marketing, strategy, human resource management.
The groundwork for understanding each of these areas is laid in the general courses offered in
the business curriculum that teach entrepreneurial finance, marketing, human resource
management, and leadership, and enhanced in those courses that dwell specifically on
entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs must also be leaders, and so a different approach must be taken in the
entrepreneurship classroom than is taken in other business school classrooms. There has been a
struggle to determine what is needed in the entrepreneurship classroom that goes beyond
traditional business courses (Solomon, Duffy, & Tarabishy, 2002). The entrepreneurship student
must learn to do, to act, to self-reflect and learn from mistakes by quickly regrouping, attempting
and re-attempting an action. The entrepreneurship student needs to have a good understanding of
self, tools for self-improvement, strong self-efficacy, and the ability to deal constructively with
failure, get up, and try again. These needs demand a not only different approaches in course
design but a much greater focus on the individual potential for full Use of Self.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Entrepreneurship in the US is on the rise. More than half of all businesses are small business
enterprises and the annual rate of startups is growing. The combined number of entrepreneurship
students for the 2006 top 25 undergraduate programs alone was close to 10,000. Not all of these
students will become entrepreneurs for sure, but the ones who do will need to be prepared in
ways that go beyond expertise in finance, marketing, and preparing business plans. What will
count is the “who” behind the business plan and how well that person will navigate the social
world.
Some entrepreneurship courses texts do discuss the “who” of entrepreneurship, such as
Timmons & Spinelli’s New Venture Creation and Buskirk et al’s Fast Trac® field guide
(Buskirk, Davis, & Price, 2004; Timmons & Spinelli, 2007). Many texts discuss the traits and
characteristics of entrepreneurs (Allen, 2007; Barringer & Ireland, 2006; Hitt, Ireland, Camp, &
Sexton, 2002; Katz & Green, 2007; Mariotti, 2007; Zimmerer & Scarborough, 2005). However,
none that I’ve reviewed spend time developing the self-knowledge, self-reflection, and
interpersonal skills that will be critical in practice.
So What
The EL classroom presents an opportunity to address both the “lighter” side and the “darker”
side of entrepreneurship by teaching core skills and anticipating extraordinary stresses. A good
portion of this course will be devoted to experiential learning rather than just discussion of what
constitutes entrepreneurial traits, characteristics, and behaviors. In fact, the student will learn the
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0088
desired behaviors in settings using, for example, fish bowl exercises, role plays, simulations, and
games, The actual practice of skills in the safe setting of the classroom will arm the student with
an arsenal to take into the business world. The course, placed at the beginning of the
entrepreneurship curriculum, will prepare students for the unique challenges they will face not
only as students but ultimately as entrepreneurs. This premise builds on prior research, such as
that conducted by Kirby (2004), Baron & Markman (2000) and Fernald et al (2005) or the
perspectives put forth by Kuratko (2007), or the entrepreneurial leadership course outcomes
discussed by Okudan & Rzasa (2004), as well as my own personal experience (Baron &
Markman, 2000; Fernald et al., 2005; Kirby, 2004; Kuratko, 2007; Okudan & Rzasa, 2004). The
outcomes from instituting EL in the entrepreneurship curriculum will allow students to have
knowledge of self, coupled with real tools to develop self, so that they are able to consciously
employ use of self to build their new ventures. In a practical sense, if students understand who
they are and how they absorb, process, and act upon information, they will be able to do a better
job to build the infrastructure of support that fills in the gaps.
It will be important to determine the effect of adding such a course to the entrepreneurship
curriculum and there are a number of potential research opportunities that could measure the
relationship of small venture performance to EL courses:
o changes in self efficacy scores, either during the EL course or over the span of courses in
the curriculum;
o situational self-efficacy and the entrepreneurial venture (Mattare, 2006a);
o the role of self-reflection and entrepreneurial success;
o the relationships of various assessments, such as locus of control, emotional intelligence,
need for inclusion and affection and others to entrepreneurial success;
o social networks and entrepreneurial success.
My belief in the need for an entrepreneurial leadership course is based on many years of direct
experience as an entrepreneur, as a manager of entrepreneurial ventures, and as a consultant to
small business startups and growth opportunities. It is also based on the growing, although small,
body of literature that addresses the need for strong leadership capacities in the entrepreneurial
environment and the relationship of leadership skills to entrepreneurial success (Baron &
Markman, 2000; Fernald et al., 2005). The EL course will provide students the foundation that,
coupled with other business school learning areas such as finance, marketing, strategy, human
resource management, and growth management, will ensure their entrepreneurial success.
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0089
EXHIBIT 1
An Experiential Exercise in Giving and Receiving Feedback
Step 1: Students form dyads.
Step 2: Using the SOFTEN Model (Johnson, 1999) of non-verbal communication style (Smile,
Open Posture, Forward Lean, Touch, Eye Contact, and Nod) each student practices the following
exercise using real classroom observations of one another to share.
Step 3: Rotate and repeat.
Step 4: Each dyad processes their feelings and experiences with the whole group.
Step 5: The whole class processes the exercise.
1. Say the person’s name.
2. Say, “I have some feedback for you. Would you like to hear it? Or ask, “Would you like
some feedback?”
3. The recipient says, "Yes.”
4. Say the person’s name again.
5. Next word is I.
6. Next word is “noticed,” or “observed,” or “saw,” or “heard.”
7. Describe behaviors in nonjudgmental, nonevaluative language. Avoid words with
negative connotations (I observed that you were “playing with the pen” – better, more
descriptive and nonconnotative: I observed that you were moving the pen back and forth
between your hands.”)
8. Recipient listens openly during the feedback and does not explain, justify, of defend
behaviors described.
9. When finished, ask “Do you have any questions?”
10. Recipient should then ask questions to clarify any ambiguities. Recipient may also
question other members of the group (“Did anyone else notice that?”), or may question
one member in particular (“John, what did you notice about my eye contact?”)
11. After asking all the questions he/she wants to, recipient says to observer, “Thank you for
the feedback.”
12. Say, “You’re welcome.”
Adapted from Reaching Out: Interpersonal Effectiveness and Self-Actualization (Johnson, 1999).
USASBE 2008 Proceedings - Page 0090
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