An analytic knowledge network process for construction entrepreneurship education

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative multicriteria decision‐making approach to knowledge management in construction entrepreneurship education by means of an analytic knowledge network process (KANP).Design/methodology/approachThe KANP approach in the study integrates a standard industrial classification with the analytic network process (ANP). For the construction entrepreneurship education, a decision‐making model named KANP.CEEM is built to apply the KANP method in the evaluation of teaching cases to facilitate the case method, which is widely adopted in entrepreneurship education at business schools.FindingsThe study finds that there are eight clusters and 178 nodes in the KANP.CEEM model, and experimental research on the evaluation of teaching cases discloses that the KANP method is effective in conducting knowledge management to the entrepreneurship education.Research limitations/implicationsAs an experimental research, this paper ignores the concordance between a selected standard classification and others, which perhaps limits the usefulness of KANP.CEEM model elsewhere.Practical implicationsAs the KANP.CEEM model is built based on the standard classification codes and the embedded ANP, it is thus expected that the model has a wide potential in evaluating knowledge‐based teaching materials for any education purpose with a background from the construction industry, and can be used by both faculty and students.Originality/valueThis paper fulfils a knowledge management need and offers a practical tool for an academic starting out on the development of knowledge‐based teaching cases and other teaching materials or for a student going through the case studies and other learning materials.