Engineering Entrepreneurship Teaching and Practice in the United States and Canada

Abstract

Innovation and entrepreneurship have become priority areas in many engineering faculties. However, there is no consensus about how best to incorporate these or what content should be included in courses. The purpose of this article is to explore how entrepreneurship is presented in an engineering context and how this compares with how it is offered in other contexts. Two empirical studies are presented. The first study examines the content of different types of entrepreneurship courses. The second study is an analysis of communications by engineers and entrepreneurs. Results of these studies show that engineers discuss and present entrepreneurship differently, both within engineering programs and in professional communications. Engineers are much more inclined to focus on engineering design, problem solving, product development, and idea generation in entrepreneurship. They are also focused on the details of the innovation and design processes and less on the entrepreneurial process itself. At the same time, there is a gap between academic entrepreneurship programs and discussions by practitioners. In practitioner discussions, the context and entrepreneurial ecosystem are much more important than they are in entrepreneurship courses and the necessity of education for entrepreneurial success is less valued.