Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education Research Articles

Using the Case Study Method in Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education

Various methods are used in entrepreneurship education. However, the effectiveness of these methods in inculcating the much-needed improvement in entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, intentions, and ultimately entrepreneurial activity is underexplored in literature. Following the action research approach in an undergraduate entrepreneurship class of 165 students, the study investigated the students’ perceptions of the case method’s effectiveness in improving their entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, intentions, and ultimately entrepreneurial activity. A combination of observation methods and semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data. Observation data revealed a lack of physical space for facilitator mobility and low levels of engagement by students as some of the major challenges encountered when implementing the case study method in large classes. An analysis of semi-structured interview data revealed contextual relevance, building resilience, critical thinking, innovation and creativity, entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial career development, and inspiration as some of the effective contributions of using the case study method in entrepreneurship education. The study recommends that, to further enhance the effectiveness of the case study method, the environment in which case studies are applied needs to be improved to ensure that there is enough physical space for lecturer mobility and interaction with students during case-study discussions.

Framework for Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education in Australia: Preliminary Exploration

This study investigates engagement activities higher education institutions have been providing to develop a learning culture as well as entrepreneurship skills for undergraduate entrepreneurship education learners in Australia. This research is intended to explore changes and adjustments made in the curriculum of undergraduate entrepreneurship education programmes in selected higher education institutions in Australia due to uncertainties caused by COVID-19. We focused on six Australian universities offering undergraduate entrepreneurship programmes, which were purposefully chosen. Data and information were gathered from the universities’ websites, documents available from the same source, the universities’ structure of engagement activities, and their curriculum. Previous literature was referred to for models already proposed and executed. By considering the COVID-19 crisis as well as similar types of future uncertainties, the study has identified the necessity of implementing open innovation and experiential learning models in a blended environment and having strong IT infrastructure for sustainable industry-university collaboration to facilitate a learning culture and develop entrepreneurship skills in undergraduate entrepreneurship education learners in Australia.

Antecedents of E-learning in undergraduate entrepreneurship education

This study examines the factors that influence the intention and actual use of e-learning in entrepreneurship education by undergraduate students. The paper relies on a predictive study design and the partial least squares structural equation modelling to analyse data from a cluster sample of 599 students from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. The results demonstrate that all the independent variables, assessed within a framework of an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, determine students’ intention to use e-learning in entrepreneurship education. Of particular importance are the preponderant effects of hedonic motivation, facilitating conditions and social influence on students’ intention as well as the effect of intention and facilitating conditions on actual use of e-learning. A key implication of the findings is that students’ continuous acceptance and use of e-learning in undergraduate entrepreneurship course delivery is contingent upon adequate presence of all the examined predictors of technology usage.

A Study of Crowdsourcing in Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education

Crowdsourcing is an approach to harness knowledge and support from crowds using online platforms. Its use occurs within businesses and academia. Small businesses especially derive value from crowdsourcing because entrepreneurs have startup costs as well as time challenges to bring services/products to market. Entrepreneurs may also seek innovation and authenticity to differentiate from competitors. Since crowdsourcing offers these benefits, the researchers queried faculty from public and private universities who taught undergraduate classes in entrepreneurship to explore teaching methods utilized as well as specific aspects of crowdsourcing that were included. Researchers analyzed the resulting crowdsourcing gaps as well as crowdsourcing teaching challenges. Based upon their findings, new crowdsourcing learning activities and strategies were developed such that undergraduate entrepreneurship students may further benefit from crowdsourcing.

The Influence of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intention: Evidence From Universities in China's Pearl River Delta.

Entrepreneurship may be taught, and entrepreneurship education is flourishing at colleges and universities. However, previous documents show that entrepreneurship education is inconsistent with the research conclusions of entrepreneurial intention, which is a lack of discussion on the mediating effect of government subsidies from external resources. Based on the cognitive behavior theory, a mediating effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial strategy and entrepreneurial intention is built. By collecting the data of 334 questionnaires of college students in Pearl River Delta in China, a structural equation is used for empirical analysis. The result indicates that entrepreneurship education does not have a significant influence on entrepreneurial intention; exploration innovation and exploitation innovation have a positive influence on entrepreneurial intention, and exploration innovation and exploitation innovation have a mediating effect on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention; government subsidies have a positive regulating effect on exploration innovation, exploitation innovation, and entrepreneurial intention. In this article, the application of the cognitive behavior theory in the field of entrepreneurship research is expanded to provide the theoretical basis for building the entrepreneurship education ecosystem, which is conductive to innovation and entrepreneurship to promote regional economic development.

Teaching System of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education under the Background of Internet of Things

This article mainly introduces the research on the teaching system of entrepreneurship education for college students under the background of the Internet of Things. On the basis of extensive investigation and analysis, this article combines the reality of entrepreneurship education in our country’s universities to study how to construct an entrepreneurial education system. This paper designs the social support guarantee and specific implementation plan for corporate education by constructing the corporate goal system, curriculum system, practical curriculum system, training team, and other systems, defines the relevant concepts of the innovation and entrepreneurship education system, and analyzes the related concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship education. Theories provide a theoretical basis for constructing college students’ innovation and entrepreneurship education system. Based on the analysis and construction of the innovation and entrepreneurship education system for college students in our country, the necessity and feasibility of the innovation and entrepreneurship education system for college students are further elaborated. The experimental results of this paper show that after the theoretical viewpoints and operational content of the EE system are put forward, the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of college students has increased by 15%, the learning ability has been significantly improved, and it has also fully demonstrated the teaching effect of the entrepreneurial education teaching system for college students under the background of the Internet of Things. In addition, their understanding of EE and teaching has also improved significantly. This structure provides an important reference for further research and practice of undergraduate EE.

Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education: The Pros and Cons for the Nigerian Context [A 10-Year (2008 vs. 2018) Gap Comparative Case Study of Federal Polytechnic Ede, Nigeria

Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education: The Pros and Cons for the Nigerian Context [A 10-Year (2008 vs. 2018) Gap Comparative Case Study of Federal Polytechnic Ede, Nigeria

Seven Challenges in Conceptualizing and Assessing Entrepreneurial Skills or Mindsets in Engineering Entrepreneurship Education

The growth of undergraduate entrepreneurship education programs and research, both within and outside of business programs, has led to a diverse array of academic literature on this topic. The diversity of perspectives has led to many conceptual and educational challenges that remain unresolved within the literature. The following conceptual paper offers a critical perspective on challenges that have been identified. A narrative-style literature review was conducted to explore challenges emerging from both (a) the practice of teaching entrepreneurship and (b) the definitions and assessment of entrepreneurial mindsets and skills that result from those education processes in entrepreneurship education, particularly within an undergraduate engineering education context. We achieve this objective by discussing previously dispersed sources of literature from disciplines that have critically discussed and explored entrepreneurial themes, such as business education, sociology, psychology, and philosophy. Contemporary debates within multiple disciplines are integrated and organized as challenges to inspire new theoretical discussions among scholars, educators, and other practitioners that can inform a more comprehensive way to conceive and assess entrepreneurship in engineering education. Seven challenges were identified ranging from the definition of entrepreneurship in education to the role of ethics in the teaching and assessment of entrepreneurship. We use these seven challenges and research questions as a starting point for the disambiguation of the working definition of entrepreneurship in the context of engineering education.

Assessing and understanding entrepreneurial profiles of undergraduate students: implications of heterogeneity for entrepreneurship education

The present research uses exploratory quantitative methods to assess and understand the entrepreneurial profiles of undergraduate student groups as a driver for initial entrepreneurial intentions. The authors do this by examining the entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial personality traits of undergraduate students, with a focus on differences between students who select entrepreneurship as their academic concentration and those who do not. A total of 1554 student assessments were analyzed from twenty-four universities, with approximately 75% of the respondents from the USA and 25% from outside the USA. Results demonstrate the heterogeneous nature of student groups and entrepreneurial profiles, with significant differences observed among various student majors. Findings of the study have theoretical, empirical, and practical implications for the design and delivery of undergraduate entrepreneurship education.

Reconceptualising undergraduate entrepreneurship education at traditional South African universities

Orientation: The relatively high number of unemployed graduates in South Africa is a major cause for concern. Entrepreneurial start-ups have been heralded as the panacea to the unemployment challenge.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to ascertain how entrepreneurship education, at traditional South African universities, measured against existing entrepreneurship education frameworks.Motivation for the study: Despite a plethora of entrepreneurship education initiatives, the South African higher education system fails to produce sufficient entrepreneurs; hence, the need to explore how entrepreneurship education is structured.Research design, approach and method: The research design was exploratory and both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The population comprised the eleven traditional universities in South Africa and all of them were included in the study. Secondary data was obtained from the respective universities’ websites. The search sequence in the websites were as follows: Faculty of commerce/Management Sciences, Year/handbook, undergraduate/postgraduate programmes. The word ‘entrepreneurship’ was also used as a keyword to search within the university website.Main findings: The findings revealed some entrepreneurship modules, with low total credit value in relation to total programme credit value, at the undergraduate level and specialisation at the postgraduate level with some form of centre or incubator initiatives. It was also found that little attention is given to the development of entrepreneurial skills such as perseverance, resilience and self-efficacy.Practical/managerial implications: The significance of this article lies in its potential to guide the reconceptualisation of entrepreneurship education at South African universities.Contribution/value-add: This study integrates an existing framework and model to reconceptualise the undergraduate entrepreneurship programme. The reconceptualised structure entails a programme where modules from other disciplines are integrated into an entrepreneurship programme as opposed to the current structure where entrepreneurship modules are integrated into other career-focussed programmes.

The Impact of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intentions: An Oman Perspective

The Impact of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intentions: An Oman Perspective

Who Needs Entrepreneurial Role Models? Driving Forces of Students’ Cyber-Entrepreneurial Career Intention

Cyber-entrepreneurship has become an important topic of debate in academia primarily because of an increasingly competitive nature of E-commerce industry and internet. Since cyber-entrepreneurial career-decision encompasses higher degree of personal risks and commitments among those aspiring to become ‘cyber-entrepreneurs’, there is need for in-depth understanding on the driving factors that influencing Cyber-entrepreneurial intentions. By integrating the concepts of social cognitive theory and goal-setting theory, the current research aims to explore the effects of Cyber-entrepreneurial self-efficacy (CESE) and goal commitment (GC) on Cyber-entrepreneurial intentions (CEIs) in the context of undergraduate entrepreneurship education, and inquires whether the presence of entrepreneurial role models (ERMs) has any effect on the CEIs among undergraduates. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were used to analyze the data collected from 279 undergraduate students from several universities in Taiwan—among which 146 were with entrepreneurial role models and 143 were without. The results showed that GC has a partial mediation effect between CESE and CEI only in the cases of students without ERMs. Multi-sample SEM revealed a significant difference between the effects of CESE on CEI in students with and without ERMs. These findings may have important theoretical and practical implications to students undertaking entrepreneurship degrees and those making leap-decisions to enter the cyber-entrepreneurial field.

Considerations based on the Construction of University Entrepreneurship Education Platform

“Mass entrepreneurship and innovation on many occasions” has already become a national development strategy. Under the background of mass entrepreneurship, integrating entrepreneurship education into the university talents training system, building and improving the Entrepreneurship Education Platform of undergraduates, establishing diversified modes of entrepreneurship education are important topics of the undergraduate entrepreneurship education which universities are currently confronting. In this paper, we combined the present situations of undergraduate entrepreneurship and construction of university entrepreneurship education platform, and proposed some suggestions on constructing the university entrepreneurship education platform to optimize the university entrepreneurship education platform and improve undergraduates’ capability in entrepreneurship effectively.

Entrepreneurial Education: A Systematic Review of Undergraduate University Entrepreneurial Studies in Ontario, Canada

Entrepreneurial education (EE), globally, has been a rapidly growing field of study. In Ontario, Canada, we have experienced both a growth and a maturation of undergraduate entrepreneurship education. This systematic review of undergraduate entrepreneurial education (EE) in Ontario will provide a mapping of this field of study. This review will be conducted through a two-stage process. Research indicates that the quality of entrepreneurial activity is important in the economic vitality of communities, regions and countries (Florida, 2002). In Canada and Ontario, government policy trends support providing entrepreneurial education, as well as supporting entrepreneurs, especially youth entrepreneurs. The result of this reviewing process reveals the breadth of entrepreneurial education, as well as the various tangents of related studies.

A New Mode of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education Based on Online Education System and Cloud Computing

A New Mode of Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education Based on Online Education System and Cloud Computing

A Study on Improvement Entrepreneurial University System for Achievement of Competitiveness

This study concerns of the reorganization of entrepreneurial university system for Achievement of Competitiveness and It provides opening a Fusion Founding Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education and a course of study model to maximize creating synergy effects by combining two concepts. It is not only set up vision of university and start-up support group, a Fusion Founding Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education to keep consistent flow but also sets up educational objectives to realize the visions. From the object and intented point, It analyzes the existing fusion undergraduate study curriculum to have purpose consistency of Fusion Founding Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education and suggests the friendly entrepreneurial platforms on the basis of the study.

Study on Enterprise Education System for Undergraduates in Universities

This paper studies the higher school undergraduate entrepreneurship education system. Its architecture mainly includes five aspects of content, improve the students’ entrepreneurial cognitive ability, adjust the teacher’s education idea, carry out various kinds of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial training, carry out flexible forms of team learning organization, and strengthen the attention of colleges and universities for undergraduate entrepreneurship.

Breathing space – graduate entrepreneurs’ perspectives of entrepreneurship education in higher education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine graduate entrepreneurs’ perspectives of entrepreneurship education (EE) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in their formation as entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative research study was conducted amongst 30 graduate entrepreneurs in the South East of Ireland, who established their businesses between 2001 and 2010 (inclusive). Findings – The findings challenge the notion that more EE provision at undergraduate level will lead to greater numbers of graduate entrepreneurs. This is because: HEIs are more focused on preparing students for employment; the academic nature of undergraduate EE; and a “one size fits all” approach to EE fails to recognise the heterogeneity of learners’ needs. However, the findings show that graduate entrepreneurs believed that EE at graduate level provided a welcome “breathing space” to develop their business. Research limitations/implications – This research was undertaken within a unique, regional environment, therefore, it is influenced by regional policies, priorities and factors and its main HEI. It does not include either other regional, national or international case studies. Practical implications – This research paper provides a conceptual framework or guiding principles for good practice in EE in higher education to include: an enterprise-centric, HEI; a graduated approach to EE; pracademics; a challenging learning environment; authentic experience; and links with the wider enterprise community. Originality/value – This research paper offers a nuanced understanding of EE in higher education. Moreover, it contributes to the advancement of knowledge, practice and policy by proposing a conceptual framework for EE in higher education to meet the diverse needs of future graduate entrepreneurs.

The Efficacy of Entrepreneurship Education

This paper presents an analysis of the views of Irish graduate entrepreneurs on the efficacy of entrepreneurship education in fostering their development as entrepreneurs. It answers three key questions: (a) what was the graduate entrepreneurs' experience of undergraduate entrepreneurship education; (b) what was the graduate entrepreneurs' experience of graduate entrepreneurship education; and (c) to what extent did entrepreneurship education prepare the graduate entrepreneurs to start their own business? The authors find that graduate entrepreneurs benefit from entrepreneurship education, particularly at graduate level, when it is more relevant, engaging and applied. They conclude that entrepreneurship education can be enhanced through experiential learning and the authentic experience of both students and lecturers.

Exploring the Value Proposition of the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Major and Elective Based on Student Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectations

Research suggests that students with undergraduate entrepreneurship education are more successful entrepreneurs than those without such education. However, since this type of education is not a prerequisite for prospective entrepreneurs, one should understand the value proposition of such entrepreneurship education. Based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory, this research examines the effects of self-efficacy and outcome expectations on interest in an entrepreneurship major and elective. Findings suggest students’ self-efficacy for having a successful career as an entrepreneur increases their interest in entrepreneurship education; however, outcome expectations for such education differ based on the students’ level of self-efficacy. The authors believe that these results identify a disconnection between the intent of entrepreneurship education compared to its perception by undergraduate students. The implications of the findings of this research suggest that increasing the secondary school students’ understanding and awareness of entrepreneurship could lead to greater levels of interest in entrepreneurship careers and undergraduate entrepreneurship education regardless of the students’ intended field of study, and the integration of entrepreneurship education components into non-entrepreneurship undergraduate curricula could lead to an increased interest in entrepreneurship careers and entrepreneurship education.