Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Research Articles

I’m Glad I Met You: Ageism Interventions in an Entrepreneurship Course

It is important that students across university disciplines and class years explore their attitudes about ageism, aging, and older adults. Yet few if any ageism interventions in academic settings are directed at business students, instead targeting disciplines such as health sciences. In this paper we offer requisite detail of ageism workshops we developed for use in an undergraduate entrepreneurship course, including discussion of our results. Business curricula at the university level can serve to reinforce age gaps through the study of functional areas such as marketing (target market segmentation) and finance (retirement planning). In entrepreneurship, stories of youthful startups persist despite recent findings strongly reject the notion that youth is a key trait of successful entrepreneurs. In the context of workplace ageism, ageism interventions, and age in entrepreneurship, we modified the Disrupt Aging curriculum offered by A.A.R.P., which facilitates an examination of one’s personal attitude about age and aging. Our twist was to focus the curriculum on entrepreneurship and have our students work in groups with an entrepreneur from the Baby Boom generation. This innovation to our curriculum provides promising evidence of effectiveness as measured in pre- and post-workshop attitudes about ageism and entrepreneurship.

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.

Effective Interventions for Enhancing Academic Achievement in Higher Education: Views of Entrepreneurship Students

Entrepreneurship is considered a vehicle for fighting unemployment in developing countries such as South Africa. As a result, research focusing on entrepreneurship education continues to gain traction. Graduates of tertiary institutions are expected to contribute meaningfully either through employment or job creation. This expectation puts the role of tertiary institutions in converting students into graduates in the spotlight. Tertiary institutions deal with many challenges, such as the heterogeneity of the student population, which calls for evidence-based interventions that are tailor-made to the needs of specific cohorts. Thus, various stakeholders should support tertiary institutions by helping them achieve the desired graduate attributes. This paper sought to suggest effective interventions that would enhance the academic success of entrepreneurship students and prepare them to become future job creators. Interventions should capitalize on students’ strengths and improve on their weaknesses. The researchers argue that interventions to promote academic success should consider students’ abilities and drive to complete qualifications, lecturers’ teaching methods, and graduate attributes required by society. The study used a quantitative approach to address the research question and collected data from 204 undergraduate entrepreneurship students at a technology university in South Africa. The study suggests effective interventions from descriptive statistics. This study reveals the importance of understanding students’ backgrounds, entrepreneurial attributes and teaching methods when designing academic interventions. Implications to the academic administrators and lecturers as well as recommendations for future studies are flagged.

Can Entrepreneurship Education and Personality Encourage Students to Become Entrepreneurs?

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurs are business people who remarkably contribute to the country's economic growth. The growing intention and interest in entrepreneurship will create new jobs, innovative products, and services. Entrepreneurial intent is essential in motivating students to pursue careers as entrepreneurs in their professional lives. This study aims to understand students' entrepreneurial intentions by analyzing the influence of entrepreneurship education and personality. Moreover, the conceptual framework built in this study used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) integrated with entrepreneurship education and individual personality. Data were collected using purposive sampling of students of the undergraduate entrepreneurship program. The structural equations were tested using WarpPLS software. The findings revealed that education regarding entrepreneurship and personality impacts subjective norms and attitudes. Furthermore, all the elements of the theory of planned behavior influence entrepreneurial intention. As a result, entrepreneurship education programs should cover management courses to improve business competency and develop positive emotions toward entrepreneurship.

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.

Prognosis of entrepreneurial traits among agricultural undergraduate students in India using machine learning

PurposeThis study aimed to understand the agri-entrepreneurial traits of undergraduate university students using machine learning (ML) algorithms.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a conceptual framework of individual-level determinants of entrepreneurship and ML. The Google Survey instrument was prepared on a 5-point scale and administered to 656 students in different sections of the same class during regular virtual classrooms in 2021. The datasets were analyzed and compared using ML.FindingsEntrepreneurial traits existed among students before attending undergraduate entrepreneurship courses. Establishing strong partnerships (0.359), learning (0.347) and people-organizing ability (0.341) were promising correlated entrepreneurial traits. Female students exhibited fewer entrepreneurial traits than male students. The random forest model exhibited 60% accuracy in trait prediction against gradient boosting (58.4%), linear regression (56.8%), ridge (56.7%) and lasso regression (56.0%). Thus, the ML model appeared to be unsuitable to predict entrepreneurial traits. Quality data are important for accurate trait predictions.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies can validate K-nearest neighbors (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) models against random forest to support the statement that the ML model cannot be used for entrepreneurial trait prediction.Originality/valueThis research is unique because ML models, such as random forest, gradient boosting and lasso regression, are used for entrepreneurial trait prediction by agricultural domain students.

In the classroom I enhance students understanding of entrepreneurship development – the culturo–techno-contextual approach

PurposeThis study aims to present a step-by-step implementation of the culturo–techno-contextual approach (CTCA) in a university classroom to teach industry and competitive analysis in the Ghanaian undergraduate entrepreneurship development curriculum. It further investigates the efficacy of the CTCA in breaking difficulties related to the study of industry and competitive analysis as a difficult concept in the Ghanaian entrepreneurship development curriculum. In doing this, the CTCA is compared with the lecture method.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a quantitative approach. A quasi-experimental design is employed to gather data from 215 level 400 (4th-year undergraduate students) entrepreneurship development students at a Ghanaian public university. The experimental group was taught with CTCA, while the control group used the lecture method. The data was collected using the industry and competitive analysis achievement test (ICAAT). As random assignment to experimental and control groups were not possible, the data were subjected to an analysis of covariance approach with pre-test scores added as a covariate.FindingsThe results show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group. The results further indicate the efficacy of CTCA in improving undergraduate students’ performance in complex concepts of entrepreneurship.Originality/valueResearchers usually test alternative teaching methods to break down barriers to study difficulties. The study’s uniqueness stems from the CTCA’s ground-breaking application to the study of entrepreneurship development in a Ghanaian public university.

Design Strategy Plus Pandemic Serendipity: Technology-Enhanced Entrepreneurship Education Using Open Learning and Micro-Credentials

In a recent pilot for a redesign of an undergraduate entrepreneurship course, factors for consideration included: materials and resource costs, ability for work-integrated learning, and responding to the contemporary needs of the workplace outside of the post-secondary institution. The utilization of an industry leader’s open learning platform and the implementation of micro-credential certificates supported students’ learning experiences that bridged theory to experience and work-integrated learning. The use of multiple credentials (in addition to course grading) provided additional dimensions of learning and experience. This redesign was developed through 2019 and launched in January prior to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020 winter semester. The intentional strategy in this course design was to build student competencies through theory and content, developing an application with micro-credential certificates, and utilizing work-integrated learning with students creating an ecommerce website to service an existing business or start-up plan. Serendipitously, as businesses and the ecommerce platform were forced to quickly adjust in response to the impacts of the pandemic, undergraduate students were able to learn and design in authentic circumstances and applications. Critical questions are raised concerning equitable access to technology and the reciprocity of gains in the open learning platform between students, institutions, and profitable businesses.

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.

Applying a business simulation game in a flipped classroom to enhance engagement, learning achievement, and higher-order thinking skills

Engagement forecasts positive education outcomes such as learning and skills development. Business simulation games (BSGs) are linked to skills development, and the flipped classroom is acknowledged as a successful approach for encouraging student-centered learning through engagement. This study investigated the impact of BSGs in a flipped classroom on student engagement, learning achievement, and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). A quasi-experimental design was employed in an undergraduate entrepreneurship course. The sample consisted of 48 students in a business university. The flipped classroom was designed for both the control and experimental groups, but the instructional material was implemented using a BSG with the experimental group. The results of quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that the use of the BSG had positive impacts on behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, and learning achievement and improved HOTS such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.

Evaluation Model of Employment and Entrepreneurship of University Students Based on Classification Algorithm

As a new data analysis tool, data mining has developed rapidly. Various types of data sets can be used as data mining objects. Faced with more and more data sources and larger amounts of data today, data mining can effectively obtain valuable information from them and can enable people to better predict possible data information in the future, thereby improving work efficiency. Pheromone update uses a combination of global update and local update. The improved algorithm can balance the relationship between ants’ exploration and development in the process of searching rules. The government’s macroentrepreneurial policy has an important impact on college students’ entrepreneurship. Whether the entrepreneurship can obtain government financial support, whether the entrepreneurial process is simple and easy to do, etc., all affect the enthusiasm of college students to start a business and the success of the business. As an important place for college students to live and study, colleges and universities play a vital role in the growth and future development of college students. Major colleges and universities should improve entrepreneurship education, provide materials and manpower such as teaching materials and teachers, and improve the entrepreneurial quality of college students. In addition, colleges and universities should actively establish and improve the entrepreneurial practice platform for college students to help students gain entrepreneurial experience from practice. As the backbone of the social economy, enterprises should play an appropriate role in college students’ entrepreneurship. On the one hand, they should actively provide entrepreneurial funds, and they should be willing to give college students experience guidance. Only with the joint efforts of the government, universities, and enterprises, can it be possible to establish a practical and effective support system for undergraduate entrepreneurship, promote undergraduate entrepreneurship, and increase the success rate of undergraduate entrepreneurship.

Analysis of Key Factors Affecting Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Ability from a Big Data Perspective

To achieve rapid social and economic growth, society has raised expectations for the overall quality and competence of today’s college students in the environment of big data. College students must have a strong spirit of creation and entrepreneurship, as well as a precise level of professional knowledge and practical talents. Based on this backdrop, a weighted K-means clustering method (WK-means) is utilized to investigate the key determinants of college students’ entrepreneurial ability and their interactions with important text content, such as the college student innovation and entrepreneurship competition. To begin, extract a number of characteristics from the sample of entrepreneurial college students, particularly the entrepreneurial ability components. The sample is then divided into two groups. Entrepreneurs who succeed are categorized as positive, while those who fail are classified as negative. The clustering result yields the feature weight of each sample. The weight of each attribute is proportionate to its importance. Second, using the multivariate relationship analysis approach, the correlation between various factors is determined, and the impact of various factors on college students’ entrepreneurial capacity is further investigated. The results of the experiment demonstrate that adaptability and learning ability are the most important characteristics influencing college students’ entrepreneurial aptitude, whereas self-control has little impact.

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.

The Utilization of Instructional Technologies to Augment Traditional Instructional Strategies Within Online Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Programs

Researchers have categorized the methods used to teach entrepreneurship in a face-to-face delivery mode. However, little research has examined methods used for teaching entrepreneurship online. Accordingly, this paper surveys faculty and program chairs at universities that offer online entrepreneurship courses in order to establish a baseline of instructional strategies used within online entrepreneurial education. Since extant literature on effective entrepreneurial teaching methods emphasize the inclusion of entrepreneurship exercises to be experiential and creative, the authors build upon their survey baseline by suggesting five typical activities from the online canon and re-purpose them to increase the experiential nature of such exercises.

Venturing into retail: SoGal and cherry blossom intimates

Study level/applicability Graduate or Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Majors Subject area Entrepreneurship/Venture Capital (VC) Investing Case overview The case highlights a women-founded venture capital firm that values investments in diverse entrepreneurs and an innovative retail business started by two minority entrepreneurs. Students will be asked whether the firm should invest in the venture and will also be asked to discuss models that may help transform the retail business into a VC-backed scalable technology business. Expected learning outcomes By the end of the discussion, students will be able to evaluate the feasibility and scalability of a new business venture; and evaluate the alignment between a venture capital company and a new venture. Supplementary Materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Social Implications This case highlights the lack of resources for women and minority entrepreneurs as well as the underrepresentation of minority women in the VC industry. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

A Proposed Business Model for Customized Shared Farms in the Chinese Market Based on a National Undergraduate: Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program

With the deepening of reform and opening-up, the economy of China has developed rapidly. In recent years, shared farms have been one of the popular forms for the Chinese government to help the rural areas to shake off poverty. However, despite of many achievements, the business model of traditional shared farms cannot satisfy the growing market demands. Based on the research conducted under a national undergraduate innovation and entrepreneurship program, this paper starts with an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of traditional shared farms and then proposes a business model that provides customized products and services. The feasibility of the proposed business model is discussed by using the IDIC model and some suggestions are put forth for the optimization of the business model for customized shared farms.

A Study on Guidance and Incentive Measures for Undergraduate Entrepreneurship

To encourage college students to start their own businesses, entrepreneurship education must go first. In the entrepreneurship education of college students, we should first understand the motivation of college students to start their own businesses and the reasons why they do not want to start their own businesses, and then give targeted guidance and incentives. By classifying and summarizing the questionnaire survey data, this paper summarizes the main reasons why college students do not want to start their own businesses, as well as the main motivation for college students to start their own businesses, and carries out in-depth analysis, and finally gives targeted guidance and incentive measures for college students to start their own businesses.

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