Education Tools for Entrepreneurship

This article discusses the implementation and advantages of classroom experiments for teaching and learning about economic and entrepreneurial decisions. We argue that this methodology is not only appealing from the students’ perspective but also is consistent with the European Higher Education Area philosophy. Particularly, classroom experiments can help to promote or reinforce different generic and specific skills (e.g. ‘auto-learning’, ‘problem-solving’, ‘capacity to adapt to new situations’ or ‘economics and managerial decision making’) and facilitate the evaluation of such skills. In this method, students play a central and proactive role throughout the whole learning process and they have the opportunity to apply theoretical concepts and train their own skills. Feedback provided by experimental outcomes help students to identify strategies that improve their own methods and rules to make better economic and entrepreneurial decisions by recognizing and correcting potential bias in their perceptions. The methodology is illustrated with a straightforward experiment designed to detect potential deviations from the rational assumption (i.e. profit maximizing behavior) when subjects face investment decisions in a context of adjustment costs and heterogeneous (physical and human) resources.

Jigsaw technique is a collaborative learning technique that can be used as an alternative to conventional teaching methods. Basically this technique boosts group work cohesion since each member of the group is in charge of one part of the learning objective of the whole group. This work shows the experience of using the jigsaw technique in an undergraduate course named “Innovation and Competitiveness”. The learning objective of the activity consists of highlighting the most important ideas of the “Oslo Manual” which is a reference manual in innovation concepts. The process is divided into five steps: (1) initial groups of five students are formed; (2) professor gives five parts of the “Oslo Manual” and the group decides which member will be the “expert” of each part; (3) experts of each part work together to understand and summarize main concepts; (4) experts come back to the initial group and transmit their expertise to the rest of the group; (5) professor asks for a “one minute question” regarding one concept or idea of the Manual. Results from this experience show that students feel that they are not only responsible for their own learning but also for the learning of the rest of the group. The inclusion of the “one minute question” after the process further enhances this feeling. Furthermore, it is known that sharing our knowledge with other people requires a deep understanding of the topic. As a conclusion, this experience improves not only the self-confidence of the student, but also the communicative competence and group work performance whilst students work and assess important concepts related to the course.

This chapter describes a teaching experience whereby students learnt by teaching and assessing other students. A group of students was tasked with explaining a topic from the course and preparing an exam on that topic. The remaining students in the class completed a questionnaire to measure their satisfaction. They also completed an online test on the topic following the presentation by their peers. Assessment was based on a win-win strategy because the average mark on the test counted towards the final assessment of the students who gave the presentation. The methodology allows students to study content in greater depth level and develop skills like responsibility, critical analysis and empathy. Learning by teaching lets students take individual actions that demonstrate responsibility for the group as a whole Survey results indicated high student satisfaction. Furthermore, social interaction was greater with the learning by teaching method than with the traditional case study approach.

This chapter introduces DINNO^®, a technological tool for designing innovations in assessment, and presents the opinions on its usefulness and benefits of 60 university tutors who used the tool during a training programme. The DINNO^® tool was developed in order to guide the decision making of university tutors when initiating a process of innovation in their assessment practice, so that they focus on the key aspects that educational research has shown to be relevant and innovative in the field of assessment. The tutors’ opinions were collected through an online questionnaire and the results demonstrate the usefulness of this tool for planning innovation in assessment practice.

This study describes an e-assessment experience undertaken at a Spanish university. Students taking the Project Management module undertook e-self-assessment and e-peer assessment, using the web service EvalCOMIX^®. The aim of the study was to identify to what extent students valued technological resources designed for assessment and their opinion of participative forms of e-assessment. Four assessment tasks were designed to undertake during one semester. For each task students had to hand in a piece of work or undertake an assignment to be assessed. The students were asked their opinion on this experience. The results of this survey among 108 students showed, firstly, that they valued e-assessment highly. Secondly, it showed that students found these e-assessment formats very useful for the development of skills such as the application of knowledge, arguing a point, problem solving, analysing information, communication, autonomous learning, ethical considerations, creativity, group working, critical and analytical judgement and decision-making.

The theoretical and practical capacitation on entrepreneurship is a technical and scientific process of technical and scientific development that aims at developing the abilities and competences to businessmen, future entrepreneurs or potential businessmen, to promote social and economic development, generation of jobs and income, professional efficiency and business strategies. This technological development can be pointed as a propeller of the dynamic factors of development in Brazil. While Brazil moves towards development, the universities have a role of promoting agents, providing theoretical-practical support for the entrepreneurship and innovation. This work has as an aim to identify, explain and evaluate how the subject Entrepreneurship has an impact on the students of Business Administration, Engineering and Computer Science (IT) developing technological innovations generated in incubated companies that have a technological basis and graduated (companies that have finished their process in the incubators). The research has been done with incubated entrepreneurs and graduates that had followed the subject of entrepreneurship and others that had not done it. It is an exploratory practice study on a sample of 30 businesspeople, selected among incubated companies of technological basis, with less than 2 years of foundation, and graduated with less than 4 years. The result has allowed us to observe a significant percentual increase in the group that has taken the discipline. This fact shows that, for the group that has taken the subject of entrepreneurship, there is a direct relationship with the development of the technological innovation. A conclusion can be reached that the obtained result shows the importance of the subject of entrepreneurship for the democratization of the entrepreneur culture, expansion of the professional teaching and the technological development. The interest lies in relating the Public Policy of Technological Development, later than the promulgation of the Law of Technological Innovation (http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2004-2006/2004/lei/l10.973.htm) with the obtained results and to debate the strategies and practices of work in both interviewed groups, so that we can confirm that the creation of technology is really significant. The choice of the case was the result of the innovative profile of the specific legislation for the promotion of technological innovation, opening space to a new guideline in public policies.

The present work was motivated by the increasing importance in the competences of the entrepreneurial spirit and initiative (ESI) at all levels of education, as well as the need to expand into competence-based education. This paper studies entrepreneurship education in two different environments: virtual and classroom training. It specifically addresses teamwork competence, which supports the development of ESI competences. Thus, there is a particular interest in investigating how to better contribute to the development of ESI. However, little or nothing is known about the matter in collaborative virtual environments. This research analyses 51 group dynamics in educational environments -20 virtual groups and 31 classroom groups. It offers interesting conclusions in relation to reducing team conflict, monitoring individual and collective group performances, and facilitating cohesion. It also analyses the results of collaborative work. These conclusions are useful for both the teaching and development of entrepreneurial teams that are involved in the development of new projects. This is particularly the case for entrepreneurial teams that work in a multinational and decentralized environment.

In the countries of Latin America, the university is becoming the standard of development and economic progress, but these two dimensions cannot be understood without the promotion and support of innovation and entrepreneurship. Specifically, in Colombian university centres great efforts are being performed to encourage and train entrepreneurial skills among the student community, being this task approached from different perspectives and also with different results.

This study presents a new approach to the transmission of knowledge and contents of the curriculum based on a new skills and competences development model, which primarily give the student concepts rather than contents, and serve him well to enhance creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship skills. The new methodology should be further supported and enhanced by the establishment of a communication and support channel given by entrepreneurship and innovation centres established at the same university, which give support and advice to students throughout the entire process of creating their own companies. The ultimate goal of this model is to generate a set of tools and methodologies within the university where the students are formed not only as professionals but also as entrepreneurs, in order to complete their academic studies with their own business already established and with the skills and necessary competences for their growth and sustainability.

As part of this work, a pilot project is being conducted at Sergio Arboleda University in Bogota, Colombia, initially applied on the Marketing and International Business program, and it is expected to obtain measurable results in the following academic semesters, using internal and external evaluation criteria.

In this paper we describe a portfolio management activity using an online virtual simulator www.labolsavirtual.com over finance subjects related to financial markets, equities, currencies and commodities, with spot transactions and derivatives. Our experience is that this activity leads to greater student involvement with the subject, enhancing the capabilities for teamwork, searching and interpret financial information, using tools and defending their investment decisions.

In the current economy context of Spain, where the crisis has revealed the weaknesses of the Spanish economic and production model (reduced weight of industry, excessive dependence on the construction sector, poorly competitive SMEs, high unemployment rate, and high private debt), a change in the model is becoming increasingly necessary. One possible model is entrepreneurship. A new generation of entrepreneurs is needed who are able to create and develop new businesses to solve all these problems, plus companies with well-trained human capital to operate in sectors with high added value, and to properly use new technologies to innovate and develop sustainable competitive advantages. Spain lacks an entrepreneurial culture, and neither training nor funding helps change this notion. In recent years, the high unemployment rate has served to promote entrepreneurship, especially when businesses do not require major initial investment. Notwithstanding, the fact that an entrepreneurial mindset in Spanish is missing is closely linked to the Spanish society’s negative perception of entrepreneurs. The authors of this paper have attempted to change this behavior in their students by using several tools in the Business Services Marketing subject to encourage entrepreneurship.

In the context of continuous connectivity, big data, and information over-load the purpose of this study was to investigate the work and study habits of contemporary students. This project was an exploration of how students order their environments and manage their work and how this affects their academic performance. The main finding is that most students work in distracting surroundings and engage in many activities while studying. However, the more activities they engaged in, the worse their academic performance. The finding is consistent with research showing that using two (or more) cognitive processes simultaneously has a negative impact on both the effectiveness and the efficiency of carrying out tasks. Moreover, many students are not aware of the negative effects of distraction, or fool themselves that they can actually multitask because we also found that the most distracted students were the least good at predicting their own results. There was also a big difference between men who trusted to their personalities and luck for results and women, who took a more strategic approach and were more likely to achieve the results they predicted.

This chapter addresses the experiential activities in the classroom as an effective tool to increase the students’ entrepreneurial skills and the importance to integrate hands-on activities into the program design and course content. We found there are several courses not related to the business planning area that encourage innovation skills. The research showed to what extent hands-on activities influence the intention to start a new business among undergraduate students. Through our research, we noticed that experiential activities, plus the participation of students in extracurricular activities, nourish their entrepreneurial spirit.

This research describes the methodology used in the teaching of the subject market research, focused on problem-based learning, where the purpose is to think during development of research, through the practical application of market research in Tourism degree. The results show that this method increases the motivation of students, inviting them to become more involved in the process and approach the professional reality. The quantitative study of the results of the evaluation surveys and satisfaction of the subject, we observed that a collaborative methodology sustained in problem-based learning increases student motivation and it allows teacher to improve the quality in teaching. In their last academical year, students are more professional concerns, recording to the education reforms are committed to integrate the promotion of entrepreneurship in the classroom, the project pretends to work as a team for a tourism based company, holding in problem-based learning.

Universities are currently experiencing significant changes in their mission, which have gone from carrying out traditional activities (like teaching and research) to promoting creative, innovative and enterprising capability that enables them to generate economic and social value through the transfer of knowledge. With this activity we are not trying to place universities in high positions in the top national and global rankings of research, or obtain a high level of scientific productivity, but what we are trying to do is use what is generated by universities in a way that is useful for the productive fabric. Therefore, universities have the responsibility of promoting economic and social development through the generation of knowledge, which is applicable to the production process, being susceptible of commercialization and exploitation by companies and institutions. All this will enable universities to play a strategic role as a competitive advantage to improve knowledge. One of the actions that can be put into practice is the promotion of entrepreneurship. The methodology applied, based on case studies, will allow us to know the development of entrepreneurship activities of a University. This analysis will allow us to find out the most appropriate tools to improve entrepreneurship from the University classroom. Among other initiatives, the results of business incubators, spin-offs, Chairs of entrepreneurship, advice to entrepreneurs and the role of business angels will be assessed. The approach of this article will allow analysis and reflection, both from a theoretical and practical perspective of best practices and tools of entrepreneurship. The transfer of knowledge is the third pillar upon which the activity of universities should be held. Taking into account the experiences of other countries that have decidedly supported the transfer of knowledge, especially the United States and United Kingdom, it can be confirmed that the universities with the greatest future projection are those which consider that the third mission should be more and more present. This article aims at defining the actions that are being carried out in Universities and their potential benefits to entrepreneurship. The implications of this article are of interest, both from a theoretical and practical perspective, since the results are widely used in the university entrepreneurship reality. The results will help determine the best practices and tools and to what extent they will be used in institutions of higher education. In addition, this article is to point out the role of universities in the field of entrepreneurship, to determine which different instruments can be used and which good practices and tools should be performed.

For the last decade entrepreneurship education has grown to become a major discipline in several universities and colleges, particularly in the United States, Europe, and other developed nations. Nevertheless, comprehensive entrepreneurship programs are starting to be implemented in higher-education institutions across emergent economies as well. Everywhere around the world, entrepreneurship students need to gain skills and knowledge that can help them get started and have better opportunities to succeed with their ventures. At CETYS Universidad, a private non-for-profit school in Mexico, an Entrepreneurship Concentration MBA program was designed and developed around the Entrepreneurial Life Cycle and Entrepreneurship Process frameworks. The program is intended to build entrepreneurship competencies in MBA students, nurture an innovative mindset, and help them increase their entrepreneurial self-confidence and capabilities. It is the first program of its kind to be offered in the northwest region of the country, and one of the few in Mexico.

This chapter examines the three dimensions encompassed by the concept of competencies: competencies as the idiosyncratic mixture of resources or capabilities of the firm (RBV); specific competencies of each profession (HRM); and generic competencies whose value has been highlighted by sociologists and education specialists. Within this set of competencies, entrepreneurship is a key competency that allows people to organize, coordinate, and guide others. At the same time, entrepreneurship is also one of the characteristics that defines a profession. The main aim of this chapter is to highlight the importance of generic competencies and the benefits of fostering the acquisition of generic competencies in higher education programmes.

The definition of entrepreneurship usually leads us through business and profit-maximizing techniques and attitudes, usually characterizing individuals and company makers. Recently, the use of the term social entrepreneurship has also been gaining popularity, to describe the entrepreneurial activities with the goal of creating social value (Abu-Saifan, Technol Innov Manag Rev: 22–27, 2012; Shane and Venkataraman, Acad Manag Rev 25: 217–226, 2000). Entrepreneurial activity, in its broad definition, is associated to several factors, both external, such as the economy, employability, market opportunities, and internal, such as the personality characteristics of individuals (Zhao, Seibert, and Lumpkin 2010). In fact, specific traits, such as leadership, optimism, perseverance, passion, resilience, creativity, empathy and others, are more easily found in entrepreneurial individuals. Although not usually considered as explicit competences in the curriculum of higher education degrees, these personality traits can be strengthened, and skills can be learned either directly or by specifying horizontal competences in higher education programmes. The training intentionality of higher education institutions is described in the curricular unit forms, which constitute the study plan of current educational programmes. These are rigorously focused on vertical competences, associated to the scientific area of the programme, but they also include horizontal skills, that contribute to empower the student with a broader set of knowledge and abilities. The teaching and learning methodologies, the content of the curricular units and the learning outcomes all describe the training process, which can be analysed to get an overall idea of the intentionality of entrepreneurship training in current educational degrees.