Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught

Question 3 • Can we teach entrepreneurship and bring some entrepreneurial awareness and changes among individuals. Give evidence Approach in answering the Question • Definition of Entrepreneurship • Entrepreneurship education • Approaches to teach entrepreneurship • Conclusion The concept of entrepreneurship There is no universal agreed definition of entrepreneurship. However, Entrepreneurship is defined differently by different scholars. Schumpeter (1934) defines Entrepreneurship as a person’s ability to be innovative in terms of goals, methods of production, markets, sources of supply and industrial organization.The concept of entrepreneurship cont…. Also, Craven (2008) believes that all successful entrepreneurs have key traits such as impatient, results driven, a strong need for achievement and set high but realistic and achievable goals. The concept of entrepreneurship cont….

Hinrich and Peters (1995) defines Entrepreneurship as the process of creating something different with value by devoting the necessary time and efforts, assuming the accompanying financial, psychic and social risks, and receiving of monetary and person satisfaction and independenceThe concept of entrepreneurship cont.. • Kirzner(1992) defined the concept of entrepreneurship as “alertness” to profit opportunities. • He argues that entrepreneur is alert to a new product or a superior production process and steps in to fill this market gap before others. The concept of entrepreneurship cont..

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• Cantillon, Knight, and Mises (1921) Defined entrepreneurship as consisting of judgmental decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. • Knight (1921) introduces judgment to link profit and the firm to uncertainty The concept of entrepreneurship cont…… Schultz(1979) defined entrepreneurship as the ability to adjust, or reallocate one’s resources, in response to changing circumstances. • Schultz also adds that “No matter what part of the economy is being investigated, we observe that people are consciously reallocating their resources in response to changes in economic conditions” Can we teach entrepreneurship? Is entrepreneurship an innate ability or an acquired skill? Can entrepreneurial expertise be achieved and enhanced through education and training? Are certain people “born” to be entrepreneurs or to act entrepreneurially? Entrepreneurship education Entrepreneurship education is considered as the structured formal conveyance of entrepreneurial competencies (Fiet,2001), which in turn refer to the concepts, skills and mental awareness used by individuals during the process of starting and developing their growth-oriented ventures. Entrepreneurship education cont… • Moreover, entrepreneurial learning refers to the active (formal and informal education) and cognitive processes individuals employ as they acquire, retain and use entrepreneurial competencies (Young, 1997). Approaches to teach entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is a highly elastic term.The academic study of entrepreneurship has been described as “a broad label under which a hodgepodge of research is housed” (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000) and a “cacophony of results and ideas” (Gartner,1999). Approaches to teach entrepreneurship cont.

. In this context, it is not surprising that entrepreneurship curricula vary widely in content and approach. Some focus on particular skills or attributes, while others emphasize a broader “entrepreneurial way of thinking”. Approaches to teach entrepreneurship cont..

For these reasons, the question, Can entrepreneurship be taught? or, alternatively, How can entrepreneurship be taught? ) is too broad. The question need to be asked separately for different approaches to entrepreneurship, or for groups of skills or abilities or modes of thinking commonly described as entrepreneurial. Approaches to teach entrepreneurship cont.. • For the purposes of this discussion, let us consider a broad notion of the entrepreneurial act.

• The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, defines the entrepreneur as “one who takes advantage of knowledge and resources to identify and pursue opportunities that initiate change and create value in one’s life and those of others. Approaches to teach entrepreneurship cont.. • The University of Illinois’s Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership describes entrepreneurship as “a process that can lead to creative solutions to social problems or the formation of new and innovative enterprises. ” • As such, entrepreneurship “spans opportunity recognition and resource acquisition and leads to innovation and invention. ” The key aspects of entrepreneurship Three aspects of the entrepreneurial process are identified in these definitions: • Opportunity identification and recognition, • Resource acquisition and • Innovation.The key aspects of entrepreneurship cont.

. • Schumpeter’s interpretation of entrepreneurship includes all three of these aspects, while Schultz’s idea of adjustment to exogenous economic change is largely covered by opportunity recognition and resource acquisition. • Knight’s, Kirzner’s, and Schultz’s concepts of entrepreneurship also suggest a fourth aspect: the management of existing resources in a new or established organization.

The key aspects of entrepreneurship cont.. • All these aspects of entrepreneurship involve bearing uncertainty, as suggested by Cantillon and Knight .How are these aspects of entrepreneurship taught? Let us consider each aspect in turn ?Identifying and creating new opportunities An increasing number of entrepreneurship courses focus not only on the mechanics of running a business enterprise, but also on identifying opportunities for creating new sources of value.

Opportunity identification involves not only technical skills like financial analysis and market research, but also less tangible forms like team building, problem solving, and leadership (Long and McMullan, 1984; Hills, Lumpkin, and Singh, 1997; Hindle, 2004).Identifying and creating new opportunities cont… • It can involve both the recognition of already existing opportunities and the creation of new opportunities (Alvarez and Barney, 2005). While value can be created not only by starting new activities, but also by improving the operation of existing activities, courses in opportunity identification tend to emphasize the launching of new ventures (firms, products, or services). Identifying and creating new opportunities cont… Opportunity identification is typically taught through innovative problem-solving and creative-thinking exercises and techniques like case studies • These necessary attributes be acquired in the classroom McGrath and Macmillan (2000) argue that particular individuals have an “entrepreneurial mindset” that enables and encourages them to find opportunities overlooked or ignored by others, and that this mindset is more developed through experience, rather than formal instruction. Identifying and creating new opportunities cont… Entrepreneurs with the experience of owning and operating small businesses tend to be better at identifying new opportunities than those potential entrepreneurs who lack such experience. Bearing uncertainty, innovation, and adjusting to change. Literature tends to emphasize the broad concepts of the entrepreneurial role such as uncertainty bearing (Cantillon, Knight, Mises), alertness (Kirzner), innovation (Schumpeter), and adjustment to disequilibrium (Schultz).

Bearing uncertainty, innovation, and adjusting to change cont… • Koppl (2003) tries to reconcile Mises’s and Kirzner’s skepticism about entrepreneurship education as follows:Bearing uncertainty, innovation, and adjusting to change cont… One can teach business students the tools and skills required to transform a new idea into a practical business plan. We can also teach them to be not afraid. We can teach them, that is, that new ideas can become business plans and that they are perfectly free to form new enterprises and think new things. (Koppl 2003) Bearing uncertainty, innovation, and adjusting to change cont… • Also Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson puts it, “We agree that certain skills are undoubtedly necessary for translating entrepreneurial visions into practice.

Indeed, our own experience teaching entrepreneurship to undergraduates convinces us that certain aspects of entrepreneurship—primarily, the process of new venture formation and the manner in which entrepreneurship manifests itself in the economy—can be studied systematically”. Acquiring new resources • This skill can be taught through writing business plans, acquiring venture or angel capital, marketing new products, acquiring intellectual property, and so on. Acquiring new resources cont… Moreover they may be taught through a combination of basic analytical principles, historical case studies and examples, classroom simulations, and real-world projects. Managing existing resources • Effective management of existing resources, whether in new or established organizations, requires not only technical business skills (accounting, marketing, finance, operations, business law), but also leadership and strategic decision making. These subjects, constitute the core of most business programs. Managing existing resources cont.

.Courses emphasizing these skills and activities are usually classified as entrepreneurship courses especially when they specialize on new or small firms. Such courses typically employ a combination of traditional classroom instruction (lectures and discussion), applied team projects, and increasingly, the case method. (Stewart et al) Conclusion • As reviewed from the literature, entrepreneurship can be taught and thus, we can bring entrepreneurial awareness and changes to people Thank you for Listening.

. We beg to present Wishing you a joyful and prosperous new year 2011

Author: Doyle Chandler

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