Entrepreneurship
What is Entrepreneurship?
How do we teach Entrepreneurship?
How do we assess student learning?
Scott Walker
scott18w@vt.edu
Entrepreneurship
Who is at an institution that has a
entrepreneurial program?
Entrepreneurship
Whose program uses cases and lectures?
Entrepreneurship
Whose program uses experiential learning?
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure
• What is
Entrepreneurship?
• How do we
characterize an
entrepreneur?
• How do we relate
teaching outcomes
to economic
outcomes?
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure
• How do we teach
entrepreneurship?
• How do we teach
entrepreneurial
thinking?
• Who should be
teaching
entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure
• How do we assess
student outcomes?
• How do we know the
student understands
what it means to
think
entrepreneurially?
• How do we know
we’ve measured the
right outcomes?
Entrepreneurship
Central Questions • Are we teaching the right “stuff” in
Entrepreneurial Education?
• How do we measure student outcomes
provided we are teaching the right
“stuff”?
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure
Entrepreneurship
What is Entrepreneurship?
• Entrepreneurship is the process of starting
a business or other organization. 1 The
entrepreneur develops a business model,
acquires the human and other required
resources, and is fully responsible for its
success or failure.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
What is Entrepreneurship?
• Creation of a venture is central to the
definition of entrepreneurship 2
2 Urban, B. (2012). Applying a metacognitive perspective to entrepreneurship: empirical evidence on the
influence of metacognitive dimensions on entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 20(02),
203–225.
Entrepreneurship
Why is Entrepreneurship important?
• The U.S Department of Commerce
reported that entrepreneurs:
– Employ half of all private industry
employees
– Handle 44% of industry payroll
– Generate 70% of new jobs in the U.S.
economy annually
• 2.5 million jobs created in 2010
– Employ 40% of the high tech workers in
the U.S. 5
5. Shinnar, R., Pruett, M., & Toney, B. (2009). Entrepreneurship education: attitudes across campus.
Journal of Education for Business, 84(3), 151–159.
Entrepreneurship
Makes sense to teach entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
College Entrepreneurial Programs
7
6 http://www.alleywatch.com/2014/05/the-number-of-college-entrepreneurship-programs-isexploding/
7 http://www.bls.gov/bdm/entrepreneurship/entrepreneurship.htm
Entrepreneurship
College Entrepreneurial Programs
7
6 http://www.alleywatch.com/2014/05/the-number-of-college-entrepreneurship-programs-isexploding/
7 http://www.bls.gov/bdm/entrepreneurship/entrepreneurship.htm
Entrepreneurship
College Entrepreneurial Programs
What are we teaching?
Entrepreneurship
What is Entrepreneurship?
• There seems to be no clear definition of
entrepreneurship ,3 we do know that
“innovation, change, and creativity are at the
core of recent definitions of
entrepreneurship” 4.
3. Fayolle A, Lassas-Clerc N. Essay on the nature of entrepreneurship education. In: International Conference Entrepreneurship in United Europe-Challenges and Opportunities.; 2006.
4. Zhao H, Seibert SE. The big five personality dimensions and entrepreneurial status: a meta-analytical review. J Appl Psychol. 2006;91(2):259.
• Education ≠ Venture Creation
• How do we define
entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure
Entrepreneurship
What are we teaching in
Entrepreneurship courses?
• Business School strategy
– Lectures (great background information)
– Cases (what happened to someone else)
– Develop Business Plans
Entrepreneurship
What are we teaching in
Entrepreneurship courses?
• Project Based Learning
– Customer Discovery (Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur)
– Agile Product Development (Eric Ries, Steve Blank)
– Opportunity Analysis (James Green)
Entrepreneurship
What are we teaching in
Entrepreneurship courses?
• Other
– Experiential Learning
– Apprenticeship
Entrepreneurship
At
• The StartUp Class
• Elective course located in the College of
Engineering with Engineering, Business
and Industrial Design Students
Entrepreneurship
At
• The StartUp Class
—Lean StartUp (Eric Ries)
—The StartUp Owner’s Manual (Steve Blank and
the Udacity online course)
—Business Model Canvas (Alexander Osterwalder &
Yves Pigneur)
Entrepreneurship
At
•
•
•
•
Learner-Centered
Problem / Project Based
Experiential (Semi-internship)
Taught by both academics and nonacademics with experience in
entrepreneurship and industry
• Education ≠ Venture Creation
• How do we define
entrepreneurship?
• Lean StartUp
• Learned-Centered/Project Based
• Experiential
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure
Entrepreneurship
at
Year One questions:
• We started with 6 open ended questions
answered pre and post term:
― What makes someone an entrepreneur?
― What qualities of a person's character make
them a better entrepreneur?
― What qualities of a person's knowledge or
education make them a better entrepreneur?
What qualities mentioned above do you have?
― How do you handle complexity?
― How do you handle ambiguity?
Entrepreneurship
at
Year One Survey Results:
• No change in their thoughts that
entrepreneurs:
– Start a business
– Have perseverance
– Have (lots of) practical experience and
knowledge
– Handle complexity and ambiguity by breaking
problems down in manageable chunks and
researching the problem
Entrepreneurship
at
Year One Survey Results:
• Interestingly, what did change:
– Students thought leadership was less important
after the course
– Students recognized the need for customer
discovery and the Business Model Canvas after
taking the course
Entrepreneurship
at
Year One Survey Results:
• Students showed little change from before
and after survey.
Entrepreneurship
at
Year One Survey Results:
• Students showed little change from before
and after survey.
Our lesson:  (well, not as much as we hoped)
Entrepreneurship
How do we measure student learning?
• Most students graduate from college at ~22.
Entrepreneurship
How do we measure student learning?
• Most students graduate from college at 22
• Most Entrepreneurs start companies between
the ages of 30 and 45 (avg. 40) 9, 10 ,11
The typical American entrepreneur is a "married white man in his forties who
attended but did not complete college. He lives in a place like Des Moines or
Tampa, where he was born and has lived much of his life. His new business is a
low‐tech endeavor, like a construction company or an auto repair shop". Further,
the new business "is a sole proprietorship financed with $25,000 of his savings and
maybe a bank loan that he guarantees personally.“ Scott A Shane 12
9 Fairlie, R. W. (2013). Kauffman index of entrepreneurial activity (1996–2010). Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City.
10 Muller - Boomers Entrepreneurs - Living Longer Starting Up Their Ideas
11 Wadhwa, V., Holly, K., Aggarwal, R., & Salkever, A. (2009). Anatomy of an entrepreneur: Family background and motivation. Kauffman
Foundation Small Research Projects Research.
12 Paul, S (2009) The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By, by
Scott A. Shane, Eastern Economic Journal 35.2 : 271‐273.
Entrepreneurship
How do we measure student learning?
• Most students graduate from college at 22
• Most Entrepreneurs start companies
between the ages of 30 and 45 (avg. 40)
• I-Corps measures the commercialization of
technology and/or the transfer of the
activity to the for-profit sector – i.e.
venture creation.
Entrepreneurship
How do we measure student learning?
• Most students graduate from college at 22
• Most Entrepreneurs start companies
between the ages of 30 and 45 (avg. 40)
• I-Corp (part of NSF) measures # of
companies started
• Measuring ventures created is short
sighted.
Entrepreneurship
at
Raised several questions:
• What can we measure?
• What are others doing?
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Specifically – the change in mindset as
the student takes the course.
– Assumptions
– Methods
– Notions
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Intention- understanding the complex relationships in the path they follow
– Bird, 1988
• Orientation – understanding the direction of thought
– Lumpkin & Dess, 1996
• Self-Efficacy (from Bandura, 1977) - an individual’s belief in their personal
capability to accomplish a specific task
– De Noble, Jung & Ehrlich, 1999
– Zhao & Seibert, 2006
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Combination of above
– Von Graevenitz, Harhoff & Weber, 2010
• Metacognition and Mindset- cognitive adaptability
captures some of the cognitive origins of the entrepreneurial mindset through (1)
metacognitive goal orientation, (2) metacognitive knowledge, (3) metacognitive
experience, (4) metacognitive choice, and (5) metacognitive monitoring
– Haynie and Shepherd, 2009
• Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Lean StartUp
• Learned-Centered/Project Based
• Experiential
Entrepreneurship
Issues with current Entrepreneurial
Education Research 13 :
• Research is lacking both pre- and post- testing
data.
• Research is lacking in control group data.
• Research is lacking in structure of pedagogical
and curricular practices.
• Research is lacking in longitudinal data.
• Which theory is adequate? Are any adequate?
13 Fayolle, A., & Gailly, B. (2013). The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial attitudes and intention:
Hysteresis and persistence. Journal of Small Business Management.
Entrepreneurship
at
How are we measuring:
• Measure of Adaptive Cognition (MAC)
• Schraw and Dennison’s 14 instrument,
as adapted by Haynie and Shepherd 15
14Schraw, G. and Dennison, R. (1994). Assessing metacognitive awareness. Contemporary Educational
Psychology 19:460–475.
15 Haynie, M. and Shepherd, D. A. (2009). A measure of adaptive cognition for entrepreneurship research.
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, May, 695–714.
Entrepreneurship
Year Two
• The StartUp Class
Core survey based on Haynie and Shepherd’s
adaptation of MAC questions about Metacognition and
the change in mindset from Entrepreneurial Education
Entrepreneurship
at
Current limitations in our research:
•
•
•
•
•
Small groups (<40 students) per year
No control group
Self-selection of students (Intent)
No longitudinal data (Yet)
Is MAC the right framework and
methodology?
Entrepreneurship
at
Where we feel we help the research:
• Course outline and pedagogy explained.
• Survey is easy to administer – anticipate
continuing for many more terms.
• As instructors we recognize the effects of
the course may take years before it benefits
the students
Entrepreneurship
Year Two at
• The StartUp Class
finishes in May.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Lean StartUp
• Learned-Centered/Project Based
• Experiential
• MAC (Measure of Active Cognition)
Thank you
Scott Walker
scott18w@vt.edu
Questions and
Discussion
Questions?
Discussion
What is the appropriate measurement for
entrepreneurship?
Discussion
Should we be teaching entrepreneurship or
entrepreneurial thinking?
Discussion
What is the right framework to measure
entrepreneurial mindset?
Entrepreneurship
Define
Teach
Measure