Seminar on Entrepreneurship in Higher
Education: Increasing Competitiveness,
Enhancing Resilience
Presentation by:
Francesco Nucci
Università di Roma “La Sapienza”
13th – 14th December 2011
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
Entrepreneurship
Let us first set the stage for the issue of
entrepreneurship in higher education
1. Entrepreneurship is a multidimensional
concept and a multifaceted phenomenon
2. Entrepreneurship deals with the individual
ability in the execution of ideas
We may argue that ideas and projects are often
“commodities” and that the real challenge is
their execution:
“It’s not the idea; it’s the execution”!
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The process of Creative destruction
1.
2.
The essence of entrepreneurship is that of
devising new and innovative ways to combine
and organize factors of production (NCGE,
2009)
This refers to the Schumpeter idea of “creative
destruction”, by which new and innovative
entrepreneurs displace less innovative
incumbents, thus leading to higher growth in
the economy (see Audretsch, 2003)
The role of change
1.
2.
3.
Despite the emphasis put by Schumpeter on the
process of starting new enterprises, in defining
entrepreneurship we should take a broader
perspective
Entrepreneurship is about change.
Entrepreneurs are “agents of change and growth
in a market economy” and they act for the
execution of innovative ideas (OECD, 1998;
Audretsch, 2003), for turning them into action
Thus, entrepreneurship requires a combination
of mindsets, knowledge and skills
Entrepreneurial mindsets
1.
Entrepreneurial mindsets refer to attitudes
pertaining to:
- Creativity
- Sense of initiative and innovation,
- Propensity to risk taking
- Self-confidence and leadership
- Identification of opportunities;
- Ability to innovate
- Ability to cope with uncertainty and complexity
(see e.g. ILO, 2003)
Entrepreneurship and growth
Econometric research has established that
entrepreneurship positively and significantly
affect economic growth and competitiveness.
 A positive relationship between entrepreneurship
and economic performance has been uncovered
using a variety of different measures of
entrepreneurship
 Moreover, the positive link holds across a variety
of units of observations (firms, industries,,
regions and countries) (see Audretsch, 2003)
 Thus, a policy commitment is called for

The policy strategy
The policy strategy for promoting enterprises
should hinge on creating a business environment
that is conducive to start-ups and enterprises.
This requires primarily a strong administrative
simplification and improvements in the regulatory
and financial environment. This calls for:
 Reducing the admistrative burden for starting a
new venture and for running a business
 Reducing the difficulties in the access to finance
(e.g. by developing venture capital and by
providing loan guarantee scheme)

The role of cultural norms (I)
Not only should the costs of entry be lowered
but also the “cost of exit”. The transfer of
businesses is often costly, e.g. because of taxes.
 Moreover, in Europe there is often a social
stigma attached to bankruptcy. Those who go
bankrupt are considered “losers”, while - in the
US - bankrupcy is part of the learning process
 This paves the way for the role of cultural
norms in fostering entrepreneurial activities

Entrepreneurship in Education (I)
Encouraging the enterprise spirit is definitely a
priority because a cultural aspect is involved
 For example, the notion of the entrepreneur as a
positive role model has never been in the
European culture as pervasive as it is in the
north-american culture (EC EU, 2004)
 There is a strong influence of national cultural
standards on entrepreneurial activities, with
some cultures valuing and rewarding more the
entrepreneurial attitudes

Entrepreneurship in Education (II)
This calls for actions to create and strengthen an
enterprise culture and to develop the
entrepreneurial attitudes seen before
 It is now widely recognized that the
development of entrepreneurial attitudes and a
more entrepreneurial culture in our societies
should be pursued through the system and
programmes of education (see ILO, 2003)

Entrepreneurship in Education (III)
Entrepreneurship education has the potential to
foster entrepreneurship, both by promoting the
right mindset among students and by providing
them with the relevant technical skills
 Beyond rhetoric, the real policy objective might
be that young individuals would find it easier
and more normal to imagine for themselves a
professonial career as self-employed or
entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship in Education (IV)
Innovation is a value for the society and the
prosperity of a society is based on innovation
 Entrepreneurs have the ability to innovate
 Certainly the components of instinct and animal
spirits play a role (“stay foolish, stay hungry”)
 However, an equally relevant role is played by
knowledge, competence and dedication
 The education path has thus the crucial task of
bringing those attitudes into order and suitably
combining them with knowledge and skills

Entrepreneurship in Education (V)
Therefore I see a dual role for the education
system in fostering entrepreneurship
 On one side, the education infrastructure should
foster entrepreneurial mindsets and attitudes,
e.g. encorauging a positive attitude to risk-taking
 On the other side, the education system should
somewhat “reduce to order” these attitudes and
combine them with an adequate stock of
knowledge and skills that the education system
itself should provide

Entrepreneurship in Education (VI)
In order to assess the diffusion of entreneurship
education (EE) and analyse its features, it is
important to gather information first.
Conducting rigorous surveys is useful.
 Understand how many students have access to it
 Define an EE threshold: for example at least 1
course where the subject of entrepreneurship
represents at least 25% of the course curriculum
(Niras et al, 2008)

Entrepreneurship in Education (VII)
However, effective EE should not be conceived
only as courses on the starting up of business
ventures. To provide effective EE it is not
sufficient to provide course on entrepreneurship
 EE should, among other things: 1) Interact
actively with the stakeholder community
2) Foster the creation of technology-transfer
facilities and business incubators
3) Insert the values of entrepreneurship across all
the curricula

Entrepreneurship in Education (VIII)
It would be a mistake to think that the business
school and the department of economics and
management are the most suitable place to teach
entrepreneurship.
 Innovative ideas for business ventures and
propensity to self-employment may well arise in
technical, scientific and creative studies as well
as in humanities (see EC 2008)
 Integrate entrepreneurship as a part of the
curriculum in different subjects

Main References (I)
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Audretsch (2003) “Entrepreneurship. A Survey of the
literauture”, European Commission
European Commission (1998), “Fostering entrepreneurship in
Europe: Priorities for the future”
European Commission (2004), “Helping to create an
entrepreneurial culture”
European Commission (2006), “Implementing the
Community Lisbon Programme: Fostering entrepreneurial
mindsets through education and learning”
European Commission EC (2008) “Entrepreneurship in
higher education, especially within non-business studies”,
Final Report of the Expert Group
Main References (II)
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ILO (2003) “Facilitating Youth entrepreneurship”, Part I and
II, by Haftendorn K. and Salzano, C.
National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE)
(2009), “Leading the Entrepreneurial University”
Niras, Foras, Econ Poyry (2008), “Survey of Entrepreneurship
in higher education in Europe”, Survey requested by the
European Commission