COEUR (Competence in Europreneurship)
Business Creativity: A New Educational Challenge for European
Students
Presentation at the XV International Scientific Conference: Human
Capital and Investment in Education
Andrew Turnbull
The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland
Prof. Dr. Matthias Eickhoff
Institute for Entrepreneurial Behaviour IUH
Fachhochschule Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Entrepreneurship Theory
• Entrepreneurship needs to be considered more
as an European, not just an US, phenomenon,
with local adaptation of the entrepreneurial
mindset
• All European societies need to be
entrepreneurial with focus on the entrepreneur,
developing entrepreneurial people and profitable
business opportunities
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
Europreneurship
“Encouragingly, a new business generation
is emerging in Europe, with shared
aspirations, values and outlooks. The
common features among Europe’s 20
and 30-something entrepreneurs are far
more striking than the differences”
(Leadbeater and Ussher 1999)
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
Europreneurship
• Europe needs new entrepreneurs, more now
than ever!
• Entrepreneurship education is on the increase
but the creative/innovation stage lacks focus
• Cross border collaboration and exchange is also
desirable – less than 20% of faculty teach
internationally
• Sharing of good practice needed, supported by
joint research and new materials
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
COEUR
Competence
in
European
Entrepreneurship
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR offers a platform
for a variety of activities,
benefits and services for
numerous stakeholders:
Conferences
Publications
Benchmarking
Networking
Idea Generation
IdeaResearch
Generation
and many more…
COEUR Business Creativity Module
The Initial Idea 1996
”We want to organise a conference, where
students from different universities meet in an
open atmosphere of initiative, creativity and
responsibility to learn with experienced
entrepreneurs and to establish a common basis
for the entrepreneurial future in a Europe of
regions, forming a nucleus for development and
change, a junction in a quickly developing
European business-culture.“
Matthias Eickhoff
FH Mainz – University of
Applied Sciences
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
Andrew Turnbull
Robert-Gordon
University, Aberdeen
COEUR Business Creativity Module
COEUR (5 day) Workshops
First held in 2004 in Mainz, Germany and
since in 4 other European countries. Also
in China and Brazil! 10th conference just
completed in Wroclaw, Poland. Now an
accredited source of ECTS for
participating students.
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
Workshop Focus
• Recognising the role and importance of an
entrepreneurial perspective
• Social skills
• Presentation skills
• Intercultural competences
• Language exercise
• Supported by key note speeches,
creativity training and idea check ups
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
The COEUR
Business Creativity Module
• ‘Business Creativity’ is a one semester
interdisciplinary module focused on problem
definition and solution development
• Initially EU sponsored
• Jointly delivered, starting 2007, at 8 European
universities (Pol,CZ, F, UK, Por, D and Est)
• Students form intercultural Creative Venture
Teams (CVT) to develop entrepreneurial ideas
with European dimension
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
The Business Evolution Process
(Eickhoff & Jakob, 2004)
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital and
Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
The COEUR-Basis
Process
orientation
Business
Creativity
EuroPreneurship
Experience creativity and entrepreneurial learning
in intercultural teams
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
Entrepreneurship Education
• Business planning already integrated into teaching
programmes
• Business creativity and business development remain
less well catered for
• Different tasks require different approaches and tools
and all stages of new business evolution should be
covered
• Innovation and creativity increasingly important in terms
of responsiveness to unpredictable change
• Marketing mostly refers to deterministic or (based on
Marketing Research) stochastic change
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
Delivery and Feedback
• The module is now well established via e-learning
platforms (Wimba/Skype) and real life classes
• Virtual groups complete the assignments
• 76% of (UK) students rated the module ‘very good’
• Less than 5% rated it poor overall, but some concerns
were expressed about liaison and contact with students
in other countries
• Assessment mechanisms combine practice and theory,
with written and verbal elements
• Underlying concept and principles are understood and
welcomed
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
Delivery and Feedback
“A really enjoyable module ... I would
thoroughly recommend the whole
experience to other students”
... although:
“The module is a brilliant idea but students
in different countries were often difficult to
get hold of and had different priorities”
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital
and Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
European Growth
A ‚leverage-effect‘ should serve to
spread the COEUR-idea in Europe:
European coverage is not expected
by growth of the network but by
multiplication of university
networks !
Competition and cooperation
have been experienced
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital and
Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module
Thank you for your attention! Thank you VSFS!
For further information please contact
a.turnbull@rgu.ac.uk or
matthias.eickhoff@wiwi.fh-mainz.de
XV International Scientific
Conference: Human Capital and
Investment in Education
COEUR Business Creativity Module