Can entrepreneurship be taught?

The approach to teaching entrepreneurship

Xin Zheng1
School of Business Administration South China University of Technology1 Guangzhou, China Xin.zheng@mail.scut.edu.cn
AbstractThe booming entrepreneurship practice calls for the improvement of entrepreneurship teaching. This paper discusses whether or not entrepreneurship can really be taught and further examines the approach to entrepreneurship teaching in the university setting. Keywords-entrepreneurship Process; Teaching education; Entrepreneurial

Erli Liu2, Yi Cui1

College of Management Guangxi University for Nationalities2 Nanning, China leli73@163.com This paper aims to explore the entrepreneurial-directed approach to entrepreneurship education in the university setting. The paper is structured as follows: First we focus on the question of whether or not entrepreneurship can be taught. This is a question that is continuing to receive increased attention and research. Then we move to the approaches to teaching entrepreneurship. We contrast learning approaches-the business school approach versus the entrepreneur real world approach, we discuss the entrepreneurial process involved in teaching and then examine the entrepreneurial-directed teaching approaches used in the university setting. The conclusion and discussion are finally given. II. CAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP REALLY BE TAUGHT?

I.

INTRODUCTION

Entrepreneurship has emerged over the last two decades as arguably the most potent economic force the world has ever experienced (Kuratko,2005). In most developed and developing countries, it has become fashionable to view entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education as the panacea for stagnating or declining economic activity. These entrepreneurial behaviors call for better entrepreneurial skills and abilities in order to deal with current challenges and an uncertain future. An innovative approach to problem solving, high readiness for change, self-confidence and creativity-all attributes related to entrepreneurship constitute a viable platform for economic development in any society. Therefore, it has been maintained that the need for entrepreneurship education has never been greater, and the opportunities have never been so abundant. However, it should be noted, although progress in entrepreneurship research has been impressive, existing theoretical frameworks tend to provide only a limited or biased explanation of the complexities inherent in the entrepreneurial process. By definition, research in entrepreneurship education also suffers from inherent conceptual and contextual shortcomings, considerably limiting the significance, applicability and generalization value of the existing body of knowledge (Matlay, 2005). Very little is still known about effective teaching techniques for entrepreneurial educators (Brockhaus, 2001) and research and knowledge about how to teach entrepreneurship remains relatively underdeveloped, despite the increasing demand, globally, for more entrepreneurially-oriented graduates of business schools and universities. The entrepreneurship educators are still uncertain about the impact and effectiveness of entrepreneurship education as a whole, but are unwilling to stray from perceived good practice (Cox et al.,2002).

The debate on whether entrepreneurs are born or made still goes on. This in turn often leads commentators to ask whether or not entrepreneurship can be taught, and in this respect, there is still considerable uncertainty. For instance, Fiet (2000) has noted that there is ongoing debate in the entrepreneurship academy about whether we can actually teach students to be entrepreneurs. Stuart Meyer (cited in Brown, 1999) expressed the opinion like this, I cant teach students the personality traits necessary to take risks, but I can teach them to analyze those risks, to be analytical about their choices, and to learn from mistakes made in the past. Jack and Anderson (1998) have suggested that teaching entrepreneurship is a bit of an enigma since the actual entrepreneurial process involves both arts and science. The science part, which involves the business and management functional skills, appears to be teachable using a conventional pedagogical approach. However, the art part, which relates to the creative and innovative attributes of entrepreneurship, does not appear to be teachable in the same way. Instead of this is inductive, which contrasts with the rational deduction of resource management. This perspective concurs with that held by Shepherd and Douglas(1996) who support the need to teach both arts and science elements. Indeed, since the spirit of entrepreneurship may not be endemic in every person, or may require awakening and enhancing, business education should teach not only the various business disciplines but also the essence of entrepreneurship (Shepherd and Douglas, 1996). However, for them the gap between what is art and what is science is much

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wider. They depict science as something that is selective, analytical, sequential and fixed while they describe art as generative, provocative, jumping and without constraint. While they do not suggest that this area has been largely neglected by those involved in delivering entrepreneurship and business courses. From a student perspective-based study which involved two cohorts of MBA students in entrepreneurship, one American and the other, Irish (Hill et al.,2003), when the students were consulted on their views as to whether their entrepreneurship education had met the intended learning outcomes,72 percent responded with a positive vote, lending support to the notion that entrepreneurship can be taught. They also registered another high score of 95 percent in advocating entrepreneurship as a subject to be included within an MBA program. Hence, despite the occasional reservation about the ability to teach entrepreneurship, the efficacy of education and training is nonetheless recognized. Management Guru, Drucker (1994) held this opinion: Most of what you hear about entrepreneurship is all wrong. Its not magic; its not mysterious; and it has nothing to do with genes. Its a discipline and, like any other discipline, it can be learned. If so, the challenge for entrepreneurship teachers and trainers, is to find innovative learning methods that coincide with the requirements of potential students. The teaching should involve both arts (e.g. creative and innovative thinking) and sciences (e.g. business and management competencies). There should be a need for a shift from teaching to learning in an environment as close to real life as possible. III. APPROACHES TO TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

external sources of information and expert advice; and to think for themselves.
TABLE I. CONTRASTING LEARNING APPROACHES: THE BUSINESS SCHOOL APPROACH VERSUS THE ENTREPRENEUR REAL WORLD APPROACH Business School Approach Analysis of large amounts of data taking a critically evaluative approach Understanding and recalling the information gathered for its own sake Finding and gathering information from approved sources and from proscribed experts Studying information to gain verification of truth Evaluation of competence through completion of written or oral assessment Learning in the classroom
From: Gibb(1987)

Entrepreneur Real World Approach Gut feel decision-making with limited information Understanding the underlying values and motivations of those who supply, transmit and evaluate/ filter the information Finding and gathering information from multiple sources, in different ways and evaluating it Verification of decisions made on the basis of own judgments about people Evaluation through direct feedback from multiple sources, including people and events Learning while and through doing

A. Understanding the Entrepreneur Real World Approach Before moving to the approaches to teaching entrepreneurship, it is necessary to further understand the difference between the conventional business school methods and the entrepreneur real world approach. Understanding the difference will assist the teachers to design some innovative teaching ways close to the entrepreneurship real world approaches. In the review of Gibbs (1987) work, he suggests that the learning emphasis in many educational establishments and business schools is very much on the past, with a focus on the understanding, feedback and analysis of large amounts of information. In reality, the entrepreneur is focused on the present, with little time for critical analysis. The classroom situation involves a high level of dependence on authority and on what Gibb terms expert validation, whereas in the real world the entrepreneur must rely on the validity of his/her own knowledge and personal values. The main differences between the classroom and the real world entrepreneurial learning situation are outlined in Table 1. In view of the differences illustrated in Table1, therefore, Gibb suggests a more flexible, in terms of location and time, as well as a more active experience-based, learning approach to teaching entrepreneurship. For example, such an approach should encourage students, among other things, to find and explore the wider concepts relating to a problem; to learn by overcoming failure; to develop more independence from

A typical university setting is unlikely to include many entrepreneurial elements. Traditional teaching methods, lectures, literature reviews, examinations and so on do not activate entrepreneurship. Education is often focused on supporting the development of knowledge and the intellect, whereas entrepreneurship education concentrates on the human being as a whole (including his or her feelings, values and interests), even in terms of taking irrational decisions and as part of society at large (Kyro, 2003). The budding entrepreneur needs not only knowledge, but also new ways of thinking, new kinds of skills and new modes of behavior. Traditional teaching methods have to be complemented with entrepreneurial approaches, which essentially include learning by doing and providing opportunities for students to actively participate in as well as control and mould the learning situation. The traditional lecture format with all its predictability may not be the most effective method as it ignores the essence of the phenomenon, i.e. the entrepreneurial process. Traditional approaches to teaching may, in fact, inhibit the development of the requisite entrepreneurial attitudes and skills. B. Understanding the Entrepreneurial Process Involved In Teaching The special challenge of entrepreneurship education is in the facilitation of learning to support the entrepreneurial process. As for the entrepreneurial process, Shane and Venkataraman (2000) emphasize the role of opportunitydiscovering, evaluating and exploiting it- at the core of entrepreneurship. Subsequently Shook et al. (2003) focused on the individuals role in the entrepreneurial process. Gibb(1993), on the other hand, defines entrepreneurship as a set of behaviors, skills and attributes that someone may exhibit. The aim of entrepreneurship education, as described in this article, is to integrate the skills and attributes of an entrepreneurial individual with the entrepreneurial process and related behavior (Figure 1).

For entrepreneurial development programs to be effective, learning must be firstly, based in real work situations, and secondly, based on entrepreneurial process view, which emphasize the opportunity exploration and exploitation. Its widely held view that entrepreneurs are action oriented and that much of their learning is experientially based. Furthermore, entrepreneurs learn by doing and trial and error as well as problem solving and discovery. In a similar vein, Connor et al. (1996) refer to Kolbs learning cycle in which practicing business managers are involved in experiencing, reflecting, conceptualizing and experimentation. They see this process as critical in helping students to apply what they have learnt in the real organizational or business setting. C. Integrating Effective Initiatives Into Entrepreneurship Teaching Teaching emphasizes the provision of knowledge plus the development of a repertoire of personal transferable skills including creativity, teamwork, leadership, problem solving, communication and achievement motivation skills. Galloway et al. (2005) suggested that role models, guest speakers and case studies can inspire urgency in entrepreneurial intent. Some teaching initiatives effective for entrepreneurship courses are described below. On-site business consulting is an approach the entrepreneurship teaching can introduce in. For this teaching program, students teams act as consultants to small businesses and community groups. Through this activity, the students are introduced to the everyday management problems happened in small businesses, particularly those at the start-up and early growth stages.
PROCESS ENTREPRENEURIAL INDIVIDUAL

At the beginning of the business consulting program, students plus faculty member meet the small business manager with a view to drafting a research proposal, which forms the basic of agreement between both parties as to the objectives and the work that will be completed by the student group. The research proposal indicates clearly what the agreed objectives of the research are, the proposed methodology that will be used to address the objectives and a project log which highlights the milestones and the proposed time management of the project. After setting up the proposal, the student team meet with faculty member for one-hour workshop on weekly basis to review programs. Student teams also meet with the owner/manager client on a weekly basis to review progress and discuss issues emerging in the completion of the research. At the end, the students submit a final written report and present orally to faculty members and the client plus invited guests. This written consultancy report provides the owner/manager with a set of solutions and recommendations to address the initial problem, which formed the basis of the objectives of the research. This approach in entrepreneurship teaching, through problem-based learning, can, in a practical sense, engage the student with the world of work in the small firm. Students are given the responsibility to make decisions, which will be implemented in a real life scenario. It creates a sense of confidence of dealing with owner/managers, improves the students ability to hold meetings, write proposals and present and justify the rationale of these decisions and strategies recommended to the owner/manager.

BEHAVIOURS ENTREPRENEURSHIP

SKILLS Problem solving Creativity Persuasiveness Planning Negotiating Decision making

INTENTION Triggering event

PROACTIVITY Actively seeking goals

OPPORTUNITY SEARCH AND DISCOVERY

INNOVATION Opportunity search Coping with and enjoying uncertainty

ATTITUTES Self-confident Autonomous Achievement oriented Versatile Dynamic Resourceful

DECISION TO EXPLOIT OPPORTUNITY

CHANGE Taking risky actions in uncertain environments Flexibly responding to challenges Acting independently on own initiative Solving problems/conflicts creatively Persuading others Commitment to make things happen

EXPLOITATION OF OPPORTUNITY

Figure 1 The entrepreneurial process: behaviors, skills and attributes From: Shook et al. (2003)

Besides on-site business consulting, in class live case study is also an effective way to teaching entrepreneurship. For this kind of teaching approach, the small firm acts as a live case study. The owner/manager presents to the class with a profile of their business and discusses what they consider are the primary challenges facing the future direction of the firm. Students engage in the discussion with the owner/manager in an attempt to further analyze the current position of the firm and gain an understanding of what are the primary challenges or problems the owner/manger will need to overcome to grow the business. During this process, student teams undertake the necessary research, such as competitor analysis and customer survey etc. and at last provide a set of recommendations and suggestions for their implementation in the form of a written program plan. Through this in class live case study approach, the students can gain a practical insight into the operational aspects of managing a small business with specific emphasis on the importance of marketing for the survival and growth of the business. The involvement with students results in greater acquisition of knowledge on how to undertake practical market research, how to complete customer surveys and in general suggestions on how they can market their business and how to integrate this function as part of the overall strategy for growth for their business. IV. DISCUSSION

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This paper discusses entrepreneurship teaching in the university context. While there has been much debate in the literature as to whether entrepreneurship can be taught, we believe that at least some elements associated with the subject can be developed and enhanced via education and training. As far as teaching approaches, the business school approach is very different from the entrepreneur real world approach. For entrepreneurial development programs to be effective, learning must be based in real work situations. Also, since entrepreneurship is based on the entrepreneurial process and on the prerequisite individual entrepreneurial behaviors, skills and attributes, the teaching should support the entrepreneurial process by integrating the entrepreneurial-directed approach into traditional ways of learning. We also introduce and describe several effective teaching initiatives in this paper. REFERENCES
[1] D.F. Kuratko, The Emergence of Entrepreneurship Education: Development, Trends, and Challenges. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 29 2005 577-598.

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