Addressing the Challenges of Future Entrepreneurship Education: An Assessment of Textbooks for Teaching Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education has had a remarkable evolution over time and the number of entrepreneurship textbooks has multiplied given the increased interest in entrepreneurship programs in higher education. Yet, studies that review the coverage of textbooks focusing on entrepreneurship are scarce. This study provides an inventory of entrepreneurship textbooks and the topics they cover as well as specific emerging topics they do not cover by analyzing the content of 57 textbooks. Our results suggest that most textbooks provide significant coverage of such topics as the nature of entrepreneurship, business plans, financing, marketing, and cases. Among emerging concepts, social media has been relatively well covered with increasing coverage in more recent textbooks, while business canvas, as an example of alternatives to conventional business plans, is rarely covered. Most textbooks have provided little coverage of such topics as sales, family business, women and minorities, as well as ethics and sustainability. This study not only reveals areas that are covered by existing textbooks but also themes that future textbooks and research could cover to address the challenges of future entrepreneurship education.

Citation

Mason, J. and Siqueira, A.C.O. (2014), "Addressing the Challenges of Future Entrepreneurship Education: An Assessment of Textbooks for Teaching Entrepreneurship", Innovative Pathways for University Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century (Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 41-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1048-473620140000024002