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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact that ownership structure and board composition have on financial performance in a sample of Finnish small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The data for this study were collected through a private survey. The financial data were collected from the Voitto+ register and observations were made from 2000 to 2005. The authors employ panel data estimation and 2SLS methods in their analyses.

Results suggest that the ownership structure affects both the growth and the profitability of small private firms. Firms with high managerial ownership levels exhibit higher profitability ratios but have lower growth rates. Firms with high venture capital firm ownership ratios are found to grow faster and are less profitable. The results on board structure suggest that board structure has little impact on the performance of small firms. The only significant result in this context is that firms with outside board members have lower growth rates and are less profitable.

The results of this study can be interpreted to indicate that owner‐managers are risk averse and that venture capital firms seek investments with high growth potential. The results could also imply that outsiders are taken on as board members in badly‐performing firms on financiers' requests, or because it is thought that they can enhance performance.

The paper is one of the few that shed light on how corporate governance and ownership structures affect the performance of small private firms.

This paper aims to explore the perceptions of teacher students regarding entrepreneurship education and how they understand entrepreneurship as part of their future pedagogical work.

Data were collected in 2010, 2011, and 2012 from the essays of 257 teacher students. The data were then analysed through a phenomenological approach.

On the basis of the results, we categorise teacher students into three types: sceptics, followers, and innovators.

The study was limited to teacher students at the Department of Teacher Education at Rauma. The data were collected during an Entrepreneurship and Citizenship course under the Teacher Education programme.

The most important and necessary requirement for developing entrepreneurship education for future teachers is to clearly define the aforementioned concept. A learning environment should enable teacher students to approach the topic in an informal manner, allowing them to comfortably compare different critical views. Further maximising the benefits of such an environment necessitates fostering a relaxed and encouraging learning atmosphere, as well as multi‐professional cooperation. The “leading extract” of entrepreneurship education must be based on education and pedagogy, instead of on market forces.

Early entrepreneurship research concentrates on what entrepreneurship means and includes, how it should be realised, and what the responses are to related educational initiatives. The current work focuses on the conclusions teacher students draw about entrepreneurship/enterprise education and what kind of entrepreneurship/enterprise education is presently a part of teacher education.

The aim of this paper is to reveal and investigate differences in how Finnish student teachers understand entrepreneurship education and how critical they are of it. The research question is: what kind of critical understanding do student teachers reveal in their conception of entrepreneurship education?

A qualitative research approach termed content analysis was used to investigate student teacher’s conceptions. The data were collected from essays written by 257 student teachers at the University of Turku’s, Rauma teacher education department during 2010-2012.

The conception of entrepreneurship education is, in many ways, related to how much one already knows about entrepreneurship education or how one reacts to it. It seems that most student teachers’ conceptions of entrepreneurship are positive, but even those in favour of it, in principle, do not necessarily want to see entrepreneurship education included in the basic education curriculum. Nevertheless, they think that enterprising pedagogy is useful and that the way of thinking about teaching is inspiring. They also feel that both teacher education and basic education benefit from some kind of entrepreneurship component, but do not take entrepreneurship education for granted. On the basis of this study, it is proposed that teacher education should incorporate more teaching that supports critical thinking in all study modules.

The findings of this study illustrate that there is much more to do in teacher education and its curricula. Teaching situations and learning situations are always social situations and both learners and teachers have a vital role to play.