Matthias Pepin, Maripier Tremblay, Luc K. Audebrand and Sonia Chassé
Business model (BM) canvases have been used in educational institutions and business incubators for over a decade to assist students and start-up entrepreneurs in developing their…
Abstract
Purpose
Business model (BM) canvases have been used in educational institutions and business incubators for over a decade to assist students and start-up entrepreneurs in developing their business projects. Given the urgency of tackling sustainability challenges, several tools have emerged to stimulate sustainable business modeling (SBM). However, these tools are often too complex for nonexperts in business modeling or sustainability, and thus insufficiently user-friendly for educational contexts. This study aims to address this pedagogical gap by describing the design process of the responsible business model canvas (RBMC).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors relied on a design science research methodology involving the active participation of end users, entrepreneurship educators, business coaches and external partners. The authors proposed four criteria and ten subcriteria to analyze existing SBM canvases based on their user-friendliness and to design the initial prototype of the RBMC. The RBMC was subsequently tested in various settings, including classroom assignments and business incubation programs, with over 1,000 university students. The tool was refined and assessed throughout the development process, incorporating feedback from focus groups with start-up entrepreneurs.
Findings
Through the development process, the authors created a user-friendly tool to help novice student and start-up entrepreneurs integrate sustainability into their BMs: the RBMC. The canvas consists of 14 building blocks grouped into four areas: consistency (mission, vision, values), desirability (value propositions, customer segments, users and beneficiaries, customer relationships and channels), feasibility (key activities, key resources, key partners and stakeholders and governance) and viability (cost structure, revenues streams, negative impacts and positive impacts).
Research limitations/implications
The research methods and user-friendliness criteria in this study can be applied in other contexts to design tools to support sustainable entrepreneurship education. While the RBMC is currently being used in several educational institutions throughout the world, its impacts in different pedagogical and cultural settings require further validation.
Practical implications
The RBMC is a user-friendly tool to introduce students and start-up entrepreneurs to SBM. It helps raise users’ awareness about sustainability concerns, challenging them to consider issues they might have otherwise overlooked. Some participants even shifted their outlook and were motivated to develop a long-term vision integrating compensatory, mitigative or corrective actions into their BMs.
Originality/value
The RBMC is the outcome of a balanced approach that combines both pragmatic (i.e. user-friendliness) and normative (i.e. sustainability) perspectives. It provides users with a systematic approach for integrating and applying sustainability issues in their business projects.
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Matthias Pepin and Etienne St-Jean
Many countries around the world have now introduced entrepreneurship into their curricula and educational practices, starting at the elementary school level. However, recent…
Abstract
Purpose
Many countries around the world have now introduced entrepreneurship into their curricula and educational practices, starting at the elementary school level. However, recent studies show the relative (un)effectiveness of K-12 enterprise education on diverse learning outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to report on a research aimed at assessing the impacts of enterprise education on students’ entrepreneurial attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a quasi-experiment between May and June 2017 to assess the entrepreneurial potential of students at Elementary Cycle 3 (10–12 years) in Quebec, Canada. Relying on attitude theory, the authors used Athayde’s Attitudes toward Enterprise for Young People test, which assesses students’ entrepreneurial potential through four entrepreneurial attitudes (leadership, creativity, achievement and personal control). The experimental group consisted of 11 classes which had conducted an entrepreneurial project during the 2016–2017 school year (n = 208 students), while the 7 classes of the control group had not (n=151 students).
Findings
At first glance, data showed no difference between the two groups. Further investigation showed that private and Freinet (public) schools’ students, both from the control group, show significantly higher leadership scores than those of the experimental group. In-depth analyses also show that increasing the number of entrepreneurial projects significantly impacted three of the four attitudes assessed, although negligibly.
Research limitations/implications
Taken together, those results question the relevance of single entrepreneurial activities in developing students’ entrepreneurial attitudes. They also suggest the positive impact of a progressive, constructivist pedagogy in developing such entrepreneurial attitudes. Moreover, the paper raises several factors likely to impact students’ entrepreneurial attitudes for further research.
Originality/value
K-12 enterprise education remains an understudied context, largely crossed by unproven statements. This research contributes to understand and give direction to educational initiatives targeting the development of young students’ entrepreneurial attitudes.
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Matthias Pepin, Luc K. Audebrand, Maripier Tremblay and Ndèye Binta Keita
Entrepreneurship education scholarship has been recently challenged to look at what goes on inside the entrepreneurship classroom to assess what students are really learning…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurship education scholarship has been recently challenged to look at what goes on inside the entrepreneurship classroom to assess what students are really learning. Relying on the construction and analysis of a 3-h long set of learning activities on responsible entrepreneurship, this paper focuses on the activities conducted and what students have learned, based on Bloom's revised taxonomy of educational objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper builds on a pre-/post-intervention assessment around a set of learning activities with 151 undergraduate students. Before and after the class, students were asked to produce a definition of responsible entrepreneurship. They were also asked to reflect on what had changed from the beginning.
Findings
Analysis of students' pre/post definitions shows a standardization of their conceptions of responsible entrepreneurship. This result confirms that the learning objective of this class was met. Nevertheless, applying Bloom's revised taxonomy to students' reflections allows for more nuanced interpretation. The analysis indeed revealed that some students manifest relatively superficial learning while other shows a deeper ability to reflect on the concept.
Originality/value
First, this paper contributes to the entrepreneurship education literature by showing the relevance of using Bloom's revised taxonomy for both teaching and research purposes. Second, it presents a set of innovative learning activities on responsible entrepreneurship that could be easily reproduced in other educational contexts. Third, it shows the importance of asking students what they learned and what has changed for them through class activities.
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Sophie Jalbert, Matthias Pepin and Jonathan Bolduc
This paper introduces executive functions (EFs)–i.e. high-level cognitive processes that are elicited in novel and non-routinised situations–into discussions within…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces executive functions (EFs)–i.e. high-level cognitive processes that are elicited in novel and non-routinised situations–into discussions within entrepreneurship education (EE). By reviewing the existing literature, it highlights how EFs are important for the entrepreneur, their role in the entrepreneurial process and implications for improving EE.
Design/methodology/approach
We conduct a literature review bridging cognitive psychology, EE and entrepreneurship fields to clarify the role of EFs in the entrepreneurial process. To do so, we define EFs and then propose a model of the entrepreneurial process to frame our review and identify knowledge and gaps in current research.
Findings
This review shows why EFs are valuable for EE and calls for more focus on them to better prepare students for entrepreneurship and general life challenges. The findings underscore the importance of EFs in understanding key aspects of the entrepreneurial process. Although EFs are studied in the entrepreneurship and EE fields, they are rarely conceptualised from a cognitive psychology perspective, with research often focusing on isolated EF components instead of examining them as a whole.
Originality/value
This review is the first to highlight the role of EFs in the entrepreneurial process in a structured way. Integrating cognitive psychology insights on EFs can enrich EE for both venture creation and value creation approaches while also supporting the development of more effective programs. This focus on EFs also provides a fresh perspective and a valuable lens for understanding complex phenomena such as cognition, learning and the factors behind success and failure in entrepreneurship.
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The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of reflection that opens the way to a fuller understanding of what is meant by learning to be enterprising in schools…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of reflection that opens the way to a fuller understanding of what is meant by learning to be enterprising in schools, particularly during the basic schooling of students (at both the primary and secondary levels). Working from Dewey's philosophy of experience, the paper advances a new definition, in processual terms, of being enterprising and a related model of learning to be enterprising.
Design/methodology/approach
The backdrop of this theoretical article is enterprise education, currently associated with a broader view of entrepreneurship. The text begins with a critique of existing definitions of being enterprising, showing their limitations from an educational point of view. It then proposes an exploration of Dewey's philosophy of experience and its educational corollaries, all with a view to sketching out a model of learning to be enterprising.
Findings
John Dewey's philosophy of experience provides a basis for characterizing the notion of being enterprising in relation to two distinct phases – namely, charting a guiding direction for the action to be undertaken and putting the plan of action to the test in experience. Dewey also highlights the importance of reflexivity throughout this entire process. The coherent structuring of these elements lays the groundwork for a model of learning to be enterprising that simultaneously takes into account action and reflection in the classroom entrepreneurial experience.
Originality/value
Being enterprising is closely bound up with action, thus prompting many authors to set out a parallel between enterprise education and experiential learning, with most working from the model proposed by Kolb. The paper returns to the philosophical bases elaborated by Dewey and his vision of experiential learning, associated with his oft‐quoted maxim of “learning by doing.” The value of this conceptual effort consists in acquiring a more operational representation of learning to be enterprising in schools.