In entrepreneurship education there are different interpretations of entrepreneurship which leads to considerable confusion. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether it is…
Abstract
Purpose
In entrepreneurship education there are different interpretations of entrepreneurship which leads to considerable confusion. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether it is the word entrepreneurship itself which is the source of this problem.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper seeks, not to examine the different meanings of entrepreneurship in an education context, but instead to explore the confusion those different meanings can cause.
Findings
The word entrepreneurship is used as a label for what sometimes are essentially different things. But, even when a difference is acknowledged, the application of the same label implies a misleading commonality. A result is that false parallels can be drawn and differences among the requirements of funders, providers and consumers of entrepreneurship education can go unrecognised and not addressed. Attempts to restrict the label “entrepreneurship” to some uses and to use the label “enterprise” for others fail because it is only partially done and the two words are still often used interchangeably. Therefore, because the label “entrepreneurship” is the source of this problem, it is suggested that its use should be dropped.
Practical implications
Dropping the word entrepreneurship would force the various stakeholders in entrepreneurship education to specify more clearly what they want and/or expect to get from it. That could lead to clearer debate and better resolution of misunderstandings.
Originality/value
Possibly because we are accustomed to using the word entrepreneurship in different ways we fail to see and address the confusion that causes. This paper suggests a change.
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Simon Bridge, Cecilia Hegarty and Sharon Porter
Entrepreneurship can refer to business start‐up, but now sometimes has wider connotations. This paper aims to explore what entrepreneurship means for the promoters of…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurship can refer to business start‐up, but now sometimes has wider connotations. This paper aims to explore what entrepreneurship means for the promoters of entrepreneurship education and what might be appropriate for the students who consume it.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper assesses the work of NICENT (The Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship) in the University of Ulster in its approach to addressing the requirements of both its funders and its consumers.
Findings
Funders often want to pursue entrepreneurship as part of a business creation agenda but even the word “entrepreneurship” can be off‐putting to students. NICENT, therefore, asked not “How to teach entrepreneurship?” but “What do students need?” As a result NICENT broadened its approach from “enterprise for new venture creation” to “enterprise for life”. This, NICENT believed, was more appropriate to the needs of the majority of students and was a foundation on which “enterprise for new venture creation” could later be built.
Practical implications
NICENT funders had an economic development focus, and wanted to see new high‐growth businesses. However, to spread entrepreneurship education throughout the university, NICENT had to “sell” its services to university staff and, in turn, to their students: who want respectively to deliver and receive an enhancement to future life and work effectiveness.
Originality/value
This paper explores the different requirements of the various stakeholders involved in entrepreneurship education and considers the need to reconcile them.
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– The purpose of this paper is to examine the case for the inclusion, in enterprise education, of training and/or guidance in the acquisition and use of social capital.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the case for the inclusion, in enterprise education, of training and/or guidance in the acquisition and use of social capital.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper considers the reasons, not just why social capital should be included as a factor at least as important as financial capital, but also the possible reasons why so far it has largely been omitted – and then explores the implications behind that omission.
Findings
The core assertion of the paper is that, despite its clear relevance, social capital is rarely included in enterprise education because the basis for much enterprise education is a traditional business plan menu which is in turn based on big business thinking.
Practical implications
The implications of this are not just that social capital should be given a key place in enterprise education but that, before this can happen, the different nature of small business needs to be accepted and the basis of small business training adjusted accordingly.
Originality/value
To date a lot of enterprise education and training has been based on the assumption that the traditional components of a business plan form a suitable agenda for enterprise education – either because it is directly based on a business plan or drawn from the same sort of thinking. The paper questions the validity of that assumption which excludes important factors such as social capital.
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Both enterprise education and social enterprise have become fashionable but what, if any, should be the connections between them? The purpose of this paper is to explore those…
Abstract
Purpose
Both enterprise education and social enterprise have become fashionable but what, if any, should be the connections between them? The purpose of this paper is to explore those connections and to reflect on what relevance the two concepts might have for each other.
Design/methodology/approach
Both enterprise education and social enterprise have a number of different interpretations. Therefore those ranges of interpretation are first considered and then compared to see what there might be in common between the two concepts and to identify the desirability and practicability of linking them.
Findings
If enterprise education focuses on a narrow, private sector, business-creation interpretation of enterprise, and if the advocates of social enterprise insist on clearly separating it from other enterprises, then there will be little connection between the two. But if enterprise education takes a wider view of enterprise as part of life skills, and if social enterprise is seen as essentially enterprise, albeit with social objectives, then there is a clear case for linking the two and including social enterprise in enterprise training.
Practical implications
The implications of these conclusions are that, while some interpretations of enterprise education and social enterprise may suggest that they have little common ground, interpretations which link the two, and therefore the deliberate adoption of such interpretations, may actually be beneficial for the practice of both.
Originality/value
Little of the existing literature on enterprise education and social enterprise links the two concepts. This paper seeks to rectify that.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of social capital in its applications for enterprise (and entrepreneurship) in order to facilitate its incorporation into the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of social capital in its applications for enterprise (and entrepreneurship) in order to facilitate its incorporation into the relevant education and training programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on examples from the literature and his own experience the author highlights a variety of different uses for social capital in an enterprise context.
Findings
This exploration not only confirms social capital's relevance for enterprise but also illustrates and categorises some of the different forms it can take – for instance forms which provide access to relevant information; forms which facilitate trust, mutual obligations and/or credibility; and forms which promote shared norms of behaviour and commitment.
Practical implications
Because these different forms can all be crucial but cannot be substituted one for another, they act in the enterprise mix rather like vitamins in a diet. Understanding the variety and uses of social capital is thus important for enterprise and communicating this should form a key part of entrepreneurship education.
Originality/value
While some attention is being paid to the relevance of social capital for enterprise, it receives less recognition as a component of the enterprise mix than factors such as financial and human capital – and is rarely included in enterprise education and training programmes. To help educators to correct this omission the paper supplements the theory by suggesting practical examples of the reality of social capital's varied forms and uses.
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Taewon Suh, John Ford, Young S. Ryu and John H.S. Kim
This study aims to enhance the simultaneous utilization of measure in product design by mapping out the possible and potential uses of a measure for both academicians and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to enhance the simultaneous utilization of measure in product design by mapping out the possible and potential uses of a measure for both academicians and practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
To map out a way for the simultaneous utilization of measure, the authors assessed and portrayed the diverse facets of a four-factor measure for the development of mobile devices by adopting pluralistic techniques through a series of studies and three different study samples.
Findings
This study provided a solution for enhancing the usability of measure in product management, showing that a measure can be developed using a pluralistic methodology so that the results can be incorporated into the practitioners’ design activities that occur and when the gap between theory and practice is a knowledge production problem.
Research limitations/implications
The main positioning of this study involves the science-design interface (Simon, 1992) to bridge the important gap between theory and practice by showcasing a measure development for product design as a strategy of intellectual arbitrage (Van De Ven and Johnson, 2006). Relying on the design scientific approach, the authors focused this study on a prescriptive procedure rather than a more rigorous methodological procedure.
Practical implications
The authors provided product managers with a systematic and synergistic approach to developing a measure and recommended several usages of the developed measure to enhance its simultaneous utilization between academics and practitioners.
Originality/value
Emphasizing pluralistic methodology in the measure development, the authors recommended the concept of intra-examination. The first-order intra-examination, utilizing Bayesian Networks, makes available the thick descriptions of the measure and supports reasoning under uncertainty. The second-order intra-examination examined nomological networks regarding the pragmatic relationships between the four factors that comprise the measure and other important constructs.
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Wayne K. Hoy and C. John Tarter
Involving subordinates in decisions may improve the quality andacceptance of decisions when participation fits the constraints of thesituation. A theory of participative decision…
Abstract
Involving subordinates in decisions may improve the quality and acceptance of decisions when participation fits the constraints of the situation. A theory of participative decision making (PDM) is developed that suggests under what conditions subordinates should be involved in decision making. The model describes not only when teachers should be involved but also the appropriate role for the administrator, which depends on the decisional situation. The analysis concludes with three specific school applications.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine when auditors' decision behavior is rigid and adaptive in the going‐concern judgment. Because rigid behavior has been found to produce…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine when auditors' decision behavior is rigid and adaptive in the going‐concern judgment. Because rigid behavior has been found to produce inappropriate outcomes, understanding when decision behavior is rigid or adaptive can lead to improved decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment is conducted using cases based on real companies to produce information search traces as dependent measures that are studied in the ill‐structured and structured parts of the going‐concern task.
Findings
Auditors are adaptive in ill‐structured tasks and rigid in structured tasks as predicted by theory. Evidence of flawed decision making commonly found in studies of fixation and related concepts was not found.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest the importance of explicitly accounting for task structure when studying decision behavior in situated contexts. Future research could assess whether task structure similarly impacts behavior in non‐auditing contexts.
Practical implications
Researchers and practitioners have long been concerned about inappropriate rigid behavior. This paper helps practitioners better understand when rigid or adaptive behavior is likely to occur to improve decision making.
Originality/value
Taking a novel approach to reconcile two well established but conflicting bodies of literature by focusing on “when” not “whether” people are rigid or adaptive, this paper resolves a long‐standing paradox. The implication for the literature is that reframing the question and directly measuring behavior demonstrates that individuals are neither rigid nor adaptive, but can be both as they follow behavior that is consistent with the demands of the task when the demands are defined in terms of task structure.
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Davide Secchi and Emanuele Bardone
Bandwagon refers to the adoption of popular ideas, thoughts, or practices. Although the inter-organizational (macro) dynamics of the phenomenon have been widely studied, its…
Abstract
Bandwagon refers to the adoption of popular ideas, thoughts, or practices. Although the inter-organizational (macro) dynamics of the phenomenon have been widely studied, its intra-organizational (micro) aspects have received limited attention. The paper presents a theoretical framework and a model that address intra-organizational aspects of bandwagon drawing on distributed cognition, social relationships, and other elements of the organizational structure such as culture and defensive routines. The analysis of simulated data from the model suggests that the phenomenon is likely to decrease with highly informal culture, promotion of advice taking and giving, low levels of distrust, strong social ties, and minimal defensive routines.