Purpose: This study aims to extend literature on academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial networking by examining how academics, in their role of entrepreneurial educators, network for the creation and execution of novel teaching practices in cooperation with external actors. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical investigation is based on qualitative inquiry, using a case study approach. Specifically, eight cases originating at three universities in Germany, The Netherlands and Mexico were examined. The cases which constituted innovative teaching practices were selected following a replication logic. Each involved extensive participation of societal actors in course development or delivery and aimed to stimulate students to work on real life challenges and disseminate novel knowledge back to the world of practice. All courses were either introduced or taught by educators who possessed different levels and types of academic and industrial or entrepreneurial experience. Findings: Based on eight cases the authors found that the networking behaviour of entrepreneurial educators is crucial for the generation of proximity with external actors and for the acquisition of key resources, such as an external actor to participate in teaching practice and for the generation of legitimacy for their innovations in teaching. The entrepreneurial and industrial experience of entrepreneurial educators emerges as an affordance to network with external actors, helping them to achieve a common understanding of the opportunity and to generate trust among them. Practical implications: This study equips managers of higher education institutions with critical insights into innovating the teaching mission of the university and developing closer and stronger relationships with external actors of the university. Originality/value: This study seeks to advance the literature on academic entrepreneurship by shifting the attention away from academic entrepreneurs as merely founders of spin-offs and collaborators with business on research and development towards entrepreneurial educators who see opportunities in establishing collaborations with external actors as part of their teaching activities. Further, it introduces the “social networking perspective” to this field. Vissa (2012) and Stam (2015) introduced this perspective as a logical extension to the study of the generation of social capital to reach entrepreneurial goals.
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This book explores inspirational entrepreneurial activities in the tourism industry of Ladakh, India. It particularly looks at ways to develop an entrepreneurial yet environment-friendly tourist destination. The book starts off with in-depth historical reflections of entrepreneurship and tourism in one of India’s fastest growing tourist destinations. Subsequently, the book studies the unique entrepreneurial challenges and opportunities in Ladakh’s extreme resource-scarcity and remote context based on empirical evidence from entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the tourism industry. In addition, a broad overview of contemporary entrepreneurial activities in the tourism industry in Ladakh is presented, underscoring the importance of indigenous knowledge and cultural traditions for developing sustainable tourism. Based on qualitative data analyses and literature reflections, this book provides scholars, students, professionals and policymakers an alternative view on entrepreneurial activities in the tourism industry of an ecologically jeopardized region.
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In most European countries entrepreneurship is one of the top priorities on the national agenda, to stimulate individual and organizational innovativeness and (regional) economic growth. As a consequence, embedding entrepreneurship in education to achieve this goal has gained importance and momentum especially at universities of applied sciences. Two questions need answering when trying to embed entrepreneurship in a curriculum. First of all: cán entrepreneurship be taught and second: hów should entrepreneurship be taught. In this paper we focus on an educational programme based on a learner-cantered, constructivist approach, which is offered in a multidisciplinary, inspiring and entrepreneurial setting. It is competency-based and is tailor-made to individual student demand and goes beyond the classic business school approach based on instruction. The programme caters for students from at least 40 different departments of the university. The starting point in this programme is the assumption that entrepreneurship can indeed be taught but that the pedagogical climate and approach is crucial and should contribute towards the development of entrepreneurial competencies and skills. In this paper issues such as the dynamics of learning are dealt with as well as some a discussion on learning paradigms. We elaborate on the programme developed at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Hague in The Netherlands. So far, over 250 students have participated in the programme and since September 2007 longitudinal research has taken place to establish the effects of the programme and the pedagogical approach on the development of entrepreneurialism. We then describe the research design and draw preliminary conclusions about the relation between pedagogical climate and entrepreneurial behaviour, competencies and entrepreneurial behaviour and finally the relation between entrepreneurial behaviour and the choice to become an independent entrepreneur. Our findings show that such competencies as self-discipline and vulnerability are positive influencers of entrepreneurial ambition. We also found negative influencers of entrepreneurial ambition in depression and inadequacy, yet interestingly also in sincerity. The role of the business partners involved in the programme is discussed and an account is given of the experiences of a population of students over a period of three years on the basis of a number of issues: what works, what doesn't work and what needs to be improved. Interesting drivers for entrepreneurial behaviour are distilled from our research, on the basis of which recommendations are given on how to best implement these drivers into an educational programme. The paper finalizes with a concluding note in which some of the drawbacks of a learner-centred approach as opposed to an instruction-based approach are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.
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This text has become a performance of (affirmative) entrepreneurship. This is done by a set of writing (and methodological) techniques: autoethnography, the triptych of mimesis, poiesis, kinesis and a life journey that forms the base of the chapter. As such, this text challenges some well-known shortcomings of entrepreneurship research such as being enacted by a distant observer/writer, decontextualized accounts of entrepreneurship and disregard of creativity and playfulness. The main contribution of the chapter is methodological, in its broadest sense (Steyaert, 2011): I propose autoethnography as “more than method” for engaging with processes of (affirmative) Entrepreneuring that speak to the increased attention for narrativity and playfulness in entrepreneurship (see for example Hjorth, 2017: Hjorth and Steyaert, 2004: Gartner, 2007; Johannisson, 2011). The autoethnographic story offers an engaging and relevant account of the practice of entrepreneurship and provides rich emic insight into the socio-materiality of lived experience. It also highlights the temporality of entrepreneurship – both in terms of chronos (continuous flow of time) and Kairos (taking advantage of the “right moment”) (Johannisson, 2011). And as I continue performing affirmations, I am curious how you are Entrepreneuring your life – tell me. This is a draft chapter/article. The final version is available in Research Handbook on Entrepreneurial Behavior, Practice and Process edited by William B. Gartner and Bruce T. Teague, published in 2020, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788114523
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Background: The full potential of social entrepreneurship remains challenging to achieve, despite continuous efforts in various economies, including South-East Asia. Several obstacles need to be addressed, such as the scarcity of skilled employees, limited business understanding among founders, difficulties accessing funding and infrastructure, and the absence of proper social impact measurement. Higher education institutions (HEIs) often face constraints in engaging and supporting early entrepreneurial activities, exacerbating the imbalance in the social entrepreneurship landscape. This imbalance has been observed in both Thailand and Myanmar. Research objectives: The Erasmus+ funded project, STEPup, running from 2020 to 2023, recognized an opportunity to foster innovative social entrepreneurship practices tailored for disruptive business settings in these two countries. By applying the challenge-based learning approach through interactive case challenge proceedings involving social entrepreneurs, faculty mentors and students, the development of the entrepreneurial mindset of the latter group was studied. Research design and methods: To accomplish this, a multi-method research design was chosen, which involved a case-challenge experience within the framework of 6 universities, a questionnaire-based survey conducted among the student population which took part in the case-challenge experience and desk research. Results: The study revealed the necessity for a self-organizing and organic support system for social entrepreneurship. The objective of this paper is to present recommendations and strategic guidelines to enhance access and opportunities for existing social enterprises and social entrepreneurs seeking to establish and sustain a social enterprise ecosystem. The proposed framework leverages the support, expertise, and structure of existing higher education institutions. Conclusions: Higher Education Institutions can serve as excellent cases demonstrating how to design and develop resource hubs for social enterprise practitioners and engage stakeholders from all sectors to address social issues and promote awareness.
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All over the world entrepreneurs drive changes. They develop new products and services, inspire others and take decisions that result in growth of their businesses. But the world around entrepreneurs is changing and so are entrepreneurs. Life-long selfemployment or permanent wage employment are of the past. And the way people perceive self-employment is changing as well. And so must our thinking. Changes in our society call for policies and programmes in support of enterprising people. Diversity, mobility and connectivity offer new opportunities for enterprising people. Markets are changing, become more accessible and there is less need to be bound physically to one place for an entrepreneur. New avenues for business are open thanks to our improved access to information, our connectivity globally through social media and our ability to travel freely and frequently from one country to another. With less focus on life-long (self) employment people now combine paid work (or unpaid – house- work) with self-employment, or opt for just parttime entrepreneurship. New, hybrid forms of enterprising emerge. This combining of work with self-employment is rather common in developing countries, but in Europe it is a phenomenon not yet reported on in statistics and for which policy makers and service providers have no answers yet. Neither exist clear definitions or classifications. This book may serve as an eye-opener: hybrid entrepreneurs are indeed around us and deserve our attention. The research unit Financial Inclusion and New Entrepreneurship of The Hague University of Applied Science challenges policy makers, academics and service providers (such as educational institutes, business advisers and financial institutions) to pay more attention to hybrid entrepreneurs, those enterprising people who intend to create new values for a fair and sustainable society. They might not yet been seen, but they exist…..
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This chapter discusses the role of education in the preparation of the next generation of entrepreneurs in nature conservation. Departing from the traditional conservation education, which emphasizes ecological management, the chapter is a plea for incorporating entrepreneurship in the curricula of educational programmes on rewilding ecosystems. An Erasmus Intensive Programme on European Wilderness Entrepreneurship is presented as a case study. A set of competences is defined and operationalized based on the evaluation of the first edition of the programme undertaken in Rewilding Europe’s pilot area in Western Iberia. Aspects of the learning strategies and learning environment are presented and reviewed. The conclusion of this chapter is that to learn wilderness entrepreneurship competences, an environment should be created in which students, teachers and stakeholder co-learn at the boundaries of their comfort zones.
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Entrepreneurship stands high on the political European agenda. Its meaning is twofold: entrepreneurship as a career opportunity, or as a competency. Following the statement made in Europe, national governments have defined an urgent need to stimulate entrepreneurial talent and motivate students to become entrepreneurs to start and develop new businesses that will generate employment and create economic and social wealth. Developing entrepreneurship education and training initiatives is one way of helping to achieve this goal. According to the European commission (2008), the teaching of entrepreneurship is not yet sufficiently integrated in higher education institutions' curricula. So the real challenge is to build campus-wide, inter-disciplinary approaches, making entrepreneurship education accessible to all students. At The Hague University of Applied Sciences we develop programs to stimulate entrepreneurship. The question is: to what extent do these programs contribute towards the development of entrepreneurial competencies, in other words: can entrepreneurship be taught? And furthermore, to what extent do the programs contribute to the success of new start-ups by students that followed our programs? Over the last five years time more than 200 students have taken part in three different electives developed in our centre. Some of the findings of our research are that students indeed develop entrepreneurial competencies (Harkema & Schout, 2008). This can partly be attributed to the pedagogical concept underlying the programs. The next step is to determine whether the acquired competencies developed in the program among students that have set up their own business, help them in their business and are accountable for their business success. In this paper we report on the preliminary findings of our research among a sample group of alumni that have followed different programs and set up their own business.
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How can the grower and the supplier in the greenhouse horticulture industry gain competitive advantage through radical innovation? The challenge lies in time- to-market, in customer relationship, in developing new product/market combinations and in innovative entrepreneurship. Realizing this ambition requires strengthening the knowledge base, stimulating innovation, entrepreneurship and education. It also requires professionalizing people. In this paper an innovation and entrepreneurial educational and research programme is introduced. This KITE120-programme aims at strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration between enterprise, education and research. It helps making the step from ambition to action, and from incremental to radical innovation. We call this an 'Amazing Jump'.
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Introduction by Klaas Molenaar and Margot Lobbezoo about the diversity of entrepeneurs. Every day we meet entrepreneurs; when we visit the deli at the corner, order a taxi, have a cup of tea in the bar on the other side of the street or go to a hairdresser. They are everywhere and they have many faces. And there are many opinions about entrepreneurship.
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