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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Organizing entrepreneurial collaboration in small, self-directed teams is gaining popularity. The underlying co-creation processes of developing a shared team vision were analyzed with a core focus on three underlying processes that originate from the shared mental models framework. These processes are: 1) the emergence of individual visions and vision integration, 2) conflict solving, and 3) redesigning the emerging knowledge structure. Key in the analysis is the impact of these three processes on two outcome variables: 1)the perceived strength of the co-creation process, 2) the final team vision. The influence of business expertise and the relationship between personality traits and intellectual synergy was also studied. The impact of the three quality shared mental model (SMM) variables proves to be significant and strong, but indirect. To be effective, individual visions need to be debated during a second conflict phase. Subsequently, redesigning the shared knowledge structure resulting from the conflict solving phase is a key process in a third elaboration phase. This sequence positively influences the experienced strength of the co-creation process, the latter directly enhancing the quality of the final team vision. The indirect effect reveals that in order to be effective, the three SMM processes need to be combined, and that the influence follows a specific path. Furthermore, higher averages as well as a diversity of business expertise enhance the quality of the final team vision. Significant relationships between personality and an intellectual synergy were found. The results offer applicable insights for team learning and group dynamics in developing an entrepreneurial team vision. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-hensel-phd-8ba44a43/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-visser-4591034/
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This report maps different programs that supportrefugees on the road to entrepreneurship. The municipality of The Hague, along with the refugee and migrant support organization EnterStart (MigrantINC) asked for an evaluation of the program The Hague Test Garden (from now on called The Test Garden) where refugees can ask for help starting their own businesses. The evaluation is not just based on the experiences in The Test Garden; other programs have been included in the evaluation to come to a broader view of the road to entrepreneurship and the obstacles encountered. The increased inflow of refugees in Dutch society and on the Dutch labor market has generated different support programs for starting-up a business. Some of these programs already existed but shifted to accommodate the needs of this specific target group. Other programs were initiated to support refugees because of perceived barriers in Dutch society. Most programs are private initiatives, funded on a project basis. In the Netherlands, refugees that hold a residence permit are called ‘status holders’. Upon arrival, they received a temporary permit for at least five years. They need to follow a civic integration and language program and they are expected to be part of the (regular) education system or labor market as soon as possible. The Test Garden started in 2016, a time when multiple support systems for refugee-entrepreneurs began their programs. This report starts with a short overview ofrefugee flows to the Netherlands. The main part of the report consists of the comparison and evaluation of the different programs. The information was gathered through literature, websites, and in-depth interviews with program managers and others involved. Interviews with the participants are only included for The Test Garden (Appendix 1 gives an overview of the meetings and interviews). LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karijn-nijhoff-89589316/
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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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Purpose: A model is developed to analyse what personality traits impact entrepreneurial cognitive and social strategic decision-making skills, originating from the effectuation framework. Design/methodology/approach: 128 participants from an entrepreneurial pre-launch programme were assessed by experienced incubator and business coaches. Personality was measured by a Big Five test. Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, the relationships were analysed between personality and three core dimensions of the effectuation framework: 1) the bird-in-hand principle, 2) the crazy quilt principle and 3) the pilot in the plane principle. Findings: Specific patterns (moderation effects) as opposed to levels of personality traits proved to be relevant. The bird-in-hand and the crazy quilt principles are related to the moderating effect between sensitivity to feedback, sociability and ambition. The pilot in the plane principle was related to the whole pattern of entrepreneurial key qualities embedded in the extraversion domain. Furthermore, relationships of personality with key issues in the effectuation framework were found, examples being reflecting on a high diversity of means or on own talents, conducting a thorough risk analysis and engaging in inspirational networking. The final model revealed a direct positive influence of the capacity to conduct a thorough risk analysis on the overall capacity to apply the effectuation principles. Originality/value: The research results offer deeper insights for the mobilisation and development of complex entrepreneurial behaviours. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-06-2019-0343 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-hensel-phd-8ba44a43/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-visser-4591034/
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