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Role ambiguity in entrepreneurship education: expectation gaps between educators and students in venture creation courses

Aki Harima (University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany)
Agnieszka Kroczak (University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany)
Martina Repnik (University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia)

Education + Training

ISSN: 0040-0912

Article publication date: 12 August 2021

Issue publication date: 2 November 2021

453

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore expectation gaps concerning the roles between educators and students in the context of venture creation courses at higher education institutions by investigating their mutual perspectives. The authors seek to answer the following research questions: (1) how is the role expectation toward the entrepreneurship education of teachers different from that of students and (2) what are the consequences of these expectation gaps in entrepreneurship education?

Design/methodology/approach

This study applies an explorative qualitative approach. As the research setting, the authors selected an entrepreneurship education course for advanced management students at a German public university. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with both educators and students to examine how role ambiguity emerges in venture creation courses.

Findings

This study identified discrepancies between educators and students in their fundamental assumptions regarding the role of educators and students. Such discrepancies are the autonomy-level assumption gap, capacity assumption gap and learning outcomes expectation gap. Based on the findings, this study develops a framework of expectation gaps between educators and students as sources for role ambiguity in entrepreneurship education by extending the role episode model developed in role theory.

Research limitations/implications

The findings contribute to the extant literature on entrepreneurship education in several ways. First, this study reveals that students in venture creation programs can encounter role ambiguity due to differing expectations about their role between educators and students, which can negatively affect the students' perception of their learning outcome. Second, this study discovered that the possible discrepancies regarding the fundamental assumptions about the role of educators and students pose a challenge to educators. Third, the findings illuminate the importance of understanding the complex identity of students in the context of student-centered entrepreneurship education.

Practical implications

This study offers several practical implications for entrepreneurship educators in higher education institutions. First, this study reveals the confusion among students concerning their role in entrepreneurship education. As such, it is recommended that educators explain to students the purpose of the student-centered pedagogical approach and the expected role of students in acting as independent entrepreneurial agents. Second, while student-centered entrepreneurship education is based on the fundamental assumption that students are motivated to develop their own startup projects, educators must consider the nature of students' motivation and their overall student-life situation. Finally, this study demonstrates the importance of creating an active feedback loop so that entrepreneurship teachers can be aware of such perceptional gaps between educators and students and understand the sources of these gaps.

Originality/value

While the extant literature indicates the existence of perceptual gaps between educators and students in the context of entrepreneurship education, how these gaps emerge and influence the outcome of entrepreneurship education remained unclear. One critical reason for the under-investigation of this issue was that existing studies predominantly emphasize the educators' perspectives, although such expectation gaps can only emerge through the discrepant views of two different parties. This study tackled this research gap by considering the mutual perspective of educators and students by applying role theory.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This study was developed based on the final report submitted by Agnieszka Kroczak and Martina Repnik to the research project on current issues in entrepreneurship research (offered by the Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX)) at the University of Bremen. The authors would like to thank lecturers, coaches, and students who shared their invaluable experiences with this study. The authors are grateful to Thomas Baron, the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions, which helped the authors to improve this article.

Citation

Harima, A., Kroczak, A. and Repnik, M. (2021), "Role ambiguity in entrepreneurship education: expectation gaps between educators and students in venture creation courses", Education + Training, Vol. 63 No. 9, pp. 1309-1325. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-07-2020-0204

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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