Prelims

Chapter 1

In Chapter 1, titled “Assessment for Learning in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education,” Radmila M. Rasmussen discusses the issue of assessment in I&E Education at the university level. Considering that the research on how assessment in I&E education impacts students learning is limited, this chapter provides important contribution, by identifying links between formative assessment types and enhancement of student learning.

The chapter analyzes 10 cases from 7 universities in Denmark and focuses on teacher’s perspective, exemplifying how I&E educators view and apply formative assessment as an important tool in enhancing learning benefits for students. Analysis results suggest that formative and learner-centered assessment, such as logbooks, learning journals, prototypes, and informal feedback sessions have a crucial potential for enhancing students’ transformative learning.

Chapter 2

Richard Tunstall, Lenita Nieminen, Lin Jing, and Rasmus Hjorth discuss in Chapter 2 the issue of developing creativity and entrepreneurial capabilities amongst students. In their chapter titled “Out of the Blue: Teaching Creativity and Entrepreneurship through Flashmobs,” the authors present a conceptual model of the iterative nature of creativity and entrepreneurship as separate cognitive and social processes leading to aesthetic or sense-making outcomes. The chapter supports educational practice and research on learning through entrepreneurship in allowing educators and researchers to evaluate how learning activities may directly contribute to students’ learning through experience and the development of their creative and entrepreneurial mind-set.

The proposed framework of learning activities aims at Secondary and Tertiary Education and is based on entrepreneurially teaching. The authors evaluate a range of different approaches, including business planning, simulations, roleplay, co-creation, and flashmobs. The latter are proposed to be most suitable and an outline learning activity design is mapped in detail against creative and entrepreneurial processes.

Chapter 3

The combination of design thinking and lean start-up is the focus of Chapter 3. In his chapter titled “How to Become a Lean Entrepreneur by Applying Lean Start-Up and Lean Canvas?,” Patrick Link describes the “smart-up” program of Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (LUASA), a holistic approach to foster entrepreneurial thinking and behavior. According to the program, the focus is on Design Thinking in early phases in order to understand the problem and gain empathy. Then an enhanced own Lean Canvas version is used for having a guideline to work on the important questions and documenting the learning in the iterative process.

The proposed Smart-up Lean Canvas has been proven to be a key tool to develop innovative ideas in start-ups as well as in existing companies. The program started three years ago as a pilot in two departments and has now rolled out to the entire university, with a total of 120 start-ups already founded.

Chapter 4

In her chapter, titled “Social Innovation Education: Designing Learning for an Uncertain World,” Bethany Alden-Rivers proposes Social Innovation Education as a new pedagogy for the 21st century, suggesting a reconceptualization of undergraduate education to support the development of students as agents of positive social change. Chapter 4 provides insights based on a series of studies conducted at University of Northampton in 2014 and 2015, investigating Social Innovation Education as a pedagogical approach. Research findings include an ontology for understanding the concept of social innovation education, as well as a set of graduate attributes for designing learning for social change. A model of pedagogical praxis is proposed that supports the development of teaching and learning toward a more critical and socially impactful approach.

Chapter 5

In Chapter 5, Ioannis N. Katsikis and Lida P. Kyrgidou examine the institutional role of public social policy and the individual role of private social entrepreneurship on the process of social change and value creation. Their chapter, titled “Social Policy and Social Entrepreneurship: Between the Public and the Private,” focuses on identifying the common and distinctive characteristics of these two fields and analyze how each contributes to social value creation. In addition, the chapter examines how these two agents can interact in order to enhance their positive impact to society. Finally, the authors highlight the importance of social public entrepreneurship as a distinctive way of developing public social policies within a market context, based on business mechanisms.

Chapter 6

In Chapter 6, Brendan F. D. Barrett touches the issue of innovation in education, providing insights on the feasibility of connecting classrooms at a number of universities in the Asia Pacific region in a sustainable and low cost manner through the use of videoconferencing. His chapter, titled “Innovative Approach to the Formation and Sustainability of a Learning Community Connecting Students in University Classrooms across Asia Pacific,” describes the case of a new form of innovative educational program that is based on the effective use of readily available technology that is often under-utilized, due to lack of familiarity or negative perceptions amongst the faculty.

The connected classroom in the proposed inter-university model offers a multitude of different perspectives to students and educators that could be more valuable than traditional instructional approaches, especially when dealing with complex topics like climate change, energy, and food security, where the sharing of knowledge is crucial.

Chapter 7

The establishment of innovative pedagogies and the creation of online communities of learning is the focus of Chapter 7, titled “Entrepreneurship and Education: The “InnoEntre” Project.” In this chapter, Lida P. Kyrgidou, Theodosios Sapounidis, and Ioannis Stamelos describe the case of an entrepreneurial program that brings together students and educators from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and Aarhus University, Denmark, and examines its effect on participants’ attitudes and perceptions toward entrepreneurship, within the wider context of entrepreneurship and education.

The program is part of the wider ongoing “InnoEntre” Erasmus+ project, in which learners across Europe are expected to interact, come up with novel ideas, and transform them through a business plan, into a value-creating outcome, while presenting the steps, actions, experiences, and insights. The chapter highlights the importance of the use of certain appropriate methods, models, and practices, and the use of ICT in supporting the development of business ideas into actual ventures.

Chapter 8

Klaus Thestrup and Sarah Robinson provide another perspective on the “InnoEntre” Erasmus+ project. In Chapter 8, titled “Towards an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Empowering Learners in an Open Laboratory,” they demonstrate how Humanities students in a blended learning course at Aarhus University become active learners, use an entrepreneurial approach, and reflect on the achievement of an entrepreneurial mind-set.

The authors suggest that nurturing experimental communities of practice in open learning laboratory settings may provide an opportunity for establishing an entrepreneurial mind-set in students and, as such, has to the potential as a method to confront future societal challenges.

Chapter 9

In their chapter, titled “Delivering an Entrepreneurship-Focused MBA in the UAE,” authors Abdullah Abonamah, Sophia Korayim, and Llewellyn D. W. Thomas paint a picture on how the I&E Education is implemented in the context of the Gulf region. Chapter 9 offers an analysis of the challenges associated with the design and delivery of an MBA in the Abu Dhabi School of Management.

The authors provide insights into specific MBA program attributes that need to be customized for the UAE, including assessment, case study use, and delivery format. Specific cultural norms and practices need to be taken into account to ensure that the program and its delivery are fit for the local country. Furthermore, the authors emphasize the importance of having local faculty for effective program delivery and the risks of, and approaches to, using international faculty who are not based in the country of delivery.

Chapter 10

In Chapter 10, Asunción Ibáñez-Romero and Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia suggest that being entrepreneurial and innovative is a way of thinking, a mind-set, and a personal identity. In their chapter, titled “iNNoVaNDiS: A 10-Year Experience in Entrepreneurship & Innovation Education,” they describe iNNoVaNDiS, a study program that started in 2005 at the University of Deusto, Spain, aiming at training students to perform as entrepreneurs.

The chapter provides a narrative of the program evolution from the perspective of people that have been involved in it. The program is run by a team of people with very different profiles, including consultants, researchers, academics, coaches, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, actors, etc. This diversity allows the program to be in constant renewal. The scope of iNNoVaNDiS has not been the development of a business, but rather to foster ethical entrepreneurship and innovative behavior in everyday life.

Chapter 11

In Chapter 11, titled “Poliempreende,” Rafael Pedrosa provides a description of the Poliempreende program. The program, focused on the promotion and development of entrepreneurship amongst the polytechnics’ academic community, aims at helping participants develop necessary skills for the creation of business initiatives, in an effort to support economic and social action through self-employment.

The project focuses on the cross-fertilization of knowledge area with the consequent enrichment of experiences, practices, and results, in particular by encouraging the setting up of multidisciplinary teams, with the goal to instill the spirit of initiative in the participants, the entrepreneurial willingness to create their own businesses and generate jobs, exploring the practical and professional character of their training.

Chapter 12

In Chapter 12, titled “Jugaad Innovation and Intrapreneurship at Pearson,” Kelwyn Looi and Josh Fleming highlight some practical examples of how this innovation has affected business strategy and decision-making, enabling the company to be able to have a greater impact on learning and grow financially. Many of the examples in the chapter are from products and units that are continuing to embrace and adopt efficacy; they represent live examples of best practice.

The chapter follows a live case and represents a unique insight into the ongoing application of innovation and intrapreneurship in the field. The authors provide an overview of how the drive toward efficacy represents a new, innovative way of doing business. The approach is not new to education, but putting a focus on learner outcomes at the center of traditional business operations represents a step-change from how other companies in the sector operate.

Chapter 13

In Chapter 13, titled “Tangible User Interfaces for Programming and Education: A New Field for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” Theodosios Sapounidis, Ioannis Stamelos, and Stavros Demetriadis provide an example of how innovation in the field of Educational Technology may create a new entrepreneurial landscape. Their chapter focuses on tangible user interfaces (TUIs), a new type of interface that expands the physical world, by pairing digital information to everyday physical objects.

The authors review existing products on TUIs and analyze design aspects that may offer new opportunities for innovation. The authors argue that although TUI design and research is still in its infancy and more design guidelines and research are required in order to further bridge the digital and the physical, the first signs of entrepreneurship in the field promise a bright future.

Throughout the 5 themes and the 13 respective chapters, the book draws a rich canvas that includes views on I&E education, social entrepreneurship, lean entrepreneurship, innovative pedagogies, creativity and problem-solving, entrepreneurial mind-set and identity, learning communities, regional and global perspectives, and case studies from academia and business.

We maintain that Innovation and Entrepreneurship are able to offer more than a way of creating business initiatives. They also provide the launching pad for personal growth and the development of a mind-set that will help the individual recognize challenges and opportunities in professional, social, and personal life. We hope that this book will be a valuable addition to the dialogue around the nature and purpose of I&E and will provide useful insights toward this perspective to the reader.

Pantelis M. Papadopoulos

Roland Burger

Ana Faria

Editors