Guest editorial

Citation

Ilozor, B., Sarki, A. and Hodd, M. (2006), "Guest editorial", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 25 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd.2006.02625aaa.002

Guest editorial

About the Guest Editors

Benedict Ilozor Intercollegiate Professor at Department of Architecture, Hampton University, USA, is Regional Editor for the Emerald Group Publishing’s Journal of Management Development. His areas of interest include entrepreneurial practice management of architecture, facilities, space planning, and design. His professional, research and teaching emphasis is on cutting edge stratagems for efficient, cost-effective, sustainable and harmonious built environments, from individual buildings to the greater urban contexts. E-mail: benedict.ilozor@hamptonu.edu

Ayuba Sarki who has been Chairperson of Economics, and Endowed Chair/Professor of Business at Hampton University, is currently with Economics Division of the Centre of Entrepreneurial Studies at School of Business, Hampton University, USA. His professional, teaching and research interests include International Business and Economics, Banking and Monetary Economics. He has been co-investigator on a project funded by the US State Department of Education to internationalise the business curricula of Hampton University and Old Dominion University in the 1980s. E-mail: ayuba.sarki@hamptonu.edu

Michael Hodd is Economics Professor in the Business School at the University of Westminster, London, UK, where he has worked with the University’s School of the Built Environment on a variety of projects embracing management of the construction process. He has been Vice Chancellor in the University of Bukoba in Tanzania, and head of a project to establish three polytechnics in Nigeria, and both these activities have involved developing building management methods appropriate to low-income African countries. E-mail: hoddm@wmin.ac.uk

This special issue addresses the subject of entrepreneurship teaching, research and service across academic disciplines. It explores and appreciates ways to infuse cross-disciplinary entrepreneurial ideas into disciplinary teaching, research and service. Colleges and universities should no longer think of equipping graduates with just the basic skills of their specific labour market share, so that firms will utilise their basic skills to transform them into productive workers in the large industrial networks. They should rather aspire to prepare students as entrepreneurs in their respective fields. In other words, they should evolve from churning out apprentices to producing ready entrepreneurs. For example, architecture or pharmacy students should be prepared to the extent that on graduation, they are ready to start their own businesses. Those who graduated in literature, sociology, anthropology and other similar areas should no longer see themselves as perpetually assigned to a limited focus such as teaching and instruction. The ability to emerge as entrepreneurs in their respective disciplines lies with the graduates’ knowledge of entrepreneurship both within their immediate areas and beyond their specific fields. In this regard, cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship is considered an essential component of the present-day educational curriculum. The challenge for educators is therefore to find a new method of integrating the theories and practices of this entrepreneurial know-how into their curriculum.

The special issue theme seeks to understand the differences and similarities in entrepreneurial approaches of various disciplines; whether there are sufficient common grounds among disciplines for an entrepreneurship model that will be universally applicable; if any entrepreneurship model has ever been applied successfully across disciplines for improved business practices; how, for instance, graduates of literature, sociology, anthropology and other similar areas from colleges and universities can be fully prepared entrepreneurs in their own rights, rather than as those assigned perpetually to a narrow professional and/or para-professional focus; how entrepreneurship contributes to the derivation of more value and greater satisfaction by both customers and service providers; how entrepreneurship promotes or retards innovation; how entrepreneurship promotes or retards miniaturisation and fragmentation; and finally the role entrepreneurship plays in economic and social change.

This special issue challenges the view of entrepreneurship as an exclusive preserve of a few disciplines. It therefore aims to uncover in-depth entrepreneurial knowledge and understanding to free their application and utilisation across all fields. Papers addressing various issues, covering recent research and developments that are both academically rigorous and relevant to the special issue theme were peer-reviewed and the best selected for publication. Included are:

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  “An analytic knowledge network process for construction entrepreneurship education”, by Zhen Chen, Heng Li, Stephen C.W. Kong, and Qian Xu.

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  “Establishing individual differences related to opportunity alertness and innovation dependent on academic-career training”, by Justin B.L. Craig and Debra Johnson.

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  “Entrepreneurship education: towards a discipline-based framework”, by Debra Johnson, Justin B.L. Craig, and Ryan Hildebrand.

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  “A culture of creativity: design education and the creative industries”, by Billy Matheson.

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  “Entrepreneurship and SMEs in London (UK): evaluating the role of Black Africans in this emergent sector”, by Frances Ekwulugo.

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  “An entrepreneurial-directed approach to entrepreneurship education: mission impossible?”, by Jarna Heinonen and Sari-Anne Poikkijoki.

Zhen Chen, Heng Li, Stephen C.W. Kong, and Qian Xu combine several theories in discussing entrepreneurial education in construction. They provide a quantitative approach to knowledge management in construction entrepreneurship education by means of an analytic knowledge network process (KANP), which integrates a standard industrial classification with the analytic network process (ANP). For construction entrepreneurship education, a decision-making model named KANP.CEEM is built to apply the KANP method in the evaluation of teaching cases to facilitate the Case Method, which is widely adopted in entrepreneurship education at business schools. They use eight clusters and 178 nodes in the KANP.CEEM model, and experimental research in evaluating teaching cases. These authors show that the KANP method is effective in conducting knowledge management to the entrepreneurship education. As the KANP.CEEM model is built based on the standard classification codes and the embedded ANP, it is thus expected that the model has a wide potential in evaluating knowledge-based teaching materials for education purposes in construction entrepreneurship and others with a background from the construction industry. Both faculty and students can benefit from this model. As an experimental research, their work ignores the concordance between a selected standard classification and others that perhaps limit the usefulness of KANP.CEEM model elsewhere. However, their paper fulfils a knowledge management need, and offers practical help to an academic starting out on the 21 development of knowledge-based teaching cases and other teaching materials, or a student going through case studies and other learning materials.

Justin B.L. Craig and Debra Johnson investigate to see if individuals’ academic-career training could make them better as innovators, or better at recognising entrepreneurial opportunities. In their study they administer a sampling survey aimed at identifying students who see themselves as innovators, or those that are alert to recognising opportunities. Craig and Johnson are quite aware of current issues in this area, and they successfully integrate the works of Schumpeter and Kirzner into the ongoing debates on entrepreneurship. Designers of college curricula can use this research to create a matrix of subjects to achieve the optimum result in entrepreneurial education.

Debra Johnson, Justin B.L. Craig and Ryan Hildebrand present an empirical work that contributes to the debate on developing a curriculum for students that will facilitate their transition to entrepreneurs. In their study they use both primary and secondary data, and the methodology used conforms to accepted statistical norms. They are aware of current debates in this area, and cite copious current and suitable materials from the literature. Their framework sets out clear pathways through the entrepreneurial processes, and has crucial implications for a variety of stakeholders.

Billy Matheson attempts to bridge the gap between vocational and academic oriented education in New Zealand. He explains how an innovation in curriculum experiment in New Zealand is promoting a new class of educational entrepreneurship termed “Creative Industries”. Although this experiment is facing opposition from traditional curriculum supporters, the author feels that with time, the experiment will be able to bridge the chasm between vocational and academic education models. Matheson indicates that “Creative Industries” are gaining acceptance in the institutions of higher learning in the USA and Canada. This research can attract the attention of educational policy-makers, and that they may begin to question if there are any benefits to be gained by continuing to separate vocational and academic education methods. The real world requires practical skills in order to acquire a meaningful working life. Matheson’s paper stimulates interest in the educational communities, especially in researchers exploring and reclassifying old academic fields into Creative Industries. The author cites a number of exponents of Creative Industries theory, and these citations are very current and relevant.

Frances Ekwulugo explores entrepreneurship and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) development in London, evaluating the role of Black Africans in this emerging sector. Ekwulugo posits the need to improve entrepreneurial education that is focused on minority groups. Her study focuses on the development of Black African SMEs (BASMEs) in London by examining the various factors that impact their development. A qualitative methodological approach is used to gain a better understanding of the BASMEs. Her research proceeds by developing a conceptual matrix to classify Black Africans into four significant emergent groups. She discusses the trend of growth in the last decade, and draws conclusions on managerial implications, by identifying the various social, economic and environmental limitations that impact (BASMEs) growth.

Jarna Heinonen and Sari-Anne Poikkijoki contribute entrepreneurial-directed approach to entrepreneurship education. Although the authors’ entrepreneurial-directed approach would seem plausible to the teaching of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial skills and behaviour, they are yet to demonstrate in a systematic manner, how this can be applied to group teaching, especially to students with different entrepreneurial interests. However, these authors’ paper will be quite useful to teachers interested in developing a more entrepreneurial and academic approach, especially those who are considering the substance and nature of entrepreneurship education. The reader will find it as a source of current teaching techniques used in entrepreneurship education. It contains the analysis of those teaching techniques used in entrepreneurial education.

We are today in an era of market economy, a period in which competition dominates the global production of goods and services. To teach and enhance this competitive spirit to the cadre of students graduating in the institutions of higher learning the world over, we should be glad to be contributing to this awareness and knowledge among students and academics. We hope this special issue will help to stimulate academic excellence with practical entrepreneurial results. The six papers presented would likely ignite interests among other researchers who will join in expanding the awareness and knowledge of entrepreneurship in academic institutions and other bodies interested in new venture opportunities. It is the intent of the Guest Editors of this special issue to continue to search out opportunities for dialogue and research in entrepreneurship teaching, research and service across disciplines. As this concept evolves and matures, the gap between academic and entrepreneurial (not necessarily vocational) education models narrows.

Benedict Ilozor, Ayuba Sarki, Michael Hodd