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The question arises whether entrepreneurship education will be able to facilitate the entrepreneurial attitude in the near future. Unfortunately, the decisive role of compulsory schooling has long been neglected in this context. Until recently it was considered sufficient to provide education in entrepreneurship in universities (especially in the area of Business Administration) or in the form of special courses for people who consider starting their own business. Picking up the discussion at this point, the purpose of this paper is to analyse to what extent compulsory school education in Germany and Sweden facilitates a more entrepreneurial way of thinking among pupils.

First, the paper briefly summarises the relevant research literature and specify important components of entrepreneurship education. Second, it discusses what exactly is to be understood by entrepreneurial qualities and present a holistic approach based on a model by Dahlgren. Third, it describes the unique data and presents some empirical results. The empirical analysis concentrates on Germany. Yet, for reasons of comparison, it additionally analyses the situation in Sweden. Finally, the paper summarises the results and discusses the policy implications.

The results presented clearly suggest that German schools do not succeed very well in presenting self‐employment as an attractive alternative to dependent work. Swedish pupils generally show a higher preference for self‐employment than their German counterparts. Furthermore, the results suggest that German schools diminish rather than encourage pupils' ambitions to become self‐employed as the pupils become older.

To the authors' knowledge this is the first empirical study which compares the effect of different school systems on entrepreneurial attitude simultaneously (i.e. with the same questionnaire and at the same point of time).

This chapter utilizes German tax data to present evidence about the direct and indirect effects of new firm formation. Cohort analysis is applied to investigate survival, sales, inputs, and value added of start-up firms. Most dropouts occur in the early years. We show that start-up microenterprises increase economic vitality directly. Sales and value added are in an approximate proportion of 3:1. With respect to the indirect effects of new firms, we find that one Euro of sales induces considerable indirect effects because 66 Cents are used to buy products and services from incumbents. For this reason, new firms substantially promote economic prosperity of incumbents. Sectoral differences are also indicated, with the manufacturing industry generating highest sales and relying most heavily on inputs in the early periods.

International harmonization of accounting standards and the move toward convergence have revived an increasing interest in the influence of culture in accounting and auditing. The growing number of countries adopting IFRS and the increasing acceptance of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) has further raised researchers’ attention. For example, more than 100 countries require or permit the use of IFRS, with more countries, such as Canada, India, and Korea, planning to adopt IFRS by 2011 (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2007; IASB, 2007a, 2007b). This move toward convergence is driven largely on assumptions and assertions based on enhancing international comparability of accounting and auditing information.

This paper aims to report the findings of a large‐scale multinational study of students in a marketing organization that investigates the need to expand entrepreneurship education in the marketing curriculum. Key questions include what is the entrepreneurial mindset of students interested in marketing, what do they think they need to know, should they some day decide to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, and how satisfied are they with their current exposure to entrepreneurial marketing experiences?

Via e‐mail, a major international collegiate marketing association headquartered in the USA sent the online questionnaire to a random sample of 4,300 students. Content areas included entrepreneurial mindset, desired entrepreneurial marketing learning and experiential activities, and demographics. A total of 605 students participated in the study.

The findings show that there is a large segment of marketing students who desire to be an entrepreneur and feel strongly about entrepreneurial education. Exposure to entrepreneurial marketing tools, experiential learning activities, and networking opportunities were deemed to be especially important.

The study focused on students in marketing organizations. Additional research is needed at the course level.

The findings suggest that entrepreneurial marketing education is needed in the business curriculum. Training in entrepreneurial marketing will better prepare students interested in being an entrepreneur or small business owner.

Entrepreneurial marketing has received little attention in the business education literature. The study is the first of its kind to study entrepreneurial marketing curriculum needs from the perspective of students in a nearly 11,000 strong international marketing organization.