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The purpose of this paper is to find a framework for the assessment of the learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education as a cross-curricular subject. The problem is twofold: the first difficulty is the relationship to the general issues regarding competence and its assessment; the second difficulty is the assessment of competencies in cross-curricular education in diverse contexts such as school and work.

The European key competence for lifelong learning of the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and the European qualification framework (EQF) are convenient to benchmark the outcomes of enterprise education. In order to assess and develop competence in vocational students, educators should design real life problem solving situations, which are new for the students and closely related to their vocations.

The study describes an assessment process of the learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competence. While the authors tested knowledge by giving the students open-ended questions, the authors assessed the skills and competence with a practical problem concerning the students’ vocational discipline to be solved in groups.

The paper calls for a better alignment between work experience, teaching for competence and assessment of key competences – such as the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship – taught as a cross curricular subject.

The assessment makes use of a theoretically grounded definition of competence, and considers varied forms of evaluation of entrepreneurship education. Educators can use it across Europe as it refers to a common background, the European key competences and the EQF, and it promotes the students’ transitions to work and mobility. It is rigorous, and, at the same time, adaptable to the context. It is meaningful for the various stakeholders at various levels: students, employers, schools, workplaces and institutions.

The purpose of this research is to outline the preliminary results of an empirical investigation into access to finance and related issues, as experienced by SME owner/managers in the UK and in China.

The authors employed a telephone survey involving a sample of SME owner/managers operating in the UK and in China. A detailed, semi‐structured questionnaire was administered to a selected sample of 32 matched SMEs. The survey requested quantitative and qualitative information on sources of finance, both preferred and actually used by owner/managers, during three stages in their firm's business cycle: at start up, after two years and over the next five years.

Evidence suggests that there are similarities as well as differences between SME financing in the UK and in China. In terms of initial (start‐up) funding, a large proportion of respondents relied exclusively on financial support from their immediate family. After two years in business, respondents exhibited a higher reliance on own savings and the financial support of bank and other financial institutions. At the end of five years of uninterrupted economic activity, most of the owner/managers in the UK sample relied for their borrowing needs primarily on financial institutions and to a lesser extent upon their own savings. In contrast, owner/managers in China depended mainly upon financial support from their immediate family and to a lesser extent on financial institutions.

The sample for this research study is both small and selective. It is not meant to represent a random or statistically significant selection of either the UK or Chinese SME sectors.

The financing preferences of owner/managers in the sample have been influenced by their perception of the relative strength and weaknesses of domestic finance infrastructures. The results of this research study is indicative of SME owner/managers' financing needs, attitudes and perception. Future developments and the strengthening of the legal and financial infrastructure in China could significantly reduce the comparative gap between owner/manager preferences in these two countries.

This paper aims to examine the effects of individual competencies and characteristics linked to educational programmes that contribute to the development of competencies conducive to innovation.

The authors draw on theories of intrapreneurial competencies – i.e. intrapreneurship and competence‐based innovation – and the entrepreneurship education literature. The study uses comprehensive survey data on approximately 11,000 higher education graduates, five years after graduation in 12 European countries, collected in 2005. The authors test hypotheses regarding the effects of individual competencies and study programme characteristics on the probability of introducing innovations at work, using logistic regression.

Several kinds of competencies are found to increase the probability that graduates introduce innovations at work: professional and creative, communications and championing, and brokering do so, while productivity/efficiency does not. Education programmes emphasising the development of entrepreneurial skills and problem‐based learning also promote innovation. Graduates in engineering are particularly innovative, whereas business and administration graduates are least innovative.

The central implication is that intrapreneurial competencies are learnable. The results refer specifically to higher educated persons, five years after graduation.

Organisations that aim at stimulating employee‐driven innovation need to emphasise the development of intrapreneurial, and especially, brokering competencies. Higher education institutions should put more emphasis on the development of entrepreneurial competencies, for example through problem‐based learning.

The study makes an empirical contribution to theories of intrapreneurship and competency‐based innovation, by examining a wide range of competencies that promote innovation by graduate professionals in Europe.

1. Overture: the problem Nobody could seriously doubt that the unidirectional mass media can be very powerful instruments of disinformation. History has already witnessed too many horrible events for us to allow ourselves the luxury of such futile speculation any longer. What we might do instead is to turn our attention to the brave new world of the Internet, and ask whether the problem of disinformation might soon afflict the new interactive media as well. Suppose that in years to come there will still be a significant dissimilarity between passive (one way, or ‘W’) and interactive (two way, or ‘WW’) media. The management of information online is going to affect many aspects of our life with increasing regularity, and the following three questions will become crucial:

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the main drivers of entrepreneurial motivation among university students and to determine whether entrepreneurship education has a moderating effect on improving the impact of knowledge base and entrepreneurship competencies on entrepreneurial motivation.

This study uses a mixed-method approach that combines qualitative interviews and a cross-sectional survey of a sample of 465 university students.

The study reveals that entrepreneurship competencies are a predictor of entrepreneurship motivation but that knowledge base is not. Additionally, entrepreneurship education does not improve the motivation of university students to become entrepreneurs. These findings suggest that, to increase entrepreneurial motivation, pedagogy should emphasize the development of students’ entrepreneurial psychological and social skills by covering in particular the emotional dimension and critical thinking.

This research contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship education and provides strategic recommendations for university managers and education-policy makers.

This article aims to describe the role universities should play in student to work transition.

An objective bibliometric analysis is conducted and supported by qualitative assessments based on authors’ study of relevant papers.

Two themes emerge from the analysis: the first on the university's role in students' learning, skills and fits, in the transition process; the second on the university's role in engagement, motivation and support students in university-to-work transition.

From the analysis, no indications emerge on how universities could contribute to student-to-work transition in the context of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development objectives. Furthermore, training students for the future is not an easy assignment in a fast-changing ecosystem. How can higher education prepare students to face future challenges if we only have partial and incomplete perceptions about possible futures? This vexes many policymakers, organisational leaders and educators. Finally, it could be an interesting next step to repeat the Bibliometrix research using subfield keywords to analyse revealed gaps.

The study shows that the topic analysed is complex from the managerial, political and social points of view. The issues addressed by studies in UWT so far, concern various aspects: development of student identity, student engagement, fit between higher education and labour market, student motivation, student emotions and learning approaches. The university-to-work transition theme has become a work in progress effort and will most likely continue for the foreseeable future.

Since research into university-to-work transition is fragmented, a comprehensive view of this theme seems necessary. Given the importance of the subject, this study will endeavour to fill this gap with an overall and organic perspective of the issue. This is one of the first attempts to grasp this research stream, which, over time, has paved the way to the intersection between “university-to-work transition” in business, management and educational fields.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the conceptual frameworks and concepts with which the research on internationalization patterns of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) should be conducted.

A comprehensive overview of concepts and a conceptual framework to study internationalization patterns of SMEs is offered.

The complexities of existing definitions and methodologies for researching internationalization patterns are highlighted, and a synthesis of the issues is provided. An integrative model of internationalization pathways, and their antecedents and outcomes is presented.

It is recommended that future research focuses especially on the time dimension of internationalization patterns. Future research can contribute to the literature by adopting a longitudinal approach with larger samples and more detailed cases to capture the dynamics of internationalization.

Practitioners might map their positions, and look for challenges and opportunities with regard to their chosen internationalization pattern. They can also benchmark other firms’ pathways and fine‐tune their own approach to internationalization.

The paper integrates a large body of research in an important research area in international marketing. It also provides guidance on how to conduct future research in the area, and introduces the content of this special issue of the International Marketing Review.

The purpose of this study is to describe latent classes explaining the innovation logic in the Finnish construction companies. Innovativeness is a driver of competitive performance and vital to the long-term success of any organisation and company.

Using finite mixture structural equation modelling (FMSEM), the authors have classified innovation logic into latent classes. The method analyses and recognises classes for companies that have similar logic in innovation activities based on the collected data.

Through FMSEM analysis, the authors have identified three latent classes that explain the innovation logic in the Finnish construction companies – LC1: the internal innovators; LC2: the non-innovation-oriented introverts; and LC3: the innovation-oriented extroverts. These three latent classes clearly capture the perceptions within the industry as well as the different characteristics and variables.

The presented latent classes explain innovation logic but is limited to analysing Finnish companies. Also, the research is quantitative by nature and does not increase the understanding in the same manner as qualitative research might capture on more specific aspects.

This paper presents starting points for construction industry companies to intensify innovation activities. It may also indicate more fundamental changes for the structure of construction industry organisations, especially by enabling innovation friendly culture.

This study describes innovation logic in Finnish construction companies through three models (LC1–LC3) by using quantitative data analysed with the FMSEM method. The fundamental innovation challenges in the Finnish construction companies are clarified via the identified latent classes.

In his essay Against Parsimony (1985), Hirschman argued in favor of “complicating” economic theory. This paper focuses on two of the economic phenomena that, according to Hirschman, are in need of greater complexity.

The first refers to the process of preference formation: a change in tastes that is preceded by the formation of meta-preferences is in fact, for Hirschman, a change in values. These autonomous, reflective kinds of changes, as opposed to non-reflective kinds, do not take place simply in response to price changes. Contrary to the standard economic assumption, de valoribus est disputandum.

The second phenomenon refers to the existence of non-instrumental actions. Striving for truth, love, beauty, justice, and liberty has non-calculable outcomes. According to instrumental reasoning such actions are “a mystery.” Moreover they are often painful to achieve. Why then are they pursued?

According to Hirschman, changes in choice behavior implying changes in values are the expression of a conflict between meta-preferences and preferences, and this, in its turn, is the result of disappointment. If disappointment is with private consumption, social and public commitments can provide alternative values; if, vice versa, disappointment is with public action, private concerns might provide the prevailing values. In discussing these points, I shall show that there are other sources of conflict, besides disappointment, that have both a cognitive and affective dimension and whose effects on preferences might result in altered choices.

The purpose of this research is to identify and analyse the common characteristics and behaviour of entrepreneurs that affect the establishment of Born Global firms. The differences between the Australian and Swedish contexts will be scrutinized.

This study was designed to be qualitative in nature so that rich insights can be obtained directly from the entrepreneurs themselves. The sample consists of three Born Global firms each from Australia and Sweden.

This study shows the importance of entrepreneurs for the rapid internationalization of firms in Australia and Sweden. Different types of entrepreneurs were identified and small but important differences were identified between the two countries and different industries.

This study shows that analysis on an individual level enhances the understanding of internationalisation in new firms. By using the concept marketing and technical entrepreneur in different industrial contexts a more detailed understanding of different internationalization patterns can be obtained. This study is limited to two countries and six case studies. The findings may be limited to the chosen firms and studies across more countries and industries are needed.

This study shows that the entrepreneur should be in focus when analysing new firms' possibilities to expand abroad. Entrepreneurs can use their international experience, visions, ambitions and networks as crucial competencies in an international expansion. Different types of entrepreneurs can use different international strategies.

The focus and detailed analysis on the individual level across different countries make this study original.