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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate to what degree participation in mini-companies impact young women and men with regard to the perceived desirability and perceived feasibility of self-employment. The Company Programme (CP) is the largest mini-company scheme in European secondary school.

The data derived from a survey conducted in Norway with 1,160 students in upper secondary school (17-18 years of age). The quasi-experimental research design enabled a comparison of compulsory CP-participants with non-participation and control for several competing factors.

The investigation demonstrated that CP positively influenced the perceived feasibility of self-employment for both young men and young women, and CP also increased the perceived desirability of self-employment among young women.

It could be that the impact of CP varies according to time spent on the CP or position in the mini-company. The study does not measure whether CP-participants actually create a business.

Central to explaining the stronger impact on young women is a particular concern with female entrepreneurship in CP. The majority of CEOs in mini-companies are young women, and all women that manage mini-companies can participate in the coaching programme “Girls and Leadership”.

CP-participation could boost the chance of individuals attempting to start a business at a later point in their lives. In the longer run, CP could contribute to reducing the gender gap in self-employment.

Investigating some of the impacts of CP in a gender perspective, this paper adds a fresh viewpoint to the state of knowledge about entrepreneurship education in secondary schools.

The demand for including enterprise in the education system, at all levels and for all pupils is now a global phenomenon. Within this context, the use of competitions and competitive learning activities is presented as a popular and effective vehicle for learning. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how a realist method of enquiry – which utilises theory as the unit of analysis – can shed new light on the assumed and unintended outcomes of enterprise education competitions. The case developed here is that there are inherent flaws in assuming that competitions will ‘work’ in the ways set out in policy and guidance. Some of the most prevalent stated outcomes – that competitions will motivate and reward young people, that they will enable the development of entrepreneurial skills, and that learners will be inspired by their peers – are challenged by theory from psychology and education. The issue at stake is that the expansion of enterprise education policy into primary and secondary education increases the likelihood that more learners will be sheep dipped in competitions, and competitive activities, without a clear recognition of the potential unintended effects. In this chapter, we employ a realist-informed approach to critically evaluate the theoretical basis that underpins the use of competitions and competitive learning activities in school-based enterprise education. We believe that our findings and subsequent recommendations will provide those who promote and practice the use of competitions with a richer, more sophisticated picture of the potential flaws within such activities.

This article seeks to evaluate whether entrepreneurship education (EE) in upper secondary schools promotes male and female start‐up activity. The Company programme (CP) reaches more than 200,000 European youths annually.

The control‐group design is methodologically strong, and the empirical data are from Norway. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,171 24‐25 year olds; 50 per cent of the respondents had been involved in CP in the period 2004‐2006, and 50 per cent had not. The analyses also control for other factors of relevance to start‐up activity.

Results from econometric analyses indicate a positive correlation between participation in CP and start‐up activity. The analyses also indicate that CP has more impact on male start‐up activity as compared to women.

A lot of other influences occur between the participation in CP and the start‐up activity. Although CP may be associated with more start‐ups, these are not necessarily start‐ups of a higher quality, survival rate or growth potential. The analysis also conceals variations in start‐up activity among CP‐participants with regard to time spent on CP, position in the CP, and obligatory vs voluntary participation.

To promote start‐up activity among women more effectively, CP could be more focused on shaping confidence and increasing perceived competency among girls participating in the programme.

One solution for how to increase start‐up activity among young men and women could be to offer EE within upper secondary schools.

The study measures experience with start‐up activity 6‐8 years after EE‐participation in upper secondary school, it compares the impact of EE on male and female business start‐ups, and the control‐group design is advantageous compared to previous studies.

The current study addresses an entrepreneurial program offered by a Greek Higher Education Institution – Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – to Information and Communication Technology undergraduate students and examines its effect on participants’ attitudes and perceptions towards entrepreneurship, within the wider context of entrepreneurship and education.

The program is part of a wider pilot project called “InnoEntre.” The particular pilot program is provided in cooperation with Aarhus University of Denmark. The objective was for Danish and Greek students attending the particular course to interact, come up with a novel idea, and transform it through a business plan, into a value-creating outcome, while presenting the steps, actions, experiences, and insight through the pilot program.

The study offers important implications sharpening knowledge around the area of entrepreneurship, focusing on the intersection between entrepreneurship and education. It highlights key dimensions critical for the successful combination of these two fields, pointing to the importance of young individuals’ perceptions and attitudes towards Innovation-Entrepreneurship Education (I&E), their expectations and particular needs from related educational programs, antecedents of entrepreneurial intention, etc.

Findings contribute to the combination of components to approach the wider fields of I&E, besides the University context, highlighting their multidisciplinary nature. Furthermore, the study adds to innovative pedagogy, highlighting 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. The study equally outlines critical managerial implications for entrepreneurs, managers, and policy-makers alike that can foster entrepreneurial activity undertaking among the youth.

The paper focuses upon the issue of the transfer of ideas between countries and cultures in the field of small and medium enterprise (SME) development. It argues that there has been a neglect of such work in academe. Yet there has been a growing import into the UK of ideas from abroad (mainly from the US). There has also been an extensive export particularly to Transition economies. The results in both respects have been less than satisfactory. There is also greater opportunity for ideas transfer via the new communication technologies. The European Commission is particularly active in the field of transfer. There is therefore a strong case for greater academic interest. The paper explores the concept of transfer by posing four questions: (1) What does the notion of transfer mean? (2) Where are the academic challenges in such processes? (3) Where might there be opportunities for transfer in the future of relevance to UK SME development? (4)How and where might we begin to address the issue? In addressing question one, six key areas are identified: ideology transfer; concept/paradigm transfer; benchmarking; institutional development; programme transfer; and transfer of process insights. The second question looks at the academic challenge through the lens of a number of problems, including those of ideology, culture, language, concept, context, agency, reasoning and rationality, agenda, field of production, and customer. Each of these areas is defined, and examples are given of the kinds of problems that arise and their impact. The third question is addressed by a short and speculative review of possibilities for transfer of ideas to the UK relating to the broad areas of policy, institution development and assistance to SME development. The final question is approached by a brief review of the potential for action by journal editors, academic groups and policy makers.

The aim of this study was to determine what facilitators and impediments to regional and global entrepreneurship exist, as identified by the 145 industry contacts globally surveyed, and if education stood out as a critical factor.

An electronic, open‐ended survey was conducted; responses were categorized into three groups of factors – i.e. economic, social and personal – and analyzed accordingly by region and job function of respondent.

The survey revealed many similarities among responses, regardless of country of origin; although education was not the most frequently cited factor critical for successful entrepreneurship, it did rate highly in comparison to others.

Larger studies are needed to corroborate the findings of this initial study, particularly in some regional categories. The open‐ended question format required some subjective interpretation by the researchers; future surveys utilizing an objective answer format would be recommended.

The amount of consensus indicates that if entrepreneurs, academics, and others collaborated and pooled their knowledge and resources, some of the critical barriers to success could be overcome. The field could benefit by future research focusing on identifying specific collaboration strategies among regions or countries leading to the growth of entrepreneurial ventures and economic development.

Surveying experts regarding the facilitators and impediments to entrepreneurship (both regionally and globally) will help to bridge the gulf between theory and practical solutions to drive economic development.

The research effort on entrepreneurship education has been mainly for the higher education settings and on the individual level of analysis. On the contrary, this research urges scholars to expedite attention to the secondary education settings, especially in the emerging economies in Asia and Africa. This paper aims to reveal the existing landscape of literature development on the topic and promote ecological approaches of constructing entrepreneurship education programs in schools. It advocates the “incubator” role of schools for students and the necessity of establishing socially embedded entrepreneurship education as the playground for future entrepreneurs.

This study followed the systematic literature review as its research design. It obtained 1,555 publications from six academic databases and 60 more publications from expert consulting and backward snowballing technique. Data screening resulted in a total of 101 relevant publications with the upper secondary education as their research context. The qualitative integrative synthesis method was then applied to integrate research evidence to the five circles of systems according to Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship education and youth career development literature, especially in the developing countries. Results discovered that entrepreneurship education programs, when interacting with ecological systems, resulted in training success. The most frequently studied systems were microsystems; here, there was a dominant focus on program-level reporting and analyzing. There was less focus on other systems such as mesosystems, exosystems or macrosystems. Moreover, only one study was associated with chronosystems, suggesting a significant research gap regarding the longitudinal studies. However, this review validated the different approaches to delivering entrepreneurship education in emerging and developed economies.

One limitation of this research lies in the methodology. The inclusion criteria limited the studies to the context of upper secondary education and excluded those of secondary education in general. The sampling method limited the power of this research to analyze and discuss policy-level studies because policies most likely embrace the whole secondary education level as its target. Another limitation is associated with the lack of experimental studies in assessing the comparative advantages of following the ecological approach when constructing entrepreneurship education. It, therefore, remains an undiscussed matter within this study regarding whether following the ecological approach means empirically a better educational choice or not.

This study discusses the implications for policymakers, especially in emerging economies, and suggests that awareness, attention and funding are needed to empower youth entrepreneurship education from an ecological systems view.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of few studies that use the ecological systems theory in the context of entrepreneurship education with the purpose of focusing on environment-level analysis instead of individual-level analysis. Through the systematic literature review, this study proposes an ecological approach to comprehend, guide, evaluate and improve the design and implementation of entrepreneurship education programs in schools based on well-articulated research evidence. The research can inform both researchers and educators by offering a holistic perspective to observe and evaluate entrepreneurship education programs and their levels of social connectedness.

As one of the eight key competencies of life-long learning strategies identified by the European Union and the difficulties in enhancing the “sense of initiative and entrepreneurship”, the purpose of this paper is to propose a co-production approach to overcome several concerns.

An exploratory approach is used to analyse a single case study based on the EntreComp progression model and on a pedagogical approach consistent with the philosophy of learning through creating value for others.

The study introduces best novel practices that help enhance entrepreneurial education in primary school by engaging multiple local stakeholders in co-producing education. The case mainly shows that a co-production approach is appropriate to overcome challenges and assists policymakers to identify specific actions and make investments in entrepreneurship education (EE) at the primary level.

Theoretically, the study contributes to literature on entrepreneurial education and co-production studies. The main drawback of the study is its explorative analysis of a single case.

For practitioners, the research proposes stakeholder involvement as key to co-producing EE in primary schools, implying that policymakers should identify resources for projects and other similar initiatives.

The study elucidates the relevance of co-production approach to ensure early EE in school.