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Article
Publication date: 14 August 2017

Franziska Günzel-Jensen and Sarah Robinson

Since Sarasvathy’s (2001) research on decision-making logics of expert entrepreneurs, effectuation has become a cornerstone in entrepreneurship education. Effectuation is not only…

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Abstract

Purpose

Since Sarasvathy’s (2001) research on decision-making logics of expert entrepreneurs, effectuation has become a cornerstone in entrepreneurship education. Effectuation is not only subjectified in entrepreneurship education, but has also become conceptualized as a method in the learning process. The purpose of this paper is to explore how students, who are novice entrepreneurs, react to working effectually and which barriers they face when applying effectual decision-making logics in a university course.

Design/methodology/approach

A student-centered process course in entrepreneurship with 142 students provides a unique opportunity to explore the phenomena. Participant/teacher observations, written and oral work from the students and finally formal and informal written evaluations of the course by the students provide comprehensive data.

Findings

The authors find that students experience three barriers to using effectuation. These are: noviceness, regarding the project as a “school project,” perceived lack of legitimacy of both the instructors and the process.

Originality/value

The contribution of this study is threefold: first, to contribute to the understanding of the applicability of effectuation for novice entrepreneurs in the classroom; second, to articulate the factors that hinder entrepreneurial learning when effectuation is used in a process course; and third, to shed light on the importance of contextual factors for individual learning.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 59 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 August 2021

Jan P. Warhuus, Franziska Günzel-Jensen, Sarah Robinson and Helle Neergaard

This paper investigates the importance of team formation in entrepreneurship education, and the authors ask: how do different team formation strategies influence teamwork in…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the importance of team formation in entrepreneurship education, and the authors ask: how do different team formation strategies influence teamwork in higher education experiential learning-based entrepreneurship courses?

Design/methodology/approach

Employing a multiple case study design, the authors examine 38 student teams from three different entrepreneurship courses with different team formation paths to uncover potential links between team formation and learning outcomes.

Findings

The authors find that team formation mode matters. Randomly assigned teams, while diverse, struggle with handling uncertainty and feedback from potential stakeholders. In contrast, student self-selected teams are less diverse but more robust in handling this pressure. Results suggest that in randomly assigned teams, the entrepreneurial project becomes the team's sole reference point for well-being. Seeking to protect the project, the team's ability to deal with uncertainty and external feedback is limited, stifling development. In student self-select teams, team well-being becomes a discrete reference point. This enables these teams to respond effectively to external project feedback while nurturing team well-being independently.

Originality/value

Education theories' implications about the benefit of team diversity may not apply to experiential learning-based entrepreneurship education's typical level of ambiguity and uncertainty. Therefore, educators may have to reconsider the unique dynamics of team formation strategies to ensure strong teamwork and teamwork outcomes.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 27 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 October 2020

Helle Neergaard, Sarah Robinson and Sally Jones

This paper introduces “pedagogical nudging” as a method, which can transform student dispositions and their perceived “fit” with the field of entrepreneurship. The authors…

1204

Abstract

Purpose

This paper introduces “pedagogical nudging” as a method, which can transform student dispositions and their perceived “fit” with the field of entrepreneurship. The authors investigate what characterises the identity change process experienced by students when exposed to pedagogical nudging.

Design/methodology/approach

Using ethnography, the authors apply an experiential-explorative approach to collecting data. The authors collected 1,015 individual reflection logs from 145 students of which the authors sampled 290 for this paper combined with interviews, observational and documentary data.

Findings

Pedagogical nudging techniques help (1) expose and challenge the student habitus by planting footprints in the mind; (2) straddle the divide between student and nascent entrepreneur by enabling them to recognise and experiment with an entrepreneurial habitus and (3) figuratively learn to climb the entrepreneurial tree by embracing an entrepreneurial habitus. In the first step, the authors use the interventions as cognitive means of influencing (pedagogical nudging). In the second, students participate in an iterative meaning-making process through reflection. In the third, they internalise the “new” entrepreneurial habitus—or discard it.

Research limitations/implications

The authors extend existing knowledge about the effect of particular kinds of pedagogies in entrepreneurship teaching, and how these can support enterprising behaviour. The authors demonstrate how an exploration of the inner self, identity and beliefs develops the capacity for students to re-shape future outcomes and create value.

Practical implications

By using nudging pedagogies, educators can support students to develop new ways of acknowledging and coping with transformative learning.

Originality/value

The research documents how it is possible to 'nudge' our students towards more entrepreneurial behaviours.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2017

Jan P. Warhuus, Lene Tanggaard, Sarah Robinson and Steffen Moltrup Ernø

The purpose of this paper is to ask: what effect does moving from individual to collective understandings of the entrepreneur in enterprising education have on the student’s…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to ask: what effect does moving from individual to collective understandings of the entrepreneur in enterprising education have on the student’s learning? And given this shift in understanding, is there a need for a new paradigm in entrepreneurship learning?

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on ethnographic data from entrepreneurship education (EEd) at a summer school in Denmark. The purpose of the summer school was to bring the students from an awareness of their own competences to a shared understanding of resources, relationships and opportunities for becoming enterprising.

Findings

Drawing on the recent developments in understanding creativity, the authors’ explore the potential for similarities between becoming an entrepreneur in collaboration with others and being creative in collaboration with others. The authors’ found that a focus on the collaborative and distributed character of entrepreneurship, as within the We-paradigm from creativity, does not exclude the importance of perceptions of individuals’ self-images as part of a course in entrepreneurship. Yet, a reformulation of these could be an entry point for richer group work and articulation of diverse group potential.

Research limitations/implications

This study suggests that it is possible to take at least one step further in what can be achieved during an EEd course. Rather than remain a focus on individual learning and treating group work a didactics instrument, team formation processes can be used as a pedagogy/andragogy experiential tool in the classroom with its own learning outcomes, as presented and discussed above. For educators, this means that they have an additional tool to aid the complicated task of bringing EEd to students across campus. For students, this new approach means that the often dreaded and frustrating process of classroom team formation can become a positive experience of purposeful team assembly and collaboration. Two possible limitations regarding the findings of this paper can be identified: for students with extensive experience in forming teams and working in groups, taking them through this process may not have the desired effect as they may rely on habits and known mechanism without much reflection; it may be difficult to achieve the desired effect with students that know each other well before the course starts, as they may have too strong hidden agendas about who they want to work with and who they do not want to work with that this will over-power the idea/opportunity/subject-matter driven approach (Aldrich and Kim, 2007). Educators should consider if they may be subject to these limitations as this may have an effect on the use of active, opportunity-driven team formation in practise. To counter the second limitation, educators may want to consider how far into a course they want to facilitate the team formation; especially for courses running over significantly longer periods than two weeks. Future research may be able to assess the significance of these limitations.

Practical implications

This paper explores how students experience and handle a shift from an individual to a collaborative understanding of entrepreneurship imposed on them by the novel and unique design of a course that explicitly incorporates the team formation process into the curriculum. This is undertaken to gauge the extent to which students experience this shift as fitting the actual and perceived need for shared practices in developing enterprising behaviour, and to shed light on what action/process-based EEd courses may benefit from actively including a team formation process in the course design.

Social implications

EEd may be offered for a number of reasons. New enterprises are seen as a potential source of economic wealth and for the student, this type of education offers the possibility of using their knowledge in new ways, becoming entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs. Also, from the perspective of both the higher education institution and the student, in the fast changing world in which we live, the digital mobility and multiplicity of work environments requires a workforce that possesses a range of individual competences. Such as being persistent, engaged and having good ideas, competences that are difficult to teach and hard to learn. Adding to our knowledge of how to handle these concerns, the paper points at a number of social implications of EEd.

Originality/value

The research conducted in this research paper contributes to the field of EEd by exemplifying how conceptual understandings of entrepreneurship as a collective enterprise, rather than an individual one, impact students’ understanding and experience of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it provides a foundation for expanding research aimed at providing students with a learning experience more in line with the everyday life of an entrepreneur.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 59 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Sarah Robinson

445

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 16 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Lorraine Johnston, Sarah Robinson and Nigel Lockett

This paper aims to stimulate debate among academic and policymaking communities as to understanding the importance of social processes and open innovation contexts within existing…

2024

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to stimulate debate among academic and policymaking communities as to understanding the importance of social processes and open innovation contexts within existing models of knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) between higher education institutions (HEIs) and industry.

Design/methodology/approach

This research was conducted through a number of case studies connected to UK HEIs and through extensive interviews with representatives of HEI, industry and policy makers over a two‐year period.

Findings

The results confirm that social processes are often under‐explored in collaborative HEI‐industry settings. The study identified seven emerging themes which are important to HEI‐industry relationships: the importance of network intermediaries; flexibility, openness and connectivity of network structures; encouraging network participation; building trust in relationships through mutual understanding; active network learning; strengthening cooperation through capacity building; and culture change.

Practical implications

This research raises implications for policymakers and practitioners engaged in developing KTE collaborative activities. The paper argues for greater attention to be placed upon the social processes that affect collaborative innovation and working. Policymaking in particular needs to take account of these processes as they are neither easy to establish nor sustain.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature on HEI‐industry interactions for enhanced KTE activity and partnership working which demonstrates value to wider scholarly and practitioner readership. In the context of “open innovation”, the paper argues in favour of greater attention to be paid to the social processes involved in engaging HEI academics with industry professionals. Moreover, the paper further contributes to wider perspectives on the importance of international HEI‐industry research activities.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 16 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 December 2016

Klaus Thestrup and Sarah Robinson

This chapter demonstrates how Humanities students in a blended learning course become active learners, use an entrepreneurial approach, and reflect on the achievement of an…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter demonstrates how Humanities students in a blended learning course become active learners, use an entrepreneurial approach, and reflect on the achievement of an entrepreneurial mindset. Students at the Master's ICT-based Educational Design, where they work with information- and communication technology in an educational context, were challenged to create value for themselves and others in their professional life by experimenting with ways to combine the online with the offline with their own students/pupils.

Methodology/approach

We present a case study over the period of one semester of five entrepreneurial teams of Masters students on an ICT-based Educational Design. Effectuation, as a process, was combined with a design structure to help guide the students. Data were drawn from observations, written material in the form of blogs and assignments, as well as recorded conversations on Google Hangout with groups of students.

Findings

The use of reflection, collaboration, and the effectual process in the open laboratory provide the vehicle to nurture and support the achievement of a creative and innovative ways of working with real life practices. We suggest that nurturing experimental communities of practice in open learning laboratory settings may provide an opportunity for establishing an entrepreneurial mindset in students and as such has to the potential as a method to confront future societal challenges.

Originality/value

This chapter makes an important contribution to entrepreneurship education in general by demonstrating how the combination of particular online/offline strategies can support the enhancement of entrepreneurial mindsets that will serve learners throughout the life course.

Details

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-068-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 June 2020

Sian Edwards

To explore the advice given by the British Girl Guides Association, a popular girls' youth organisation, to urban members in the period from 1930 to 1960.

Abstract

Purpose

To explore the advice given by the British Girl Guides Association, a popular girls' youth organisation, to urban members in the period from 1930 to 1960.

Design/methodology/approach

This article is based on an analysis of the Girlguiding publications The Guide and The Guider in 30 years spanning 1930–1960.

Findings

The article shows that, although rural spaces maintained symbolic position in the education and training of the British Girl Guides Association throughout the mid-twentieth century, the use of urban spaces were central in ensuring that girls embodied Guiding principles on a day-to-day basis. While rural spaces, and especially the camp, have been conceptualised by scholars as ‘extraordinary’ spaces, this article argues that by encouraging girls to undertake nature study in their urban locality the organisation stressed the ordinariness of Guiding activity. In doing so, they encouraged girls to be an active presence in urban public space throughout the period, despite the fact that, as scholars have identified, the post-war period saw the increased regulation of children's presence in public spaces. Such findings suggest that the organisation allowed girls a modicum of freedom in town Guiding activities, although ultimately these were limited by expectations regarding the behaviour and conduct of members.

Originality/value

The article builds upon existing understandings of the Girl Guide organisation and mid-twentieth century youth movements. A number of scholars have recently argued for a more complex understanding of the relationship between urban and rural, outdoor and indoor spaces, within youth organisations in the 20th century. Yet the place of urban spaces in Girlguiding remains under-explored.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 49 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Ian Gordon and Sarah Jack

The need to develop a greater understanding about the creation of social capital and how this might impact on entrepreneurship and the development of the small‐ to medium‐sized…

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Abstract

Purpose

The need to develop a greater understanding about the creation of social capital and how this might impact on entrepreneurship and the development of the small‐ to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) sector requires further research. This paper aims to consider to what extent engagement with higher education institutions (HEIs) by SMEs creates social capital and network benefits.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper follows the experiences of five SME owners who participated in the Lancaster University LEAD programme (a leadership programme for owner/managers who want to develop their leadership capabilities and grow their business) between 2004 and 2006. Qualitative techniques are used to consider networking activities, use and development of social capital and experiences. A framework for data collection and analysis was developed from the literature review.

Findings

Results show that the experience of engaging with the HEI sector was beneficial. Networks provided the opportunity to create social capital and had a positive impact on the development of the SME and the individual. A number of key elements supported this process namely trust in the individuals running the programme, the creation of a supportive environment where individuals were able to share experiences and social events.

Originality/value

This paper has implications for practitioners and the designers of SME engagement programmes at HEIs. For practitioners, this paper demonstrates that by engaging with the HEI sector, entrepreneurial networks can be extended. For designers, this paper demonstrates that the creation of trust and sociability are key aspects for the success of the experience of engaging. However, this must be coupled with content that is rich in reflection.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 16 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Sarah Robinson, Barbara Davey and Trevor Murrells

While European Union policy emphasises that one of the aims of family‐friendly working arrangements is to increasing gender equality, in the UK the focus has been primarily on…

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Abstract

While European Union policy emphasises that one of the aims of family‐friendly working arrangements is to increasing gender equality, in the UK the focus has been primarily on workforce retention. Drawing on a study of Registered General Nurses who returned to work after breaks for maternity leave, this paper considers their preferences and experiences in light of current UK family‐friendly policies and the implications of the findings for increasing gender equality. Questionnaires were completed by respondents in three regional health authorities and focused on the four to eight year period after qualification. The following topics were investigated: views about length of maternity break and reasons for returning to work sooner than preferred; hours sought after a return and hours obtained; the availability of preferred patterns of work and of flexible hours; retention of grade on return; the availability and use of workplace crèches, and childcare arrangements when children were unwell.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 17 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

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