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11 – 20 of 48Marja-Leena Rönkkö and Jaana Lepistö
The aim of this paper is to reveal and investigate differences in how Finnish student teachers understand entrepreneurship education and how critical they are of it. The research…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to reveal and investigate differences in how Finnish student teachers understand entrepreneurship education and how critical they are of it. The research question is: what kind of critical understanding do student teachers reveal in their conception of entrepreneurship education?
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research approach termed content analysis was used to investigate student teacher’s conceptions. The data were collected from essays written by 257 student teachers at the University of Turku’s, Rauma teacher education department during 2010-2012.
Findings
The conception of entrepreneurship education is, in many ways, related to how much one already knows about entrepreneurship education or how one reacts to it. It seems that most student teachers’ conceptions of entrepreneurship are positive, but even those in favour of it, in principle, do not necessarily want to see entrepreneurship education included in the basic education curriculum. Nevertheless, they think that enterprising pedagogy is useful and that the way of thinking about teaching is inspiring. They also feel that both teacher education and basic education benefit from some kind of entrepreneurship component, but do not take entrepreneurship education for granted. On the basis of this study, it is proposed that teacher education should incorporate more teaching that supports critical thinking in all study modules.
Originality/value
The findings of this study illustrate that there is much more to do in teacher education and its curricula. Teaching situations and learning situations are always social situations and both learners and teachers have a vital role to play.
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Gry Agnete Alsos, Ulla Hytti and Elisabet Ljunggren
Using stakeholder theory the paper seeks to investigate how technology incubators manage and balance the expectations of stakeholders, and the effect on the shaping of technology…
Abstract
Purpose
Using stakeholder theory the paper seeks to investigate how technology incubators manage and balance the expectations of stakeholders, and the effect on the shaping of technology incubators and their chances of success.
Design/methodology/approach
Incubator programmes have been introduced with multiple goals. A case study is conducted in order to examine stakeholders based on their power to influence, the legitimacy of the relationship and the urgency of claim, and how incubators deal with stakeholder expectations.
Findings
Incubator management involves balancing a complex set of conflicting goals. Expectations are interdependent, hierarchically organised, and involve sub‐processes related to different stakeholders. Goals are not fitted to an operational context. Consequently, suboptimal solutions are chosen to balance and fulfil expectations sufficiently to ensure survival. Three strategies to balance stakeholder expectations are identified.
Research limitations/implications
The stakeholder theory approach adopted shows how incubators manage the expectations of their various stakeholders, and so may explain why studies on incubator performance produce diverse results.
Practical implications
The effectiveness of incubators is difficult to assess due to multiple, and often moving, targets. There is a great risk that incubators aim for the goals that are easiest to measure and focus on short‐term results. Social returns of incubators can be reduced if incubator managers choose suboptimal solutions to balance the demands of different stakeholders.
Originality/value
Rather than accepting normative assumptions, the paper contributes to the critical analysis of the technology incubator ideal. Through stakeholder analysis the paper demonstrates how incubators are shaped by the struggle to balance conflicting goals.
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To underline that viewing entrepreneurship in the context of shifting career roles and professional identities, gendered organizational life and in the current societal context…
Abstract
Purpose
To underline that viewing entrepreneurship in the context of shifting career roles and professional identities, gendered organizational life and in the current societal context regarding working life (ageing, gender discrimination) provides us with new lenses and enables us to perceive the entrepreneurial identity as fluid and emergent.
Design/methodology/approach
A female entrepreneur's life‐story collected through a narrative interview is applied in the study. In this paper identities, organizations and societies in change form the basis for entrepreneurship. Treating entrepreneurship as a social process constrained by time and place allows it to gain new meanings and understandings of security, reliability, risk‐moderation that it has not previously seen to possess.
Findings
The paper presents the connections of time and place for entrepreneurship; first, by demonstrating how entrepreneurship as a phenomenon reflects the time and place of investigation; second, how time and place are applied as important elements in the individual story presented in the paper, and, third, how readings of time and narrative are applied to make sense of entrepreneurship in the story.
Research limitations/implications
The paper suggests that the social context (different times, places as well as, e.g. different roles, social identities and careers) should more frequently be studied within entrepreneurship research.
Practical implications
By portraying entrepreneurship from the non‐economic and non‐heroic standpoint, and reflecting the social changes that surround it, entrepreneurship is potentially made more accessible for a larger number of people.
Originality/value
The paper refuses the research of entrepreneurs as a general overriding, economic category and the quest for the “Theory of Entrepreneurship”.
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This paper explores what constitutes “enterprise education” in four European countries. It proposes a conceptual schema for capturing the various objectives of enterprise…
Abstract
This paper explores what constitutes “enterprise education” in four European countries. It proposes a conceptual schema for capturing the various objectives of enterprise education programmes and initiatives. This conceptual schema is then used to categorise the objectives of 50 enterprise programmes from Austria, Finland, Ireland, and the UK. The paper reviews the teaching/learning methods used in these programmes. It discusses what factors are associated with “effective” enterprise education, illustrating the discussion with “best practice” from the programmes studied. The paper argues that in order to operate effective enterprise education programmes, policy makers and educators need a thorough understanding of the diverse and alternative aims and objectives of enterprise education interventions, of the alternative forms such interventions can take, and of the need to “train the trainers”.
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The purpose of this paper is to understand the roles and mission assigned to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in Finnish entrepreneurship policy, and how they are reflected in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the roles and mission assigned to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in Finnish entrepreneurship policy, and how they are reflected in policy actions.
Design/methodology/approach
A discourse analysis of policy missions and content was conducted based on selected policy documents related to the government entrepreneurship programmes run in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011.
Findings
The analysis identifies a clear evolution in the policies over the years, but no radical changes; indicating that policies develop incrementally by adding to previous schemes. In addition, the analysis reveals the changes in focus, measures and key actors involved in the policies. In general, the documents emphasise the need to create more jobs of better quality, to stimulate economic growth and recently also to foster a more sustainable society. There is a limited role for entrepreneurship in introducing innovation and change to society.
Research limitations/implications
Besides analysing entrepreneurship policy there is a need to develop a better understanding of policy entrepreneurship, that is, the promotion of significant policy change. In addition, research evidence needs to be better incorporated into the formulation of policies.
Practical implications
Policymakers should be critical of policy development in order to create truly entrepreneurial policies. In order to promote entrepreneurship, more emphasis should be placed on developing incentives and measures supporting the identification and discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities, not merely on facilitating exploitation.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to entrepreneurship policy discussions by offering fresh insights into where entrepreneurship literature, policies and actions, and social reality intersect. The paper’s main contribution is to clearly show what is being promoted by the entrepreneurship policies and how, and the pitfalls of the current approaches compared to the understanding of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon.
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Ulla Hytti, Pekka Stenholm and Kirsi Peura
Existing research focuses on the role of planning in successful transfers of family business. From a bounded emotionality perspective, this paper aims to investigate the transfer…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing research focuses on the role of planning in successful transfers of family business. From a bounded emotionality perspective, this paper aims to investigate the transfer of business processes and the underlying reasons for delayed or unplanned transfers despite the feasible succession plans.
Design/methodology/approach
A follow‐up case study in six small family firms was carried out between 2001 and 2008. The research material was collected primarily in interviews with firm representatives in 2001 and 2008. Further information was obtained through participant observation, and background data on the firms were also used.
Findings
The analysis enhances understanding of business‐transfer processes in the context of subjective limitations and relational feelings. Any divergence from the original conditions in the transfer plan may delay the process but the delays are tolerated by putting the transfer on hold in the daily activities and focusing on business routines instead. The results emphasise how individuals' goals and values change over time, and how decisions are weighed up from various identity positions questioning the basic assumptions and decisions set out in the plan. Despite the delays, however, transfers of business or the firm are not easily abandoned.
Research limitations/implications
The results suggest that linear, goal‐oriented planning may not be sufficient for executing successful transfers, but further longitudinal research is needed to corroborate these qualitative findings.
Originality/value
The paper makes use of the bounded emotionality approach, which allows the analysis of both the rational and emotional aspects involved, and helps to explain delays or unplanned transfers.
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Jarna Heinonen, Ulla Hytti and Pekka Stenholm
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between student creativity, various opportunity search strategies, and the viability of business ideas developed during an…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between student creativity, various opportunity search strategies, and the viability of business ideas developed during an entrepreneurship education module.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper sets out hypotheses on the associations between individual creativity, opportunity search strategies and the viability of business ideas generated. A group of 117 students provided the sample data by participating in pre‐programme and post‐programme surveys. Explorative factor analysis was employed to examine latent variables, and factor structures were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modelling was then used to test the resulting hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that creativity is not directly associated with the viability of the business idea. Creativity does, however, strengthen the creative opportunity search strategies and the use of opportunity identification strategies based on knowledge acquisition. Accordingly, the influence of creativity on the viability of the business idea is fully mediated by those opportunity search strategies that are creative and based on knowledge acquisition. They both have a positive effect on the perceived viability of the business idea.
Research limitations/implications
The study illustrates the co‐existence of art and science in the process of recognising entrepreneurial opportunity, which involves individual action and reflection in order for a viable business idea to be developed.
Practical implications
Although creativity is perceived as a valuable element of the generation of business ideas, it has to be accompanied by opportunity search activities in order to generate viable business ideas. The findings emphasise the role of creative behaviour in devising the business idea and also of incorporating creative thinking into business planning.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the theoretical understanding of how individual creativity affects the viability of business ideas as well as the way in which students search for business opportunities.
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Lenita Hietanen and Taina Järvi
The purpose of this study is to examine and model entrepreneurial learning processes as a continuum from non-business basic education to vocational education. Previous studies and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine and model entrepreneurial learning processes as a continuum from non-business basic education to vocational education. Previous studies and policy programs in Europe suggest that entrepreneurship education should be a core part of the education system.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an action research piece of work in which two researchers (the authors) have first studied each other’s own data independently, and then combined these two sets of data. One data set has been collected in a non-business, basic education setting, whereas the other focuses on business studies in vocational education. Here, the entrepreneurial learning process is seen as a synthesis of experimentation with discovered and created opportunities and managing knowledge and competences through reflective practices and decision-making processes.
Findings
The main finding is that entrepreneurial learning can be enabled and may manifest itself as a useful process both in non-business and business school contexts. Another related essential finding is the importance of developing learners’ reflective practices.
Practical implications
This research aims to provide scientific evidence that different school levels should cooperate to establish entrepreneurial learning as a continuous process. This case has been researched in the Finnish educational system, but it may also prompt teachers at different school levels in other countries to enable their students’ entrepreneurial learning.
Originality/value
Although entrepreneurial learning has been researched frequently, there is still a lack of investigation concerning lower educational levels, especially non-business basic education. In addition, the point when growth to become entrepreneurial could begin has not been studied in depth. This research focuses on demonstrating how entrepreneurial learning can be planned and executed as a continuum at lower educational levels.
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Lenita Nieminen and Ulla Hytti
The purpose of this paper is to explore how self-employed entrepreneurs commit themselves to an entrepreneurship training programme and how such commitment relates to their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how self-employed entrepreneurs commit themselves to an entrepreneurship training programme and how such commitment relates to their perceptions of learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected through qualitative, inductive methods by interviewing and observing six entrepreneurs who took part in an entrepreneurship training programme.
Findings
The study reveals that entrepreneurial activities and a strong attachment to entrepreneurship may detach entrepreneurs from an entrepreneurship community. Generally, participants appreciated the social aspect of learning, peer support, and confidence-building provided by the programme and the learning community. Nevertheless, the participation was a double-edged sword: it allowed those who were not active in entrepreneurship to explore entrepreneurship, but for those who were active in entrepreneurship and in professional communities, their participation represented a potential liability and a threat to their image as a credible entrepreneur.
Research limitations/implications
More research is needed on the social aspect related to training programmes particularly focusing on potential adverse outcomes, such as over-embeddedness in the community.
Practical implications
Training programme organizers could benefit from understanding the social aspects of learning in emphasizing the role of peer support but also of the potential dark sides of socializing.
Originality/value
The study offers insight into the relationship between commitment and learning in micro firms, and it contributes to a deeper understanding of the way community and social relationships facilitate or impede learning by self-employed entrepreneurs. There is a risk that the social aspect of peer support and the community replaces entrepreneurs’ need to “go out there” and expose themselves to learning from experience.
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The purpose of this paper is to study how a social venture perceives and constructs its identity. This study highlights the importance of a common cause and collective…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study how a social venture perceives and constructs its identity. This study highlights the importance of a common cause and collective entrepreneurial identity when studying entrepreneurial cognition in a social entrepreneurship context. The study also introduces the concept of identity layers. These aspects have not been emphasized in previous research and, therefore, there is a lack of knowledge in this specific area. The research question that this paper sets out to explore is “What influences the identity perception of a social venture and how does the identity construction process affect organizational behavior?”.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper starts by presenting references to previous research in social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial cognition and organizational identity, thereby building a theoretical context for the case study. The case chosen is the cultural heritage site Rosenlund located in Pietarsaari, Finland. The study is based on qualitative data. Previous research on entrepreneurial identity has often been based on narrative analysis and discourse analysis (Jones et al., 2008; Down and Warren, 2006). To get a different point of view, this analysis concentrates more on behavior and outcomes, but in combination with narratives. The data analysis starts out by mirroring Rosenlund in the categorization of Zahra et al. (2009) and then moves on to taking a closer look at the organizational identity and how it is constructed.
Findings
The results from the case study show that the identity perception and the identity construction process are strongly affected by the mission (i.e. the cause) of the organization. Due to limited resources, the organization needs to be flexible, but the organization is under no circumstances ready to compromise its values. To avoid this potential dilemma, the organization has created an identity consisting of many layers, where the outer layer is thinner and more inclusive, thus providing the flexibility needed. This way of constructing identity clearly impacts the way the organization works.
Research limitations/implications
The results indicate that Rosenlund identity-wise perceives itself mainly as a collective actor. The entrepreneurial actions undertaken cannot be assigned to one single actor, but instead to a group of people. This does not rhyme very well with existing entrepreneurial cognition research where the focus is on the person, i.e. individual actor. To get a better understanding of social entrepreneurship, “collective entrepreneurial cognition” therefore needs to be studied. The organization studied turned out to be a social constructionist. It remains for future research to investigate if the same layers of identity can be seen in social bricoleurs and social engineers.
Practical implications
The results indicate the importance of identifying and communicating mission and values, i.e. defining core identity. Strategic decisions become easier when the organization has clearly defined its cause and its values, because then the organization will know when to compromise and when to say no in order not to jeopardize the cause. In the long run, this will have a positive effect on the organizational development.
Originality/value
One important finding is the existence of different layers in the organizational identity. This aspect has not been addressed before and can certainly deepen our understanding of social entrepreneurial ventures. Moreover, the findings show that by introducing the concepts of organizational identity and identity building, the focus of the entrepreneurial cognition debate shifts from an individual perspective to a collective perspective. This aspect has not previously been explored in entrepreneurial cognition research.
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