Search results

Entrepreneurship education and training are an increasingly widespread component of governmental and nongovernmental efforts to address the interrelated challenges of youth unemployment and poverty reduction. In the absence of consensus regarding how best to design learning opportunities that effectively prepare youth to improve their livelihoods, this chapter explores the central debates surrounding three components that are integrated into most entrepreneurship training initiatives: learning, earning, and saving. Drawing on existing literature and considering three entrepreneurship training programs underway in East Africa, the authors argue that the effectiveness of any particular youth entrepreneurship program is highly dependent on a variety of contextual considerations, many of which are beyond the control of individual youth and program managers. Implications of this are that (a) program managers need to be modest in their expectations of program effects and avoid overpromising, (b) training is needed to help prepare youth to recognize, understand, and cope with various contextual factors that impact their livelihoods, and (c) NGOs and other private organizations that implement such programs are in a position to address certain contextual factors. By highlighting key debates relevant to the design of entrepreneurship training programs, this chapter contributes to the development of entrepreneurship training initiatives that are responsive to contextual realities, thereby increasing the potential effectiveness of entrepreneurship training as a poverty alleviation strategy.

This chapter uses discourse analysis to explain why entrepreneurship has become a primary response to Africa’s youth employment challenge. It analyses almost 20 years of academic literature and publications from one of the world’s foremost authorities on entrepreneurship: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The study found that youth were positioned within a discourse of entrepreneurial essentialism; where entrepreneurship was narrativised as the only option for youth employment; and youth were framed as entrepreneurship being the natural solution for them. Youth were concurrently framed within numerous contradictory entrepreneurial discourses which were used to elevate and legitimise entrepreneurship as the key pathway for addressing Africa’s youth employment challenge. An important finding in this study was that the dominant model of entrepreneurship being promoted by GEM to address the challenge is a mainly skills-based pathway to self-employment and low-growth microenterprise development. This is concerning for two reasons: firstly, global evidence does not demonstrate much support for such an approach, and secondly, it undermines other responses to youth unemployment, particularly those which seek to address more structural, demand-side barriers to employment.

Purpose: The best way of improving youth entrepreneurs’ success rates is to provide youth entrepreneurs with quality support, skills, and resources to be better equipped and willing to make any decision that makes them creative with time. This chapter explores youth entrepreneurship in the MENA region as educating young people about entrepreneurship is crucial today and is about developing new businesses in the region.

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter mainly aims at the role of academia in boosting entrepreneurship among young people in the UAE. Then the literature provides insights on the substantial gender effect on becoming an entrepreneur and the region’s job market.

Findings: Our research indicates that the global economy is witnessing a sudden rise in entrepreneurship in all life areas, based on current world dynamics. Thus, young people must learn and accomplish skills that promote creativity for doing business. For young people to have the requisite skills to start their businesses, educational programs must be in line with industry requirements.

Originality/value: This chapter of the book focuses on youth entrepreneurship, which would help upcoming researchers and students grasp good knowledge about entrepreneurship’s importance. It also recommends relevant research areas on MENA youth entrepreneurship support programs.

This chapter develops a conceptual framework of economic development of Algeria with a particular focus on youth entrepreneurship. Drawing on the opportunity-based approach of Drucker (1985) and the impact analysis theory (IAT) advocated by Murphy and Marvel (2008), Lenjo (2015), and Dontigney (2018), this proposed conceptual framework theoretically allows the integration of different perspectives including economic development of a country and youth entrepreneurship. In principle, the opportunity-based theory posits that entrepreneurship represents a response to a stimulus, through a business venture, where an unemployed person exploits opportunities engendered by social, technological, and cultural changes in the environment. The IAT is a paradigm that deconstructs the causes and effects of a phenomenon (i.e. youth entrepreneurship) to afford greater understanding and appreciation of the research agenda, while providing an indicative assessment of the overall impact of the issue (OECD, 2014). The authors discuss the core barriers (venture capital, foreign direct investments, bureaucratic obstacles, gender discrimination, and soft skills) to entrepreneurship in Algeria, Furthermore, the authors assess the different economic forces in Algeria that appear to be promoting or sustaining entrepreneurship, particularly in young people. These forces have a tendency to be connected to a broader possibility of economic development. Further analysis is required that demonstrates the potential upsides of promoting youth entrepreneurship. Thus, the authors attempt to answer a key question: What can be done to engage the youth in small business entrepreneurship across Algeria and thus implement a sustainable solution to the country’s employment problem?

Recent interest in social entrepreneurship among young people has led to a heightened interest in new research. Few studies, however, have yet to investigate motivators of involvement, particularly from countries that are new to social entrepreneurship. The current study set out to better understand this phenomenon among young social entrepreneurs in Malaysia. In-depth one-to-one interviews with 12 young entrepreneurs were carried out to collect the data. Four themes and ten sub-themes emerged from the interviews, including early life experience (childhood experience and family experience), inspiration from clients and colleagues (interactions with the target group and exposure to social entrepreneurs), work-related experience (volunteer experience and job-related experience), and personal meaning (contribute back to society, desire for more meaning in life, and personal passions). The implications for policy-makers and interested parties are outlined in regard to enhancing participation and interest among youth for social entrepreneurship.

Young entrepreneurs' involvement in social entrepreneurship is gaining momentum, and the impact of their active participation in social enterprises is tremendous. As younger generation creates and leads social enterprises, self-identity that entails their leadership can bring benefits to various stakeholders. In particular, the engagement of younger generation in social entrepreneurship lead to positive identity development that brings impact not only to the founders but also to the employees, volunteers and recipients of the product and services offered by the social enterprise. In this context, the chapter explains the importance of social entrepreneurship in society-building, looking into how it creates values to its participants in regard to personal growth and development. The objective of this chapter is to elucidate the role of social enterprises in developing the personal identity of the younger generation. The chapter maps the characteristics of social entrepreneurs to the characteristics of young people with focus on the development of personal, social and role identities. The chapter also explains the significance of young social entrepreneurs' participation in social activities for the identity formation and how it directly and indirectly contributes to a balanced societal development.

Much of the literature on innovation and entrepreneurship in education focuses on how external ideas, processes, and techniques can be applied to education systems, schools, and classrooms to improve educational performance. Little research, however, addresses the ways that internal ideas, processes, and techniques within educational systems, schools, and classrooms impart innovation and entrepreneurial skills to youth worldwide. This chapter identifies ways that these skills can be developed in youth through mass education systems. Particular attention is given to the ways that youth are prepared to participate in the knowledge economy by becoming information innovators and knowledge entrepreneurs.

Developing entrepreneurial talent is important to sustaining a competitive advantage in a global economy catalyzed by innovation. The importance of quality entrepreneurship education and training has gained national attention, with the introduction by the 106th Congress of the Future Entrepreneurs of America Act (H.R., 1331). Congress is also considering providing technical assistance to secondary, post-secondary, vocational, and technical schools to develop and implement curricula designed to promote vocational and technical entrepreneurship (H.R., 2666).

In this book chapter, we analyse social entrepreneurship (SE) development in the Western Balkans and present a regional overview. SE has become a globally known contributor to alleviating societal, economic, social, and environmental concerns. Its influence on increasing people’s quality of life has put the concept on a pedestal, and the Balkans are no different. The new advances have increased the efforts from the third sector in advocating for increased visibility, recognition, and support for social enterprises (SEs) as contributors to the development of resilient communities and facilitating the countries’ recovery from economic, social, and environmental crises. To provide a regional development overview, we use the institutional perspective. We base the analysis on data by applying qualitative methods, including document analysis, conference speeches, round tables, consultations, and other impactful events conducted over the last decade. The evidence suggests that the Western Balkan countries are similar in their development and lack a clear vision, a strategic pathway, and sustainable solutions to accelerate the sector’s growth. The awareness of the SEs’ contributions is still low, hindering their impact and potential scalability. Raising awareness campaigns is much needed to increase SEs’ visibility, recognition, revenues, and financial sustainability. Intersectoral collaboration is not at a suitable level, and the coordination and partnerships between the SE actors are lacking. The region needs to make a significant and consistent effort to facilitate the sector’s development and support SEs to provide the expected societal impact.

The current chapter is one of the first studies to specifically address the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) for entrepreneurship development in the disadvantaged context of Sierra Leone. It highlights the important role of CSOs in the petty trading (disadvantaged) entrepreneurial ecosystem. Based on qualitative analysis of interviewers undertaken with two CSOs and three entrepreneurial firms from disadvantaged backgrounds, our findings offer interesting insights into this phenomenon. The authors find that in the context of disadvantaged entrepreneurship development, CSOs are seen as more trustworthy by the general population than the government (public bodies). The government, through the national youth commission, also tried to collaborate with CSOs regarding entrepreneurial skills development in disadvantaged entrepreneurs. The findings further reveal that despite the appreciation of the role of CSOs for disadvantaged entrepreneurship development by public authorities in recent years, they still face many bureaucratic hurdles and delays in operations. Finally, our chapter reveals several dynamics associated with skills and competencies development in disadvantaged entrepreneurship in the Sierra Leone-specific context, where skills such as basic business planning, livestock handling, and financial management emerge as being highly useful.