1,721,127 research outputs found
Entrepreneurial learning in extra-curricular start-up programs for students
Get PDFAbstractPurpose: This study focuses on extra-curricular start-up programs for students at higher educational institutions. It explores the social and situated learning experiences of students who participate in start-up programs, as well as how the processes and outcomes of entrepreneurial learning are potentially shaped by this context.Design/Methodology: The study follows multiple cohorts of students who have participated in an extra-curricular start-up program managed by three collaborating universities in Greater Copenhagen. The data has been inductively analysed using semi-structured interviews with students and project managers during and after the start-up program, complemented with project progress reports, observation notes and survey data.Findings: The analysis generates a grounded, theoretically informed process model of entrepreneurial learning situated in extra-curricular start-up programs. The model depicts how the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice subsequently enables students to expand knowledge structures and develop greater self-confidence in performing entrepreneurship. The model identifies three interconnected components that trigger entrepreneurial learning among students, which allow them to acquire two set of competencies: venture creation competencies and enterprising competencies. Originality/Value: The findings offer unique insights into how the social and relational environment influence and shape the learning experience of students, hence filling the research void on entrepreneurial learning in the situated context of extra-curricular enterprise activties. The findings also elucidate how individual learning experiences of students are potentially shaped by the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice
Introduction to the Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurial Learning : Reviewing the past and guiding the way forward
No full textThis chapter introduces the Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurial Learning. It provides a brief review of how entrepreneurial learning emerged as a research field during the 1990s and early 2000s, coupled with an overview of the research field based on a bibliometric analysis of published research in the past fifteen years. It uses this analysis to depict the evolution of articles over time, top journals for entrepreneurial learning research, standard references on which the research is based and joint research themes in the field. After this, in the concluding section, it introduces the chapters comprising the core contributions of the Handbook by discussing their content and contributions to the advancement and accumulation of knowledge on the learning and developmental process of entrepreneurship
Structures and Behaviour: a Cross-Country Comparison of Boards of Directors in SMEs.
No full textPrior cross-country governance studies mainly built on agency theory’s governance model. Recently, the use of this theoretical perspective has been criticized from both institutional theory as well as the behavioural perspective. Institutional theory would predict that a significant part of the variation in board behaviour could be attributed to the institutional context of a country. In contrast, the behavioural perspective follows the reasoning that board behaviour is expected to be determined by firm-specific challenges and needs rather than the broader institutional context and hence, predicts that the institutional context of a country does not explain variation in actual board behaviour. The aim of this study is to examine the empirical validity of these opposing predictions about board behaviour. Using a database of SMEs of three countries with a different governance system (Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway), our statistical analyses mainly support the predictions of the behavioural perspective
Business angels and value added : what do we know and where do we go?
No full textBusiness angels have been highlighted as important stakeholders for potential high-growth ventures. Extant empirical research provides evidence that they not only contribute with money but also bring added value to the ventures in which they have invested. However, despite the reported benefits of the value added provided by these investors there are very few studies that try to conceptualize this important issue. The present study seeks to meet this shortcoming by presenting a review of literature and research on business angels and value added. The overall objective is to recognize the range of value added activities that business angels have been reported to perform, aggregate the findings into a set of distinct but complementary value adding roles, and then link these roles to theoretical perspectives that explain why they have the potential to contribute to added value. Four different value added roles performed by informal investors are presented together with an explanation of how they can be seen as complementary to each other. The following discussion is then used to guide future studies of business angels and value added towards areas where our knowledge is still limited
The process of entrepreneurial learning: A conceptual framework
No full textThe present article seeks to advance the theoretical knowledge of entrepreneurial learning by reviewing and synthesizing available research into a conceptual framework that explains the process of entrepreneurial learning as an experiential process. The framework identifies three main components in the process of entrepreneurial learning: entrepreneurs' career experience, the transformation process, and entrepreneurial knowledge in terms of effectiveness in recognizing and acting on entrepreneurial opportunities and coping with the liabilities of newness. Based on the arguments in the article, five major propositions were developed to refine our understanding of entrepreneurial learning. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed
Creating communities of practice with established entrepreneurs: Lessons for entrepreneurial learning
Get PDFThis chapter explores how entrepreneurial learning emerges through entrepreneurs’ participation in action learning sets. Using empirical data from an entrepreneur development programme, it uses concepts of communities of practice and social capital to identify how the learning processes developed. Creating these managed learning communities developed through three stages: the deliberate creation of the community; the development of shared language codes and understanding of protocols; and the emergence of relationships dependent on ongoing meaningful discourse. The communities were inherently fragile and some broke down through a lack of engagement, inauthentic sharing of experiences, and breaches of trust. Cognitive social capital and relational social capital concepts can help us navigate the process of inter-entrepreneurial learning in such contexts. The chapter contributes to entrepreneurial learning by demonstrating that building an entrepreneurial learning community requires creating social interactions that have meaning for the entrepreneurs, so they can learn in their practice and vicariously through inter-entrepreneurial learning
Does prior start-up experience matter for entrepreneurs’ learning? : A comparison between novice and habitual entrepreneurs
No full textPurpose– This paper aims to present a study of the role of prior start‐up experience as a source of learning in the entrepreneurial process. Three learning outcomes are examined with respect to a comparison between habitual and novice entrepreneurs: skills for coping with liabilities of newness, preference for effectual reasoning, and attitudes towards failure.Design/methodology/approach– This is an empirical study based on statistical analysis conducted on a sample of 231 Swedish entrepreneurs that have started a new independent firm in 2004.Findings– The findings suggest that habitual and novice entrepreneurs differ significantly with regard to several interesting aspects of the hypothesized dimensions.Research limitations/implications– The findings provide a better understanding of start‐up experience as a source of learning and its effects on the skills, preferences and attitudes of habitual entrepreneurs.Originality/value– Previous research has suggested that prior start‐up experience is an important source of entrepreneurial learning, but has not put much effort into explaining how this particular type of experience influences various learning outcomes on an individual level. The present study advances these suggestions by showing how prior start‐up experience influences entrepreneurs' skills for coping with liabilities of newness, effectual reasoning and attitudes towards failures. Moreover, the study contributes to existing literature and research on entrepreneurial learning by developing explorative measures of individual learning outcomes that have been highlighted as influenced by prior experience in recent entrepreneurship research
The process of entrepreneurial learning : A conceptual framework
No full textExtant research suggests that entrepreneurs who have been involved in starting up a new venture also seem to be more successful and effective in starting up and managing their second and third organization (see e.g. Lamont 1972; Vesper 1980; Ronstadt 1988; Starr and Bygrave 1992; Wright et al. 1998). If this is true, what expertise and special knowledge do these entrepreneurs gain from doing their first start-up, and how do entrepreneurs develop their personal experiences into such expertise and special knowledge? Considering that entrepreneurship is a field of research that has not been particularly well studied in relation to the process of learning (Agnedal 1999; Rae and Carswell 2001; Ravasi et al. 2004), it is not surprising that these and similar questions have remained largely unanswered within this field.</p
- …
