Comparative Entrepreneurship Education

This book systematically compares the innovation and entrepreneurship education (IEE) in the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Croatia, Canada, South Korea, and China. The book invites the most distinguished professors of each country in this field to contribute. It provides a context analysis that can lead to greater insight into why and how IEE has become an important government agenda and an institutional priority in different country settings. Following the context, each chapter analyzes governmental policies and the guidance of entrepreneurship education in recent years. This book also analyzes the internal development and supporting system of IEE from an ecosystem perspective. Based on the comparison of case countries, the book puts forwards the common successful experience and the differentiation of IEE.

This title was first published in 2003. The book covers the areas of: entrepreneurship and economic development; entrepreneurship theories (traditional and alternative); entrepreneurship education and training programmes; a comparative European analysis of entrepreneurship programmes; a profile of the aspiring entrepreneur; assessing effectiveness; and a framework for the design and development of entrepreneurship training programmes. Readers should gain a significant insight into the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training programmes from both the programme providers' and participants' point of view. Key features of the book include: an up-to-date review of the literature in this field; a comparative analysis of entrepreneurship programmes with a European perspective; an in-depth treatment of the effectiveness issue both on a qualitative and quantitative basis, and a longitudinal study involving a control and comparator group. The framework proposed by the authors should be applicable on a European scale.

This book focuses on the nature and role of entrepreneurship in modern developed and emerging economies and societies, its relation to governments and universities, and its role in the often-forgotten informal economy. The aim is to position entrepreneurship in the post-crisis context and explore how its relation to universities and governments contributes to explain the countries’ and territories’ growth performance and resilience or vulnerability to the crisis. The accent is particularly on processes and patterns at local level and in small and medium-sized enterprises in local economic systems and districts, local systems of innovation, and the types and configurations of innovation these give origin to. With globalization, entrepreneurship has become fundamental for the competitiveness of territories and countries, for policy management and for development. The local dimension is fundamental because of agglomeration economies and effects, the advantages of proximity and the nature of knowledge and information. Furthermore, territories carry to the centre-stage tacit knowledge, localized social capital, embeddedness and interpersonal relations as fundamental components of their endogenous socio-economic development and competitiveness. When local systems are connected in a horizontal network, they contribute to the strength of national and international systems. To play a constructive role from this perspective, entrepreneurship must avoid local entrenchment and support the local economy to upgrade and be competitive. To do this, the entrepreneurs’ interaction and alliance with universities and governments is a must for those countries and localities wanting to emerge. This requires that enterprises, universities and governments create synergies and spill-overs to their mutual advantage.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are increasingly viewed as key contributors to global economic and social development. University-based entrepreneurship ecosystems (U-BEEs) provide a supportive context in which entrepreneurship and innovation can thrive. In that vein, this book provides critical insight based on cutting-edge analyses of how to frame, design, launch, and sustain efforts in the area of entrepreneurship. Seven success factors were derived from an in-depth analysis of six leading, and very different, university-based entrepreneurship ecosystems in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. These seven success factors are: (1) senior leadership vision, engagement and sponsorship; (2) strong programmatic and faculty leadership; (3) sustained commitment over a long period of time; (4) commitment of substantial financial resources; (5) commitment to continuing innovation in curriculum and programs; (6) an appropriate organizational infrastructure; and (7) commitment to building the extended enterprise and achieving critical mass. Based on these success factors, the authors provide a series of recommendations for the development of a comprehensive university-based entrepreneurship ecosystem. This major assessment of how best to drive university-based entrepreneurship ecosystems is essential reading for anyone involved in higher education (particularly provosts, deans, and professors), government agencies concerned with socio-economic development, and all those concerned with helping entrepreneurship ecosystems to flourish.

This first volume in the series covers such topics as alternative ways of thinking about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and training, the comparative study of ethnic enterprise, and financing new venture development.

This book explains the strategic appeal of innovation and entrepreneurship education based on the systematic analysis of the key characteristics and constraints of China’s economic transformation and upgrading. The book presents results related to studying the common trends of innovation and entrepreneurship education at the times of economic globalization and the experience of major countries, exploring the cultivation model of key innovation and entrepreneurship talents and mechanism of the innovation and entrepreneurship education ecosystem. Based on ecology and system theory, this book puts forward the concept of “global ecology” to explain the complex relationship among various elements in the process of innovation and entrepreneurship education.

"The study finds that arguments supporting or opposing entrepreneurial education are highly contextual. According to the literature studied, entrepreneurship education is more directly focused upon small business and entrepreneurship, whereas enterprise education is aimed at the development of enterprising behavior, skills and attributes, not only for business use. Furthermore, debates on entrepreneurial education are more complex than shown in previous studies. The debate in the United States is more diverse and practice-driven than those are in the United Kingdom and Finland. In addition, the discourse of each country has unique categories." "The book includes suggestions for future research and gives recommendations particularly for Finnish practice, which could also benefit other societies just starting their path in entrepreneurial education. The study serves as a comprehensive literature source for future interests and research."--BOOK JACKET.

As entrepreneurship education grows across disciplines and permeates through various areas of university programs, this timely book offers an interdisciplinary, comparative and global perspective on best practices and new insights for the field. Through the theoretical lens of collaborative partnerships, it examines innovative practices of entrepreneurship education and advances understanding of the discipline.