Editors
Professor Paul Jones, Professor Gideon Maas and Professor Luke Pittaway
Professor Gerard McElwee (Series Editor)
Entrepreneurship Education: New perspectives on research, policy & practice
The book's central theme is the effective construction and delivery of entrepreneurship education. Universities globally are under pressure from an expanding range of stakeholders to provide enterprise education and support to students (Sewell and Pool, 2010; Colette, 2013; Gibb, 2013). Enterprise education had become a research domain in itself (Pittaway and Cope, 2007; Colette, 2013) and an increasingly important aspect of UK universities’ curricular (Hannon, 2007; Pittaway and Cope, 2007; NESTA, 2008; NCEE, 2012; QAA, 2012; RSA, 2014). Within the UK, policymakers consider enterprise education, and the skills it develops, as increasing student’s employability skills, regardless of what their primary subject of study is, and thereby assisting them in gaining employment upon graduating (Universities UK (UUK), 2011; BIS, 2012; Gibb et al., 2012, QAA, 2012; All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Micro Business, 2014; BIS, 2014).
The rationale for the provision of entrepreneurship education is therefore clear with multiple drivers. Despite this growth, there is ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education and there are calls for further evidence to validate its impact (Matlay, 2005). Several studies have focused on measuring ‘soft’ impacts such as positive changes in entrepreneurial attitudes as a result of an entrepreneurial education experience (Peterman and Kennedy, 2003; Souitaris et al, 2007; Packham et al, 2010; Jones et al, 2013). This book meets that call in providing further evidence for best practice and successful deployment. The central objective of the book is to effectively inform the entrepreneurial education discipline in terms of best practice, success stories and identify its future direction for key stakeholders. The book has the following central themes:
- entrepreneurship education pedagogy
- entrepreneurial education practice
- entrepreneurial education research
Aims of Book
The book has the following aims:
- evidence novel practices in the delivery of effective entrepreneurship education including pedagogical design of curriculum.
- evidence successful entrepreneurial education including studies of student success stories.
- lessons learned from entrepreneurial education practice.
- identify future avenues of entrepreneurial education research.
- implications for policy and practice for entrepreneurial education stakeholders.
Book Rationale
The OECD (2010) claim that the small to medium sized enterprise (SME) sector comprise 99% of all the businesses across the OECD group of developed economies. Moreover, SMEs employ approximately two-thirds of the entire workforce and over half of all value added activities in these countries. However, SMEs suffer from an endemic failure rate whereby the majority do not survive the first five years of business. Furthermore, SMEs have a tendency towards non-growth with the majority remaining as micro sized enterprises for the duration of their lifespan. For example, of those SMEs that survive to ten years in lifespan, around 75% per cent born with less than five employees will still have less than five employees. Jones (2003) and Walker et al (2007) attributed SME failures to poor management capabilities, including a lack of preparedness for business and a failure to control costs.
Within the UK and the developed economies worldwide, entrepreneurship activity is being mooted by politicians as a panacea for generating employment and economic prosperity on a global basis post-recession (Kuratko, 2005; Fayolle et al, 2006; Siegel et al, 2007). Indeed, it could be argued that ongoing cuts to public sector provision makes increased entrepreneurial activity an economic necessity (Acs and Szerb, 2007). Therefore, there is a need to encourage entrepreneurial career choices for undergraduate students and more effectively equip SME owner-managers with appropriate entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to develop economically sustainably enterprises that are capable of achieving strategic growth.
Thus in recent years, there has been a global proliferation in interest and demand for entrepreneurship education, which has resulted in a significant growth in the availability of dedicated entrepreneurship higher education (HE) programmes (Klapper, 2004; Pittaway and Cope, 2007; Jones and Jones, 2011; Raposo and Paço, 2011). For example in the USA, Mazzarol (2015) noted that there are over 2,200 entrepreneurship programmes with over 100 dedicated research centres. Baldassarri and Saavala (2006) have identified the need for more people to undertake business start-up, while Rae et al (2011) and QAA (2012) have suggested that all undergraduates need to acquire an enterprising mindset and skillset to prepare them for employment and self-employment career opportunities. Despite this growth, there is ongoing debate about the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education and there are calls for further evidence and case studies to validate its impact (Jones, Penaluna and Pittaway, 2015). There is an emerging literature evaluating entrepreneurial education practice from different country contexts including Brazil (Filion and Dolabela, 2007), France (Klapper, 2004), Poland (Jones et al., 2008), UK (Jones and Jones, 2011), Australia (Peterman and Kennedy, 2004; Jones and English, 2004), China (Li et al., 2003; Zhi-rong, 2006), India (Venkatachalam and Waqif, 2005), South Africa (Isaccs et al 2007), Iran (Karimi, 2010), USA (Solomon et al., 2002; Katz, 2003). A further literature group has contrasted entrepreneurial education practice between countries (Vespar and Gartner, 1997). The literature is dominated by the USA and UK as they were in the forefront of Entrepreneurship Education. There is only a limited literature concerning entrepreneurship education practice within the developing world (Nabi and Liñán, 2011).
Previous attempts have been made to summarize best practice within the entrepreneurship education discipline (McMullan and Long 1987; Gorman et al, 1997; Pittaway and Cope, 2007). However, there is a need to update and contrast global practice and provide a comparative commentary on the evolution of the discipline. So this book is required to provide a wide evidence base of effective entrepreneurship education practices drawn from a range of countries. This evidence could evidence novel practice and/or report outcomes of entrepreneurial education.
Target Market
The book is primarily aimed at academics teaching entrepreneurship and small business management programmes at undergraduate and masters levels. It will also provide an effective introduction for Doctoral students and academics looking to engage with the discipline.
Submitting Author Requirements
Prospective authors can send an expression of interest to Prof. Paul Jones on [email protected]. Submissions should be no more than 8,000 words including tables and references and should provide an introduction, key literature, description of the case study and conclusions. Remember the book is seeking to highlight novel and effective entrepreneurship education practices so these must be highlighted in any submission. All submissions will be blind peer reviewed.
Timelines
Submission of full chapters for review: July 31st 2016