<p> K-12 public schools are under immense pressure to meet the demands of several competing priorities. These priorities include, but extend beyond, educating students, providing social services, meeting benchmarks for the state and federal mandates, engaging with their community, and dealing with parents, being instructional leaders, and supervising staff members. Identifying the needs of the district, schools, and students is a daunting task for every school district and an imperative task for leaders. </p><p> This study explored whether intrapreneurship, entrepreneurship within an existing organization, could be a framework to help school districts meet these daunting demands. This quantitative study focused on an urban/suburban school district and examined the antecedents and dimensions of intrapreneurship in public K-12 education. Its main proposition was that environmental and organizational characteristics would relate positively to intrapreneurship and that together these two characteristics would also relate positively to intrapreneurship. Additionally, there were 11 sub-propositions, which examined whether the characteristics embedded within the antecedents of environment and organization also had positive relationships with intrapreneurship. Quantitative data gathering occurred through an electronic survey. The data analysis used descriptive and inferential statistic procedures. </p><p> The findings from this case study, although not generalizable to every school district, indicate that intrapreneurship is possible in public K-12 education. The findings were statistically significant, and the antecedents of environment and organization had positive relationships to intrapreneurship. Furthermore, nine of the 11 sub-propositions also had positive relationships to intrapreneurship. Lastly, favorability to change, organizational support, and industry growth were all main drivers of the antecedents in relation to intrapreneurship. This study adds to the literature on intrapreneurship in public K-12 education and offers insights for future research.</p><p>

This thesis aims to develop a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship education as a type of entrepreneurship support. We study the overall entrepreneurship support systems, the pedagogical models developed for students with different level of entrepreneurship experience, and the long-term influences of entrepreneurship education on students. Entrepreneurship education and training has become very popular in universities, colleges, and business development centers world-wide, and has been of great interest in academia also. However, the entrepreneurship teaching is usually not informed by solid theories, and students’ different learning needs are not taken into consideration. In addition, the long-term influences of entrepreneurship education on students are unclear. This thesis consists of four manuscripts, each of which is a co-authored paper that presents an individual study. Study 1 is a comprehensive literature review of 122 journal articles that disentangles multiple conceptualizations used to research entrepreneurship support and examines the effectiveness of each source and type of support. We present our theorizations found and explore how three prevailing management theories could motivate theoretical refinements in the field. We also identify areas for future research and offer guidance on how to improve the relevance of entrepreneurship support studies. Study 2 develop a set of conceptual models anchored in learning theory regarding how entrepreneurship education should be taught to students. These conceptual models are built on the techniques of entrepreneurship pedagogy such as experiential learning. They are developed for three groups of students: students without any entrepreneurship experience, students with previous entrepreneurship experience, and students who are currently running their start-ups. A set of potential variables that could be used for course evaluation purposes is also included. Choosing a model pertinent to students’ attributes, lecturers could hence design entrepreneurship courses suitable for the students. This study also provides novel insights into educators’ design of entrepreneurship programs. Study 3 is an approximately four-year quantitative longitudinal study examining the stability of students’ attitude, perceived behavior control, subjective norm, and intention to entrepreneurship over time, and the role of entrepreneurship education in this process. Findings have implications for interpreting extant entrepreneurial literature, and policy and practice related to nascent entrepreneurship development and support. The results support our argument that the theoretical and practical value of entrepreneurship literature should hinge on the temporal stability of the attitudinal and intentional constructs used. Study 4 is a qualitative study exploring what are the important knowledge/skills students learned from the entrepreneurship courses they took on average five years previously, which pedagogical approach seems most effective, whether the courses are useful for entrepreneurs and company employees. The results show that the experiential learning approach is the most effective pedagogical approach, and entrepreneurship education can be useful for entrepreneurs and certain types of company employees. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> Entrepreneurship is undoubtedly a significant global activity that helps to transform our economies and inspires public policy. Over the past decades, entrepreneurship education has witnessed phenomenal growth, as many Universities around the world offer a diversified portfolio of entrepreneurship programs, including undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees, executive education certificates, workshops or seminars. More recently, and in response to the increasing global popularity of entrepreneurship, a large number of universities established entrepreneurship centers which coordinate a wide variety of activities, programs and resources under one roof. Nevertheless, the literature consistently expresses doubts about the success of entrepreneurship educational programs and identifies learning gaps between entrepreneurs&rsquo; needs and universities&rsquo; offerings. The rise of entrepreneurship centers gives us reason to believe that they play an important role in better addressing entrepreneurs&rsquo; learning needs, but relevant research is limited. By collecting data from directors of fourteen entrepreneurship centers in the USA and Europe through qualitative interviews, this study aimed at understanding how the centers address the learning needs of entrepreneurs, primarily with regards to educational goals, development of skills, curriculum and instruction. In addition, I have conducted interviews with fourteen entrepreneurs who were either alumni from the centers or alumni from other business schools, and I have learned first-hand details on their learning needs and educational experience. This study has found that the centers address entrepreneurs&rsquo; needs through a series of activities which include (a) setting goals and understanding audiences, (b) designing and implementing curriculum and instruction, (c) measuring success. In short, this study has found that entrepreneurial centers accommodate a plethora of activities with the aim to address entrepreneurs learning needs, but they have only superficially assessed entrepreneurs&rsquo; learning needs, their decisions about curriculum and instruction approaches are not driven by research or entrepreneurs&rsquo; feedback, and their measures of success are not targeted to knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by entrepreneurs; in short, entrepreneurship centers and universities may be meeting entrepreneurs&rsquo; learning needs, but it is more a matter of luck than design.</p><p>

Along with the accumulation of evidence supporting the role of entrepreneurship in economic development (Acs & Armington, 2006; Kuratko, 2005, Reynolds, 2007), governments have persisted in encouraging people to become entrepreneurs (Acs & Stough, 2008; Brannback & Carsrud, 2008). These efforts have tried to reproduce the conditions under which entrepreneurship emerges. One of these conditions is to develop entrepreneurial skills among students and scientists (Fan & Foo, 2004). Entrepreneurship education within higher education has experienced a remarkable expansion in the last 20 years (Green, 2008). To develop entrepreneurial skills among students, scholars have proposed different teaching approaches. However, no clear relationship has been demonstrated between entrepreneurship education, learning outcomes, and business creation (Hostager & Decker, 1999). Despite policy makers demands for more accountability from educational institutions (Klimoski, 2007) and entrepreneurship instructors demands for consistency about what should be taught and how (Maidment, 2009), the appropriate content for entrepreneurship programs remains under constant discussion (Solomon, 2007). Entrepreneurship education is still in its infancy, professors propose diverse teaching goals and radically different teaching methods. This represents an obstacle to development of foundational and consistent curricula across the board (Cone, 2008). Entrepreneurship education is in need of a better conceptualization of the learning outcomes pursued in order to develop consistent curriculum. Many schools do not have enough qualified faculty to meet the growing student demand and a consistent curriculum is needed for faculty development. Entrepreneurship instructors and their teaching practices are of interest because they have a role in producing the entrepreneurs needed to grow the economy. This study was designed to understand instructors’ perspectives and actions related to their teaching. The sample studied consisted of eight college and university entrepreneurship instructors. Cases met predetermined criteria of importance followed maximum variation strategies. Results suggest that teaching content were consistent across participants while different teaching goals were identified: some instructors inspire and develop general skills of students while others envision the creation of a real business as the major outcome of their course. A relationship between methods reported by instructors and their disciplinary background, teaching perspective, and entrepreneurial experience was found.

It is widely accepted that the educational system of universities has to provide an academic environment that may serve as a catalysts for high-technology start-ups. The academic tradition of entrepreneurship in German-speaking countries is very short. Until recently, fostering innovations and new product development through entrepreneurship has not been regarded as a primary task of universities. However, perspectives have changed in this respect, and there have been numerous attempts to enhance the role of university graduates as founders of innovative businesses. In this paper, we compare the entrepreneurial intentions of students at two German-speaking universities (the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and the University of Munich) with the corresponding results for a leading institution in this field: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We find very distinct patterns of entrepreneurial spirit in these universities. The results also suggest that the lower level of founding intentions among students in Munich and Vienna may be attributed to their less distinctive entrepreneurship education. This leaves a great deal of room for improvement. (author's abstract)

This study highlights the need for a youth entrepreneurship education program of value in South African secondary schools. It examines the enterprising tendencies of grade 12 learners in 10 secondary schools in the Lejweleputswa District of the Free State province, South Africa, using the General Enterprising Tendency (GET) test. An investigation into the current status of entrepreneurship in South Africa revealed that there is a lack of entrepreneurs and not enough people who have the orientation and skills to create new businesses. This leads to a situation where the South African economy performs poorly and the recent financial crisis exuberated South Africa’s challenges in terms of poverty, unemployment and income inequality. In addition, youth unemployment has worsened as a result of the recession, because the youth lack the needed qualifications, experience and skills to compete for the few job opportunities in the labour market. Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely seen as key sources of renewed economic growth, creating jobs and advancing human welfare. This study shows that the South African youth has a positive enterprising tendency. The ‘General Enterprising Tendency Questionnaire’, completed by 530 grade 12 learners was evaluated and learners scored within the average score, although at the lower end of the suggested average. When the questionnaire’s constructs are evaluated, learners scored below the suggested average score on ‘need for achievement’, ‘need for autonomy’, ‘creative tendency’ and ‘moderate/calculated risks’, but above the suggested average for ‘drive and determination’, but it can be conclude that learners shows a tendency to be entrepreneurial. However, the study suggests that grade 12 learners in the Lejweleputswa sample have overrated expectations on the ‘drive and determination construct’. It appears that they do not have the propensity to be creative and have a low drive to be autonomous. The study also reveals that there are no practical significant differences between the mean values for the demographic variables school, age, gender, home language and ethnic group regarding the measured constructs. Major shortfalls in the current education system are highlighted, including teachers with no previous knowledge of commercial subjects that are forced to teach entrepreneurship, most schools do not implement Economic and Management Science (EMS) as learning area and as from 2013, EMS will only be introduced to the curriculum in the Senior phase (grade 7 to 9). In addition, learners are not motivated to be creators of jobs, but to rather seek employment. The study concludes that public schools in South Africa do not have the capacity to implement a successful program of youth entrepreneurship education. The involvement of Government, Department of Education, schools, teachers, parents, learners, entrepreneurs and organised business is needed to promote youth entrepreneurship in South Africa. The study expands on recommendations and presents a national strategy to enhance youth entrepreneurship in South African schools, but concludes that future research is needed. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

This study highlights the need for a youth entrepreneurship education program of value in South African secondary schools. It examines the enterprising tendencies of grade 12 learners in 10 secondary schools in the Lejweleputswa District of the Free State province, South Africa, using the General Enterprising Tendency (GET) test. An investigation into the current status of entrepreneurship in South Africa revealed that there is a lack of entrepreneurs and not enough people who have the orientation and skills to create new businesses. This leads to a situation where the South African economy performs poorly and the recent financial crisis exuberated South Africa’s challenges in terms of poverty, unemployment and income inequality. In addition, youth unemployment has worsened as a result of the recession, because the youth lack the needed qualifications, experience and skills to compete for the few job opportunities in the labour market. Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely seen as key sources of renewed economic growth, creating jobs and advancing human welfare. This study shows that the South African youth has a positive enterprising tendency. The ‘General Enterprising Tendency Questionnaire’, completed by 530 grade 12 learners was evaluated and learners scored within the average score, although at the lower end of the suggested average. When the questionnaire’s constructs are evaluated, learners scored below the suggested average score on ‘need for achievement’, ‘need for autonomy’, ‘creative tendency’ and ‘moderate/calculated risks’, but above the suggested average for ‘drive and determination’, but it can be conclude that learners shows a tendency to be entrepreneurial. However, the study suggests that grade 12 learners in the Lejweleputswa sample have overrated expectations on the ‘drive and determination construct’. It appears that they do not have the propensity to be creative and have a low drive to be autonomous. The study also reveals that there are no practical significant differences between the mean values for the demographic variables school, age, gender, home language and ethnic group regarding the measured constructs. Major shortfalls in the current education system are highlighted, including teachers with no previous knowledge of commercial subjects that are forced to teach entrepreneurship, most schools do not implement Economic and Management Science (EMS) as learning area and as from 2013, EMS will only be introduced to the curriculum in the Senior phase (grade 7 to 9). In addition, learners are not motivated to be creators of jobs, but to rather seek employment. The study concludes that public schools in South Africa do not have the capacity to implement a successful program of youth entrepreneurship education. The involvement of Government, Department of Education, schools, teachers, parents, learners, entrepreneurs and organised business is needed to promote youth entrepreneurship in South Africa. The study expands on recommendations and presents a national strategy to enhance youth entrepreneurship in South African schools, but concludes that future research is needed. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

The objectives, curriculum, pedagogy, teachers, and students are components of entrepreneurship education, perceived as challenges for its implementation and growth. Consequently, most research and discussions have focused on measures to improve them even though little is known about how they constrain entrepreneurship education. Not much is also known about any positive attributes they might have. This study sought to address this gap in literature by exploring the attributes of these educational components, and how they impacted on teaching and learning in a higher education institution in Ghana. Adopting the qualitative case study research approach, data was collected from two classroom sessions, 20 students, four teachers and a programme coordinator, using observation, focus groups and face to face interviews respectively. The study found the educational components had positive and negative attributes that impacted favourably and adversely on teacher decisions and behaviour, and on teaching and learning. The findings points to the need for a more holistic examination of the educational components by researchers and practitioners, to also focus on their merits, to help fashion out more effective and sustainable policies and strategies for entrepreneurship education. The study contribute to literature by shedding light on some merits of the educational components and how they enhance teaching and learning and support the aims of entrepreneurship education. Further research to replicate this study or aspects of it in other contexts and populations is recommended. / Educational Management and Leadership / Ph. D. (Education Management)

The aim of this doctoral dissertation project has been to investigate and describe Entrepreneurship Education in one Swedish county, E‐county. The dissertation is based on five studies, four case studies and a minor follow‐up study. Together these studies constitute a multiple case study called The Main Study. The purpose of the study has been to investigate how European policy on entrepreneurship education has been reproduced and realized in different educational settings in E‐county, and the consequences this has had for fostering students and local identity building. The two first studies, cases A and B were carried out in three schools where three high school programs were studied, the Haircare program, a technical program and a social science program. The programs were chosen so that the whole range of highschool programs were represented; a practical program, a semi‐academic program and an academic program. The third case, C, contained the specific educational program ʺSummer Entrepreneur” which was developed in a local municipality in Ecounty, and had been spread throughout Sweden. The program was developed by local people within the framework of an educational concept that had been imported from Canada, “Open For Business“. The fourth study, case D, was carried out in the educational program Youth Enterprise in local high schools, including the so called “Practice school”. The fifth study was a minor study through interviews with representatives from the different educational programs. To enable methodical triangulation, studies A to D were carried out with interviews, questionnaires, observations and document analysis. The studies were based on theories of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and general education. The theoretical framework for analysis was based on Basil Bernstein’s (2000) theoretical concepts classification, framing, the pedagogic device and pedagogic identities. The major finding from the Main Study was that entrepreneurship education was already part of the educational programs studied for some time before it became part of the Swedish national curricula in 2011. Entrepreneurship had become an element in the fostering of local identities in E‐county. Since it has become a major element of the value base in the national curricula, it will probably be an important part in fostering and identity building in all Swedish schools in the future.

<p> Problem and Purpose </p><p> Innovative solutions in national defense are needed to respond to national security threats in our uncertain environment. Leader attitudes and behaviors have a substantial impact on innovation. Unfortunately we did not completely understand the effect of leader attitudes and behaviors on innovation and the team dynamics that lead to innovation, especially in the military. The purpose of this study was to determine how leadership attitudes and behaviors contribute to product innovation within the U.S. Navy and how leadership emerges within this complex adaptive system of innovation. </p><p> Method </p><p> The research was a qualitative design based on a multiple or comparative case study. A theoretical/conceptual framework of complexity leadership theory was used as a meso model to understand adaptive innovative processes at work in the context of bureaucratic forms of organizing. </p><p> Three teams based on three product innovations were selected because they demonstrated breakthrough innovation with disruptive technology and successfully fielded their capabilities within cost and schedule thresholds. </p><p> Data from three project teams were collected using interviews, focus groups, and program documentation. Eighteen individuals participated in interviews and focus groups. The attitudes and behaviors of nine formal leaders and several emerging leaders were analyzed and evaluated. The results were summarized in six different themes that were apparent across all three projects and multiple leaders. </p><p> Results </p><p> These six themes were a combination of leader attitudes and behaviors that contributed to the success of the three projects. These attitudes and behaviors were observed at all levels of the organization from the program manager, to the IPT leaders, to the engineers getting the job done. The first theme was urgency driven by a heartfelt need. The second theme was that these leaders would listen and were open to ideas. The third theme was to know the process and challenge the process while managing risk and ensuring it is good enough. The fourth theme was vision, passion, assertive, persistence, and moderating setbacks. The fifth theme was trusted leader with credibility, integrity, and was professional. The last theme was collaboration, teamwork, and recognition. Communication was apparent throughout all the themes and links them together. </p><p> Conclusions </p><p> The attitudes and behaviors of the leaders in this study contributed to the innovation by keeping the polarity within these themes in creative tension. The leaders established a strong sense of urgency based on a heartfelt need while also creating an atmosphere and practice of making sure everyone had a voice and their voice counted. The leaders were professional with credibility and integrity. They knew the process, but also challenged the process, managed risk, and encouraged a solution that was good enough. The leaders were passionate about the vision and were assertive and persistent in removing obstacles. But they also encouraged collaboration and teamwork. They moderated setbacks and prevented the team from getting discouraged and took opportunities to recognize the team both informally and formally. These leader attitudes and behaviors contributed toward leaders emerging in the organization. </p><p> A wheel of innovation is proposed that demonstrates the themes in a synergistic and balanced approach. While this improved our understanding of how leader attitudes and behaviors drive innovation, there are still significant areas for further study. Further case studies are needed to determine if this wheel of innovation is applicable outside of the U.S. Navy. Quantitative studies based on these findings are needed to expand the understanding and generalizability of the model.</p>