Interdisciplinary cooperation among people trained in technical and economic fields has been
identified as an important success factor in new venture teams. However, empirical findings
also indicate that individuals often refuse to engage in close and trustful relationships with
representatives of other disciplines. Thus the question arises whether education programs on
interdisciplinary cooperation may be suitable to prepare students for future activities in multifunctional
business start-up teams.
In this study, we investigate the psychological effects of an interdisciplinary business
planning course held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration
with the intention of promoting cooperation between technology-oriented professionals and
business management students. The findings show that this course experience changes the
students' attitudinal beliefs with respect to representatives of the technical discipline by
reducing stereotypical assumptions. At the same time, the course fosters awareness of the
challenges involved in cross-disciplinary cooperation. The more students communicate with
their technical counterparts and the more they familiarize themselves with the technical
aspects of the project, the stronger these effects become.(author's abstract)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VIENNA/oai:epub.wu-wien.ac.at:3119 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Lüthje, Christian, Prügl, Reinhard Wilhelm |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Source Sets | Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, PeerReviewed |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2004.10.010, http://www.elsevier.com, http://epub.wu.ac.at/3119/ |
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