Exploring alternative approaches in high-level entrepreneurship education: creating micromechanisms for endogenous regional growth

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is widely regarded as instrumental in economic growth, a balanced regional development and for creating jobs. To fulfil what is called their ‘third obligation’, universities are expected to contribute by research, teaching and transfer of technology. Entrepreneurial education is one of the responses to the realities. For the field of entrepreneurship, the enhanced status may seem welcome. However, there is a downside, related to the at times nebulous conceptual and efficacy notions of entrepreneurship and its education, breeding unreasonable and unpredictable expectations. This paper explores alternative strategies in university-based entrepreneurial education, describing, as a starting point, the dominant pattern of education, based on an individual-centred mindset. Further, it is argued that by conceptualizing the university as a regional evolution mechanism, a different yet parallel educational strategy may be suggested, called a business generating model. Its aim is to foster the necessary conditions for new ventures and for the strategic expansion of regional SMEs: the emergence and fusion of viable business concepts, entrepreneurial actors, resources and a munificent environment. It is suggested that educational applications based on this logic might be effective for meeting the new demands. The paper concludes by discussing some of the contingency issues related to the two broad models.

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