Purpose -Business Plan Competitions (BPCs) are readily prescribed and promoted as a valuable entrepreneurial learning activity on university campuses worldwide. There is an acceptance of their value despite the clear lack of empirical attention on the learning experience of nascent entrepreneurs during and post-participation in university-based BPCs. To address this deficit, the purpose of this paper is to explore how participation in a university-based BPC affords entrepreneurial learning outcomes, through the development of competencies, amongst nascent entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach -Underpinned by a constructivist paradigm, a longitudinal qualitative methodological approach was adopted. In-depth interviews with nascent entrepreneur participants of a UK university-based BPC were undertaken at the start and end of the competition but also six months after participation. This method enabled access to the participant's experiences of the competition and appreciation of the meanings they attached to this experience as a source of entrepreneurial learning. Data were analysed according to the wave of data collection and a thematic analytical approach was taken to identify patterns across participant accounts. Findings -At the start of the competition, participation was viewed as a valuable experiential learning opportunity in pursuit of the competencies needed, but not yet held, to progress implementation of the nascent venture. At the end of the competition, participants considered their participation experience had afforded the development of pitching, public speaking, networking and business plan production competencies and also self-confidence. Six months post-competition, participants still recognised that competencies had been developed; however, application of these were deemed as being confined to participation in other competitions rather than the routine dayto-day aspects of venture implementation. Developed competencies and learning remained useful given a prevailing view that further competition participation represented an important activity which would enable value to be leveraged in terms of finance, marketing and networking opportunities for new venture creation. Research limitations/implications -The findings challenge the common understanding that the BPC represents an effective methodology for highly authentic, relevant and broadly applicable entrepreneurial learning. Moreover the idea that the competencies needed for routine venture implementation and competencies developed through competition are synonymous is challenged. By extension the study suggests competition activities may not be as closely tied to the realities of new venture creation as commonly portrayed or understood and that the learning afforded is situated within a competition context. Competitions could therefore be preventing the opportunities for entrepreneurial learning that they purport they offer. Given the practical importance of competition participation as a resource acquisition activity for nascent en...

This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.)Originality/Value: This paper valuably critiques the efficacy of a commonly employed yet underchallenged methodology for entrepreneurship education; the BPC. The propositions offered can guide competition provision in a more authentic, realistic and relevant way that is potentially better suited to inspiring and supporting entrepreneurial new venturing amongst students and graduates now rather than in the future. The paper thus has practical value to those designing and delivering competition-based entrepreneurship education.provision of which has endured largely without question (Florin, Karri and Rossiter 2007;Watson, McGowan and Smith 2014). Despite first, a lack of evidence to suggest that BPC participation results in new venture creation and second, the broader debate surrounding the relevance and effectiveness of putting focus on the business plan and competition within entrepreneurship education (Bridge and Hegarty

This paper explores whether the business plan competition (BPC), as a classically causational mechanism for extracurricular entrepreneurship education, can facilitate the development of the means that underpin an effectual approach to new venture creation. In-depth, open-ended qualitative interviews were conducted with participants in a regional university-based extracurricular BPC before, immediately after and six months after the competition. The BPC was found to facilitate the means that could be used to adopt an effectual approach. The competition afforded valuable networking opportunities and collaborative contacts with regard to ‘who they know’; and it enhanced ‘what they know’ through enabling the acquisition, development and application of key competencies. Participants were able to gain and project a confident sense of ‘who they are’ in terms of their venture, changing their perception of the venture from a student project to a credible and viable business prospect. There were strong indications that these acquired means endured in the six months following participation. The implication is that education in which a business plan is dominant need not automatically impede the promotion of an effectual approach.

Business planning competitions [BPCs] are a commonly offered yet under-examined extracurricular activity. Given the extent of sceptical comment about business planning, this paper offers what the authors believe is a much-needed critical discussion of the assumptions that underpin the provision of such competitions. In doing so it is suggested that these competitions, being based on business plans, could be limiting the entrepreneurial activity they seek to stimulate. As a result it could be said that BPCs are in a state of flux and require an evolved approach emphasizing implementation rather than planning for implementation. The issues highlighted set the scene for further critical questioning of the competition agenda and expected to be of value to those designing and offering competitions as part of their extra-curricular entrepreneurship education portfolio.

This paper examines how nascent entrepreneur perspectives toward the utility of the formal written business plan change before and after start-up competition participation. Such focus is pertinent and timely given the enduringly contentious matter of business plan creation for nascent entrepreneurs. Despite mounting criticisms, considerable resources continue to be expended on promoting the business plan within educative and start-up support provision; the globally ubiquitous start-up competition phenomenon provides a prominent example of such promotion. Approach In-depth open-ended interviews were undertaken with nascent entrepreneurs at the start, end, and six months after participation in a UK university-based start-up competition. An inductive thematic content analytical approach was taken to identify patterns across participant accounts at each wave of data collection. Findings Upon entering the competition, the nascent entrepreneurs held highly positive views toward the business plan, believing that it provided legitimacy and served as a means of sense-making. Immediately after the competition, views were more ambivalent, with the business plan viewed as secondary to action but remaining an external expectation. Six months after the competition, the business plan was viewed as underutilised and internally irrelevant; an unnecessary feature of an action-led approach and only useful when needed by external parties. Originality and Value Contributing to the limited body of start-up competition research, the enduring centrality of formal business plan production within competition provision is challenged given its limited relevance to the nascent entrepreneur beyond the competition context. Emphasis on business planning within a competition need not automatically require business plan creation; this has implications for business competition organisers.