Between entrepreneurial discourse and political awareness: an exploratory study of the Junior Enterprise Movement at a public university in Southeast Brazil

Abstract

Resumo Este artigo visa compreender a dinâmica da consciência política no Movimento Empresa Júnior (MEJ), examinando seu papel no fomento da formação cidadã e da identificação coletiva dos empresários júniores, num dos campi de uma universidade pública federal no sudeste do Brasil. A discussão se baseia no Modelo de Análise da Consciência Política para compreensão da participação em ações coletivas de Sandoval (2001). Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, cujos dados foram coletados através da observação participante, questionários, grupos focais e entrevistas semiestruturadas, submetidos à análise de conteúdo. Conclui-se que o MEJ apresenta a estrutura de um “movimento”, pois se aproxima mais do ideário de uma organização empresarial, que valoriza o discurso empreendedor. Além disso, a ausência de uma identidade coletiva mais sólida, enfraquece a noção de consciência política dos empresários júniores. Assim, o papel do MEJ como fomentador da consciência política e da participação dos gestores, que traria complementariedade entre a formação profissional e a cidadã, se afigura limitado.

Organizational Support for Entrepreneurial Orientation: The Perception of Professionals from Early Childhood Education Centers in Brazil

“…Even before the EO became an object of scientific study in the field of education, it was already something encouraged and practiced through global business educational projects such as Junior Achievement (Alves, Klaus, & Loureiro, 2021;Hiiemäe-Metsar, Raudsaar, & Uibu, 2021) in schools where education professionals needed to develop entrepreneurial skills to carry out such projects. Likewise, this has occurred in the quest for universities to become recognized or ranked as entrepreneurs (Feola, Parente, & Cucino, 2021), where educational projects such as the junior enterprise movement (Khader, Cademartori, & Lund, 2022;Palassi, Martinelli, & Paula, 2020) have contributed to disseminating EO in all knowledge areas into higher education. However, it has been argued that studies on EO and early childhood and primary education are scarce and emerging, which makes the present study original and potentially able to make a contribution by focusing on the public sector as well as demystifying the notion of entrepreneurship in education beyond that centered on business, privatization, commodity, and profit (Correa, 2020).…”

Antecedents of entrepreneurship in the career trajectories of junior enterprises alumni

“…The experience in junior enterprises tends to be a very strong catalyst for entrepreneurial career intentions in that it: (i) reinforces social relationships, allowing familiarity with models to be followed (Cortez et al, 2019;Varamaki et al, 2015); (ii) favors the development of competencies in running a business, in consulting, and in network development (Delaney et al, 2019;Salusse & Andreassi, 2016); (iii) stimulates reflection on the relationships between society, markets, and universities (Campos, 2015;Palassi et al, 2020); and (iv) is a space for experimentation and learning through mistakes and successes, and through relationships with other people (Zampier & Takahashi, 2011).…”