Commitment to an entrepreneurship training programme for self-employed entrepreneurs, and learning from participation

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of the article is to explore how self-employed entrepreneurs commit themselves to an entrepreneurship training programme and how such commitment relates to their perceptions of learning. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through qualitative, inductive methods by interviewing and observing six entrepreneurs who took part in an entrepreneurship training programme. Findings The study reveals that entrepreneurial activities and a strong attachment to entrepreneurship may detach entrepreneurs from an entrepreneurship community. Generally, participants appreciated the social aspect of learning, peer support and confidence-building provided by the programme and the learning community. Nevertheless, the participation was a double-edged sword: it allowed those who were not active in entrepreneurship to explore entrepreneurship, but for those who were active in entrepreneurship and in professional communities, their participation represented a potential liability and a threat to their image as a credible entrepreneur. Research limitations/implications More research is needed on the social aspect related to training programmes particularly focusing on potential adverse outcomes, such as over-embeddedness in the community. Practical implications Training programme organizers could benefit from understanding the social aspects of learning in emphasizing the role of peer support but also of the potential dark sides of socializing. Originality/value The study offers insight into the relationship between commitment and learning in micro firms, and it contributes to a deeper understanding of the way community and social relationships facilitate or impede learning by self-employed entrepreneurs. There is a risk that the social aspect of peer support and the community replaces entrepreneurs’ need to ‘go out there’ and expose themselves to learning from experience.

The role of peripherality in students’ entrepreneurial learning

“…This debate has inspired contemporary programs in entrepreneurship education to include action-oriented, experiential, and transformative learning experiences situated in real entrepreneurial practices (Donnellon et al, 2014;Lackéus and Williams Middleton, 2015;Rasmussen and Sørheim, 2006). Few studies have, however, applied the situated learning perspective (Lave and Wenger, 1991) to understand entrepreneurial learning in education and training (Howorth et al, 2012;Kubberød and Pettersen, 2017;Nieminen and Hytti, 2016;Rae, 2003;Zhang and Hamilton, 2010), and in particular how this perspective can enrich our understanding of students' learning transformation in practice-based learning.…”

Attitude towards entrepreneurship development courses of MOOCs

“…Saeed et al (2015) explored that university support in terms of education, concept development and business development can develop students' entrepreneurial intentions and motivate them to start a new business. Besides, a number of researchers confirmed that entrepreneurship education and training programmes of universities are also the ways of developing entrepreneurship (Iglesias-Sánchez et al , 2016; Nieminen and Hytti, 2016).…”

“Developing human capitals in today's entrepreneurs: a practitioner perspective”

“…Kuratko (2003) claims that entrepreneurs can be taught by business practitioners and this can indeed yield meaningful results if carried out effectively. With traditional approaches to enterprise support training, coaching, mentoring and peer support are generally viewed as the central means of delivering entrepreneurial learning (Westhead and Storey, 1996;Nieminen and Hytti, 2016). However this requires the learning intervention to be correctly focused and the entrepreneur themselves to be open to the discovery process which entrepreneurial learning offers (Rae, 2000).…”