Entrepreneurship Education as a Strategy to Build Regional Sustainability

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education (EE) is a means to create economic activity and is of importance in the development of rural regions. Entrepreneurship education is generally conducted by three different methods: (1) teaching students about entrepreneurial themes, (2) developing the capabilities of becoming a successful entrepreneur for enterprise and (3) developing capabilities through enterprise by which persons learn through experience and discovery. Our research question is; How does education through entrepreneurship fit as a way to meet the needs of start-ups in a rural context? We follow an entrepreneurial case programme in our study by conducting observations of and interviews with 26 persons involved in the programme. Our findings are that participants consider the programme as an important contribution to the local/regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. However, it is also described as a short-lived ecosystem, from which the participants mostly benefit while on the programme and to a lesser degree afterwards. Sustainability plays a part in attracting participants but to a lesser degree forms the educational content and evaluation parameters. Our study contributes to the discussion of how education through entrepreneurship is organised as an accelerator programme to help start-ups in a rural context.

Key Elements and Their Roles in Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystem: Comparative Review and Suggestions for Sustainability

“…In particular, government, industry, and community were identified as key elements. Consistent conclusions were determined by the inherent nature of entrepreneurship education [14,18,71,89] because it is not the general education of universities, but the education about entrepreneurship (Interviewee #9). Entrepreneurship education has a positive impact on innovation and entrepreneurship activities [90], which is an important driving force for economic and social development.…”

Influence of Entrepreneurial Psychology and Spirit on the Cultivation of Students’ Entrepreneurial Values and Ability Under the New Media

“…As a result, the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education was verified in terms of the improvement of entrepreneurial ability, the decrease of entrepreneurial barriers, and the change of entrepreneurial intention ( Wu et al, 2018 ). Believed that entrepreneurship education could help rural enterprises create higher economic value, finding that respondents thought entrepreneurship education was influential to local/regional entrepreneurship ecosystems, and most respondents had benefited from the course, whereas the degree of the benefit lowered after the course ended ( Hagebakken et al, 2021 ). Believed that entrepreneurship education was critical to stimulate people’s interest in entrepreneurship, analyzed the characteristics of entrepreneurs, and found a customized cultivation model for young rural entrepreneurs in the agricultural industry.…”

Implications of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Romanian Secondary Education Students, over the Romanian Business Market Development

“…In this regard, the need for regional sustainability has led Hagebakken et al to study the possibility of using entrepreneurial education to build this sustainability. Although the long-term impact of entrepreneurship education is difficult to determine, the authors prove the usefulness of this type of education through analysis among Nordic start-ups in Norway [57]. The implementation of this idea, however, has posed significant challenges alongside the declared positive effects.…”