Threshold concepts in entrepreneurship – the entrepreneurs’ perspective

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present research into the entrepreneurs’ perspective of concepts critical to thinking as an entrepreneur, in order to inform enterprise and entrepreneurship course design in higher education. Design/methodology/approach Taking a social constructivist approach, using a Delphi-style method, semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs were conducted, transcribed, thematically coded and analysed, and a list of candidate threshold concepts was drawn up. Two rounds of Delphi were conducted with the entrepreneur panel and consensus was reached on a final collection of threshold concepts in entrepreneurship. Findings The threshold concepts identified are “I can create value” (or self-efficacy), “I see opportunities” (or opportunity), “I can manage risk” (or risk), “I know what’s important” (or focus) and “I take action” (or impact). Research limitations/implications Entrepreneurship is generally regarded as an important factor in economic growth, and higher education is an appropriate place for the development of entrepreneurship. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding how best to educate students for entrepreneurship in higher education or indeed what educating students for entrepreneurship really means. Identifying threshold concepts in entrepreneurship using the lived experience of entrepreneurs is likely to open up new and more effective approaches to teaching this multidisciplinary subject area. Originality/value This study contributes to the call for more research-grounded discussion on the quality of entrepreneurship education initiatives, particularly in relation to what makes pedagogical innovations effective by suggesting five entrepreneurship threshold concepts. These entrepreneurship threshold concepts can be used to set out a structure for the design and (re)development of enterprise and entrepreneurship curricula, as well as enabling more constructively aligned assessments.

Nivel de la capacidad para el emprendimiento en estudiantes de ingeniería y arquitectura de una universidad pública del sureste de México

“…en el factor Social con ingeniería Civil, ingeniería Química y Arquitectura. Frente a esta información vale la pena reflexionar respecto al punto de vista de Hatt (2018), quien señala que, si bien la educación superior es un lugar adecuado para desarrollar el emprendimiento, existe una falta de consenso sobre la mejor manera de educar a los estudiantes con el objetivo de desarrollar su espíritu empresarial.…”

Exploring the Effects of Entrepreneurial Education on Entrepreneurial Intention between Genders: A Pair-Wise Methodology Approach

“…An earlier study by Souitaris et al (2007) concludes that entrepreneurial education enhances the students' attitude and influence positively overall students' intention to become entrepreneurs. Similarly, a recent study of Hatt (2018) did not doubt the stance that universities can instil entrepreneurial characteristics such as opportunity recognition, self-efficacy, risk management, focus and entrepreneurial action in students. Nevertheless, the author concludes that since entrepreneurial education has spread like a wildfire, there is no best way to educate students or no real meaning to educating entrepreneurship students.…”

Computational Linguistic Assessment of Textbooks and Online Texts by Means of Threshold Concepts in Economics

“…A large number of studies focus on the identification of threshold concepts (Sender, 2017;Brückner and Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, 2018;Hatt, 2018;Lamb et al, 2019;van Mourik and Wilkin, 2019;Ivan Montiel and Antolin-Lopez, 2020). Opportunity costs was the initial threshold concept that has been identified for the discipline of economics (Meyer and Shanahan, 2003) and has since been taken up in several studies (Shanahan et al, 2006;Davies and Mangan, 2007).…”

“…Over the years, in addition to opportunity costs, a large number of concepts have been proposed and empirically tested in economics, e.g., on depreciation (Lucas and Mladenovic, 2009), elasticity (Reimann and Jackson, 2006), information asymmetry (Hoadley et al, 2015), and many more, on the basis of multiple research methods, e.g., using interviews with teachers or learners, videographies, curriculum analyses or standardized tests. For example, in a Delphi study, Hatt (2018) use interviews with entrepreneurs to investigate which concepts they regard as threshold concepts. Ivan Montiel and Antolin-Lopez (2020) conduct a literature analysis and develops 33 threshold concepts for corporate sustainable management.…”