Trends in Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship Education in the United States

Abstract

The critical importance of small business management and entrepreneurship in determining the future of the economic and social well-being of the United States is generally accepted by leading experts in government and business. While there clearly is a boom in entrepreneurial enterprise throughout the nation, the extent of the growth in the educational services supporting this effort is at best only partially known through prior studies, such as those of Vesper (1985). This paper reports the results of three surveys on the development of courses, academic programs, seminars, and workshops in small business management and entrepreneurship in the U.S. The survey results point to a dramatic change in the number of colleges and universities that are now offering small business management and entrepreneurship courses and programs and in the quantity and scope of the courses offered within schools.

Using Enterprise Education to Prepare Healthcare Professional Graduates for the Real World

“…Such courses support the development of graduates' 'functional' enterprise skills (Broad, 2007), which have been argued in academic literature as necessary for scientific disciplines (The Expert Report, 2008;Sector Skills Assessment, 2012). Such courses fit well under education 'about' enterprise, which is mostly a theoretical approach (Gibb, 1999) that has been argued by Solomon and Fernald (1991) as insufficient to equip students with the necessary enterprise skills to become successful business people, and by Kirby (2002) as unable to add to their creativity or their ability to act strategically in changing environments. Therefore, it is not seen to be capable, by its self, of producing students who can handle real-life problems since they would lack the necessary skills to integrate and relate their knowledge (Barrows, 2003;Berry, 1993;Doyle, 1995).…”

“…Education 'about' enterprise is usually a theoretical approach that focuses on developing understanding about entrepreneurship and enterprise (Jameison, 1984;Gibb, 1999). Therefore, it cannot support the development of the skills necessary for graduates to become successful business people (Solomon and Fernald, 1991). Kirby (2002) also mentioned that education 'about' enterprise does not add to creativity or ability to act strategically in changing environments, and, therefore, is not seen to be capable -by its selfof producing students who can handle real-life problems (Berry, 1993;Doyle, 1995;Barrows, 2003).…”

A framework for a teaching toolkit in entrepreneurship education

“…As the worldwide dissemination of EE continues (Solomon and Fernald, 1991;Edelman et al, 2008;Joshi and Ganapathi, 2008;Kailer, 2009;Ion and Viorica, 2011;Boyles, 2012) along with growing academic interest in its role and impact (DeJaeghere and Baxter, 2014;Saeed et al, 2014;Sipon and Lope Pihie, 2014;Fayolle and Gailly, 2015), there appears to be little agreement regarding what the content of EE should be as well as how to implement teaching tools in these programs (Honig et al, 2005;Neergaard and Ulhøi, 2007;Edelman et al, 2008). In particular, researchers have paid little attention to the impact of entrepreneurial narratives on individuals (Davidsson, 2006;Pittaway and Cope, 2007;Xavier et al, 2008;de Vries, 2014).…”

The Effect of Entrepreneurship Curriculum in Inculcating Entrepreneurial Intention among University Entrepreneurship Students in Kenya

“…However, the general opinion is that entrepreneurs can be trained to some extent and hence acquire an entrepreneurial mindset in the classroom situation (Solomon & Fernald, 1991). In view of the positive social and economic effect of entrepreneurship, many Kenyan Universities are advancing entrepreneurial thinking and behavior to develop student's awareness of the relevance of entrepreneurship training (Oviawe, 2010).…”