One of the most important challenges in the field of higher education is to educate students about entrepreneurial attitudes and professional competences necessary for working in a multicultural environment in collaboration with a real business environment. Streamlining this process is one of the aims of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project titled Entrepreneurship and Communication in Multicultural Teams (ECMT+). The cognitive purpose of this paper is to explore and evaluate students' reflections on entrepreneurship teaching in an international and multicultural team. The applied research methods include a pilot quantitative survey using questionnaires and a qualitative research method of a reflective essay among students participating in the twoweek Intensive Programme that took place in March 2017 at Karelia University in Finland. Respondents were chosen purposeful and included 48 participants from 14 countries worldwide. They represented seven high education institutions from seven different European countries. The study has been conducted anonymously via the Claroline Connect platform. The purpose of the empirical research was to diagnose the opinions of program participants, among others about new methods of business education they have experienced, diversity of multicultural context and relationships with other team members, their entrepreneurial attitude, and ability to solve problems at designing business solutions in the multicultural team.. Preliminary results appear to present interesting data and may provide a starting point for an in-depth empirical research associated with entrepreneurship in multicultural teams. The study reveals positive effects of applied methods of business education, significant involvement of participants in achieving the goal and gaining new knowledge within the analyzed area.
Boosting entrepreneurial thinking and emphasizing its usefulness at all levels of education is a response to support the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan (European Commission, 2013), use the international potential, and revolutionize the culture of entrepreneurship in the EU. In order to increase both the attractiveness and effectiveness of entrepreneurship education, mainly at HEI, a variety of methods, tools and materials will be developed. Entrepreneurship, creativity and interpersonal communication are the key transversal skills necessary for working today in a multicultural environment. However, for shaping an entrepreneurial mindset, students need clear objectives and understanding embedded with multidisciplinary knowledge as well as competences to implement useful solutions in business practice. In this sense, an approach based on experiential learning and teaching has become a requirement in the education process. The purpose of the conducted research is to explore and carry out a synthesis of practice-oriented methods and experiental learning activities in entrepreneurship education to support students in solving real business problems by interacting in multicultural teams. The cognitive aim of this paper is to present the iterative and participatory co-creation process of business models generation by international students based on their experience, observation, and reflection within the framework of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project titled Entrepreneurship and Communication in Multicultural Teams (ECMT+). During the three entrepreneurship training workshops (Intensive Programmes 2017-2019) in total nearly 150 students from seven European high education institutions represented 16 nationalities. The study reveals positive effects of applied methods of experiental entrepreneurship education, significant involvement of participants in achieving the goal and gaining professional knowledge regarding to business model generation.
Abstract:The cross-cultural differences and the intercultural aspects of the collaboration have become increasingly prevalent over recent years. Undoubtedly, this diversity may generate different patterns of behavior in project teams. The research goal of the exploratory study is to identify advantages and obstacles to collaboration in multicultural teams at designing business solutions among Polish students -participants in intensive entrepreneurship programme (IP) within the framework of the international ECMT+ project1. In addition, the cognitive goal is to diagnose entrepreneurial attitudes and determinants of setting up one's own company.During the two-week workshops in multicultural project teams in March 2017 at Karelia Uni- 30Ewa Badzińska versity in Finland, a participant observation method was applied. The main research method was, however, a semi-structured direct interview based on a questionnaire. Respondents were chosen purposeful and included six Polish students from Poznan University of Technology who carried out business projects in six multicultural teams -in total 48 participants were from 14 countries worldwide. The obtained results of the study point to measurable benefits of intercultural collaboration in project teams. Great commitment of the teams to achieve the goal and their healthy competition all remain noteworthy. Undoubtedly, however, a great diversity of attitudes and views in multicultural teams, national experiences and entrepreneurial knowledge make it necessary to overcome additional barriers, especially those with cultural backgrounds. The main limitation to the study is the non-representativeness of the sample and being limited to Polish participants. The findings presented in the article are very preliminary and further investigation in this field is necessary, i.e. comparative studies covering the remaining workshop participants.
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