A qualitative analysis of the ‘experiential learning’ of business school students and graduates through their participation in The University of Manchester’s annual business start-up competition

Abstract

Business model tools are viewed with importance by entrepreneurs and also by the academic community that offer entrepreneurship education. Business schools teach business model tools with great importance, so that the students can understand their usefulness and also apply these to their ideas. Students pursuing courses on entrepreneurship and related business programs are taught about these tools by presenting to them case studies where these tools are applied, etc. However, it is of question as to how much importance do the students give to these tools when they are being taught in their courses, and also, whether they get a chance to experience the usage of these business model tools. Business start-up competitions play an important role in giving students an opportunity to apply the business model tools to their own ideas, explore their (business model tools') usefulness and also gain an experiential understanding of using these. It is important to analyse as to whether these business school students are able to learn through the experience of using these tools for their business ideas in the competition. In this paper, it is examined, as to whether business start-up competitions provide experience to the business school students of using the business model tools and whether through these competitions, students of the University of Manchester feel more confident of knowing how to use these tools for entrepreneurship. The particular business idea competition that is a focus of this paper is the Venture Further competition of 2017.

Visualisation of Perception of Experiential Activities in Business and Administration and Economy

“…The outcome of this research shows that the experiential activity has helped students to improve their teamwork and communication skills, to deal with strangers, to understand different points of view, to develop an interest in other subjects, to overcome minor setbacks, and undoubtedly, to a better understanding of difficult concepts (Selingo, 2016;Kulkarni, 2019). The lack of these skills can cause fatal consequences in the learning process.…”

“…Results show the strengths of data visualisation enabling a better understanding of data (Chen, 2017) for qualitative studies. This methodology can be applied in further qualitative studies to analyze and represent the information collected, showing that data visualisation allows effective communication (Kirk, 2016;Kulkarni, 2019).…”

“…Bedawy (2017) presents an experiential learning model, using qualitative analysis that contributes to students' learning process and learning outcome. A recent one, Kulkarni (2019), analyses the perception of business school students with regard to their participation in entrepreneurial activities like the University of Manchester's annual business start-up competition. Five participants agreed to partake in the interviews and qualitative research was carried out to understand students' perceptions of an experiential learning.…”

Building Inclusive Student Innovation Competitions, Exhibitions, and Training Programs

“…Although the number of minority entrepreneurs has increased in the last decade, there is still a disparity in involvement with entrepreneurship activities and opportunities for minority students (Singh & Crump, 2007). While the literature has identified the benefits of ICETs for students' academic, professional, and entrepreneurial development (Gadola & Chindamo, 2019;Kulkarni, 2019;Lindbloom, 2019;Walden et al, 2015), hardly any work has addressed barriers to underrepresented students' participation in such programs. Therefore, there is a need for a systematic investigation of (i) the factors that attract students to participate in ICETs and (ii) the barriers that underrepresented students face.…”