Assessing Curriculum Designed to Foster Students’ Entrepreneurial Knowledge and Small Business Skills from a Global Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on outcomes of a 3‐year collaborative project that addresses the need for future professionals with entrepreneurial knowledge and small business skills. The multiphase project involved partnerships developed between textile and apparel faculty at four U.S. universities and faculty in similar programs at universities in Thailand, India, Russia, and South Africa. Based on primary and secondary research conducted with small apparel businesses and entrepreneurs in the five countries during Phase I of the project, eight modules were created for integration into existing textile and apparel courses during Phase II. Phase III focused on the assessment of students’ knowledge and skills following delivery of the modules. This paper reports on the results of module assessment via a repeated measures experiment using pre‐ and postsurveys that included closed‐ and open‐ended questions. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data indicated that modules helped to increase students’ entrepreneurial knowledge and small business skills from a global perspective.

Economic Growth through the Lenses of Education, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation

“…Entrepreneurs facilitate economic development through labor, technologies, and capital. Numerous studies confirmed entrepreneurship as the main driver of economic growth and argue its contribution to employment opportunities (e.g., Naudé 2010;Chavis et al 2011;Marcotte 2013;Fairlee and Chatterji 2013;Fritsch 2013;Hodges et al 2015;Karimi et al 2017). Entrepreneurs setting up new firms positively influence economic growth, when there are fewer legal, institutional, or cultural barriers.…”

Teaching Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics at Economic Programs

“…Globalization created a highly competitive environment for businesses that triggered a demand for innovation (Grigorescu et al, 2020). To respond to this phenomenon, universities are focused on developing professional skills and competencies in business subjects (Hodges et al, 2015). Globalization implies non-ethical dimensions as well as negative effects on the environment (Constantinescu & Platon, 2014;Neagu, 2020;Surugiu & Surugiu, 2009), as the scale of production increases.…”

Fostering Responsible Management and Organizational Ethics Through Business Education

“…But both skills are pivotal for problem solving in the real world. The research conducted by Hodges and colleagues (2015) focused on preparing graduates to work effectively while enhancing students' awareness of challenges and opportunities as well as teach them entrepreneurial skills necessary for working (Hodges et al, 2015). Higher Business education curricula should address the need for future professionals through teaching entrepreneurial knowledge and business skills from a global perspective (Hodges et al, 2015).…”

“…The research conducted by Hodges and colleagues (2015) focused on preparing graduates to work effectively while enhancing students' awareness of challenges and opportunities as well as teach them entrepreneurial skills necessary for working (Hodges et al, 2015). Higher Business education curricula should address the need for future professionals through teaching entrepreneurial knowledge and business skills from a global perspective (Hodges et al, 2015). Chandler and Teckchandani (2015) have paired Liberal Learning (LL) philosophy with Social Constructivist Pedagogy (SCP) to suggest business education transformation aiming at cultivating critical thinking and creativity of students.…”

“…According to the Bologna process, European universities have to develop studentoriented, learning-oriented teaching systems with quality assurance (Kırış, 2014). Business education must enable graduates to create and maintain a successful enterprise through designing programs fostering the professional development of students (Hodges et al, 2015). The Integrative Business Experience (IBE) approach connects core business courses and an entrepreneurial practicum course requiring students to create a real start-up business with a bank loan (McCord et al, 2015).…”