Developing a Conceptual Framework to Understand Student Participation in Entrepreneurship Education Programs

Abstract

Aileen is faculty in Engineering Education and Biomedical Engineering. Previously, Aileen was the Associate Director for Academics in the Center for Entrepreneurship and was responsible for building the Program in Entrepreneurship for UM undergraduates, co-developing the masters level entrepreneurship program, and launching the biomedical engineering graduate design program. Aileen has received a number of awards for her teaching, including the Thomas M. Sawyer, Jr. Teaching Award, the UM ASEE Outstanding Professor Award and the Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award. Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty, she worked in the private sector gaining experience in biotech, defense, and medical device testing at large companies and start-ups. Aileen's current research areas include entrepreneurship engineering education, impact and engaged learning. Aileen has a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a Doctorate of Philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Aileen is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Beta Sigma Gamma.

Examining engineering students’ participation in entrepreneurship education programs: implications for practice

“…In this study, we use an adaptation of Cross's Chain-of-Response (COR) model of participation in adult learning (Cross, 1981), specific to entrepreneurship education, as our conceptual framework (Shekhar et al, 2018). Exploration of participation in EEPs in the context of adult learning theory is critical, as adult participation theory acknowledges a developmental difference in adult learning (Abdullah et al, 2008;Neck & Corbett, 2018).…”

“…1). The three most commonly used overarching theories used in entrepreneurship education research identified through a systematic literature review of 359 empirical studies (Shekhar et al, 2018) are the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB, Azjen & Ajzen, 1991), Shapero's Entrepreneurial Event Theory (SEE, Shapero & Sokol, 1982, and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT, Bandura, 1986). These three theories primarily address individual behavior in different contexts and identify antecedents to behavior which are similar to those noted in the COR model.…”

“…By mapping entrepreneurship education theories to the COR adult participation model, six factors were determined to influence EEP participation as presented in Fig. 1 (Shekhar et al, 2018). A seventh factor is EEP participation itself.…”

“…While the nascence of engineering entrepreneurship explains the lack of theory-driven research, engineering entrepreneurship education's interdisciplinarity explains the use of wide range of theories. Our presented work is a preliminary effort that examines student participation using PEEP model which was developed by coalescing multiple theories from disparate fields (Shekhar et al, 2018). It is important to note that with the exception of the life transitions identified in SEE; TPB, SEE, and SCCT contributed to only internal factors of the PEEP model (entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intent, and desirability).…”

“…Thus, given the demonstrated importance of exposure to entrepreneurship education, how do we encourage engineering students to participate in non-compulsory EEPs warrants research attention. We explore this space using qualitative methods grounded in adult participation in learning and entrepreneurship theories (Shekhar et al, 2018). We ask the question "What influences engineering students' participation in entrepreneurship education programs at a large research-focused university?"…”