Development of entrepreneurial competences in mini-companies at schools

Abstract

PurposeEntrepreneurship is not only seen as an important factor for economic growth and welfare but also as a vehicle of societal development and change, both at the regional, national and international level. Thus, entrepreneurship education at schools plays an increasingly important role, linking policy, businesses, education and science. However, research on entrepreneurship education programmes, especially on mini-companies which rely on an experiential learning setting, is still a young field and shared frameworks concerning entrepreneurial competences and longitudinal research designs are missing. This paper addresses to this research gap by analysing whether students who participate in a mini-company develop entrepreneurial competences.Design/methodology/approachThe study is conducted in a quasi-experimental design, building upon a validated and psychometrically sound research instrument that is based on a newly designed entrepreneurial competence framework. In total, 100 pupils from grammar schools in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, participated in the experimental and control group at both time points.FindingsThe results show that students expand their entrepreneurial competences on an economic level. In comparison, they show only limited developments on the personal and team level. The findings have important implications for the further development of entrepreneurship education programmes as well as on the interaction between schools and (regional) entrepreneurs, business partners and enterprises.Originality/valueThis study examines pupils' development of entrepreneurial competences in a quasi-experimental design. It highlights that participating pupils develop economic competences when participating in mini-companies in comparison to pupils participating in regular economics classes. This study sheds further light on the effects of mini-companies, and thus contributes to the discussion of entrepreneurship education at schools.

Entrepreneurial competencies of university students

“…However, research on entrepreneurship education programmes, especially the one about mini-companies relying on a postulate of scientific study, is still missing. The research conducted among 100 pupils in Germany (Grewe & Brahm, 2020) analysed whether the students who were trained in mini-companies developed their entrepreneurial competencies. The results showed that they developed them more than economics students did.…”

Junior enterprise and entrepreneurial behavior in Brazil

“…The university environment is an important factor in stimulating student entrepreneurship (Moraes et al , 2020). This is owing to the fact that universities mobilize infrastructure, mechanisms and programs to encourage entrepreneurship in the academic community (Guerrero et al , 2018), including supporting junior companies (Johansen, 2016; Grewe & Brahm, 2020). Within this context, this study presents a robust and consistent model with a high explanatory power of the entrepreneurial profile and entrepreneurial intention constructs, confirming a positive influence of the junior enterprise environment on the development of these characteristics.…”

“…This points to the need for evaluating mechanisms that ensure education efficiency in cultivating entrepreneurial behavior, such as participating in small companies or junior consultancies, for assisting the process of learning how to perform business activities (Shi et al , 2020). Although participating in junior enterprises may positively influence the development of entrepreneurial behaviors among young people (Barba-Sánchez & Atienza-Sahuquillo, 2018), this field of study, which depends on an experimental learning, is still little explored, and research on entrepreneurial skills are still scarce (Johansen, 2016; Grewe & Brahm, 2020). This is particularly true for the context of developing countries, which reproduce practices adopted in advanced economies without properly assessing their adequacy (Fischer et al , 2019; Moraes et al , 2020; Guerrero et al , 2018; Vodă & Florea, 2019).…”

Entrepreneurship education in Brazil: Brazilian and Scottish approaches to policy and provision in vocational education

“…Most recently, Kakouris and Liargovas (2021) focus on the complexity and scholarly foundations of EE highlighting distinct deficits that exist in modes of EE, but conclude there are four discrete modes, arguing that VE is taught through the “for” mode, where individual and skills is the starting point of curriculum development with applied and experiential learning. It follows, there is scope to find out more about embedding EE in VE, specifically the role of human learning from a skills perspective and the experiential opportunities available in VE (Kolb, 1984; Minniti and Bygrave, 2001; Aamir et al , 2019; Grewe and Brahn, 2020; Moreira et al , 2020). As yet we do not fully understand the scholarly constructs that help us to know how EE is made accessible in a skills-based curriculum or how VE develops entrepreneurial learning through experiential opportunities, however, we begin our examination in accordance with the principles of IPA, and specifically, sensitivity to context (Smith, 2011).…”