Karen Williams Middleton

Venture Creation Programs: bridging entrepreneurship education and technology transfer

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how university-based entrepreneurship programs, incorporating real-life venture creation into educational design and delivery, can bridge the gap between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer within the university environment. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a literature review and snowball sampling over a two-year period, 18 entrepreneurship education programs were identified as applying a venture creation approach. Ten of these programs were selected for case study, including direct interviews and participatory observation during a two-day workshop. Empirical findings were iteratively related to theory within entrepreneurship education and technology transfer. Findings – The paper identifies the bridging capabilities of venture creation programs (VCP) across five core themes, illustrating the potential benefits of closer collaboration between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer in a university environment. Research limi...

Personalizing Entrepreneurial Learning: A Pedagogy for Facilitating the Know Why

Abstract As the global diffusion of entrepreneurship education continues, along with increasing investment in, and expectations of, educational initiatives, it has become important to articulate what we are teaching and why, along with the specifics of where, how, and to whom. Yet, despite a growing consensus about what constitute the entrepreneurial activities and competencies required to start a new venture, there has been little agreement regarding the content of entrepreneurship education, or how learning should be delivered (Bygrave 2007, TheHandbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship, 17–48. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited; Edelman, Manolova, and Brush 2008, Entrepreneurship Education: Correspondence Between Practices of Nascent Entrepreneurs and Textbook Prescriptions for Success. Academy of Management Learning and Education 7(1):56–70; Honig, Davidsson, and Karlsson 2005, Learning strategies of nascent entrepreneurs. Journal of Competence-based Management 1(3):67–88; Mwasalwiba 2010, Entrepreneurship Education: A Review of Its Objectives, Teaching Methods, and Impact Indicators. Education+Training 52(1):20–47). Clearly, the purpose of any education, the “why” for the teacher, shapes the content, the “what”, and the method, the “how”. But what about the personal “how” and “why” for the learner? Sarasvathy’s theory of effectuation (Sarasvathy 2001, Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review 26(2):243–63; 2008, New Horizons in Entrepreneurship, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar) has led educators to consider how an entrepreneur’s personal resources and resourcefulness can and should alter their how. Scholars are now sharing pedagogical approaches for motivating that type of learning (Fletcher and Watson 2007, Entrepreneurship, Management Learning and Negotiated Narratives: ‘Making it Otherwise for Us – Otherwise for Them’. Management Learning 38(1):9–26; Gibb 2011, Concepts into practice: meeting the challenge of development of entrepreneurship educators around an innovative paradigm – the case of the International Entrepreneurship Educators’ Programme (IEEP). International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research 17(2):146–165; Kyrö2008, A Theoretical Framework for Teaching and Learning Entrepreneurship. International Journal of Business and Globalisation 2(1):39–55; Ollila and Williams Middleton 2011, The Venture Creation Approach: Integrating Entrepreneurial Education and Incubation at the University. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 13(2):161–78). However, little research has addressed the personal why for the entrepreneurial learner (Rae 2005, Entrepreneurial Learning: A Narrative-Based Conceptual Model. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 12(3):323–35; Rigg and O’Dwyer 2012, Becoming an entrepreneur: researching the role of mentors in identity construction. Education + Training 54(4):319–329). In this paper, we seek to fill this gap by exploring how entrepreneurship educators can facilitate the personalized learning to develop the Know Why for nascent entrepreneurs in the process of becoming entrepreneurial. We combine theories of entrepreneurship practice, education, and learning to propose a model for entrepreneurial Know Why. We utilize a case study of an entrepreneurship program applying a learning-through-venture-creation approach to identify a pedagogical approach in which learning entrepreneurial Know Why is facilitated. Thus, the purpose of this paper is twofold: to contribute to the theory of entrepreneurial learning and to contribute to the pedagogy for entrepreneurship, by explaining the meaning and significance of the entrepreneurial Know Why and by describing an educational approach that facilitates its development.

Sustainable Wealth Creation beyond Shareholder Value

The university can be a place for generating returns on investments—returns that are both financial and of other nature. This chapter investigates an approach in which action-based masters-level education is integrated into university venture creation. The approach is resided at Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship (CSE) and Goteborg International Bioscience Business School (GIBBS) in Sweden. The purpose of the schools is to champion ideas into viable investment opportunities through a combination of venture development and entrepreneurial training. The schools promote the responsible utilization and commercialization of primarily university-based research ideas in the fields of technology and bioscience. They also package ideas stemming from individual inventors or from firms. This approach accommodates promising ideas and research results that are not so “low-hanging” as to be championed into start-ups. All this is done while shaping aspirant entrepreneurs during their masters-level education. Many of these aspirants will continue running the venture beyond its incorporation into a firm and often through several rounds of venture capital financing. This approach will be described and analyzed as an innovative way of accomplishing multiple returns on investments that contribute to sustainable development in several ways.

Promises of societal entrepreneurship: Sweden and beyond

Purpose - Several types of entrepreneurship with a societal purpose coincide in Sweden today, some stemming from older domestic traditions, others being more recent foreign influences. This paper aims to interrelate social, civic, community, and other entrepreneurships in search of a more unifying concept of societal entrepreneurship for Sweden and beyond. Design/methodology/approach - As part of a larger study, Swedish researchers and practitioners promoting some kind of entrepreneurship with societal purpose, are interviewed and asked for examples and literature references. Altogether 176 actors are identified and 59 are interviewed. The main distinguishing factors between different discourses of entrepreneurship are accounted for as well as results from workshops where actors representing different discourses partook. Findings - Seven societally oriented entrepreneurship discourses are distinguished, with different foreign or domestic origins. Key characteristics for interrelating different discourses are the type of actor (individual and/or collective) and purpose (social/ecological and/or economic) emphasized in a discourse. Interactions documented from workshops indicate a potential in unifying different entrepreneurships within a widened understanding of societal entrepreneurship. Research limitations/implications - The field of entrepreneurship emphasizing societal utility is fragmented with many parallel discourses. The conceptual analysis and empirical findings imply that there is potential in a more unifying concept. Furthermore, in the limited Swedish setting, collective dimensions of entrepreneurship stand out. This nevertheless implies that collective engagements into entrepreneurship of any kind are worthy of more research and recognition. Practical implications - Implications are primarily limited to societal entrepreneurship within uncontested welfare states, such as Sweden, where most established societal needs are taken care of through taxes utilized by a public sector. Societal entrepreneurship in such a setting becomes a mechanism for renewal and experimentation. Originality/value - The paper is original in its approach to identifying and interrelating current discourses in Sweden.

Bridging the traditional-progressive education rift through entrepreneurship

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to use entrepreneurship to bridge the traditional – progressive education rift. Design/methodology/approach - The rift between traditional and progressive education is first deconstructed into five dualisms. Conceptual question-based analysis is then applied to determine if and how three entrepreneurial tools could contribute to bridging this rift; effectuation, customer development and appreciative inquiry. Finally, pattern based generalizations are drawn from this analysis. Findings – Patterns in the analysis motivate the articulation of an overarching educational philosophy – learning-through-creating-value-for-others – grounded in entrepreneurship and capable of bridging the educational rift. Research limitations/implications Only three entrepreneurial tools were included in the conceptual analysis, signifying a need to explore whether other tools could also help teachers bridge the traditional - progressive education rift. Entrepreneurial tools and the new educational philosophy manifesting entrepreneurship could also need to be further contextualized in order to be useful in education. Practical implications - The tentatively new educational philosophy has been shown to be capable of bridging five dualisms in education which are currently problematic for teachers in their daily practice, and to remedy teacher challenges such as complexity, lack of resources, assessment difficulties, and student disengagement. Originality/value – An educational philosophy grounded in entrepreneurship has arguably not been proposed previously. Contrasting existent educational philosophies, this new philosophy goes beyond learning-through to also emphasize creating-value-for-others. This could facilitate bridging between traditional and progressive education, one of the most important challenges in education. It could also be used to facilitate the infusion of entrepreneurship into general education.

Academic entrepreneurship revisited – university scientists and venture creation

Purpose – Venture creation is often seen as the form of academic entrepreneurship least compatible with the role of university scientists. The purpose of the article is to explore the changing role of university scientists towards venture creation, and understand the influence of university‐driven initiatives for venture creation.Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on a qualitative study of two venture creation cases: one from a US university, and one building from two universities in Sweden. The cases and associated university environments were selected due to their venture creation activity. University venture creation data of the three universities complements the cases.Findings – Venture creation at universities can be more compatible with the traditional role of the university scientist. Centers and laboratories concerned with entrepreneurship and action‐based education are identified as key university resources allowing university scientists to engage in venture creation in more compa...

Mindful Deviation through Combining Causation and Effectuation: A Design Theory‐Based Study of Technology Entrepreneurship

Technology entrepreneurship can be seen as building upon while also deviating from technological paths. Such deviation has primarily been described as singular events where individuals with prior knowledge discover a new opportunity. In this article, we will instead study deviation as a process of collective decision making, seen more as something mindful than singular. The purpose is to explore mindful deviation as decision-making by nascent technology entrepreneurs as they conceptualize an early platform technology. Based on case assignments undertaken by 13 teams in a venture creation program, C-K design theory is used to trace how nascent technology entrepreneurs in action combine causal and effectual decision-making logics. Individually answered questionnaires also offered insights on how the entrepreneurs perceived their decision-making in hindsight. The findings break with our received wisdom around how opportunities are recognized as well as how effectual and causal logics occur. As a result, mindful deviation through combinations of effectual and causal logic is suggested as a means to understand early-stage technology entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurial Identity and Role Expectations in Nascent Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has been defined as an individual↔new value creation dialogic. To study how entrepreneurial identity evolves, this article, drawing on entrepreneurial learning theory, adds an entrepreneurial role expectations dialogic. Longitudinal evidence from nascent entrepreneurs working in venture teams on invention disclosures offers an illustration of dialogics, including how they evolve over time to build entrepreneurial identity. In contrast to the theory of planned behaviour, the findings suggest that becoming entrepreneurial does not stem primarily from intention but rather from interacting with new value creation and role expectations in an immediate team environment.

Team conflict contributing to entrepreneurial learning: understanding conflict as positive within an effectual problem space

The impact of team conflict seems to depend upon context. Entrepreneurship literature suggests that learning from diverse perspectives in teams can contribute to entrepreneurial action (Harper 2008; West III, 2007; Williams-Middleton, 2010), while management literature has shown that conflict in teams often negatively affects creativity (Jehn et al., 2010). Recent research streams suggest that entrepreneurial learning might be better understood by applying an effectual logic perspective, instead of causal logic (Sarasvathy and Venkataraman, 2011). This causes us to question whether conflict is experienced similarly in entrepreneurial versus managerial teams. We suggest negative consequences of team conflict found in management literature may be due to the causal logic underlying this literature, and thus not readily applicable to entrepreneurial learning. Through exploring relationships between team work, team conflict, and effectuation, we propose that positive learning outcomes can emerge from experience of team conflict within an effectual and uncertain problem space.

Team trust and control in new venture emergence

Purpose – Effective internal dynamics of new venture teams is seen as a key contributor to venture success. The purpose of this article is to investigate the ways in which new venture teams consisting of nascent entrepreneurs initiate trust and control during venture emergence. Design/methodology/approach – Dimensions of trust and control are developed into an analytical framework applied to documented team norms. Coding detects frequency of trust and control dimensions. Supplementary data triangulates findings and explores follow-on effects in team dynamics and venture emergence. Findings – Frequency of coded dimensions generates a venture team profile. Teams prime their dynamics through use of trust and/or control language in documented norms. Priming is seen to influence entrepreneurial perseverance during venture emergence, stemming either directly from team dynamics, or indirectly from key shareholder relationships or environmental conditions. Research limitations/implications – Data are bounded to a specific contextual setting representing incubation and education, where the nascent entrepreneurs are simultaneously students. The complexity of venture emergence means that multiple factors influencing new venture teams may influence trust and control in ways currently unaccounted for. Practical implications – Exploration of trust and control during venture emergence emphasizes soft-skills critical to entrepreneurial perseverance and venture success. Team norms can be designed to prime towards trust or control, and can be indicative of teams’ sensitivity to external factors, enabling evidence for intervention. Originality/value – The article illustrates ways in which trust and control influence team dynamics during venture emergence.