Ulla Hytti

What is “enterprise education”? An analysis of the objectives and methods of enterprise education programmes in four European countries

This paper explores what constitutes “enterprise education” in four European countries. It proposes a conceptual schema for capturing the various objectives of enterprise education programmes and initiatives. This conceptual schema is then used to categorise the objectives of 50 enterprise programmes from Austria, Finland, Ireland, and the UK. The paper reviews the teaching/learning methods used in these programmes. It discusses what factors are associated with “effective” enterprise education, illustrating the discussion with “best practice” from the programmes studied. The paper argues that in order to operate effective enterprise education programmes, policy makers and educators need a thorough understanding of the diverse and alternative aims and objectives of enterprise education interventions, of the alternative forms such interventions can take, and of the need to “train the trainers”.

Perceived Learning Outcomes in Entrepreneurship Education: The Impact of Student Motivation and Team Behaviour

Purpose – This paper aims to address the impact of a persons motivation to study entrepreneurship on their subsequent levels of performance in terms of the generation of business ideas, while taking into account the effect of student team behaviour.Design/methodology/approach – The paper hypothesises that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as well as team behaviour influence the learning outcome and that team behaviour moderates the relationship between motivation and learning outcomes. A survey was used to generate data. A total of 117 students, who participated in pre‐programme, and post‐programme surveys, provided the sample data. First, explorative factor analyses were employed to examine the latent variables. Second, hierarchical lineal regression analyses were carried out to test the proposed hypotheses.Findings – It was found that intrinsic motivation has a negative effect on the learning outcome while extrinsic motivation had a positive one. However, the team (and in particular the resources...

Gender and innovation: state of the art and a research agenda

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to present a framework for research on gender and innovation. The framework is developed based on a review of the current literature in the area; it is applied to provide a context for the articles in this special issue and to offer suggestions for future research. Design/methodology/approach – The article relies on a literature review of gender and innovation. Additional literature searches on Scopus were conducted to provide an overview of the area. In addition, comparative analogies are sought from research fields of gender and entrepreneurship as well as gender and technology. Findings – The article presents the scope and issues in the current research on gender and innovation. Based on the overview, research in this area is conducted in various disciplines applying a variety of methodological approaches. In order to make sense of the current research, the paper developed a framework consisting of various approaches to, gender and innovation; these include gend...

Back to Basics: The Role of Teaching in Developing the Entrepreneurial University

The literature on entrepreneurial universities focuses on the close collaboration between academia, industry and government, and on the contribution of tertiary level education to society and the economy. Little attention has been paid to the role of teaching in developing the entrepreneurial university, despite the active research on entrepreneurship education. In addressing this research gap, this paper provides a theoretical discussion of the role of teaching in this context. The authors suggest that the challenges are connected primarily to issues of content and pedagogy, depending on the tasks and the university setting.

The role of creativity in opportunity search and business idea creation

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationships between student creativity, various opportunity search strategies, and the viability of business ideas developed during an entrepreneurship education module.Design/methodology/approach – The paper sets out hypotheses on the associations between individual creativity, opportunity search strategies and the viability of business ideas generated. A group of 117 students provided the sample data by participating in pre‐programme and post‐programme surveys. Explorative factor analysis was employed to examine latent variables, and factor structures were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modelling was then used to test the resulting hypotheses.Findings – The results show that creativity is not directly associated with the viability of the business idea. Creativity does, however, strengthen the creative opportunity search strategies and the use of opportunity identification strategies based on knowledge acquisition. Accordingly...

Contextualizing entrepreneurship in the boundaryless career

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the transition into entrepreneurship is constructed in the context of the boundaryless career. The paper focuses on a particular type of career transition driven by dismissal or unemployment.Design/methodology/approach – The research material is collected in life‐story interviews with three Finnish female owner‐managers. In the study, a narrative analysis of the career move into entrepreneurship is conducted.Findings – The results demonstrate how the concept of the boundaryless career and career discourse as such, and the personal career history and the larger employment setting in particular, are applied in making sense of the transition into entrepreneurship. The significance of dismissal or unemployment is not uniform, but is dependent on the participants interpretation of the boundaryless career and work‐based security. Entrepreneurship is constructed both as a gender‐neutral and gendered process.Research limitations/implications – The career pers...

Stakeholder theory approach to technology incubators

Purpose – Using stakeholder theory the paper seeks to investigate how technology incubators manage and balance the expectations of stakeholders, and the effect on the shaping of technology incubators and their chances of success.Design/methodology/approach – Incubator programmes have been introduced with multiple goals. A case study is conducted in order to examine stakeholders based on their power to influence, the legitimacy of the relationship and the urgency of claim, and how incubators deal with stakeholder expectations.Findings – Incubator management involves balancing a complex set of conflicting goals. Expectations are interdependent, hierarchically organised, and involve sub‐processes related to different stakeholders. Goals are not fitted to an operational context. Consequently, suboptimal solutions are chosen to balance and fulfil expectations sufficiently to ensure survival. Three strategies to balance stakeholder expectations are identified.Research limitations/implications – The stakeholder ...

Entrepreneurs’ social identity and the preference of causal and effectual behaviours in start-up processes

Abstract This paper examines how the social identity of an entrepreneur influences his or her behaviour when engaged in new venture formation. Building on the typology of entrepreneurial identities developed by Fauchart and Gruber, this study examines the relationship between the social identity of the entrepreneur and subsequent entrepreneurial behaviour using a mixed-method approach. Based on interviews with entrepreneurs in six start-ups within the tourism sector and on previous literature, three hypotheses were developed regarding the relationship between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial behaviour (causation, effectuation). Subsequently, the hypotheses were tested using a survey among a sample of entrepreneurs who registered a new firm in 2013. The study finds that the entrepreneurial identity influences whether the individual predominantly engages in effectual or causal behaviour. Hence, the study contributes by focusing on entrepreneurial identity as an important factor shaping the behaviours of entrepreneurs. In addition, we add to the understanding of entrepreneurs as a heterogeneous group. Entrepreneurs vary in terms of their identity, and this variation has consequences for their entrepreneurial behaviour. Finally, by adopting a mixed-method approach, this study benefits from and contributes to the interaction of qualitative and quantitative data in entrepreneurship research.

Determinants of job satisfaction for salaried and self-employed professionals in Finland

This article contributes to our knowledge of the determinants of job satisfaction by analysing the effects of employment status (self-employed or salaried employee) and work characteristics (autonomy, variety, task identity, task significance and feedback) on job satisfaction in a sample of 2327 Finnish professionals. The results of the analysis show that although the self-employed professionals are significantly more satisfied with their jobs than their salaried counterparts in Finland, employment status as such does not explain job satisfaction when the five work characteristics are added to the structural model. Furthermore, the analysis finds that task significance, variety and autonomy have similar effects on the level of job satisfaction among both employees and self-employed individuals, while feedback has a weaker effect when the individual is self-employed and task identity does not affect job satisfaction in either group. Overall, the study points to the need to develop jobs that are high in autonomy, variety and task significance for professionals in order to enhance job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction and retirement age intentions in Finland: Self-employed versus salary earners

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of job satisfaction on the intended retirement age of self-employed and organisationally-employed white-collar professionals. The analysis also examines potential boundary conditions imposed by other domains of life for the applicability of this relationship. Design/methodology/approach - The study employs ordered probit regressions to analyse primary survey data comprising 1,262 Finnish white-collar professionals. Findings - The econometric results suggest that job satisfaction is a significant determinant of the intention to retire later and thus prolong a career. The analysis does not find a difference in the effect of job satisfaction between salary earners and self-employed individuals. However, the analysis finds that other domains of life influence how job satisfaction affects retirement-age intentions, and that these influences differ between self-employed and salaried respondents. Practical implications - The findings imply that developing measures to improve the job satisfaction of (highly educated) older workers is an alternative to the widely debated regulatory approach of prolonging working careers by increasing the statutory retirement age. The principal limitation is the focus on white-collar professionals in a single country. Originality/value - This is the first empirical comparison of the effect of job satisfaction on the intended retirement age between salary earners and self-employed individuals. It is also the first examination of the effect of job satisfaction on retirement intentions or behaviour that accounts for the effects of other domains of life satisfaction.