W. Ed McMullan

Entrepreneurship education in the nineties

Abstract Bringing entrepreneurship education into the community support infrastructure poses one of the more important economic development issue for the 1990s. Aspart of the new strategy for job creation, entrepreneurship education holds promise as an integral component in a communitys venture support system along with incubators, innovation centers, technology transfer offices, science parks, and venture capital operations. Since new venture success is foremost a function of entrepreneurial knowledge and know-how, entrepreneurship education may be the most promising of these economic development mechanisms. Unfortunately, it may be the most difficult to implement. Generally the extent and nature of education required by modern aspiring entrepreneurs is not well understood. Many would see entrepreneurship education as strictly an add-on to current education in management or engineering. Such is the option of minimal use. The real promise or entrepreneurship education will be realized when it is strategically organized for economic development and job creation. This article traces the recent history of entrepreneurship education before proceeding to deal with a number of questions facing those who would use entrepreneurship education as part of a modern economic development strategy: 1. 1. Why is entrepreneurship education important? 2. 2. How should it be distinguished from related programs? 3. 3. How will success be measured? 4. 4. Who will be the students? 5. 5. How will the subject be taught? 6. 6. What will be the curriculum? 7. 7. Who will be the teachers?

Outsider Assistance as a Knowledge Resource for New Venture Survival

An emerging theory of outsider assistance as a knowledge resource suggests that new ventures obtain a unique blend of tacit and explicit knowledge through the judicious use of outside assistance. Using data from a longitudinal study of one outsider assistance program at a point in time four to eight years beyond the provision of startup counseling assistance, we present evidence supporting the theory. Results suggest that the ventures studied enjoyed survival rates in excess of those in the general population. More importantly, logistic regression analysis indicates a positive, curvilinear relationship between survival and the time spent in venture preparation under the direction of an outside counselor, a proxy measure of new knowledge acquired. We conclude with a discussion of the directions future research should take to test more fully the relationships implied by the theory.

A Preliminary Assessment of Outsider Assistance as a Knowledge Resource: The Longer-Term Impact of New Venture Counseling

Using resource-based theory to explain why outside assistance might influence new venture performance, we track the longer-term performance of two samples of entrepreneurs who received SBDC counseling and subsequently started businesses. Results indicate that the ventures had higher than expected rates of survival, growth, and innovation, suggesting that outsider assistance during the early stages of a ventures development can influence its subsequent development. Public policy implications of the SBDCs counseling strategy are discussed.

Assessing economic value added by university-based new-venture outreach programs

Abstract A new-venture development office was set up in a university to solicit, screen, and allocate community ventures into upper-level undergraduate and graduate project courses. Innovative ventures in the early stages of development were allocated according to: 1) the project requirements of different courses and 2) the assessed needs of the ventures themselves. During 1984, 89 different projects with a weighted average of 125 manhours per project were run through the new-venture office. Students who conducted the projects included law students, industrial-design students, and a few undergraduate commerce students, although the majority of the work was done by second-year MBA students. Most of the MBA students were parttime students holding middle-management positions and having five or more years of relevant business experience. Projects were run through twelve different courses and a seed-capital conference. The program was conceptualized and coordinated by a number of professors teaching within an entrepreneurship concentration in an MBA program. Early in 1985, a telephone survey of 50 of the 63 entrepreneurs who had projects in the program was completed. These people were asked to systematically and realistically assess the resulting net benefits to their ventures along a number of different prespecified dimensions. The total value added was computed to be

Some Additional Comments on the Sources and Measurement of the Benefits of Small Business Assistance Programs

1.75 million (CDN). which stands in contrast to the direct, out-of-pocket cost of the program, which was only

Entrepreneurship Education: More Than Just an Adjustment to Management Education

75,000 (CDN). The individual dimensions of value added that were measured included: • • Time gained or saved in advancing their new venture; • • Knowledge (understanding) gained of new-venture development; • • Information added of use in pursuing their new venture; • • Contacts made in support of their new venture; • • Strategic changes made; and • • Overall value of the experience. Additionally, respondents were asked to report whether or not they had secured new capital injections, increased or decreased employee levels, or made structural advances in their ventures. Rather than assume that the program was the primary instigator of all such changes, the respondents were asked to assess the relative impact of the program along appropriate dimensions. The program was perceived to have had a significant influence on most of the dimensions measured. A summary of the major results includes: • • Average value added of time saved or gained:

AN APPROACH TO EDUCATING ENTREPRENEURS

6,097.50; • • Average valeu added of new knowledge about venture development:

THE ECONOMICS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

9, 389.47; • • Average value added of new information added:

NEW-VENTURE DEVELOPMENT: THE CALGARY EXPERIENCE

6,293.48; • • Average value added of new contracts made:

THE VENTURE GENERATING POTENTIAL OF A UNIVERSITY

7, 238.89; • • Average value added of strategy changes: