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The papers in this special issue were submitted to all the conferences organized by IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS) in a given calendar year. In 2017, IEEE TEMS initiated its flagship conference TEMSCON (held in Silicon Valley), which serves as rebranding from its original International Technology Management Conferences (ITMC). Following that, in 2018, two more conferences were initiated globally, one in Asia known as IEEE TEMS International Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ISIE), and one in Europe as IEEE TEMS International Conference on Technology and Entrepreneurship (ICTE). For this special issue, we invited authors attending any of the three aforementioned conferences in 2018 to submit full manuscripts for reviews, and the present special issue with eleven papers is the result of a careful selection following our usual rigid double-blinded peer-review process.

Recent Entrepreneurship orientation autonomous dimension discussion revealed the important and the positive influence of autonomous orientation as one of the Entrepreneurial orientations (EO) towards organizational performance and profitability. However, discussion of autonomous orientation in the context of individual such as entrepreneurs behavioral change impact still silent, especially in the context of ex-juvenile entrepreneur that can give an insight to the Entrepreneurship body of knowledge. Therefore, the objective of this conceptual paper is to understand the influence of autonomous orientation behaviors as one of the individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) towards delinquent behavioral change of ex-juvenile entrepreneurs. The conceptual paper proposed the framework that ex- juvenile entrepreneurs could be autonomous and more importantly autonomous orientation might have a positive influence towards ex-juvenile entrepreneurs’ delinquent behavioral change. Subsequently relating development of this concept, the conceptual review demonstrates the importance of the autonomous orientation as an effective deliberate orientation for ex-juvenile entrepreneurs once they reconsider their delinquent behavior with entrepreneurial autonomous activities. Assuming autonomous orientation looks to replicate a desired reconciliation amongst delinquent behaviors and entrepreneurial autonomous orientation as an alternative to delinquency. Lastly, the conceptual paper concludes with suggesting some inferences for future research to dig out the study theoretically, conceptually and empirically of the individual EO autonomous orientation behaviors among delinquent populace (ex- juvenile entrepreneurs) context. This conceptual paper provides a fresh knowledge about the IEO autonomous orientation potentiality in the entrepreneurs’ self-development and an insight to the entrepreneurship framework.

The aim of this contribution is to show the detection of seminal papers using data mining techniques. To achieve the objective of this research, Rapidminer Studio software and its data mining tools are used, based on data created with information extracted from Google Scholar and Scopus, in three different areas of knowledge. In this process, other softwares such as Microsoft Excel and Publish or Perish are used. Comparing the results obtained for the searches in Knowledge Management, Entrepreneurship and Marketing, it was obtained that there is no marked similarity between the sets of articles that were obtained in Google Scholar and Scopus. The values for the Similarity Index remained below 0.52%, similar between Knowledge Management and Entrepreneurship but decreasing for Marketing. The detection of outliers using Data Mining techniques and in particular using Rapidminer, allowed to determine the seminals papers for the three search terms analyzed and allowed to characterize these in the space, in Google Scholar and Scopus. It was shown that the seminal articles can be different if Google Scholar or Scopus is used. The results suggest determining for other search terms whether the trend found is maintained or not.

The Natural Environment White Paper represents the most important conservation policy shift in the United Kingdom (UK) in twenty years. It formalises the ecosystem approach within national policy objectives and emphasises the economic value of ecosystem services. By analysing the use of various evidence sources, the involvement of science entrepreneurs, and the development of policy narratives, our goal was to understand factors that influenced adoption of an ecosystem service framework in the UK. We interviewed 48 policy actors and found that centrally-sponsored synthesis reports with entrepreneurial authors provided the most influential expert-based knowledge in the development of the White Paper. More recently published reports had greater influence, yet the window of opportunity for scientific evidence having policy impact was greater in the problem-setting stages of policy development. The interaction between teams preparing syntheses and expert entrepreneurs helped influence the construction of strategic policy narratives. Those narratives increased the impact of scientific evidence by communicating and framing key policy-salient messages, and brokering between broad ecosystem-based and environmental economics narratives. The combination of ecological and economics evidence was particularly salient in the UK case due to the context of continued biodiversity loss and the acceptability of valuation narratives within central government. Our findings suggest that evidence impact varies at different stages of the policy process, and that this is driven by the interplay of contextual factors like policy timing, personal influence, and the competition between different sets of actors and narratives.

Although there are a number of excellent suggestions from editors on how to conduct, structure, and publish research in general, we thought it would be useful to offer some guidance from an entrepreneurship perspective. Writing this paper allowed us to reflect on our work as authors, reviewers, and editors to offer some advice in the form of simple rules for conducting entrepreneurship research, templates for structuring entrepreneurship research, and heuristics for writing entrepreneurship research. While not exhaustive, we have focused on the “rules of thumb” that have served us well and we hope that others find them useful.

There are significant challenges in global healthcare delivery at the moment. Some countries have abundant services, but are stuck with a rather nimble and expensive system that focuses on incremental innovations. Other geographies are still in need of basic tools, infrastructure and require completely different, inexpensive, and with that more disruptive solutions to satisfy their healthcare needs. Next Generation Healthcare systems with a focus on prevention / early detection and pro-active therapy will employ exponential technologies (AI, Big Data, Blockchain, Sensor Technology, Synthetic Biology, Tissue Engineering, Robotics, 3D Printing, ...) that will surely lead to significant changes in the way we experience, think about, and deliver healthcare and in which a digitally empowered patient will play a more important role. In the coming years/decades we will experience a shift from the current SICK-CARE provision to real HEALTHCARE to a focus on personal HEALTH, supported by an integration of patient generated health data with other external diagnostic and therapeutic data components creating a digital health twin as a base for prevention and patient centered precision medicine. Education and training of Biomedical Engineers needs to be adjusted to these developments focussing on solving unmet clinical needs, which requires a solid understanding of current health problems (regional, global), future technologies, economic realities and global health markets. The paper will present and discuss some of these future global innovation needs and the subsequent need for a change in the biomedical engineering curriculum that needs to include learning- (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration) and life skills (flexibility, leadership, social), as well as basic economic and entrepreneurial training — all of which are currently not taught or emphasized.

Entrepreneurship is significant in transformation towards a sustainable future. Sustainable entrepreneurship intention aims at establishing businesses that balance the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental aspects. Such businesses minimize environment degradation, pollution, resource scarcity and social challenges while enabling entrepreneurs to maximize profits. In developing countries such as Uganda, there are limited conceptual and empirical studies on action regulation factors in predicting sustainable entrepreneurship intention among university students. Therefore, developing an action regulation mechanism among university students could enhance their intention towards establishing sustainable entrepreneurial ventures. The overall objective of this paper is two-fold: To identify action regulation factors that influence sustainable entrepreneurship intention and to develop a hypothesised model that can be tested on university students with a focus on the moderating effect of gender differences on sustainable entrepreneurship intention. The results of the action regulation factors could enhance establishment of more sustainable enterprises in Uganda. Key words: Sustainable entrepreneurship intention, action regulation theory, students’ gender.

The IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) is held annually, sponsored by the Plasma Science and Applications Committee (PSAC) of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS). The 47th IEEE NPSS ICOPS was organized ONLINE from December 06 to 10, 2020, by the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The ICOPS2020 was co-organized together with the 2nd Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma and Terahertz Science (APCOPTS) which is envisioned as the future Asian version of the ICOPS series of conferences. The ICOPS2020 was initially planned as an onsite physical conference from May 24 to 28, 2020, at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was shifted to online virtual conference. The conference’s technical program included a wide range of plasma science and technology topics, which ranged from basic and fundamental research to traditional and emerging technology applications. Since the ICOPS2020 was co-organized with APCOPTS, it also had a very strong coverage of fields related to terahertz science and applications. A total of 627 presentations from scientists and participants from over 41 countries were made at ICOPS2020 with a record total registration of 754. All presentations were recorded and were available to the registered participants for 90 days after the conference was over. The program also included a women-in-engineering talk by Jackie Y. Ying from A* Star Singapore and a young professionals networking symposium on “Plasma Entrepreneurship” with the theme “Plasma entrepreneurship—Active translation of cutting-edge research to commercially viable product.”

Nigeria's federal government, after the oil boom of the 1970s, created policies, including the SMEDAN initiative, to trigger socio-economic development through entrepreneurship and small business development. Notwithstanding the importance of SMEs' socio-economic development and the Nigerian government's effort to support entrepreneurship and SMEs development, SMEs fail within the first five years. There is not enough information that can be used by SME owners/managers to develop best business practice policies to mitigate SMEs' failure and trigger socio-economic development. Critical success factor (CSFs) provides information that can be used to develop the best business practice to mitigate SMEs failure. Researchers stated that for owners/managers of SMEs to use CSFs models, they must replicate studies in new geographical areas or new industries. There is no CSFs model for the Nigerian location. The purpose is to position a CSFs model that can be used as information by owners/managers of SMEs to develop the best business policies to mitigate SME failures in Nigeria. This paper presents a thesis concepts where the researcher used a mixed research approach to position a CSFs model that can provide the information that can be used by owners/managers to mitigate SMEs failure and trigger socio-economic development. Mitigating SMEs' failure in Nigeria will reduce unemployment and poverty, which might trigger socio-economic development as envisaged by the federal government. This conceptual paper revealed the findings of the pilot study for the thesis were it was revealed that five variables impact SMEs' success in Jigawa State, Nigeria.

In the literature on British economic decline entrepreneurship is typically assessed by its outcome. By contrast, this paper argues that the soundness of entrepreneurship is best tested by viewing it ex ante. In other words, it is the process, and not the product, of entrepreneurship that is important in determining its quality. When this is accepted, competence, rather than infallibility, becomes the criterion by which entrepreneurship is best judged. In the latter half of the article, this approach is applied to the British paper industry's search for a new source of cellulose in the second half of the nineteenth century.

This article reflects the main findings of the ‘White Paper on opportunities and challenges in view of enhancing the EU cooperation with Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South Caucasus in Science, Research and Innovation’, which was released in April 2012, from a science and technology (S&T) internationalisation policy perspective. In the ‘Internationalisation of R&D from an S&T policy perspective’ section of this article, the ongoing discourse on internationalisation of research and development (R&D) is discussed from an S&T policy perspective. In the ‘S&T cooperation between the EU and Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia since the early 1990s’ section, the development of S&T cooperation between the EU and EECA is described as a historical snapshot since the early 1990s. In the ‘Recent S&T internationalisation efforts of Eastern European and Central Asian countries’ section, special emphasis is given to the current EECA countries' dispositions towards R&D internationalisation. For a structured overview, the EECA region is disaggregated in three subregions, namely, (a) Russian Federation, (b) Eastern European countries (without Russia) and (c) Central Asian countries. To better position the R&D internationalisation policies of the region under scrutiny within the overall state-of-the-art of S&T, the ‘Current state of S&T in the Eastern European and Central Asian countries’ section compares main S&T indicators of the EECA countries. The ‘The White Paper recommendations in the light of international S&T cooperation policy objectives’ section finally condenses the major recommendations elaborated during the White Paper consultation process and puts them into the context of international S&T cooperation policy. The question is raised on what international cooperation can contribute to improving S&T in the EECA region and which approaches are deemed most adequate to support this. The analysis shows that most recommendations suggested in the White Paper directly target the S&T policy (delivery) system, which is put into an explicit actor's role. Science diplomacy is the identified predominant driver for deepening international R&D cooperation with the EECA region. The main instruments used are international dialogue, exchange and learning platforms, which are supported by the European Commission according to the EU's subsidiarity principle. Other S&T internationalisation policy objectives play a role too, especially if a more regionally differentiated perspective is taken into account.

The withdrawal of large US corporations from research is narrowing the scope of innovation. The withdrawal of large US corporations from research is narrowing the scope of innovation.

I grew up in academic heaven. At least for me it was. Not only was Sweden in the late 1980s paradise for any kind of empirical research, with rich and high-quality business statistics being made available to researchers without them having to sign away their lives; 70+ percent response rates achieved in mail surveys to almost any group (if you knew how to do them), and boards of directors opening their doors to more qualitatively orientated researchers to sit in during their meetings. In addition, I perceived an environment with a very high degree of academic freedom, letting me do whatever I found interesting and important. I’m sure for others it was sheer hell, with very unclear career paths and rules of the game. Career progression (something which rarely entered my mind) meant that you tried as best you could and then you put all your work – reports, books, book chapters, conference papers, maybe even published articles – in a box and had some external committee of professors look at it. If you were lucky they liked what they saw for whatever reasons their professorial wisdom dictated, and you got hired or promoted. If you were not so lucky you wouldn’t get the job or the promotion, without quite knowing why. So people could easily imagine an old boys club – whose members were themselves largely unproven in international, peer review publishing – picking whoever they wanted by whatever criteria they choose to apply. Neither the fact that assessors were external nor the presence of an appeals system might have completely appeased your suspicious and skeptical mind, considering the balance of power.

Transnational entrepreneurship has attracted a lot of interest from scholars around the world. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the internationalization of emerging transnational entrepreneurs in UK. This paper has considered only the entrepreneurs who are first generation immigration entrepreneurs who maintain business base in their home country and established a trading relation in the host country. The study focuses on the field of transnational entrepreneurship by proposing an exploratory study on Transnational Enterprise by defining the importance or relevance of different kinds of networks and also to explore the possibilities of negative factors such as bad experiences, dissatisfaction or negative perceptions of their host country, to be an inspiration to venture into transnational entrepreneurship.

This volume contains the Papers and Proceedings of the 26th Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) held on June 15–16, 2015, in Mexico City. The theme of the conference was "Productivity, Growth, and the Law," and it was hosted jointly by the Bank of Mexico and the World Bank. The 2015 ABCDE Organizing Committee was composed of Kaushik Basu (World Bank, Chair), Asli Demirguc¸-Kunt and Indermit Gill (World Bank), Alberto Torres and Laura Juarez (Bank of Mexico), and Andrew Foster (Brown University).

This report maps the current state of entrepreneurship in Australia using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the year 2011. Entrepreneurship is regarded as a crucial driver for economic well-being. Entrepreneurial activity in new and established firms drives innovation and creates jobs. Entrepreneurs also fuel competition thereby contributing indirectly to market and productivity growth along with improving competitiveness of the national economy. Given the economic landscape that exists as a result of the global financial crisis (GFC), it is probably more important than ever for us to understand the effects and drivers of entrepreneurial activity and attitudes in Australia. The central finding of this report is that entrepreneurship is certainly alive and well in Australia. With 10.5 per cent of the adult population involved in setting up a new business or owning a newly founded business as measured by the total entrepreneurial activity rate (TEA) in 2011, Australia ranks second only to the United States among the innovation-driven (developed) economies. Compared with 2010 the TEA rate has increased by 2.7 percentage points. Furthermore, in regard to employee entrepreneurial activity (EEA) rate in established firms, Australia ranks above average. According to GEM data, 5 per cent of the adult population is engaged in developing or launching new products, a new business unit or subsidiary for their employer. Further analysis of the GEM data also clearly shows that Australia compares well with other major economies in terms of the ‘quality’ of entrepreneurial activities being pursued. Indeed, it is not only the quantity of entrepreneurs but also the level of their aspirations and business goals that are important drivers for economic growth. On average, for each business started in Australia driven by the lack of alternatives for the founder to generate income from any other source, there are five other businesses started where the founders specifically want to take advantage of a business opportunity that they believe will increase their personal income or independence. With respect to innovativeness, 31 per cent of Australian new businesses offer products or services which they consider to be new to customers or where very few, or in some cases no, other businesses offer the same product or service. Both these indicators are higher than the average for innovation-driven economies. Somewhat below average is the international orientation of Australian entrepreneurs whereby only 12 per cent aim at having a substantial share of customers from international markets. So what drives this high quantity and quality of entrepreneurship in Australia? The analysis of the data suggests it is a combination of both business opportunities and entrepreneurial skills. It seems that around 50 per cent of the Australian population identify opportunities for a start-up venture and believe that they have the necessary skills to start a business. Furthermore, a large majority of the Australian population report that high media attention for entrepreneurship provides successful role models for prospective entrepreneurs. As a result, 12 per cent of our respondents have expressed the intention to start a business within the next three years. These numbers are all well above average when compared to the other major economies. With regard to gender, the GEM survey shows a high proportion of female entrepreneurs. Approximately 8.4 per cent of adult females are actually involved in setting up a business or have recently done so. Although this female TEA rate is slightly down from 2010, Australia ranks second among the innovation-driven economies. This paints a healthy picture of access to entrepreneurial opportunities for Australian women.

The Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) is the largest study of new firm formations ever undertaken in Australia . In a nutshell, CAUSEE aims to uncover the factors that initiate, hinder and facilitate the process of emergence and development of new, independent firms. Through contacts with a random sample of 30,000 Australian households the project has identified and interviewed close to 600 founders of on-going business start-ups – Nascent Firms; i.e., efforts that are under way but have not yet become operating businesses – as well as more than 500 owner-managers of Young Firms – that is, firms that started trading in 2004 or later. Founders of these firms have been taken through a comprehensive telephone interview about the state and development of their start-ups. The project will follow the development of these nascent and young firms over a four year period. This report represents a first release of selected, descriptive findings from the first wave of data analysis. Although some reported findings may have important implications it should be realised that what is presented here represents just a glimpse of the rich academic and practice-orientated output that is expected from the project.

This article presents a review of the book “Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector,” by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler.

Policy entrepreneurs or issue advocates figure prominently in major theories of the policy process (e.g., Frank R. Baum- gartner and Bryan D. Jones, Agendas and Instability in American Politics, 1993; John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alterna- tives, and Public Policies, 1995; Paul A. Sabatier and Hank Jenkins-Smith, Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach, 1993). This book explores in depth the phenomenon of policy entrepreneurs, the individuals who invest their time and resources in trying to bring an idea to fruition. The controversial issue of school choice is a partic- ularly apt example of a policy that has spread through the efforts of entrepreneurs laboring in a number of states. A good overview sets the scene in the first chapter and describes such variants as public school choice (within and across districts), charter schools, private voucher plans, and publicly funded vouchers. But the book emphasizes building and testing a theory of policy entrepreneurship. This carefully crafted study presents a number of significant arguments and findings that will be of interest for scholars (or graduate students) concerned with policy diffusion, policy change, and agenda setting as well as education policy.

Universities of applied sciences (UAS) have a strong mandate to carry out research, development and innovation (RDI) activities in collaboration with local stakeholders. Geographical proximity is one of the key factors for the creation and success of RDI activities because of the positive balance between costs and benefits of local knowledge transfer, but they also depend on the networks of individual staff members. This paper aims to explore how maintaining and developing purpose-built and individual RDI partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic has been managed. An enhanced conceptual framework for assessing contextual dimensions of the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship as business ventures has been developed. The paper focuses on a single case study drawing on semi-structured research interviews investigating how the swap to remote working have affected RDI activities at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, one of the biggest UAS in Finland with intense regional linkages. The contribution of the study is twofold; firstly, the paper introduces an expanded theoretical approach for assessing the external and internal factors having an impact on the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship. Secondly, by testing the proposed framework, it shares insights and good practices derived from empirical evidence, namely binary data and semi-structured interviews revealing experiences of RDI personnel and project managers involved with different phases of RDI process, for optimising high-quality innovation support, knowledge transfer activities and co-creation of new knowledge in exceptional circumstances.

In countries across the world, the COVID-19 global health crisis is one of the biggest challenges humanity has faced in recent times. There have been economic, social, political and cultural challenges in all parts of society. Drastic measures have had to be put in place, with many countries injecting extra investment into the health sector and generating support for people who cannot work due to the lockdown rules that have been implemented. The coronavirus pandemic has forced institutions to rethink how the government state functions. Various institutions, from charities and non-government organizations, to the public/private sectors, are the driving forces in tackling this pandemic. Social entrepreneurship is seen as a shining light to public policymakers in these new times, as social entrepreneurship is considered a greater innovator for solutions. The focus of this paper is to critically explore the importance of social entrepreneurial leadership in this new COVID-19 era. In this paper, the authors argue for a rethinking of the connections between social entrepreneurship and leadership and management.

This paper explores the authors’ efforts to design and deliver a Venture Creation Programme (VCP) at the University of Worcester between 2015 and 2017. The purpose of the paper is to present critical insights into the manner in which learning can be facilitated through VCPs using our own experiences as an example. The paper begins with a discussion of the authors' methodology before moving to a literature review addressing VCP’s and related elements of entrepreneurial education best practice. It then shifts to a critical discussion of the authors' experiences based on insights, student and staff evaluations, and course data. In the process of conducting this review the authors found that good pedagogical design, in a VCP context, needs to focus on ensuring that academics promote constructive alignment between the curriculum that is ‘taught’, the teaching methods used, the learning environment chosen and the assessment procedures adopted. Only by minimising inconsistencies which link these factors will students’ experiences of venture creation be fully engaging, promoting more effective, experiential and entrepreneurial development. This paper provides educators with an original and experiential insight into the design of a VCP programme and the pedagogical developments required for their successful implementation. There is considerable value herein for higher education institutions which want to design a new VCP, especially with reference to the curriculum design, experiential learning activities, types and methods of assessments and online learning environments for entrepreneurial students.

Coworking spaces are flexible and shared work environments that make a significant effort to connect users with supportive networks that commonly result in efficient work outputs, a high level of collaboration and knowledge transfer. Recent years have seen swift growth and popularisation of the coworking model, making these spaces an integral part of local entrepreneurial ecosystems and transforming them into the localised pools of specialised talent. However, little research has been conducted to understand the role of human talent in coworking spaces, indicating a knowledge gap in human resource management and the role of contemporary coworking environments. Therefore, the purpose of the following paper is to contextualize coworking spaces as (local) talent hubs by investigating how they tend to build their identity on their userbase. The manuscript explores the managerial practices and mediation techniques by presenting empirical evidence and subsequent analysis of talent attraction and retention mechanisms commonly used in coworking environments. The study shows that by facilitating interaction and collaboration between users, coworking spaces offer support throughout the business life cycle and identify themselves as local accelerators of entrepreneurship and talent development within their local environments. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11846-021-00487-4.

The supply and demand of entrepreneurship education at university level commenced in 1938. With the proven entrepreneurial effectiveness in economic development and the efforts of scholars, policymakers and other stakeholders, competencies in entrepreneurship are becoming a set of essential learning objectives. In the digital era, entrepreneurship education can be made available in an online and blended format. Thereby, this study presents a systematic analysis of research focusing on blended and online entrepreneurial learning and teaching. Based on five keywords, collating an initial set of 121 articles, this systematic review details the research outcomes of the resulting set of 38 published research articles/contributions, where each described a specific online and blended learning environment. We obtained and analyzed the following information from each of these articles: definition of entrepreneurship education, context of study, methodology, applied technology, focused group, sample, outcome of entrepreneurship education and research rigor. Our findings showed that the current research status and achievements scholars have contributed in educational technologies utilized by online and blended entrepreneurship education can be summarized into three categories: social media, serious games and Massive Open Online Courses. In order to compare these technologies, we selected five examples from three educational technologies and utilized a marking sheet for evaluation and assessment. In general, it was found that Wiki was used to discuss entrepreneurial concepts and that Facebook was the most common social software in entrepreneurship education. In terms of serious games, FLYGBY and SimVenture facilitated the gamification and enjoyment of entrepreneurship activities the most. Finally, as Massive Open Online Courses platform, Coursera offers plenty of/online entrepreneurship education courses. In a nutshell, in online and blended entrepreneurship education, social media was utilized to facilitate cooperation amongst participants; serious games were used to enhance students’ enjoyment and engagement; and Massive Open Online Courses provided a platform as well as high-quality learning resources, anywhere anytime. Hence, each technology has advantages and challenges when we apply it to entrepreneurship education. We conclude that instructors and learners need to successfully compare and choose the most appropriate combination of technologies to achieve entrepreneurial course aims.

Many stakeholders have expressed concern about the many graduates from Kenyan universities who after qualifying, not only fail to get jobs but also fail to venture into alternative forms of engagement to earn their livelihood, a scenario that raises question as to the quality and relevance of University education they got. The concerns being raised calls for rethinking of the quality and relevance of university education in Kenya. This study, therefore, sought to investigate the propensity of university education in Kenya to inculcate entrepreneurial culture in graduates. The theory of planned behaviour formed the theoretical foundation of the study. The study adopted a triangular design approach where views relating to entrepreneurial culture were sought from final year students from one public and one private university. The study targeted 3146 final year students drawn from University of Kabianga, (2272) and Kabarak University (874). From this, a sample of 614 students proportionately distributed among the two universities was drawn. Entrepreneurial environment was found to be more or less the same in both private and public universities recording moderate score. However, public university scored slightly higher. In conclusion, there is no significant difference in the levels of preference for entrepreneurship when comparison is made between public and private universities in Kenya. Arising from the current finding, the study recommends provision of better entrepreneurial support system. &nbsp, &nbsp

Given the COVID-19 crisis, the importance of space in the global economic system has emerged as critical in a hitherto unprecedented way. Even as large-scale, globally operating digital platform enterprises find new ways to thrive in the midst of a crisis, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) nestled in local economies have proven to be fragile to shocks, causing countless local economies to unravel in the face of severe challenges to survival. Here, we discuss the role of entrepreneurship in re-building local economies that are more resilient. Specifically, we take a spatial perspective and highlight how the COVID-19 crisis has uncovered problems in the current tendency for thin contextualisation and promotion of globalisation. Based on this critique, we outline new perspectives for thinking about the relationship between entrepreneurship, resilience and local economies. Here, a particular emphasis is given to resilience building through deeply contextualised policies and research, localised flows of products and labour, and the diversification of local economies.

Despite billions of dollars spent by policy institutions and academics, very few programs designed to increase managerial skills among microenterprises are cost-effective. This short paper highlights a mentorship program designed to provide managerial skills to Kenyan microenterprises, and it provides a detailed cost-benefit analysis. For each dollar spent on a treated firm, average profit increases by 1.63 USD; the result stems from both a higher program impact and lower cost relative to existing training programs. Motivated by this increased cost-effectiveness, the study then compares the program to the large literature focusing on “supply-side” interventions designed to increase managerial capacity in small firms, and it highlights particular margins on which mentorship improves on classroom training and also where training should focus.

Background: Entrepreneurship has undergone significant transformations in the past decade due to crowd-based models of innovation and the increasing popularity of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding provides an alternative to the way entrepreneurs traditionally raise start-up and operational funds for a venture. Moreover, with crowdfunding platforms, citizens and communities are increasingly able to engage in entrepreneurial work not only for profit but also to address social and civic problems. Problem: Given the expanding boundaries of entrepreneurship, it is increasingly important for professional and technical communication teachers to prepare students to be ethical entrepreneurs and embody a widening array of rhetorical skills. Our teaching case addresses the question of how we might incorporate new and emerging forms of entrepreneurship, such as crowdfunding, into the professional and technical communication classroom in ways that foreground the social, civic, and ethical dimensions of that work. Situating the case: To address this question, we first situate our teaching case in relevant literature from professional and technical communication and social entrepreneurship, and then compare it with similar cases of crowdfunding being used for educational purposes. How the case was studied: We describe what we observed before, during, and after teaching a project structured thematically around civic crowdfunding. We had two sources of data: (1) a collection of teaching materials, including syllabi, day-to-day lesson plans, project prompts, in-class activities, correspondence between instructors, and informal teaching logs used to record impromptu reflections throughout the course of the semester; and (2) the civic crowdfunding project materials produced by students. About the case: Two distinct but related problems have motivated the development of this teaching case: (1) the context of 21st-century entrepreneurship has rapidly changed as a result of new approaches, including crowdfunding; (2) this shift has also led to an increased emphasis on civic and social matters of concern, which have increasingly become more important in contemporary business models. Ultimately, we seek to understand how entrepreneurial writing projects can meld commercial and financial motivations with civic exigencies, direct participation, and stakeholder engagement. As such, this civic crowdfunding sequence takes place over two phases: (1) students conducted primary and secondary research on a local problem or exigency and used this as evidence for a white paper and a project proposal; (2) students developed a feasible solution to this problem which then formed the basis for crowdfunding campaign materials, including a Kickstarter page, campaign video, and branding materials. Results: Our results focus on two projects that clearly foreground a social and civic mission; we point to these two projects not as perfect examples, but rather as illustrative cases of how students engaged crowdfunding as a form of civic entrepreneurship. Conclusions: Our teaching case has demonstrated the need to prepare students not only to pitch venture ideas for a small audience of investors, but also to consider how to identify and frame problems, construct stories about these problems as pressing matters of concern and, ultimately, develop ethical relationships with stakeholders and increasingly diverse investors.

This white paper is conducted for Lean Business encompassing a first attempt at empirical testing of data extracted from the Lean Business database. Lean Business adhere to the Lean Startup Movement, where the core principle is that static business planning should be replaced with a continuous dynamic business model development and that doing so increases chances of success. To begin to understand lean startup and entrepreneurial behavior the potential differences in focus on the different business model canvas elements have been investigated. Based on two samples, one for dynamic use and one for static use of the business model canvas, differences were investigated statistically. A distinction in focus on the different business model elements between a dynamic and a static approach could not be found. However, statistical testing of quantitative data represents an important step towards understanding entrepreneurship.