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This study examines the relationship among experiential entrepreneurship pedagogy, entrepreneurial competencies and employment status of business graduates in two European countries. A proposed mod...

The present paper aims to develop an understanding of interconnections between the entrepreneurial ecosystem and entrepreneurial opportunity. The first step of this research was to disclose the development of the ecosystem within two higher (efficiency- and innovation-driven) stages of economic development and the transition between them according to the World Economic Forum, based on the model by Dutch researcher Erik Stam. The Estonian entrepreneurial ecosystem was analyzed as an example. Secondary data on Estonian entrepreneurial ecosystems were collected and analyzed.In its second step, this research follows a case-study design. The start-up period of the studied Estonian companies represents different degrees of the maturity of the ecosystem: Regio and Mobi Solutions - efficiency-driven, GrabCAD - the transition from efficiency to innovation-driven, and Bolt (Taxify) - an innovation-driven economy.The example of the Estonian ICT sector proves that the most important contributors to the talent growth, the knowledge base, and framework conditions of the entrepreneurial ecosystem are the state through its infrastructure decisions and educational programs along with successful entrepreneurs who shape the role models known in Estonia today as the Skype-effect. Decisions on digital telecom infrastructure and e-society in the early stage of the transition in tandem with enterprise encouragement created a subsequent boom in ICT-based ventures in Estonia 10-15 years later. The processes resulted in achieving an innovation-driven society and the highest level of opportunity-driven entrepreneurship in Europe in 2017. With that, new venture funding has replaced the former development engine - foreign direct investment (FDI).Examples of ICT-based new ventures have demonstrated that the growing maturity of the ecosystem increased venture investment from “bootstrapping” to millions of euros of seed-funding and shortened new product development cycles from 5-7 to 1-3 years. The study shows that maturing ecosystems shorten business development processes, thereby increasing the integration of different ecosystems. The start-up success stories enhance trust in the particular business environment, and they both increase investments and accelerate the entry of new ventures, making better use of the emerging windows of opportunities.

Associated with global climate agreements and the European Union’s focus on climate-neutral goals by 2050, the development of Green Transformation competencies in society has become topical. This viewpoint paper proposes a conceptual model for applying Entrepreneurship Education (EE) to designing an integrated transdisciplinary, Green Transformation Competence framework. In line with this, EE is seen as a tool for developing an active, informed, responsible, yet sustainable, living ecosystem-oriented and green orientation of citizens in the education system. Nevertheless, this viewpoint recognises several challenges for further research.

This paper empirically substantiates a novel tripartite framework for measuring learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education (EE) by employing structural equation modeling. Three types of learning outcome are estimated&mdash, cognitive, skill-based, and affective&mdash, following Bloom&rsquo, s (1956) taxonomy of educational objectives. The study is based on a sample of 249 imminent and recent Bachelor-level graduates from the leading universities of Estonia. The key fit, reliability, and validity indicators show statistically that the tested framework can serve as an instrument for measuring the learning outcomes of EE. This novel instrument may also serve as an alternative to entrepreneurial intention-based models very frequently used in EE to evaluate the learning outcomes. The studied interrelationships demonstrate that (1) the affective outcomes correlate significantly with the cognitive outcomes (r = 0.273, p &lt, 0.001) and with the skill-based (r = 0.368, p &lt, 0.001) outcomes, a correlation between the cognitive and skill-based outcomes is also significant and comparatively high (r = 0.602, p &lt, 0.001), (2) the learning outcomes explain more variance in the cognitive and skill-based outcome constructs (44.7% and 81.0%, accordingly) than in the affective outcome construct (16.7%). Conclusions and implications for entrepreneurship educators and researchers are discussed.

The authors address the transformation of research data into open data. The article draws on the experience in four countries: Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania. The transformation process presents several challenges where legal, organizational and individual aspects influence the process. Research data often contain personal data. Research data could also be covered with intellectual property (IP) rights. This means that personal data and IP regulations should be integrated into the dissemination model. While there is a potential conflict between the policies for open data that aim to make data freely available and those of an entrepreneurial university that emphasize commercialization of research results, these policies need to be made compatible. Researchers producing data are vital for reconciling the two, but they currently lack the motivation to contribute towards the implementation of the open data policy due to missing career incentives.

The political agenda of transition from a command to a market economy in Estonia also marks the development trajectory of ICT and entrepreneurship. The efforts of the Estonian government in the development of ICT infrastructure, education and e-government from the 1990s, and entrepreneurship promotion in the 21st century, manifest as political entrepreneurship. Political entrepreneurship is seen on three levels: (1) as the investment or re-allocation of resources into a desired object; (2) a change of broader economic (freedom) policy and institutions, incl. the public sector; (3) the change of societal order and transformation of the political system and its institutions.Societal changes in Estonia in the 1990s were characterised by a lack of resources; against this backdrop, some political entrepreneurs played a triggering role in launching ICT infrastructure projects. The Estonian Parliament was also quite enterprising at this time. The competence and motivation of decision-makers in the Parliament have changed significantly since the 1990s and early 2000s, which has influenced political decisions in subsequent periods. By using the case of the academic data network EENet, and its chronology, we analyse the development of political entrepreneurship in Estonia. The question is whether today’s decisions facilitate a continuation of the success story that began in the 1990s.

In order to promote sustainable entrepreneurship, it is necessary to understand the sustainable entrepreneurial process. To address this gap in the literature, this study aims to investigate how entrepreneurs generate ideas, as well as recognize, develop, and exploit opportunities in the context of sustainable development. A case study was carried out with eleven organizations in six different countries, from different sectors, including not-for-profit and for-profit businesses. The findings address a series of mechanisms that occur prior to the process of generating an idea and are relevant to the positive impact of these businesses on society. Entrepreneurs&rsquo, previous experiences and skills, as well as the knowledge of similar initiatives, strongly relate to motivation and idea generation. In the analyzed cases, prior experience seemed to be related to a sensitivity towards a social or environmental problem. Previous experience in entrepreneurship was not determinant. The quality of the initial idea was relevant, once little changes occurred throughout the entire process. In most situations both dimensions of sustainability were integrated at the same time and before venture launch. Despite this, the focus of the entrepreneurs was on only one dimension. The inclusion of positive impact measurement on society, as part of the sustainable entrepreneurial process model, is another relevant finding. First, it is necessary to differentiate the sustainable entrepreneur from the regular and the social entrepreneur. Secondly, in some situations, the dimensions of sustainability are not integrated at the same time and before venture launch, and therefore considering that the process is finished in the phase of venture launch can lead to misclassifications. The results also led to the recognition of triggers that can stimulate sustainable entrepreneurship, such as educational practices more aligned with sustainability problems faced by local communities, stronger dissemination of successful business cases related to sustainability in other countries and contexts, integration between universities and businesses, and the inclusion of practice-based learning in curricula. A contribution to the literature was achieved by providing a systemic perspective on sustainable entrepreneurial process. This study also contributes by presenting empirical evidence of the phenomenon of sustainable entrepreneurship. The holistic knowledge of this process provides new information that supports academics, policy makers, government, and individuals with a more appropriate understanding of the conditions that help to stimulate new business activities dealing with economic, social, and environmental problems faced in society, helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Understanding the entrepreneurial journey has become essential for both start-up entrepreneurs and policymakers within the ecosystem of technology start-ups, functioning as engines of growth in new economies and exports. Often, they are born global (BG) high technology small firms (HTSFs). The entrepreneurial journey, often used as a metaphor in the literature on entrepreneurship, has been subject to attempts to define it theoretically as a research concept, even though there are practically no empirical approaches. This paper aims to overcome the gap in disclosing the entrepreneurial journey and seeks to shape the features of a hi-tech start-up reaching global open innovation (OI) platform, based on the example of GrabCAD. This entails, based on this particular case study of finding proof of theoretical journey patterns, as well as analysing aspects that have not yet been addressed. An analysis of the GrabCAD case demonstrates the importance of the combination of different actors and features shaping the entrepreneurial journey.

This article looks at the changing notion and paradigm of entrepreneurship and related research. Though previously “entrepreneurship” referred to a profitable action while risking one’s personal property, the modern connotation is much broader. The contemporary view is not just about profit orientation but also focuses on exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities for the sake of solving social and societal problems, and therefore, achieving social benefit. The paper presents the results of measuring social entrepreneurial activities in Estonia using the GEM survey methodology. The GEM 2012 study demonstrated that the involvement in social entrepreneurship among the Estonian population (26.2%) is nearly twice as high as the involvement in “mainstream” entrepreneurship.

Estonia has enjoyed success stories in ICT implementation in a broad field of public and private sectors for last 15–20 years. The key event for that development was the launching of the Tiger Leap program in Estonian schools, 1996. The program fully equipped schools with computers and Internet access and other ICT services. Computer science classes were provided in 84% of schools in the following eight years. Since 2014 World Economic Forum considered Estonia among innovation-driven knowledge-based societies, and some years later — being hidden entrepreneurship champion in Europe. Besides, Estonia has become one of the developed startup ecosystems where young ICT companies are booming. These events mentioned above refer to the successful combination of educational and entrepreneurial ecosystems in Estonia. The paper aims to disclose the role of ICT as the engine of the innovation-driven development in a small society. Findings of the study show a growing importance of digital technology, ICT startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the welfare of Estonian citizens.

Entrepreneurship as a private economic initiative in Estonia became legal with Gorbachev Perestroika at the end of the long period of Soviet occupation. Therefore, political agenda of transition from command to market economy also marks entrepreneurship development trajectory. Efforts of the Estonian government, for ICT development, from the 1990s, and entrepreneurship promotion in the twenty-first century manifest as political entrepreneurship. In a combination of these two aspirations, technology startup boom characterizes Estonian entrepreneurship in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

The importance of evaluating the outcomes of entrepreneurship education (EE) has been widely acknowledged, but how to approach the evaluation and what models and measures to use are still subjected to academic debate. In this article, the authors present an application of the European Competence Framework (ECF) – the knowledge–skills–attitude triad that stems from Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. A survey of self-assessed entrepreneurial competences acquired in entrepreneurship education courses was carried out in five Estonian higher education institutions (HEIs). An exploratory factor analysis based on the sample of 249 respondents confirmed the empirical viability of the ECF for evaluating the outcomes of EE, while also indicating a wide spectrum of these outcomes. Knowledge about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial skills and a range of affective outcomes was perceived to be stronger by those students who had higher aspirations to become entrepreneurs before entering the HEIs.

The Singing Revolution led to regaining independence after 50 years of Soviet occupation and created a new socioeconomic situation in Estonia in 1991. One of the first steps, of the Estonian government, was a telecommunication concession to the private company Eesti Telekom, in 1992. In 1995–1998, the Estonian government launched the national ICT strategy followed by the e-governance program. Fast economic and welfare growth in 1995–2007 ended with the global crisis, reminding many that linear growth of the economy is not sustainable anymore. Some new trends appeared in the last 8 years: Estonia has become the home of many new ICT startups which soon became global. There are opinions that it is not important for the Estonian economy, and ordinary Estonians will never experience a better living standard from such ICT startups. The chapter, based on data available from the statistics and multiple case studies, tries to find the answer.

The entrepreneurial role of the culture or art college in the Triple Helix (Academia-Industry-Government) linkages has been examined much less than of a traditional university. The paper aims to fulfill the gap in understanding the mission and the model of a university culture college carrying partly a regional partly a national role. Two case studies were used for mapping the main factors affecting entrepreneurial development by the Viljandi Culture Academy in Estonia and the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle, Germany.

The strategies of the European Union and its Member States suppose that intellectual property (IP) created as the result of R&D is the engine of economic growth and welfare in society. Studies based on the European Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) have demonstrated that R&D investments, support to the high technology industry and patenting intensity of the public sector differ in high- and low-income European countries. This fact refers to the need for adequate IP strategic indicators’ system facilitating innovation in less developed countries. The paper aims to conceptualize and suggest a strategic indicators’ system of IP for a small efficiency-driven economy. In contrast to the rather modest level of patenting by industry, universities of the Baltic States file approximately 50% of PCT patent applications. Therefore, it is crucial to overcome barriers, hindering universities’ IP commercialization. Academia-Industry collaboration includes two types of IP strategies: Active non-linear and Passive linear behavioural models of universities and public sector. An essential part of the active approach focuses on the “soft measures” for networking with firms in collaborative platforms such as AIMday® at the Uppsala University in Sweden. The proposed IP strategy system involves qualitative and quantitative indicators at the state as well as university and company level. The comparison of academic publishing and patenting by the staffs of Tartu and Uppsala universities testifies to their rather same levels of productivity. Three times wider patent families of the inventions of Uppsala origin characterize actors’ market ambition as well as the strength of University-Industry linkages that are more developed in Uppsala than in Tartu. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.27.3.13799

PurposeThe software industry, especially software development (SD), in Estonia is at the present moment in the phase of expansion: first level of life cycle of the industry. Initial maturity level of the industry is among other factors characterized by lower maturity level of development process in companies/development teams. The goal of this paper is to analyze the maturity level of SD process in Estonian companies. Usually, poorly managed processes and low‐development performance are the major reasons for overrun deadlines and insufficient competitive advantages. Therefore, improved performance is the key factor of SD industry competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used in the paper is semi‐structured interviews with experienced software developers/project managers in Estonian SD enterprises. On the basis of the interviews, authors were analyzing the usability of capability maturity model integration (CMMI) in Estonian SD companies to perform/apply the software process improvement (SPI).FindingsResults based on self‐evaluation are describing the current level of SD process maturity in sense of CMMI in Estonian SD enterprises. Also, the difficulties of collecting process performance data were discovered. SD companies did not find it necessary to collect and save development process performance data, such as number of (corrected) errors, number of lines of code, etc.Originality/valueThe paper describes structured performance as SD process maturity in sense of CMMI together with development process performance as project characteristics: product quality, cycle‐time, development effort, product maintainability, etc.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to map the current situation of entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions (HEIs) of 22 European transition economy countries.Design/methodology/approachThe approach taken was an internet survey and analysis covering 774 HEIs of the region.FindingsIn 332 institutions, entrepreneurship‐oriented courses, modules or curricula are offered. Croatia and Slovenia are the leading countries in terms of the coverage of teaching entrepreneurship in universities and colleges, followed by the Baltic countries and the Czech and Slovak Republics. The highest entrepreneurship orientation is found in new and private universities and colleges. In a majority of schools, the theory of entrepreneurship is taught but practice‐oriented training in entrepreneurship is rather limited. The current number of centres of entrepreneurship in the region is small, and the research‐oriented model of entrepreneurship education is used in three to five institutions only.Practical implicationsThe paper provides a useful source of information for entrepreneurship education researchers, developers and education policy makers.Originality/valueThe paper maps the HEIs entrepreneurship teaching in post‐communist European countries.

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore approaches to consumer‐driven optimization of package design utilizing a novel modified conjoint analysis approach. The approach allows for dynamic creation and testing of a large number of design prototypes with consumers and finds optimal solutions on an aggregated, segmented (pattern‐based latent mindset segmentation) and individual basis.Design/methodology/approachThe approach extends the consumer insights‐driven process, Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE), introduced by the authors (AG and HM) and developed in cooperation with Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania), to graphical concepts.FindingsDisciplined experimentation based on individual permuted experimental designs produces more targeted package designs with higher appeal to the consumers. The proposed steps describe fast, parsimonious and actionable process of application of RDE to package optimization, which provides valuable input for designers about consumer preferences.Practical implicationsThe paper demonstrates that consumer research could and should be a central part not only at the final stages of the package design but at the initial stage as well. The steps of fitting the research into the package design process are shown providing a parsimonious way to include consumers in the early stages of package design.Originality/valueThe approach could help the marketers efficiently create better packages that consumers like and which will help marketers to differentiate their respective products from the competition.

Secrecy is a traditional method of knowledge protection. The protection and management of trade secrets has high strategic relevance for small transition economies. As the majority of Estonian entrepreneurs are SMEs in low-tech sectors, the implementation of adequate trade-secret protection strategy is vital. There are several advantages to trade-secret protection. First, the scope of trade-secret protection can be extensive and includes non-patentable knowledge. Second, it does not require the registration or fulfilment of any formal procedures.The Estonian high-tech sector also relies on trade-secret protection. Concentration of activities in a low- or high-tech sector only determines whether entrepreneurs combine patent and trade-secret protection or whether they are solely dependent on trade-secret protection.The enhancement of entrepreneurial skills to manage trade-secrets is crucial. Despite the high strategic relevance of trade secret protection, Estonian entrepreneurs do not, yet, seem to have the necessary capabilities to leverage trade-secret protection. A similar situation can be detected in other Baltic states. Therefore, the main focus of this article is on the exploration of how to control and utilize trade secrets in the value creation process by entrepreneurs in the Estonian legal and economic environment through appropriate economic and legal strategies and relevant legal implementation and protection measures. The authors analyze theoretical and practical issues concerning trade-secret protection, argue their own concepts and put forward several proposals.

PurposeThis paper aims to summarize the results of an empirical project to understand the perceptions of consumers of the future high end products in the USA. This project was a precursor of a larger global project on the topic.Design/methodology/approachThe approach utilizes the consumer insights‐driven process, rule‐developing experimentation (RDE), introduced by the senior authors and developed in cooperation with Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania). The empirical part was conducted with qualified US consumers (middle‐ and upper‐middle class respondents). Based on a series of in‐depth qualitative interviews with global leaders of luxury and premium companies, star designers and thought leaders, five dimensions of high end offering were identified, with each dimension having a unique set of four factors (elements). The second part included a quantitative survey based on RDE (modified conjoint analysis) conducted in the USA with 373 qualified middle‐ and upper‐middle class respondents to discover the driving forces behind their perceptions of high end.FindingsThere are four distinct consumer mindsets towards future high end products. The segmentation is based on a disciplined experimentation afforded by RDE and produces a more targeted understanding of the consumer mind.Practical implicationsThe paper provides insights of what might drive the consumer perception of high end products in the near future. The pattern‐based consumer mind‐set segmentation creates actionable directions for corporations in answering today's big question “How can brands migrate from being cost‐driven commodities to higher margins and profits?” The answer is in the high end.Originality/valueThe approach offered here could help designers and brand managers to efficiently create better products that consumers like and perceive as high end. This will result in higher margins and help marketers to differentiate their respective products from the competition.

The paper presents an approach to analyzing food packages based on the eye-tracking analysis of consumers exposed to experimentally designed prototypes of packages based on Rule Developing Experimentation methodology. In addition, the paper analyses emotional reactions to conceptual packages (the respondent had a choice among seven alter- natives, including one 'non-emotion' response). The combined approach allows the researcher and the designer to control the stimuli, presenting known combinations to the respondent leading to the discovery of existing links between what the researcher can do to the stimulus by means of a systematic design, how the eye tracks these changes, and what type of re- sponse the participant in a study might make (e.g., interest, statement of emotion). The paper explores this new interlinked approach working with a popular product, wine in a box.

PurposeThis paper sets out to explore different approaches to optimizing web sites based on consumer preferences, introducing the most advanced form of landing page optimization, multivariate landing page optimization, and its variations. The approach aims to allow for the testing of a large number of web page prototypes with consumers and find real optimal solutions on an aggregated, segmented and individual basis. The latter aims to paveing the road to individually optimized pages and one‐on‐one marketing in the near future.Design/methodology/approachThe approach described employs a new variation of multivariate landing page optimization to improve customer experiences with web sites through optimal design of the landing pages. The approach uses consumer insights‐driven rule‐developing experimentation (RDE) introduced by the authors and developed in cooperation with Wharton School of Business.FindingsA disciplined experimentation based on statistically sound experimental designs produces much better web page designs. The resulting web pages have increased consumer acceptability, improved conversion rates and general customer experience.Practical implicationsConsumer research should be a central part in planning how to optimize web site experiences. The steps of fitting it into the web design are shown. There are already several readily available tools for effecting this.Originality/valueThe approach could help marketers create better web sites that consumers like and which will help marketers to differentiate their respective web sites from their competitors.

PurposeInnovation cannot come without in‐depth understanding of the product and its consumer perception. This paper aims to show the approach for consumer‐centric re‐development strategy, from design of the experiment to execution, analysis, modeling and strategies for implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe approach described uses a relatively large‐scale experimental design of ingredients (12 variables) to vary sensory attributes and conduct sensitivity analysis with consumers.FindingsThe resulting product was a big marketing success for the producer. A disciplined experimentation based on statistically sound experimental designs produces much better food products with increased acceptability by consumers.Practical implicationsStatisticians have turned their attention to modeling the relations between physical variables and subjective consumer responses. The resulting products are optimized to meet sensory preferences of the consumers including varied sensory segmentation of the markets.Originality/valueUsing advanced multivariate experimental design for sensory optimization has proved many times its advantages although still not universally used. The approach could help the marketers and developers create better products that consumers like.

During the transformation process from a command economy, the extraordinary statist university–industry–government (UIG) linkages model was replaced by an extreme version of laissez-faire relationships. A more modern interaction-based UIG model could be implemented only by changing the whole national innovation system of catching-up economies. The national innovation systems of countries with a command economy past share common problems that prevent them from developing the UIG linkages. The still-dominating linear innovation model should be replaced with the interactive and learning-based approach as these countries need to improve their levels of innovation diffusion management and networking. In addition, a symbiotic approach to the balance of high-tech and low-tech industries is needed. Managerial and organizational competence should be improved and treated at the same level of importance as technological competence.

Spin-off biotech companies often have difficulties in creating competitive advantage through protection of their intellectual property, due to their limited human and financial resources. Having considered the value of the intellectual property and questions of enforceability, spin-off companies should use patenting only for inventions with a high market value and high patent enforceability; otherwise, publishing early or keeping the invention a trade secret should be preferred. This allows the inventor to benefit from operational freedom while maintaining low costs. The impact of the protected intellectual property on the success of the firm depends on its speed of entry into the market and when it reaches break-even point. In a transition country with a poorly developed entrepreneurial environment, patents may expire before the spin-off company has produced any profit from its expenditures on the protection of the intellectual property. It should also be remembered that their products may contain modules which are already protected by other inventors. Consequently, a strategically fundamental issue for the success of spin-off firms is the careful selection of the markets in which to operate, and the choice of the proper degree and method of intellectual property protection.