Towards a Framework for Integrating Place-Based Approaches in Entrepreneurship Education

Regional and institutional contexts have been acknowledged as important to the design of entrepreneurship education (EE), yet the importance of place for entrepreneurship has so far received less attention. There is still much work to do in connecting students to places and engaging them in understanding the relationship between entrepreneurship, local communities and local economies within the EE curriculum. Taking inspiration from the notions of place-based and place-conscious learning, the paper proposes a framework for place-based EE and considers challenges for integrating place-based approaches into the EE curriculum. A case study of place-based EE at a university business school is then used to illustrate how the framework can be used to review existing curricula, as well as to reveal how an institution's context might both facilitate and constrain opportunities for place-based learning. The paper provides a contribution by making more visible the important yet often invisible role of place in EE, while being mindful of the needs, resources and educational aims of regions and institutions.