In general, the popularity of entrepreneurship continues
unabated in higher education. "It's growing rapidly on a
long-term trend," says Shane. "If anything, the trend of
entrepreneurship education is stronger than business in general.
We're seeing declining enrollment in MBA programs but
increasing enrollment in graduate entrepreneurship
programs."
One reason for rising enrollment in entrepreneurship programs is
the growing number of college students, thanks to a baby boomlet
now washing through higher education. Another reason is the
changing perception of traditional employment as a source of
security. "The social contract with large companies has broken
down," says Shane. "People view starting their own
companies as less risky than employment."
Today's students represent another shift, away from those
who flocked to e-commerce programs and other flash-in-the-pan
features of premillennial business education. "A few years
ago, I was getting very disturbed because, when students thought
about entrepreneurship, they thought it meant a quick investment
and a lot of money," says Don Kuratko, professor of
entrepreneurship at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
"We're starting to see students learn how to really be
entrepreneurs, how to bootstrap, how to manage, how to be committed
to creating something with value."
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Entrepreneurship education is also changing. Today's courses
are more likely to be taught by a professional academic with a
doctorate and an orientation toward research than an adjunct
professor with a resume as a successful entrepreneur. This is
leading to the development of a basic framework for teaching
entrepreneurship, says Michael H. Morris, a professor of
entrepreneurship at Syracuse University. "There aren't standard
curriculum models in entrepreneurship," he says. "But
they're emerging." Those models typically include a course
on writing business plans, providing consulting to small
businesses, studying entrepreneurial finance, and managing
innovation as main elements.
One of the solid trends in entrepreneurship education is toward
experiential learning. Competitions for the best business plan or
elevator pitch, opportunities to consult to real-world small
businesses, simulations, incubators, on-campus venture funds and
other approaches provide students with learning experiences that
many educators deem more effective than the conventional textbook
approach. "We're seeing more students getting out of the
classroom and into the practice field," confirms Kuratko.
"There's a move away from classroom teaching to the field
approach."
Change is also taking place in the research programs related to
these entrepreneurship programs. A keystone research project, the
Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, began in 1996 and involved
contacting more than 64,000 U.S. households in the search for
nascent entrepreneurs. The researchers wound up with 830 people who
were willing to let their business startups be studied for two
years. The study seeks to answer four fundamental questions,
including: 1)Who is starting businesses? 2)How do they go about it?
3)Which efforts are most likely to produce new firms? 4)Why do some
startups create high-growth firms? Specific topics covered were
strategies, opportunity evaluation, networks, financial
characteristics, management teams and more.
"It's the largest random sample of people who are
getting into business," says Gartner. "You name it,
it's all there. It's the mother lode of information about
entrepreneurial processes, and we've just begun to analyze
it." Results are starting to be published in academic
journals, and Gartner believes the findings will overturn many
myths about new-venture creation and revolutionize the way
entrepreneurship is taught. "For instance, it will challenge
our thinking of the importance of venture capital," says
Gartner. "If we're teaching in general about how to
finance companies, the VC mode is probably not relevant."
Up to the Challenge
Kate Spisak didn't start out to major in
entrepreneurship. The 22-year-old senior at Ball State University,
in Muncie, Indiana, began as a business major and got interested in
entrepreneurship because of the promise of challenge and
independence. "I was unsure what direction I wanted to
go," says Spisak, "but I couldn't see myself sitting
at a day-to-day job doing the same thing over and over."
Part of the challenge of the entrepreneurship program for Spisak
is the final senior project to write a business plan. "We draw
it up, create it, and go through management, marketing and finding
the financing," she says. "At the end of the semester, we
present it to a board of business professionals [who] judge how
well we put together and presented our plan. We find out right then
whether we graduate. It's pass/fail; if you don't pass the
business plan class, you don't graduate."
Spisak plans to graduate on schedule, after which she's not
sure. "But that's the beauty of entrepreneurship,"
she says.
"The doors are open. I can be qualified to work in any kind
of business. It's a jack-of-all-trades major, because you learn
about every department and you learn how to speak
entrepreneurially."
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