National Summit Meeting on an Entrepreneurship Education Research Agenda

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Higher education offerings in entrepreneurship education (EE) at the undergraduate and graduate levels have outpaced efforts to inventory them, let alone outpaced agreement on objectives and development of evidence-based curriculum content and teaching and student evaluation methods. The project will convene faculty and administrators, innovation and education scholars, and entrepreneurs and investors to review the variety of contemporary approaches, develop a greater consensus concerning the functions of entrepreneurship education, identify opportunities for evaluation, and recommend methods for research, including cross-institution research. Although the project does not itself entail empirical research and data collection, a clearer articulation of objectives will enable the statement of testable hypotheses regarding the elements of curriculum, teaching methods, and performance evaluation that do and do not contribute to various student outcomes. The project also has the potential to inform student expectations and choices among institutions, programs, concentrations, and courses as well as institutional decisions about academic offerings, staffing, and provision of ancillary services such as prototype development, enterprise incubation, and start-up financing. Evidence-based individual and institutional decisions should contribute to policies to promote more vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The two-stage project will begin with the formation of a Task Force on Entrepreneurship Education and Research comprised of innovation and higher education scholars who will review current offerings, examine any evidence of the effectiveness of curriculum elements and teaching methods, and recommend research approaches. The Task Force will develop a set of conclusions and proposals for consideration by a conference whose participants include administrators, entrepreneurs, investors, selected students, and a few principals from non-US institutions