Higher Education
P. Taghinezhad; E. Naderi; M. Seif Naraghi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The aim of the present study was analyzing the words and semantic units used to define entrepreneurship and describe the entrepreneur presented in the research articles on entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions. Methods: This study is a synthesis research ...
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Background and Objectives: The aim of the present study was analyzing the words and semantic units used to define entrepreneurship and describe the entrepreneur presented in the research articles on entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions. Methods: This study is a synthesis research (systematic review), but in terms of analytical methods, it is an analytical-synthetic research. For this purpose, content analysis and text analysis techniques were used. All articles with the subject of ‘entrepreneurship education’ in higher education which have been indexed in the Islamic World Science Citation Database, were selected as the statistical population. Using the preferred search strategy, 137 articles were retrieved and after considering the study criteria, such as having peer review and discussing entrepreneurship education in the university, 92 articles remained for analysis. In this process, sentences which had been used to describe entrepreneurship or an entrepreneur were analyzed using the software of Textstat2, MAXQDA10, and Excel. Findings: The findings of this study in the first level of analysis showed that the first ten descriptions ( that is, the first ten words) which are used more frequently for defining entrepreneurship or describing an entrepreneur in the research texts in Iran respectively are: innovation (frequency 156 and 8.8%), source (frequency 100 and 5.7%), work/activity (frequency 75 and 4.2%), process (frequency54 and 3.1%), business (frequency 43 and 2.4%), risk-taking (frequency 43 and 2.4%) , economy (frequency 41 and 2.3%), creation (frequency 41 and 2.3%), and opportunity (frequency 38 and 2.2%). The findings of the second level of the study, that is, the analysis of the semantic units, showed that the most frequently used semantic unit at the level of analysis of the main components belongs to the description of ‘the features of an entrepreneur’. Among all the subcategories of semantic unit analysis, the ten semantic units which have received more attention than the others, respectively, are: the first level of priority, with 33 semantic units, belongs to the semantic unit of ‘Risk-taking’. The semantic unit of the entrepreneur being ‘an opportunist’ with 22 semantic units was the second level of priority and ‘innovation’ with 16 semantic units was the third level of priority. Other priorities, respectively, are as follows: ‘creating new business’ with 16 semantic units, ‘supplying new product to the market’ with 13 semantic units, ‘creativity’ of the entrepreneur with 13 semantic units, ‘having the ability of mobilizing the sources’ with 12 semantic units, ‘self-confidence’ with 12 semantic units, ‘improvement of the economic condition’ with 11 semantic units, and ‘supplying new service’ with 8 semantic units. Comparison of the two levels of analysis showed that in the first ten components of both analyses, there is a lot of overlap; however, by comparing the order of priority of the components, it can be seen that the researchers in Iran consider entrepreneurship as being more dominated by ‘risk-taking’ and ‘opportunist’ individuals and their ‘innovation’ feature is at the third order of priority whereas in defining and describing entrepreneurship, the word ‘innovation’ has had more application. Conclusion: The results indicate that first, both at the level of semantic units and at the level of the words used, entrepreneurship education specialists in Iranian universities, in line with the experts of this domain, consider entrepreneurship as a driver of innovation leading to business and job creation. Second, since at both levels of analysis, the findings indicate that more attention is paid to the characteristics of the entrepreneur, so it can be concluded that entrepreneurship education specialists in Iranian higher education institutions consider entrepreneurship as an individual characteristic; that is why, somehow the characteristics of entrepreneurs are emphasized. Third and perhaps the most important result was that despite the extent and variety of concepts considered in the texts of entrepreneurship education in Iran, perhaps there are no approved and accepted curricula for teaching entrepreneurship to the students and in each of the implemented courses, a specific dimension on entrepreneurship is taught and many other topics are neglected or the required time for addressing them is not provided. The main limitations of the present study were the incompleteness of the collection of the sources required for the objective of this study as well as the extraction of the sentences from the /original text of the articles selected for analysis.
Higher Education
M.R. Meigounpoory; A. Arabiun; M.M. Poorbasir; A. Mobini Dehkordi
Abstract
Background and Objective: In recent years, in addition to educational and research missions, attention to entrepreneurship has increased in universities and scientific centers around the world, and therefore entrepreneurship training courses have been expanded in them. Evidence shows that environmental ...
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Background and Objective: In recent years, in addition to educational and research missions, attention to entrepreneurship has increased in universities and scientific centers around the world, and therefore entrepreneurship training courses have been expanded in them. Evidence shows that environmental support and creating an appropriate environment for the effectiveness of the education system and educational technologies in the creation and development of businesses can have an effective impact on their entrepreneurial path. The entrepreneurial ecosystem is defined as the close relationship between individuals, the government and its affiliated institutions, and other influential components to support entrepreneurial activities in a particular geographical area. This ecosystem may be regional or national, or even university-level. The study of the higher education policies for university entrepreneurship ecosystem creation has become one of the major new and important topics in the field of higher education and university entrepreneurship ecosystems. Hence, changing the approach from purely educational and research planning to the establishment of the university campus entrepreneurship ecosystem has been attended by the world's leading universities. Current paper aims to design a model for creating an Entrepreneurial University Campus Ecosystem (EUCE) with the configuration and leveling of the factors. Methods: Hence using a qualitative approach, an in-depth and exploratory interview was conducted with 20 experts from the research population. Findings: Then, using open and axial coding method, 9 axial factors were identified. The axial factors affecting the creation of Entrepreneurial University Campus Ecosystem (EUCE) have been classified using an Interpretive Structural method. A questionnaire was designed and distributed among 28 academic and field experts. A group of five experts on EUCE has studied the completed questionnaires and determined the relations between subject to disagreement components. Then, Interpretive Structural Modelling was built using Matlab software to develop an EUCE model. Conclusion: The results showed that the factor of promoting the culture of entrepreneurship ecosystem on campus, despite being an internal factor of the university, will play a very important role in creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus (as an example of society) and developing an individual entrepreneurial culture. Corporate entrepreneurship culture and organizational entrepreneurship culture within the university will play an important role in improving the level of readiness to develop the university entrepreneurship ecosystem. In addition, improving university policies and laws, creating and expanding the infrastructure needed to create a university entrepreneurship ecosystem, improving the level of policy and management of university financial resources, increasing the intensity and level of research and development in the university ecosystem, have a great impact on creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus. The new approach presented in the higher education system based on the new model of entrepreneurship ecosystem of the university campus presented in this article will be useful for all managers of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and the heads and boards of universities and researchers interested in developing higher education in Iran and other developing countries.
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