A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Laura Galloway, Isla Kapasi and Geoff Whittam
In the original study, students who had just completed an entrepreneurship module as part of their
degree were asked to complete a questionnaire. The entrepreneurship modules were all elective
classes in one of four universities. The modules included in the survey were of two types: one was
applied business venturing, where students participated in a business start-up simulation in teams of
4 or 5; the other type was ‘about entrepreneurship’ in which the objectives focused on learning what
entrepreneurship and enterprise are, and the value of them and the small firms sector to economies
and competitiveness. Previous studies using the original data found no significant differences in
attitudes or ambitions of students between module types (Galloway, et al., 2005), and in most cases,
since both types were available in all the participating universities, students attended both during their
degree programmes. Where both types had been taken, one response per student was included in
the survey analysis and this varied depending on the order in which students took the modules,
therefore both types were represented without bias.
The current study follows up with participants from two of these four institutions. A sample of 600
participants completed the original questionnaire in 2005 or 2006, and so the current study sought to
follow up on them six or seven years since they received one of the entrepreneurship classes.
In the original study, personal email and telephone numbers were gathered, and this was the means
by which participants were contacted for the follow-up. However, as is characteristic of students, once
graduated, lives move on and they become hard to find. Contact details change as lives develop.
Other means by which the study sought to ‘find’ those from the original was by using social network
sites such as Facebook and Linkedin therefore. Despite the plethora of communications and
networking mechanisms facilitated by the internet and other technologies, it proved extremely difficult
to source participants. Ultimately, while several participants were found, the number of them was low,
and amongst them only ten agreed to be interviewed. However, while originally disappointing, the low
number did make possible interviews and inspection at some depth to follow-up on the stories of
these participants. Ultimately, this proved beneficial to the research.
In the original study, as per Table 1 above, each participant was given a score in terms of how
entrepreneurial he or she was. Table 2 below provides details of the ten participants of the follow-up
study, including their original entrepreneurship score. Each informant participated in a semi structured
interview, in which they were asked to broadly outline their experience so far in their career, their
ambitions for the future, and the extent to which they considered entrepreneurship education had
impacted or been useful (or not) in their careers. The limited number of questions was intended to
allow for as much conversation as possible, facilitate rapport and through that, allow participants to
respond as openly as possible.
Table 2: The interview participants
Informant Score in Original Study (0- Entrepreneur or nor entrepreneur
4)
(BO or SE)
A 3 entrepreneur
B 3 entrepreneur
C 3 student
D 2 entrepreneur
E 1 employed
F 1 employed
G 2 entrepreneur
H 1 entrepreneur (franchisee)
I 2 doing a PhD
J 0 employed and entrepreneur
5. Results
Two interviewees who had a high score in the original survey are now ‘entrepreneurs’ and both
established their businesses within two years of finishing their degree. In fact one of the interviewees
was establishing their business whilst still finishing their degree. Both had a positive experience of
their entrepreneurial experience at university. For example, interviewee ‘A’ stated
“I think entrepreneurship module is very important part of what the University offers. It enables the
students to understand the value of innovation, marketing and gives confidence in setting up their own
business...Learning about the business plan during the entrepreneurship course was useful. It made
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