Education, Training and Networking for Entrepreneurship in ...

Part 1
Introduction
Chapter 1
Is entrepreneurship expanding through education, training, competency
and networking?
Once upon a time, entrepreneurship was considered
something people might do if they were
gifted and inspired. Success was considered
the result of a gift, received at birth, the result of
bringing the gift to fruition, and the successful
business might bring a glorious reputation to
its founder. Failure was often attributed to lack
of such a gift, and the failure would bring disrepute
to the starter. Considered a matter of gift
and inspiration, entrepreneurship did not involve
learning.
The conception of entrepreneurship changed.
Entrepreneurship came to be considered something
that can be learned. Learning could come
through trial and error in solitude. Success was
considered the result of hard work, through a
series of trials and errors, conducted in solitude.
Considered something learnable by experiencing
trials and errors in solitude, entrepreneurship
did not involve instruction or learning from
others.
The conception is changing again. Nowadays,
entrepreneurship is considered learnable, both
as codified knowledge that can be acquired
through formal instruction and education and
as tacit knowledge that can be acquired as advice,
as know-how and as experiential learning,
for example as apprentice in a business.
Educators and policy-makers are now busy creating
and extending instruction in entrepreneurship,
so that more levels and kinds of education
will include instruction in entrepreneurship,
so that more pupils, students and adults
will learn entrepreneurship, so that they will
learn more elements of entrepreneurship, not
only things like developing a business plan,
planning production and targeting sales, but
also the very inception of the entrepreneurial
process such as nurturing motivation, pursuing
interests, generating bold ideas, elaborating
sketches and evaluating feasibilities.
Entrepreneurship can be conceptualized as the
activity that comprises discovering opportunities
and the exploitation of opportunities in existing
and new firms. The activity is now institutionalized
and supported in society, with a social
role for performing the activity, the vocation
called the entrepreneur (Christensen 2005,
Swedberg 2000). It may therefore be fruitful to
focus on the people who may become involved
and perform the activity and the learning affecting
their involvement and performance.
I here investigate people’s learning through
their education in entrepreneurship, their training
in starting a business, and their networking
through which they may learn, and investigate
how people’s learning expands their involvement
in entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurs’
learning expands their innovation, exports
and expectations for growth.
The monograph first considers the methods for
the investigation,
How can we research entrepreneurship?
More specifically, Chapter 2 addresses the
methodological problem,
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