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Exploring Innovative Entrepreneurship and Its Ties to Higher Educational Experiences

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to explore innovative entrepreneurship and to gain insight into the educational practices and experiences that increase the likelihood that a student would graduate with innovative entrepreneurial intentions. To this end, we administered a battery of assessments to 3,700 undergraduate seniors who matriculated in the spring of 2007; these students attended one of five institutions participating in this study. Results showed that, after controlling for a host of personality, demographic, educational, and political covariates, taking an entrepreneurial course and the assessments faculty use as pedagogical strategies for teaching course content were significantly related to innovation intentions. Implications for higher education stakeholders are discussed.

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Notes

  1. There is another type of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, which is of enormous importance for the general welfare, though it is not the central concern of this paper. This arena of entrepreneurship focuses on encouraging and assisting the world’s enormous impoverished population, for whom the model of entrepreneurship provided by technologically advanced economies is not always relevant. The educational needs of those who engage in social entrepreneurship, like the needs of its beneficiaries, are very different from those of the innovative entrepreneurs in developed economies. For excellent discussions of social entrepreneurship, see Lounsbury and Strang (2009) and Mars (2009).

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for its generous support in the funding of this research project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, 239 Greene Street, Suite #300, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Matthew J. Mayhew & Michael W. Klein

  2. Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, 44 West 4th Street, Room 8–54, New York, NY, 10012, USA

    Jeffrey S. Simonoff

  3. Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, 44 West 4th Street, Room 7–98, New York, NY, 10012, USA

    William J. Baumol

  4. Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, 44 West 4th Street, Room 7–52, New York, NY, 10012, USA

    Batia M. Wiesenfeld

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  1. Matthew J. Mayhew
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Correspondence to Matthew J. Mayhew.

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Mayhew, M.J., Simonoff, J.S., Baumol, W.J. et al. Exploring Innovative Entrepreneurship and Its Ties to Higher Educational Experiences. Res High Educ 53, 831–859 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-012-9258-3

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