scholarly journals Promoting Entrepreneurial Competencies via Education: Is Malaysian Polytechnic Entrepreneurship Education Effective?

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-35
Author(s):  
Asliza Yusoff ◽  

Malaysian Polytechnic has been actively participating in providing entrepreneurship education (EE) and training to improve basic skills and encourage self-employment among its graduates. Sadly, a scrutiny of the available literature suggests that Malaysian polytechnic entrepreneurship education (MPEE) is ineffective as it fails to inculcate entrepreneurial spirit among the students. Students who have finished the MPEE were reported to have not embedded with enterprising knowledge, business skills and attributes during their study in polytechnics. However, these findings obviously demand further clarification. First, although entrepreneurship is indeed a very long process and cannot be created overnight, previous studies measured the effectiveness of MPEE by looking into students’ readiness for entrepreneurship. Although scholars have argued that entrepreneurial readiness or intention is the proximal determinant of entrepreneurial behaviour, intention alone is not enough in measuring entrepreneurship as it does not lead to immediate action. Second, previous studies also missed to apply the regression method in their analysis to investigate the impact of MPEE on students’ entrepreneurial development, leaving both theoretical and methodological gaps to be filled by the current study. Based on this justifications, this study proposes that the effectiveness of MPEE can be studied by looking at how it creates students’ intellectual capital, which is the asset that are garnered from an investment in EE, and students’ entrepreneurial behaviour via a longitudinal design. This effort is deemed important since understanding the effectiveness of MPEE will bring substantial value to the overall educational, economic, and societal well-being in the long run. The significance of this study lies in its effort to reveal the effectiveness of MPEE by investigating its impact on ‘the other side’ of entrepreneurial intention, which is its behavioural aspect.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiwei Wang ◽  
Ying Jiang

This article studies the influence of entrepreneurial spirit on college students’ entrepreneurial ability and entrepreneurial values. Firstly, the impact of entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial spirit on entrepreneurial values is analyzed. Secondly, the role of entrepreneurial values in innovation and entrepreneurship education is analyzed and summarized under new media. Then, based on entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial spirit, a Questionnaire Survey (QS) is designed to investigate the entrepreneurial values of students in one university in Shaanxi Province, China. The QS analysis suggests that most respondents hold a positive attitude, and their attitude is on the rise. The QS results of “Reasons for entrepreneurial failure” show that 40.37, 31.9, 25.98, and 11.75% of respondents think they lack financial support, business skills, ability, and understanding of policies and laws, respectively. The QS results of “What factors influence entrepreneurial values?” reveal that 39.43% of the respondents chose the “Models of successful entrepreneurs,” successful entrepreneur models can effectively encourage students to receive entrepreneurship education, followed by 28.94% who choose “Achieve their own life goals.” In terms of “Solutions against entrepreneurial risks,” nearly 70% of the students have chosen the negative options. In terms of “Which is the most important entrepreneurial quality?” more students choose entrepreneurial values rather than entrepreneurial quality, proving that students generally lack entrepreneurial values. Given these problems, corresponding countermeasures are put forward to strengthen entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurship education, in an attempt to cultivate college students’ entrepreneurial values and entrepreneurial ability under the new media. The results provide some data support for the impact of college students’ entrepreneurial values and entrepreneurial ability.


Author(s):  
Ana Dias Daniel ◽  
Vânia Reis de Castro

Although the number of education programs in the context of entrepreneurship is growing, its impact continues to generate controversy in the scientific world. Poorly defined methods and misguided strategies do not allow entrepreneurial education to exploit its potential regarding the impact it may have on the entrepreneurial intention of students and, consequently, on their possible future entrepreneurial behaviour. The purpose and contribution of this chapter is to offer a clearer picture regarding the different research approaches used to assess the impact of entrepreneurship education in entrepreneurial intentions. In terms of methodology, the relevant literature was reviewed and conclusions were draw from the different approaches researchers used considering the Theory of Planned Behaviour. In this case, entrepreneurship education programs may have an impact on the antecedents of the TPB, or as a mediation variable between the different antecedents and entrepreneurial intention, as well as between the different antecedents, or affecting directly on entrepreneurial intention.


Author(s):  
Jacques de Jongh

Globalisation has had an unprecedented impact on the development and well-being of societies across the globe. Whilst the process has been lauded for bringing about greater trade specialisation and factor mobility many have also come to raise concerns on its impact in the distribution of resources. For South Africa in particular this has been somewhat of a contentious issue given the country's controversial past and idiosyncratic socio-economic structure. Since 1994 though, considerable progress towards its global integration has been made, however this has largely coincided with the establishment of, arguably, the highest levels of income inequality the world has ever seen. This all has raised several questions as to whether a more financially open and technologically integrated economy has induced greater within-country inequality (WCI). This study therefore has the objective to analyse the impact of the various dimensions of globalisation (economic, social and political) on inequality in South Africa. Secondary annual time series from 1990 to 2018 were used sourced from the World Bank Development indicators database, KOF Swiss Economic Institute and the World Inequality database. By using different measures of inequality (Palma ratios and distribution figures), the study employed two ARDL models to test the long-run relationships with the purpose to ensure the robustness of the results. Likewise, two error correction models (ECM) were used to analyse the short-run dynamics between the variables. As a means of identifying the casual effects between the variables, a Toda-Yamamoto granger causality analysis was utilised. Keywords: ARDL, Inequality, Economic Globalisation; Social Globalisation; South Africa


Author(s):  
Neha Taneja Chawla ◽  
Hitesh Bhatia

With the increasing popularity of entrepreneurship education programs across the world, the impact assessment of such programs has gathered considerable interest of the researchers. Growing number of studies are including entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) as a key predictor of future entrepreneurial behaviour and hence the scale for measuring ESE is central to majority of studies pertaining to entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial behaviour. This study attempts to refine the existing instruments for measuring ESE by extensively reviewing the notable scales of ESE in literature and develops a comprehensive scale of ESE relevant in the Indian context. The additional components are added to the existing scales through expert discussions with the academicians as well as entrepreneurs. The scale is further verified for its reliability and validity by using appropriate statistical methods.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Shoaib Farooq

Purpose Although entrepreneurial behaviour is considered a key element for economic development, yet very less is known about the determinants of factors leading towards entrepreneurial intention and behaviour. In order to bridge this gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social support and entrepreneurial skills in determining entrepreneurial behaviour of individuals. Developing on the base of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study investigates the relationship between social support, entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial behaviour along with existing constructs of the TPB (i.e. attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intention). Design/methodology/approach Data was collected from 281 respondents using a simple random sampling method, and the variance-based partial least-squares, structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for testing the proposed conceptual model. Findings Findings of this study have validated the proposed model, which have an explanatory power of 68.3 per cent. Moreover, findings reveal that social support and entrepreneurial skills have a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention of individuals. However, an unanticipated and non-significant relation between subjective norms and entrepreneurial intention is also found. Research limitations/implications Due to the limited scope of this study, a multi-group analysis is not possible, which is considered as a limitation of this study. Moreover, due to time constraints, this study is conducted within a specified time-frame; however, a longitudinal study over a period of three to six years can overcome this limitation. Practical implications Findings of this study are expected to have substantial implications for policy makers, future researchers and academicians. Outcomes of this study can help to better understand the cognitive phenomenon of nascent entrepreneurs. Moreover, it is expected that this study can serve as a torch-bearer for policy makers to develop better entrepreneurial development programmes, policies and initiatives for promoting self-employment behaviour. Originality/value Findings of this study are a unique step forward and offer new insights towards a better understanding of the determinants of entrepreneurial behaviour. Moreover, this study extends Ajzen’s (1991) TPB in the context of entrepreneurial behaviour. By introducing and investigating the impact of two new variables, i.e. social support and entrepreneurial skills in the TPB and by validating the proposed model with PLS-SEM approach, this study makes a sizeable theoretical, methodological and contextual contribution in the overall body of knowledge.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Tharrey ◽  
Ashby Sachs ◽  
Marlène Perignon ◽  
Chantal Simon ◽  
Caroline Mejean ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Despite the increasing number of studies on gardening and health, evidence of health benefits of community gardening is limited by cross-sectional design. The “JArDinS” quasi-experimental study aimed to assess the impact of community garden participation on the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles in French adults. Methods: Individuals starting gardening in community gardens in Montpellier (France) in 2018 (N=66) were compared to pairwise matched individuals with no experience in community gardening (N=66). Monthly household food supplies, physical activity measured by accelerometers and questionnaires on physical, mental and social well-being, sensitivity to food waste, and connection with nature were used to explore sustainability of lifestyles in social/health, environmental and economic dimensions. Data were collected at baseline (t0) and 12 months later (t1). Linear mixed models were used to determine the independent effect of community gardening on investigated lifestyles components. In-depth interviews were conducted at t1 with 15 gardeners to better understand changes that may have occurred in gardeners’ lives during the first year of gardening.Results: At t0, gardeners had lower education level, lower BMI and reported lower percentage of meals consumed outside of the home in total household meals compared to non-gardeners (p<0.05). At t1, the mean weight of fruit and vegetables harvested from the garden was 19.5g/d/p. Participating in the community garden had no significant impact on any of the social/health, environmental and economic lifestyle components investigated. Qualitative interviews suggested the existence of pre-established health and environmental consciousness in some gardeners and revealed several barriers to the participation such as lack of time, lack of gardening knowledge, difficulty of gardening, health problems and conflicts with other gardeners. Conclusions: Using a longitudinal design allowing causality assessment, no impact was observed of the first year of community gardening on lifestyle sustainability. The pre-established sensitivity to sustainability and the various barriers encountered by new gardeners might explain the absence of community gardening impact. Further rigorous longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether or not community gardening is a relevant public health tool.Trial registration: The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03694782. Date of registration: 3rd October 2018, retrospectively registered.


Author(s):  
Zuraidah Mohamed Isa

Since the inception of microcredit programmes, various studies have been carried out to assess their impacts. Earlier studies seemed to highlight this on the participants’ income and consequently poverty. However, recent impact studies of microcredit programmes have been looking into participants’ quality of life. Thus, this study attempted to investigate the impact of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s microcredit programme on the participants’ quality of life and analyse the differences between the new and old participants. This study took on a different perspective by examining aspects of personal attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, as well as entrepreneurial intention and behaviour. In selecting the samples, a probability sampling (disproportionate stratified) technique was employed. The hypotheses were tested using cross-sectional data of 638 Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia participants. The findings of the study showed that all the hypotheses were significant and supported, where there was significant influence between participants’ personal attitude and entrepreneurial intention, participants’ subjective norm and entrepreneurial intention, participants’ perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intention, participants’ perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial behaviour, participants’ entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behaviour, including participants’ entrepreneurial behaviour and participants’ quality of life. On the contrary, the findings of the study revealed no difference in the quality of life between new participants and old participants. This study may contribute to the policy implications of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s microcredit programme, especially in improving training and guidance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurotimi Maurice Fems

 Purpose: Entrepreneurship education as an influencer of graduate entrepreneurial intention is gaining massive attention amongst practitioners, policy makers and academics across the globe. The proliferation of entrepreneurship courses in universities around the world is evident of this wide acceptance of entrepreneurship education as a strategy for graduate entrepreneurship. The purpose of this research paper is to ascertain the impact entrepreneurship education has on students’ entrepreneurial career intentions.Methodology: The article includes a review of literature in entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention to gain background knowledge. This research is a qualitative, interpretive phenomenological study and relies on narrative as a means of knowing, and as a form of communication. The scope of the study is year one students at the Federal Polytechnic of Oil & Gas Ekowe in the departments of Computer Science, Science Laboratory Technology and Statistics. The questionnaire was designed in a semi-structured way and distributed to students to return after 7 days to allow for proper articulation of narratives.Findings: A total of 42 students participated in the interview and 42 returned. 28.57% representing 12 students showed intention to start a business, 40.48% (17 students) desire to get a job after graduation while 13 students (30.95%) are unsure what they want to do after graduation. The results indicate that entrepreneurship education has a positive impact on students’ entrepreneurial career intention but other than EE, it was also revealed from participants’ narratives that age, prior experience and parents’ status have positive influence on graduate entrepreneurial decisions.Implication of Findings: Findings will aid curriculum designers and educational policy makers to scrutinize and re-examine EE programmes and how they are taught to enhance practice.Originality: Narratives and storytelling methods are not the common methods adopted in entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention research. More research should be carried out using this method to validate results from this approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-93
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Kreitzer

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the well-being of nurses and has exacerbated long-standing issues of stress and burnout. Expecting or hoping that nurses will recover quickly or bounce back from the stress and deep trauma of the pandemic is not realistic. Each nurse has a story, and while these stories may have similar themes, they are all different. It is important to reflect on our stories, identify the myriad of emotions we are experiencing, and find ways to work through our feelings. Ignoring, denying, or suppressing feelings does not serve us well in the long run. Stifling negative emotions does not make them go away. A Call to Action is needed to address the impact of the pandemic, clinician burnout, and systemic racism on health-care organizations and educational institutions. Strategies are identified that will support personal and organizational well-being.


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