Re-exploring entrepreneurial intentions and personality attributes during a pandemic

Purpose Using the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical base, this study aims to examine the effect of the personality attributes, risk-taking, creativity and locus of control on the entrepreneurial intentions of US business college students. The authors replicated previous studies from around the world but performed the research during the Covid-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed 353 students, comparing those with entrepreneurial intentions (n = 213) versus those without entrepreneurial intentions (n = 140). Findings The authors found that risk-taking and creativity both significantly and positively predicted entrepreneurial intentions, but locus of control did not have a significant impact. Practical implications Contextually, the authors performed this study during the widespread complications of the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors advise business educators to initiate programs that encourage student entrepreneurship by nurturing creativity and offering educational resources that assist students in reducing the perceived risk of entrepreneurship. Originality/value The authors seek to increase awareness among business educators of the significance of entrepreneurship as a desirable career. The authors believe that one impact from the Covid-19 pandemic has been an expanded interest among students to start their own businesses. The authors propose that creative measures introduced into the business school curriculum by business educators will enhance students’ desire to take risks to create their own businesses.

ENHANCING THE MOTIVATION AND LEARNING PERFORMANCE IN AN ONLINE CLASSROOM WITH THE USE OF NEUROMARKETING

In recent years, the newly emerging discipline of neuromarketing, which employs brain (emotions and behaviour) research in an organisational context, has grown in prominence in academic and practice literature. With the increasing growth of online teaching, COVID-19 left no option for higher education institutions to go online. As a result, students who attend an online course are more prone to lose focus and attention, resulting in poor academic performance. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to observe the learner's behaviour while making use of an online learning platform. This study presents neuromarketing to enhance students' learning performance and motivation in an online classroom. Using a web camera, we used facial coding and eye-tracking techniques to study students' attention, motivation, and interest in an online classroom. In collaboration with Oxford Business College's marketing team, the Institute for Neuromarketing distributed video links via email, a student representative from Oxford Business College, the WhatsApp group, and a newsletter developed explicitly for that purpose to 297 students over the course of five days. To ensure the research was both realistic and feasible, the instructors in the videos were different, and students were randomly allocated to one video link lasting 90 seconds (n=142) and a second one lasting 10 minutes (n=155). An online platform for self-service called Tobii Sticky was used to measure facial coding and eye-tracking. During the 90-second online lecture, participants' gaze behaviour was tracked overtime to gather data on their attention distribution, and emotions were evaluated using facial coding. In contrast, the 10-minute film looked at emotional involvement. The findings show that students lose their listening focus when no supporting visual material or virtual board is used, even during a brief presentation. Furthermore, when they are exposed to a single shareable piece of content for longer than 5.24 minutes, their motivation and mood decline; however, when new shareable material or a class activity is introduced, their motivation and mood rise. JEL: I20; I21 <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0805/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

STUDY-LIFE BALANCE AND MATURE STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE CASE OF OXFORD BUSINESS COLLEGE, UNITED KINGDOM

<p>A number of studies and cases have brought to light the challenges and barriers mature students face as they embark on a course of study. Yet there is no agreed definition of the term ‘mature student’. The first part of this paper presents several definitions of the term found in the contemporary literature. The two prevailing criteria are the typical constraints mature students face while studying and student age. In our study, a survey questionnaire was distributed electronically to 64 mature students at Oxford Business College during August 2021. Our research found that the most concerning issue for those who took part in our survey during the Covid-19 pandemic was reconciling financial obligations associated with education and family responsibilities. This may be a consequence of increased job insecurity during the pandemic. However, only one-third of the mature students in our study said they had significant difficulties in balancing study with other commitments, and slightly more than one fifth had experienced extreme or significant amounts of stress. Most students had succeeded in finding the right balance, albeit with minor difficulties. Interestingly, the results of our correlation analysis showed that stress in managing activities was unrelated to gender and age, while absence from full-time education was significantly positively related to age and unrelated to gender. Stress in managing activities correlated positively with balancing study-related obligations with other life commitments. This result shows that higher levels of stress lead to greater difficulties in achieving a balance between study and other life activities. Furthermore, associations between the period of absence from full-time education prior to enrolment on the current study program and gender and age were statistically insignificant. The results of our multiple linear regression analysis showed that gender and age together explained a statistically significant percentage of variance in stress levels. Additionally, absence from full-time formal education accounted for 2% of the total score variance in stress caused by managing different activities. This finding indicates that longer periods of time spent out of formal education predict higher levels of stress among mature students later on. As we start to move beyond the pandemic, almost two-thirds of respondents said they would prefer lessons to be delivered online once the Covid-19 pandemic is over, while only a minority of them prefer traditional classroom-based lessons (on-campus). This is perhaps no surprise given the substantial time-saving advantages of online learning, the scarcest resource for mature students. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0894/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Engaging With Stakeholders for Developing an Effective Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Universities Based in Rural Setup

This chapter proposes a new model that promotes and develops an entrepreneurial ecosystem in universities based in rural setup. The entrepreneurial universities could accomplish the status as an innovative environment center by collaborating with new businesses. Universities in rural areas can introduce business training, college business hatcheries, and college endeavor government-common society cooperation that enabled entrepreneurial behaviors. The target of a business college filling in as a pioneering entrepreneurial eco-system development center is to animate financial advancement, produce work, and make imaginative innovation-based endeavors or acting as an administration organization. While these services can be provided through a university, a university in a rural set up has an opportunity to act as a center for the economic development in rural areas. Attention is set on the need to create solid coordinated effort among key partners for making progress in building a viable enterprising system.

The relationship between the academic achievement of computerized tests and traditional tests of Business College students. An empirical study

The study aims to investigate the relationship between the academic achievement of computerized tests and traditional pen and paper exams of Business College students at the University of Jordan- Aqaba branch as well as relate differences results to students` gender. The study sample comprised 136 students of a compulsory course at the Business Faculty. A computerized mid-term test was held while the final one was traditional. The results of the two tests were compared where the other general factors affecting students` academic achievement, namely ( the same students, course subject, course subject lecturer) were set. The tests marks were sampled as percentage to the test mark so as to delete the denominator difference of marks where the mid-term mark is out of 30 while the final test is out of 50. The SPSS was used to compare the results of the two tests. Results were related to students gender, whether gender-related differences are found. The study concluded that there is no statistical significant relationship between the academic achievement of computerized tests and traditional ones (paper and pen) held at the Business College in The University of Jordan- Aqaba branch. The results also indicated that the academic achievement differences resulting from computerized tests have to do with the student gender variable in favour of male students.

Narcissism for Fun and Profit: An Empirical Examination of Narcissism and Its Determinants in a Sample of Generation Z Business College Students

The Millennial Generation is frequently identified with narcissistic behavior. However, less work has examined the narcissism of the subsequent generational cohort, Generation Z. In this article, we review the literature on the relationship between narcissism and undergraduate academic major in a college of business, campus involvement, and several demographic variables. We then conduct a study ( N = 660) to evaluate subclinical narcissism and its relationship to those choices and traits among contemporary undergraduate business college students using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS). Results reveal one of the highest mean NPI scores in the literature, corroborating prior findings concerning elevated narcissism among business students and providing a piece of evidence concerning intergenerational narcissism. Then, using a set of regression models, we find that NPI scores are higher among finance majors, leaders of student organizations, males, younger students, extrinsically religious students, and non-White students. The SINS is supported as a valid measure of subclinical narcissism. We then discuss how these findings have influenced our approach to course policy and classroom management, and we outline directions for future research based on this exploratory study of Generation Z college students.

A Resource-Efficient Modular Course Design for Co-Teaching Integrated Sustainability in Higher Education: Developing the Next Generation of Entrepreneurial Leaders

Society faces mounting pressures related to economic growth, social injustice, and environmental degradation. Building upon scholarly consensus regarding the necessity of multidisciplinary approaches to address such complex problems, the entrepreneurship classroom, broadly defined, can be a learning laboratory to integrate across disciplines, encouraging more impactful opportunity identification for students looking to create social, environmental, and economically inclusive value. We examined recent exit survey data from graduating seniors at a small, private business college in the US that emphasizes entrepreneurship, finding large gaps in skills and knowledge related to ethics and creative problem solving – both of which are key competencies central to meeting the challenges of building a more sustainable world. To address these identified needs, we developed a co-taught course focused on sustainability and consumerism across liberal arts, physical science, and business disciplines. We present our course material in the context of five key competencies related to teaching sustainability in higher education, and review the strengths and drawbacks of this approach for schools looking to implement a similar design. In a time of economic uncertainty in higher education, our model may be useful for other schools looking to integrate entrepreneurship across disciplines—with little added expense to the institution.

Are Cooperatives an Employment Option? A Job Preference Study of Millennial University Students

Millennials represent the most important group among the working age population. Destined to be the leaders of the future, their professional and personal profiles differ considerably from previous generations. Despite being considered as the most successful generation, millennials face a societal transformation and a labor reality marked by high levels of unemployment and underemployment that shape their career choice. Although millennials’ and university students’ job preferences have long been debated in the literature, some research gaps remain. Studies rarely consider the interplay between individuals’ profiles and the institutional form of business, particularly cooperative versus non cooperative options. To predict the compatibility between Millennials’ profiles and the cooperative job preference, a multinomial logit model is developed based on a survey of millennial business college students. Our key findings showed that some extrinsic issues are related to cooperative job preference, however the factor that has the most significant impact is the cooperative knowledge. This has important implications for the cooperative movement and for policy makers in charge of cooperative development.