Addressing the Unemployed Graduate Challenge Through Student Entrepreneurship and Innovation in South Africa's Higher Education

This chapter addresses graduate unemployment through student entrepreneurship in the context of South African higher education. The graduate unemployment rate of South Africa is estimated at 33.5% for the youth (15-24) and 10.2% for those aged 25-34. Unemployed graduate phenomenon as depicted by the FeesMustFall campaign is exacerbated by untransformed curriculum which does not provide students with relevant skills matching the labour demands. In this regard, the chapter argues that student entrepreneurship remains one of the strategies university-based youth or students could not only a space to gain business skills and experience, but also a forum where they can put their creative ideas into income generating projects. The chapter first looks at student entrepreneurship and the challenges faced by tertiary students. Second, it explores the opportunities created through entrepreneurship, the challenges faced by student entrepreneurs, and finally, the support needed to run successful student entrepreneurship.

The Analysis of the Innovation Consciousness of College Student Entrepreneurs Under the Teaching Concept of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture

The purpose of this study was to analyze the current situation of the entrepreneurial consciousness of college student entrepreneurs and to explore the role of innovative and entrepreneurial talents in social and economic development. Based on the teaching concept of Chinese excellent traditional culture, first, the relevant theories of innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as the characteristics of entrepreneurial talents in colleges and entrepreneurs, are analyzed and elaborated; moreover, the definition of college student entrepreneur is explained; then, from the perspective of entrepreneurial teaching management, entrepreneurial education, and place support, the questionnaire method is selected to show the understanding of the entrepreneurship of college students; finally, based on the Cobb-Douglas function, the model before and after the introduction of innovative and entrepreneurial talents is tested and analyzed. Investigation and analysis suggest that most college students have entrepreneurial intention, and 61.5% of them choose to start their own business after having working experience; the relative freedom of time and space is the main factor to attract college students to start their own businesses, accounting for 42.3%; 69.3% of college students think that capital is a restricting factor for entrepreneurship, while 76.2% think that lack of experience is a major restricting factor for entrepreneurship; college students have a certain demand for entrepreneurship training and guidance from the school, especially in the setting of entrepreneurship incubation park and resource pool; the characteristics of entrepreneurship, professional skills, and interpersonal resources are more crucial for college students; most college students have a positive cognition of the excellent traditional Chinese teaching concepts; the analysis based on the Cobb-Douglas function reveals that the introduction of innovative and entrepreneurial talents can promote economic development. This exploration has a positive effect on the cultivation of awareness of college students of entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as the relationship discussion between the introduction of innovative and entrepreneurial talents and social economy.

Psychological Well-Being Sustainable during Entrepreneurial Process—The Moderating Role of Entrepreneurial Creativity

Despite pitfalls during the entrepreneurial journey, entrepreneurship offers the opportunity to illuminate new ventures and preserve psychological well-being to sustain entrepreneurial development. From a dynamic perspective, this study discusses the early stage of the entrepreneurial process affecting student entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being and examines the moderating role of entrepreneurial creativity. By building a framework with the data of 1873 student entrepreneurs across 36 university business incubators in China involved in entrepreneurship activity, we found that entrepreneurial passion, alertness and intention had a positive correlation with entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being, but entrepreneurial action had the opposite effect. Entrepreneurial creativity positively moderated relationships between entrepreneurial action and students’ psychological well-being. This finding contributes to a full understanding of students’ psychological well-being on their entrepreneurial journey in the context of COVID-19 and eases the pressure of entrepreneurship by strengthening entrepreneurial creativity education.

Construction of Innovation Behavior of College-Student Entrepreneurs Using Entrepreneurship and Innovation Theory Under Educational Psychology

The purpose is to analyze the entrepreneurship and innovation education of colleges from the perspective of educational psychology and optimize the teaching mode reform of entrepreneurship and innovation courses. In this study, the theoretical research and case studies are combined to explore the performance of college-student entrepreneurs during college and work and have provided data for targeted entrepreneurship and innovation education in the schools. Meanwhile, the specific manifestation of the entrepreneurial spirit during work is analyzed, and the impact of entrepreneurial spirit is discussed on the new venture performance. The case study shows that most of the surveyed college-student entrepreneurs have a higher educational background and short venture-creation time, and their ventures are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with rapid development. Most entrepreneurs show a strong entrepreneurial spirit during college. Among them, the average score of honesty is 3.85. At work, the surveyed entrepreneurs have high innovation attitude and innovation intention. Most entrepreneurs use innovative methods to solve practical problems in their work, and innovation spirit plays an important role in improving venture performance. Innovation attitude and innovation performance have a significant positive impact on innovation behavior. The research is comprehensive, and the results have very important application value. The results can provide scientific and effective references for colleges to reform entrepreneurship and innovation education.

An entrepreneurial way of engaging student entrepreneurs at business school during pandemic

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the challenges faced by the higher educational institutes in imparting entrepreneurial education during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the institutional response to handle the difficulties posed by COVID-19 through innovative educational initiatives. Design/methodology/approach To understand the challenges faced, data was collected from entrepreneurship students and entrepreneurship educators through focus group discussions. The study followed Kitzinger (1995) as data was analyzed in its entirety as a group and then individually. Groups and individuals were the focus of the analysis. The study applies the Kepner Trego problem analysis technique (KPTA) as the problem-solving technique adopted by the institute and SAP-LAP (situation, actor, process, learning, action, performance) to discuss the findings of the study. Findings The study found that to engage, encourage and enable students to study on their start-up/business ideas; it is important to facilitate peer interactions, internships in start-ups and meaningful engagement with alumni entrepreneurs. Some proactive interventions are also expected from institutes to energize the student community with positivity. It is also important to nurture the emotional well-being of budding entrepreneurs. Research limitations/implications The case study narrates the innovative and agile problem-solving approach of the business school during the pandemic. KPTA focuses more on appreciative dialogue and also helps to replicate the best from other situations to the problem areas. SAP-LAP method also helps practitioners to initiate the right new actions with targeted performance. Practical implications As a greater number of academic institutions impart entrepreneurship education today, the findings of the study would be relevant to the stakeholders, including students, educators and institutes. Social implications The study underpins the importance of the emotional well-being of entrepreneurs/student entrepreneurs and an innovative approach to keep the student moral high during such a challenging situation. Originality/value It is an ongoing exercise at a business school where the challenges were identified, analyzed and solutions were implemented using a structured methodology such as focused group discussions, KPTA and SAPLAP. The innovative initiatives not only engaged the student well but also were able to ensure their emotional well-being.

Student venture creation: developing social networks within entrepreneurial ecosystems in the transition from student to entrepreneur

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to provide insight into how students navigate entrepreneurial ecosystems and make use of social networks as they create their own ventures. Such ecosystems for students are an understudied phenomenon and there is a need for more profound insights into the issue in order to build better support systems for student entrepreneurs. The study aims to increase understanding on the elements that are important in students' entrepreneurial ecosystems and how these impact on students' venture creation processes, with emphasize on the role social networks play. Student entrepreneurs account for a substantial number of the startups that come into being at universities. Understanding more about how the surroundings affects this process is important for facilitating student entrepreneurship in higher education.Design/methodology/approachThe study is qualitative and makes use of in-depth interviews with student entrepreneurs, educators and support actors in the ecosystems. Multiple actors were interviewed in order to capture different perspectives on the matter, with a total of 15 interviews conducted.FindingsTwo main findings arose from the study. First, it provides insight into elements that are perceived as important for student venture creation by the student entrepreneurs themselves, by educators and by support actors in the ecosystems. Second, it describes how the elements make up the entrepreneurial ecosystems surrounding the students, which serve as platforms from which students can develop their social networks. Therefore, the study highlights how such ecosystems can serve as sources from which students can gain access to ideas, resources and identity processes.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of the study is that the interviews took place in one country. Consequently, further investigation is necessary to establish whether the findings are valid in other contexts. The research has implications for higher educational institutions, policymakers and researchers concerned with student entrepreneurship and student venture creation.Originality/valueThe study contributes empirical findings on a topic that is currently not well understood and on which there are few empirical studies. While student ventures represent a substantial proportion of university spin-offs, the topic has received little attention compared to research on academic entrepreneurship. The study represents a step towards enhancing understanding of students' entrepreneurial ecosystems and how students gain access to resources through social network ties within these systems.

Teaching entrepreneurship in China: culture matters

PurposeThe primary purpose of this research is to explore how the cultural context, in this case, China, influences the teaching of entrepreneurship that seeks to cultivate student entrepreneurs during their university experience.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study approach is adopted to explore how the cultural environment affects the delivery and application of entrepreneurship education to university students in a Chinese context. Seventeen student entrepreneurs and three lecturing staff members in three Chinese universities were interviewed using a semi-structured interview approach.FindingsThe findings suggest that while Chinese universities have been importing teaching models and methods of entrepreneurship education from the United States and other countries, both students and educators are starting to recognise the need for teaching methods to be contextualised and designed based on national conditions and cultural characteristics. Findings from this study highlight cultural fusion and collision in the process of importing and implementing entrepreneurial teaching methods. For example, teaching students how to write a business plan appears to offer limited value for students' start-up activities and their venture development. The didactic teaching method centred on teachers without entrepreneurial experience works for the teaching “about” entrepreneurship but is paradoxical to the goal of teaching “for” entrepreneurship.Originality/valueLittle theoretical or empirical attention has been paid to the complexity of the cultural environment of teaching approaches to entrepreneurship education. This paper provides novel empirical insight into why the cultural environment plays a critical role in teaching approaches to entrepreneurship education and how these teaching approaches can be culturally nuanced to better meet the needs of nascent student entrepreneurs in various cultural contexts.