AIMS AND SCOPE
As interest in entrepreneurship on the part of policy makers and scholars has grown rapidly in the last two decades, so has the literature on entrepreneurship education (EE). A growing body of literature in the form of academic articles, books and even journals (e.g. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy and Journal of Entrepreneurship Education) are now dedicated to EE. This mirrors interest in the teaching of entrepreneurship where globally growth in entrepreneurship programmes has ‘taken off’. This growth is widely recognized and has been described as ‘breath-taking’ (Morris and Liguori, 2016), ‘remarkable’ (Mwasalwiba, 2010), and ‘making glorious waves’ (Winkel, 2013). However, Morris and Liguori (2016) also suggest that the scholarship of EE has not kept pace with practice. Entrepreneurship educators are still grappling with the ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘for whom’ of EE (see for example Lackeus, 2015; Fayolle and Gailly, 2008) and so Neck and Corbett (2018) have argued we are at a tipping point in EE.
Theorising Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education seeks to tap into and add to ongoing debates about the nature, manifestation and purpose of EE. As a text aimed at a global audience, it seeks to present state-of-the art knowledge on the challenges and opportunities entrepreneurship educators face around the world to equip specifically undergraduate students with entrepreneurial skills, and more generally develop their entrepreneurial mindsets and capabilities. The educator’s perspective has remained somewhat silent in the discussions around EE (Neck and Corbett, 2018; Wraae and Walmsley, 2020). What this text aims to do is provide educators with a voice to explain how they participate in the topic of entrepreneurship, how undergraduate students engage and respond to EE, and how institutional frameworks for EE and more generally the entrepreneurship education ecosystem supports or inhibits undergraduate EE (Brush, 2014).
Despite a burgeoning literature on EE which encompasses a broad target audience (high school students, higher education students, graduate entrepreneurs, mid-life and mature entrepreneurs) what Theorising Undergraduate Entrepreneurship seeks to do is to focus very directly on the needs, challenges and successes of teaching and learning within an undergraduate student context. These needs and associated challenges may relate, for example, to psychological needs, career developmental needs, generational needs [role of generation theory]and experiential needs) which, we argue, are likely to be quite different from the needs of other cohorts. Furthermore, Valerio, Parton and Robb (2014) in their World Bank study on entrepreneurship education and training around the world acknowledge both the need for more research on EE at a truly global level, as well as a segmentation of the analysis of EE based on different cohorts, including HE students. Here too they distinguish between undergraduate (our focus) and postgraduate students.
Moreover, EE has particularly emphasized a variety of techniques, methods and processes with little consideration to the context and psycho-educational profile of typically young university recipients. In particular, it may be said that today’s undergraduate students have adopted and are keen to explore perspectives of EE that go beyond the purely economic, i.e. EE for responsible, sustainable, social and transformational entrepreneurship as well as a focus on eco-preneurship. The deliberate focus on broader perspectives of the purpose of EE has only received limited attention; in a post COVID-19 world, considerations of what the new normal is or could be strike us as particularly timely. Hence, this book aims to offer cutting-edge knowledge on EE targeted at undergraduate students, thereby contributing to and extending discussions of EE more generally.
We are looking for unpublished, high-quality, innovative contributions that present original insights targeting undergraduate entrepreneurship education. While we are keen to include contributors who are recognized experts in their field as academics and educators, and who are therefore able to combine strong theoretical foundations with the practice of EE, we also welcome contributions from those who offer novel perspectives, including contributions that relate to hitherto largely neglected geographical areas as we intend the book to provide a truly global perspective on EE. We also welcome contributions that extend the focus of EE beyond the economic, i.e. EE for responsible, sustainable, social and transformational entrepreneurship as well as a focus on eco-preneurship.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The project is primarily aimed at researchers and academics working in entrepreneurship education. Main sub-disciplines interested in this book include primarily entrepreneurship education and business education, though the book may also prove appealing to other business/management sub-disciplines such as new product development, social media, project management, agile management, nonlinear management, and administration of education systems. This book might also appeal to scholars and practitioners interested in the application of entrepreneurship education instruments, such as active learning methodologies, flipped and blended learning, technologies for classroom instruction, among others. Additionally, the book is widely useful beyond the business school in that other innovation and entrepreneurship-related disciplines can also apply its pedagogical principles (e.g. engineering, social works, communications, etc.).
ANTICIPATED TOPICS
This call for proposals is oriented to academics, instructors, and practitioners who are willing to contribute with theoretical research about undergraduate entrepreneurship education. We welcome practical implications but contributions need to be more than simply descriptions of practice.
Specific topics that could be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Theoretical frameworks in entrepreneurship education and how they apply to an undergraduate audience.
- How is undergraduate university entrepreneurship different?
- Learning and cognitive stages of the undergraduate student.
- Significant learning and the construction of knowledge: how to build it.
- Experiential learning: what is it and what to expect.
- Digital platforms and experiential learning.
- Competence development in undergraduate students.
- Flipped Learning, including the use of different techniques such as project-based learning, gamification, game-based learning, role-playing, among others.
- Project management platforms to map the customer discovery process.
- Digital Minimum Viable Products (MVP) in the context of undergraduate entrepreneurship.
- Social media, including the design of the experiment, measurement and learning, according to the characteristics of certain social networks.
- The role of Crowdfunding and P2P lending platforms as learning and validating tools in entrepreneurship education.
- Examples of how the theory underpinning individual-level change manifests itself in the entrepreneurial classroom
- Challenges as well as successes in achieving learning outcomes that include, but that also go beyond business start-up.
- The role of career theory in developing and delivering EE to undergraduate students.
- Understanding career decision-making of undergraduate students, potentially related to career values and attitudes.
- Delivering EE to undergraduates in a post Covid-19 world
PREPARING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
A book chapter proposal (extended abstract) must be submitted before August 10, 2020, according to the following specifications:
- Short running title
- Topic of the book chapter
- 5-6 keywords
- Two-page abstract submissions (in Microsoft Word format, no special format required)
- Author(s)’ details (name, e-mail, affiliation, address)
Chapter proposals must be delivered in English language and submitted directly to https://forms.gle/Z413dEnAfLVK9hHZ9.
PROPOSAL SELECTION PROCESS
Accepted proposals will be shortlisted on the basis of their prospective contribution and alignment with the aim of the book. Book chapters will go through a peer review as well as editorial review. Reviewers’ decisions will be final.
Full book chapter submission
Final drafts must be submitted by February 15, 2021.
Upon submission, authors will be required to sign a letter assigning copyrights to the publisher and be available to answer queries about their cases.
Important dates
Book chapter proposal submission deadline: August 10, 2020
Authors being notified about proposal result: September 28, 2020
Full book chapter submission deadline: February 15, 2021. Note: full manuscripts should be in the range of 6,000 – 7,000 words, including tables and references.
Book publication is expected for late 2021/ early 2022. Based on responses to this call, we intend to submit a full proposal to Palgrave Macmillan who have expressed an interest in the title.
Contacts
For further information on this call, please contact:
| Guillermo J. Larios-Hernandez
FEN, Universidad Anáhuac México |
Andreas Walmsley
ICTE, Coventry University |
Itzel Lopez-Castro
FEN, Universidad Anáhuac México |
