What is it about?
As pressure increases on universities to produce entrepreneurial graduates, so too has interest in entrepreneurship centres and business incubators and accelerators on campus. However, many universities lack the budget to begin an entrepreneurship centre. This study examines the benefits of using professional mentors and university faculty to recreate the enterprise development support of entrepreneurship centres and finds that students can reap similar benefits from having this experience.
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Why is it important?
This research puts forth that university faculty at institutions without entrepreneurship centres can organize experiences to provide the benefits of entrepreneurship centres, including mentoring, real-world business start-up experiences, business plan support, and business pitches.
Perspectives
This study puts examines approaches that many universities take in lieu of entrepreneurial centres and business incubators. Its finding that other, less costly, approaches can provide similar benefits to students lays the groundwork for further study in this area of ‘grassroots’ entrepreneurial and enterprise development at the university level.
Professor Robin Bell
University of Worcester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Replicating the networking, mentoring and venture creation benefits of entrepreneurship centres on a shoestring, Industry and Higher Education, August 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0950422216660921.
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