Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-2wr7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-08T05:27:33.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

Peter G. Klein  and
J. Bruce Bullock
Peter G. Klein
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Is entrepreneurship an innate ability or an acquired skill? Can entrepreneurial acumen be achieved and enhanced through education and training, or are certain people “born” to be entrepreneurs or to act entrepreneurially? Economists and management theorists give widely divergent answers to these questions. This paper reviews the major approaches to teaching entrepreneurship, primarily at the undergraduate level, and relates them to economic theories of entrepreneurship. Surprisingly, we find little connection between the leading approaches to entrepreneurship education and economists' understanding of the entrepreneurial function. We assess likely explanations for the lack of contact between these two groups of scholars and suggest possible improvements.

Keywords

alertnessentrepreneurshipinnovationopportunity identificationresource acquisitionuncertainty bearingM13A22O31
Type
Invited Paper Sessions
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , August 2006 , pp. 429 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alvarez, S., and Barney, J.B.. “Discovery and Creation: Alternative Theories of Entrepreneurial Action,” Working Paper, Department of Management and Human Resources, Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, 2005.Google Scholar
Begley, T., and Boyd, D.. “Psychological Characteristics Associated with Performance in Entrepreneurial Firms and Smaller Businesses.” Journal of Business Venturing 2(1987):79–93.Google Scholar
Cantillon, Richard. Essai sur la nature de commerce en géneral. Higgs, Henry, ed. London: Macmillan, 1931 [1755].Google Scholar
Chandler, G.N., and Jansen, E.. “The Founder's Self-Assessed Competence and Venture Performance.” Journal of Business Venturing 7(1992):223–36.Google Scholar
Ekelund, R.B. Jr., and Hébert, R.F.. A History of Economic Thought and Method, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990.Google Scholar
Ekelund, R.B. Jr., and Saurman, D.S.. Advertising and the Market Process. San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute, 1988.Google Scholar
Finkle, T.A., and Deeds, D.. “Trends in the Market for Entrepreneurship Faculty, 1989-1998.” Journal of Business Venturing 16(2001):613–30.Google Scholar
Foss, N.J., and Klein, P.G.. “Entrepreneurship and the Economic Theory of the Firm: Any Gains from Trade?” Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research: Disciplinary Perspectives. Agarwal, R., Alvarez, S.A., and Sorenson, O., eds. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005.Google Scholar
Foss, N.J., and Klein, P.G.. “The Emergence of the Modern Theory of the Firm.” Working Paper, Contracting and Organizations Research Institute, University of Missouri, 2006.Google Scholar
Gaglio, M., and Katz, J.A.. “The Psychological Basis of Opportunity Identification: Entrepreneurial Alertness.” Small Business Economics 16(2001):95–111.Google Scholar
Gartner, W.B. “Is There an Elephant in Entrepreneurship? Blind Assumptions in Theory Development.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 25(2001):27–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gartner, W.B., and Vesper, K.H.. University Entrepreneurship Programs. Los Angeles: Lloyd Grief Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Southern California, 1999.Google Scholar
Hills, G.E., Lumpkin, G.T., and Singh, R.P.. “Opportunity Recognition: Perceptions and Behaviors of Entrepreneurs.” Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 17(1997): 168–82.Google Scholar
Hindle, K. “A Practical Strategy for Discovering, Evaluating, and Exploiting Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Research-Based Action Guidelines.” Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 17(2004):267–76.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G.M. Economics and Evolution: Bringing Life Back into Economics. Cambridge: Polity, 1993.Google Scholar
Holcombe, R.G. “Political Entrepreneurship and the Democratic Allocation of Economic Resources.” Review of Austrian Economics 15(1992): 143–59.Google Scholar
Hoskisson, R.E., and Hitt, M.A.. Downscoping: How to Tame the Diversified Firm. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, J.A. “The Chronology and Intellectual Trajectory of American Entrepreneurship Education.” Journal of Business Venturing 18(2003): 283–300.Google Scholar
Kirzner, I.M. Competition and Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Kirzner, I.M.. Perception, Opportunity and Profit: Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Kirzner, I.M.. The Meaning of Market Process. London: Routledge, 1992.Google Scholar
Klein, D.B., and Demmert, H.. “Experiment on Entrepreneurial Discovery: An Attempt to Demonstrate the Conjecture of Hayek and Kirzner.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 50(2003): 295–310.Google Scholar
Knight, E.H. Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit. New York: August M. Kelley, 1921.Google Scholar
Koppl, R. “Introduction to the Volume.” In Koppl, R. and Minniti, M., eds., Austrian Economics and Entrepreneurial Studies. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2003.Google Scholar
Kuratko, D.F. “Entrepreneurship Education: Emerging Trends and Challenges for the 21st Century.” White Paper, U.S. Association of Small Business Education (2003).Google Scholar
Long, W., and McMullan, W.E.. “Mapping the New Venture Opportunity Identification Process.” Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research. Hornaday, J.A., ed., pp. 567–90. Wellesley, MA.: Babson College, 1984.Google Scholar
Lumpkin, G.T. and Dess, G.G.. “Clarifying the Entrepreneurial Orientation Construct and Linking It to Performance.” Academy of Management Review 21(1996):135–72.Google Scholar
McGrath, R.G., and MacMillan, I.. The Entrepreneurial Mindset. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Mirowski, P., ed., Natural Images in Economic Thought: “Markets Read in Tooth and Clay.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Mises, L. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949.Google Scholar
Morris, M.H., Kuratko, D.F., and Schindehutte, M.. “Towards Integration: Understanding Entrepreneurship through Frameworks.” Entrepreneur-ship and Innovation (February 2001):35–49.Google Scholar
Olson, M. Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Revised edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Pigou, A.C. 1921. The Political Economy of War. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ricketts, M. The New Industrial Economics: An Introduction to Modern Theories of the Firm. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Robbins, L. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. London: Macmillan, 1932.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, N. “Schumpeter and Marx: How Common a Vision?”; Technology and the Human Prospect: Essays in Honor of Christopher Freeman. MacLeod, R.M., ed., pp. 197–213. London: Pinter, 1986.Google Scholar
Schultz, T.W. “The Value of the Ability to Deal with Disequilibria.” Journal of Economic Literature 13(1975):827–46.Google Scholar
Schultz, T.W. “Concepts of Entrepreneurship and Agricultural Research.” Kaldor Memorial Lecture, Iowa State University, October 1979.Google Scholar
Schultz, T.W. “Investment in Entrepreneurial Ability.” Scandinavian Journal of Economics 82 (1982): 437–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumpeter, J.A. The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, [1911] 1934.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J.A. Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J.A. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper & Row, 1942.Google Scholar
Shane, S., and Venkataraman, S.. “The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research.” Academy of Management Review 25(2000): 217–26.Google Scholar
Solomon, G.T., Duffy, S., and Tarabishy, A.. “The State of Entrepreneurship Education in the United States: A Nationwide Survey and Analysis.” International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education 1(2002): 1–22.Google Scholar
Stevenson, H.H., Hamermesh, R., Marshall, P.W., and Roberts, M.J.. “Entrepreneurship: It Can Be Taught.” HBS New Business (Winter 2002).Google Scholar
Stewart, W.H., Watson, W.E., Carland, J.C., and Carland, J.W.. “A Proclivity for Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Corporate Managers.” Journal of Business Venturing 14(1999): 189–214.Google Scholar
Witt, U. “Imagination and Leadership: The Neglected Dimension of an Evolutionary Theory of the Firm.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 35(1988): 161–77.Google Scholar