E-Ship-Stories: Initiative for Teaching Entrepreneurship

Policy-makers and scholars consider new venture formation to be instrumental for economic growth and technological progress (Schumpeter, 1934; Acs and Szerb, 2007). Although research in entrepreneurship is growing and getting legitimacy in scientific communities (Gorman and Hanlon, 1997a; Katz, 2003a; Kuratko, 2003; 2005; Pittaway and Cope, 2007; Albornoz, 2008; Rasmussen, 2011; Lorz et al., 2013), a few scholars have focused on the subfield of entrepreneurship education including multimedia (Tkatschow and Kolvereid 1999; Peterman and Kennedy 2003; Fayolle et al. 2006; Souitaris et al. 2007). According to the European Commission (2013) entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education are considered as two important and determinative issues in the advancement of societies. These concepts are interconnected for boosting innovation, creativity, employment and economic growth (Gorman and Hanlon, 1997a; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000, Peterman and Kennedy, 2003; Katz, 2008; Pittaway and Cope, 2007). However, the academic literature is still unanimous (Lorz et al., 2013; Rideout and Gray, 2013; Bae et al., 2014). Several previous studies find a positive impact of entrepreneurship education courses on perceived attractiveness and feasibility of new venture initiation (Peterman and Kennedy 2003; Fayolle et al. 2006; Souitaris et al. 2007). Other studies find evidence that the effects are negative (Oosterbeek et al. 2010). The answer to a successful entrepreneurship education is to find an appropriate way to manage teachable skills and identify the best match between teaching techniques and learners` needs. Accordingly, effectiveness of entrepreneurship education appears to be related to teachers skills and knowledge of using different methods (Zahra et al. 2012). Based on the current state of the art, the "E- Ship Stories" project seeks to make three contributions. First, a conceptual perspective will be developed which emphasizes learning and discovery of ones awareness for entrepreneurship: (1) Real entrepreneurial stories support students changing their perspective towards entrepreneurship in a positive way. As a second contribution, the effect of a large-scale compulsory entrepreneurship online and offline course at three universities will be studied, using a pre-test-post-test design: (2) Multimedia entrepreneurial stories are an appropriate teaching material in entrepreneurship education. In a third contribution we address the welfare implication for the multimedia instrument: (3) Real entrepreneurial success and failure stories show equal results in entrepreneurship education. This provides a fruitful basis for at least three publications in international peer-reviewed journals to transfer new entrepreneurial knowledge in a European context that shows great potential research relevance, needed innovative quality, and credibility including multidisciplinary aspects, which will all be exchanged and leveraged by experienced contributing organisations, which have already emphasized their commitments by signing Letters of Commitment. As indicated in the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan of 2013 entrepreneurship has not been celebrated as a preferred career path. This project will put a lot of effort in seeing entrepreneurship as attractive career path by providing fundamental support in testing innovative multimedia teaching materials based on at least 11 real entrepreneurial business cases, success and failure multimedia stories.

E-Ship-Stories centres on the impact of multimedia stories on behalf of entrepreneurial role models on a persons entrepreneurial perceptions and intentions. Statistical analyses based on a sample of individuals primarily from Austria, Finland and Greece (n = 466) revealed the significant effects of entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial perceptions and intentions. Research data was collected through the research project platform www.e-ship- stories.com. The investigation highlights the fruitful effects of the innovative educational use of multimedia entrepreneurial stories on entrepreneurial intentions among budding entrepreneurs. However, E-Ship-Stories examined both the positive and negative impacts of entrepreneurial role models and the significant short-term effects of web-based multimedia in this context. The project outcomes show that role models affect observers entrepreneurial perceptions and facilitate perceived entrepreneurial intentions. These findings support the argument to embed entrepreneurial role models in entrepreneurship education courses in order to promote entrepreneurial activities. Overall, the results suggest that entrepreneurial courses would benefit from real-life experiences (positive and negative) observed via multimedia.In sum, multimedia entrepreneurial storytelling appears to be an appropriate pedagogical instrument in entrepreneurship education. This multi-country project identifies the potential of this pioneering and innovative method for further research in the academic community, for entrepreneurship educators and for budding entrepreneurs via the classroom promotion of entrepreneurial intention. The findings are also relevant for policy makers in designing effective instruments for long-term reliance on the postulation that new venture formation is instrumental to economic growth and technological progress. According to the European Commissions Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education are two important and interconnected concepts for boosting innovation, creativity, employment and economic growth.This project puts immense effort into seeing entrepreneurship as an attractive career path by providing fundamental support in testing innovative multimedia teaching materials based on real entrepreneurial businesses, including multimedia stories of success and failure. It is the first of its kind. The project uses an innovative-driven approach, and the results warrant more in-depth studies of storytelling by entrepreneurial role models in the context of multimedia entrepreneurship education. Ultimately, this effort provides the first answers to questions about effective entrepreneurship education by suggesting an appropriate way to boost ones awareness of entrepreneurship.