Title: The long-term effects of active entrepreneurial training on business school students' and graduates' attitudes towards entrepreneurship

Authors: Jean-Charles Cachon, Barry Cotton

Addresses: School of Commerce and Administration, Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6 Canada. ' School of Commerce and Administration, Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6 Canada

Abstract: At Laurentian University (Ontario, Canada), all second-year Business students complete an entrepreneurial active learning experience by preparing a comprehensive business plan over six months. Students develop an original business idea, perform a market research, and prepare a detailed business plan. This activity involves active, collaborative, and small group learning, and |learning by doing|. This research verified whether Personal Objectives, Attitude towards Risk, Internality and Perceptions on Tutoring variables were associated with a high Entrepreneurial Orientation and whether highly entrepreneurial students had attitudes similar to those of self-employed graduates. Results showed that personal attitudes of students towards the business plan project related to the strength of their entrepreneurial orientation. Laurentian graduates high rate of self-employment was over 20%.

Keywords: active learning; entrepreneurial teaching; business plans; self-employed graduates; business school graduates; self-employment rates; university graduates; entrepreneurship education; Canada; personal attitudes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2008.016135

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2008 Vol.2 No.1, pp.72 - 91

Published online: 06 Dec 2007 *

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