Title: Find your own way: entrepreneurship course development, strategic fit, and the problems of benchmarking

Authors: Andrew C. Corbett

Addresses: Lally School of Management & Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA

Abstract: The growth of entrepreneurship education is rising internationally and may have already reached a level of maturity in the USA. Despite the increase in the number of courses offered, programmes created, and degrees granted, scholarship that researches entrepreneurship education suggests that problems still run deep regarding the content that is being taught. Despite a few decades worth of research there are conflicting results and many questions regarding what we should teach and how we should teach it. In this article I examine the extant literature and suggest a thesis for why our research continues to show these conflicting outcomes. I then suggest that instructors and curriculum developers need to examine entrepreneurship education research not from a collective perspective but from their own individual view. Finally, I provide a matrix of metrics that allows all stakeholders to make appropriate and strategic choices regarding the types of courses and programmes they want to develop.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurship course development; strategic fit; choice; benchmarking; metrics; curriculum development; USA; United States.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2011.040413

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011 Vol.13 No.1, pp.18 - 31

Published online: 11 Oct 2014 *

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