%0 Journal Article
%T Is Innovation Being Addressed in Entrepreneurship Undergraduate Programs? An Exploratory Study
%A Robert I. Berry
%A Anil Kumar
%A James P. Scott
%J Education Research International
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/839505
%X Entrepreneurial programs have experienced a phenomenal growth in the past two decades. In this exploratory study the authors survey undergraduate entrepreneurship programs to identify courses that are being offered by these programs with the objective of determining if innovation is being addressed in the programs. The study explores innovation from both startup and corporate perspectives to see if industry needs are being met by academia. Findings suggest that entrepreneurship programs focus on functional knowledge and an opportunity exists to include courses that address innovation, design, intellectual property, and social media. Further research is needed to align market needs with academic offerings in entrepreneurship programs. 1. Introduction Entrepreneurial education should be an enabling education that focuses on innovation, which we define as the creation of new capacities for wealth creation. Drucker [1] defined innovation as ˇ°the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practicedˇ± (page 17). We define innovation as the process of creating a product or service solution that delivers significant new customer value. Just being a new or incremental improvement by itself is not innovation unless the idea is capable of creating value or capacity for wealth creation. Entrepreneurship is the exploitation of the innovation activities. Innovation creates the potential to fuel economic growth in a nation. New products, services, or redesigned processes that result from innovation create new markets or enhance existing markets leading to economic growth. Sustaining economic growth in a nation can be challenging unless the potential to innovate is harnessed. Innovation can take place either in a startup organization or an existing organization that is well established in the marketplace (see [2, page ]). While the number of startups created can be used to estimate innovation in startups, it is challenging to determine innovation in established organizations. Data from the Kauffman Foundation report titled Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity published in April 2013 indicates that 300 out of 100,000 adults created a new business each month in 2012 in the United States. This rate, which is a slight drop from the 2008¨C2011 periods, is at the same level with findings from 2007. Organizational innovation is difficult to measure as money spent by organizations on
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/edri/2014/839505/