INTRODUCTION:

Entrepreneurship education is the upcoming field in recent times (Solomon, 2007), which indicates the importance of this education in addressing the problem of job placements and economic development. This assumption of job creation and economic development with respect to entrepreneurship education has been supported by researchers like (Pacheco, Dean, and Payne, 2010). Some researchers and academicians believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught in classrooms but people are born with entrepreneurial qualities. But despite this belief it cannot be ignored that Entrepreneurship education is required to hone up the existing skills in an individual (Jones and Matlay, 2011).

Entrepreneurship Education programs should correlate with the current requirements of the market and should be made more contemporary (Jones, 2010). To make the field of entrepreneurship education more contemporary and relevant the concepts of selling, product management, and leadership qualities have been incorporated in the syllabus of higher educational institutions (Aronsson and Birch, 2004).Many researchers argue that the entrepreneurial spirit is something which is already inherent and proper training is required to fine-tune those abilities for effective results and effective entrepreneurship education and training fosters the right entrepreneurial attitude (Trivedi, 2017). Entrepreneurship education should be developed as a business courses with appropriate and effective content because of its utility in the economic growth of the country (Arthur et al., 2012). The development of the right entrepreneurship education and culture for an emerging economy such as India is very important in the present context (Todd and Javalgi, 2007). The present article aims to comprehend the nature of entrepreneurship as a field of study in comparison to other business management subject such as marketing etc. The article uses qualitative technique to assess the current status of imparting entrepreneurship education in India. The article also proposes a framework for an effective entrepreneurship education ecosystem in India. In the nutshell the article systematically explores the current practices in India to propose a thematic framework for fostering sustainable entrepreneurship education system that can serve as a strong foundation for entrepreneurial education in India.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION: SYNERGY and RELEVANCE WITH BUSINESS STUDIES

Entrepreneurship education and Business Education are two different fields of study but the line dividing business education and entrepreneurship education is so thin that it is difficult to identify. This is because both seem to work towards addressing the hydro headed syndrome of unemployment, and the economic development of Indian economy. The entrepreneurship education is primarily focused on educating students in the higher educational institutes and is not concerned with educating the entrepreneurs (Pittaway and Cope, 2007).As already discussed in the earlier section it is believed by many researchers that Entrepreneurship is quality which doesn’t need to be inculcated in the student but it already there from birth. Even if we believe that the above statement is true even then a proper ecosystem needs to be created to harness that talent. It is for this reason, that we have exclusive programs for entrepreneurship development for example Masters in business administration offered by Entrepreneurship development Institute in Ahmadabad. This exclusivity needs to be generalized in the course curricula and proper integration with the business subjects needs to be done if entrepreneurship education has to expand its wings. Entrepreneurship is a domain which derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources disciplines like strategy, finance, or marketing (Albornoz-Pardo, 2013). Without the proper conceptual understanding of business subjects like strategy and marketing etc. entrepreneurship education cannot be properly understood nor implemented because they are intimately intertwined. So much so that the basics of entrepreneurial education deals with elementary marketing concepts such as marketing mix, Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning and customer value etc. (Drucker, 1985). So to remove the Gordian knot plaguing the entrepreneurship education all the fundamental subjects of management need to be properly integrated with entrepreneurship education. Given it’s cross functional and cross sectoral orientation it is important that the syllabus of the course is faculty driven with the objective of developing conceptual understanding of entrepreneurship and delivering the contents in such a way that it makes students understand the importance of entrepreneurship education and they are motivated to choose it as a career option for creating new business. This integration is more germane to higher education as it provides students with skills and knowledge to develop practical skills and perspectives that are vital to entrepreneurial success. The holistic understanding of the business subjects helps avoid the blinkered view of Entrepreneurship Education, thus enabling the general utility of entrepreneurial skills and aptitudes like creativity, independent thinking, recognition and exploitation of opportunity, etc. It is now an established fact that entrepreneurship education offers a new paradigm for business school education. Although this view makes the relevance of business studies a prerequisite for entrepreneurship education, the opposite could be equally true. This strengthens the argument of integration of entrepreneurship education with curricula of business studies. So, the synergistic learning from the very outset will ensure that the students will get the pertinent knowledge of entrepreneurial concerns and approaches from the basic level of business education which would put business thinking on an operative trajectory in the long run.

A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

The evidence from literature review suggests that the students have little interaction with the key stakeholders influencing the business environment and even if they are entrepreneurial ready they are not business savvy. Therefore it is prudent to do away with the imposed curricula and move towards a more contemporary, synergistic and integrated approach towards entrepreneurial education (Arthur et al., 2012).

Fig. 1: A Conceptual Framework for Entrepreneurship Education (Self-elaborated)

METHODOLOGY:

As the data available on entrepreneurial education is limited in Indian therefore a qualitative research method approach was used in this study. Qualitative research method approach is the formal interpretation of collected data to create order, interpret the meaning and communicate findings. One of the most common methods used in Qualitative method is the case study method which is used in this study to explore the current status of entrepreneurship education in the Indian higher education institutes. Along with the case studies data was also collected through informal interviews. The data collected through informal interviews was analyzed through categorization also called as coding which is the logical grouping of concepts emerging from the data. Now days a wide range of Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software packages are prevalent such as ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA and NVIVO10 for the analysis of qualitative data. The main aim of the article is to:

1. To understand how entrepreneurial education is integrated with the curricula of other management subjects in the higher educational institutes.

2. To understand the acceptability of entrepreneurship education as a subject among students in higher educational institutes.

In-depth and Unstructured interviews were conducted with department heads of 4 reputed higher educational institutes in Uttarakhand including DOMS-IIT Roorkee, IIM Kashipur and Sirmaur and a state government university to collect the qualitative data. The higher educational Institutes were selected based on the location of the higher educational institute in and around Uttarakhand. The interviews were spontaneous and took place in corridors or over coffee. These interviews had the advantage of allowing free-ranging responses and conversations that were natural. The interviewee felt at ease and does not realize that they are being interviewed. Lots of effort was made to obtain useful data as opposed to extraneous general comments. The responses were sought for questions such as:

I. Does entrepreneurship education is offered as a course in the curriculum?

II. Is it offered as a core paper or elective course?

III. What is the approx. number of students opting for entrepreneurship as an elective course?

IV. What is the basic pedagogy followed for the course?

QUALITATIVE FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION:

The responses from the case studies suggested a uniform approach in dealing with the entrepreneurial education in higher educational institutes in India. Due to recent push by the central government and autonomous controlling bodies this subject is being offered mostly in all the identified higher educational institutes. The course is being offered as an open elective course for the final year students in DOMS IIT Roorkee. But the pleasant surprise came from new IIM Kashipur which is offering it as a compulsory course for its students in the first term with the subject name Spirit of Entrepreneurship. As an exception IIM Sirmaur is not offering entrepreneurial education as a compulsory subject of study. But it is offering certificate and executive programs on entrepreneurship. It has been observed that all the higher educational institutes identified are focused on entrepreneurship development programs and are offering entrepreneurship as a core compulsory course or as an open elective paper for their final year students at present, each higher educational institute have a dedicated entrepreneurship cell but it is in no way related to the class room teaching or curricula. It is pertinent to mention here that none of the institutes are offering courses like "Entrepreneurial Finance", "Entrepreneurial Strategy", "Entrepreneurship and HR" or an "Entrepreneurial Motivation Laboratory”. In India over the last several years there is an inclination amongst the students to opt for entrepreneurial education while pursuing MBA or PGDM but still the numbers are far from satisfactory. With the exception of IIM Kashipur which is offering spirit of entrepreneurship as a compulsory paper other institutes are offering it as an open elective. In terms of the method and practice of teaching, the focus is on reality-based learning along with academic knowledge, case studies across all higher institutes.

THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:

The study indicates that, the inclination to pursue entrepreneurship amongst Indian students is high, but it is still in the early stage and lags behind the average standard of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) in entrepreneurship education. This is due to the absence of an effective entrepreneurship education ecosystem. National surveys indicate that a less number of graduates/Post graduates opt for entrepreurial activity as opposed to 20-30% percent in developed countries. Most of the graduates/post graduates in India prefer working for a MNC firm or aspire for a government job. Entrepreneurship education has a way to go in terms of being a preferred course among Indian students. This is a reason enough to offer entrepreneurship as a program in the higher educational institutes and universities in India. Shankar (2012) classifies six primary obstacles to teaching entrepreneurship in India as:

1. Lack of institutionalization

2. Lack of indigenous experience

3. Lack of trained teachers

4. Lack of long term focus

5. Limitations with pedagogy

6. Subject considered as optional.

Most of the top universities in India offering higher education have established "entrepreneurship cells" or "E-cells" with the active participation of students. But the educational framework for inculcating the entrepreneurial spirit in students is far from satisfactory. The basic difference in this aspect between developed and developing nations is the standards for entrepreneurial education, knowledge on socio cultural aspects, infrastructure, unorganized competition, chronic problems faced by entrepreneurs. In the present context the focus should be on long term objectives and the myopic vision regarding entrepreneurial education should be avoided. Looking at the hurdles in developing entrepreneurship in the orbit of higher education, an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem seems to be only way out. Hence, proposed framework illustrated in Figure 2 is an attempt to develop a structure for such an ecosystem derived from the literature and the expert opinions. The proposed framework serves dual purpose of pushing entrepreneurial intentions and pulling higher levels of knowledge creation to support the needs of higher education.

Fig 2: The proposed framework for entrepreneurship education ecosystem.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

The dependency of sustainable economic development on the entrepreneurship education in which higher educational institutes plays a crucial role have passed the test of time. Few success stories with respect to entrepreneurship in India are just not enough. The integration of entrepreneurship education with other management subject’s is the need of the present times. Sound technical, practical knowledge supplemented with contemporary theoretical knowledge along with the right perspectives on innovation increases the probability of creating more success stories in this competitive domain. In developing economies like India, there is an urgent need for the development and promotion of entrepreneurship education in higher educational Institutes. The integration of entrepreneurship education with fundamental management courses, such as marketing, becomes imperative under present circumstances to develop a framework which would ensure an integrated learning platform and knowledge creation. Thus in view of the above an attempt has been made to develop a framework using preliminary inputs and evidences. It should be considered as a conceptual beginning on which further improvements can be carried upon for validation. This would not only have literary contribution in the field of entrepreneurship education but it will also assist the policy makers of a developing nation. Therefore, India still has a long way to go before entrepreneurship education is available in higher educational institutions at all levels and establishes itself as a mature field of study.

Some of the recommendations provided below, are as follows:

1. Apply a broader definition of entrepreneurship so that higher education institutions offer incentives to expand the entrepreneurial spirit across the institution.

2. Launch a national strategy to call for the active involvement of all of the stakeholders including both public and private sectors.

3. Develop a policy framework and provide sustained funding and support for entrepreneurship education activities to mainstream entrepreneurship into higher education.

4. Integration of entrepreneurship education in the curriculum across different subjects so that it may add value to all degree courses.

5. Develop strong partnerships with businesses, corporate houses and other Community organizations so that business leaders can serve as adjunct professors, mentors and involve the students in real time projects.

6. Provide training to academicians in entrepreneurship programs, and increase funding to support teacher training, curriculum development, and professional development.

7. Provide incentives for faculty members to conduct research in entrepreneurship education.

8. Encourage students, with commercially viable business ideas to develop them into enterprises, and provide an effective support infrastructure within the institution such as incubators, financing, mentorship, etc.

The recommendations given above will help in clearer and broader understanding of the concept, and will also help in developing an insightful and visionary strategic framework for the entrepreneurial education in India. The framework should contain an integrated curriculum, an intensified training program for the academia, creating a closer link between the academy and the industry, and an effective feedback system to evaluate the impact on entrepreneurship education and its outcome on a regular basis. The recommendations stated above will also help the government and individual institutions to take effective measures to promote and nurture entrepreneurship education in India.

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Received on 21.08.2019 Modified on 16.09.2019

Asian Journal of Management. 2019; 10(4):400-404.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2019.00061.1