Developing Entrepreneurial Skills. An Educational and Intercultural Perspective

Abstract

The research aims to determine how the economic and business administration faculties within the European Union member states are contributing to the development of students’ entrepreneurial skills. Therefore, a case study strategy is employed which concentrates on the most important business schools from the European Union member states; thus, 267 syllabuses from 21 higher education institutions are identified and analyzed. The results prove that European business schools manage to develop most of the required entrepreneurial skills among their students. Their graduates are both task and people oriented. On the one hand, they value performance, are capable of solving problems and taking calculated risks. On the other hand, they know how to communicate and collaborate within a team. Besides, it may be stated that the analyzed educational programs are combining the “about entrepreneurship” approach with “for entrepreneurship” perspective; they focus on developing cognitive, functional, and behavioral competences by combining lectures with active learning techniques. These actions are influenced by cultural specificity and have an impact on a country’s capacity to be a top performer, in terms of entrepreneurship development. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. On a theoretical level, they extend the literature regarding the development of entrepreneurial skills by providing concrete information about the skills on which the academic curricula focus. On a practical level, they provide valuable insights regarding the skills that the future entrepreneurs will have; these will influence their behavior in a business environment no matter whether they will choose to be the owner of a business or an enterprising employee.