An Entrepreneurial Development Framework for Institutions of Higher Education

Introduction

With increased globalization lendees have seen the need to increase wealth creation especially in the underdeveloped Third World. It has also become evident that neither the authorities nor the formal business can supply the substantial job creation without a sustained endeavor and partnerships between all sectors of the economy. One suggests of creating work choices will be the development of entrepreneurial and innovative skills within the country. The creation of such job opportunities by encouraging entrepreneurial innovation has been well illustrated by Dana, Korot and Tovstiga (2005:12) in Silicon Valley, Israel, Singapore and the Netherlands. These authors report that in the narrow 35 mile by 10 mile corridor within Silicon Valley 6,500 technology enterprises are located. Singapore is property to almost 100,000 entrepreneurs and had a per capita GDP of US$42,948.00 for the duration of 2004 and an annual growth rate of 8.8% (Singapore Statistics, 2006).

In addition higher education has become a prime export commodity of whole world services trade, amounting to a staggering 3% (Grundling & Steynberg, 2006:5). With the increased mortgage in entrepreneurial innovation as an economic driver there is a crisis to raise expertise within that area. Thus there is a need to grow entrepreneurial innovation knowledge throughout higher education institutions to ensure the maintenance of a competitory edge in an under grown market. Dana, et al. (2005:10) define knowledge as “the integration of information, ideas, experience, intuition, skills and lessons learned that creates added value for a firm”. In addition Dana et el. (2005) define innovation as “the method by that knowledge is changed into new or significantly adjusted products and/or services that provide evidence the firm's competitory edge”. It can thus be observed that it is imperative the present bigger education in South Africa actively pursue a policy to encourage entrepreneurial innovation to ensure the creation of expertise, the development of new industries and the empowering of classmen to establish themselves within an entrepreneurial innovative culture. Higher education would be required to become a key player in domesticating knowledge and diffusing it into the state in order to serve as engines for community development and social renewal (Grundling & Steynberg, 2006:6).

Problem statement

The examination question under discussion is formulated as What the very least facilities provided be set in an entrepreneurial and innovation framework in order to support entrepreneurial and innovation knowledge production at professionals of higher education?

Purpose

This article attempts to substantiate a framework to encourage entrepreneurial thinking over a higher education environment, rendering to consideration consideration policy and infrastructural requirements, knowledge creation fundamentals and institutional arrangements.

Policy intervention

Policy initiatives within bigger education institutions are essential to demonstrate guidance for entrepreneurs, loan agencies, industry, labour in general and for students and professionals of higher education in particular. From a higher education perspective government as well as institutional policy requirements may be discussed in brief.

·Government policies

If this moment is to be accomplished it will make government intervention to construct policies that when and if include the reduction of taxation in the form of capital gains tax rate, providing incentives for increased spending on exploring and development, encouraging active venture capital markets, an alteration of the ‘hiring and firing' labour regulations, and encouraging the spending on new technology shares (Da Rin, Nicodano & Sembenelli, 2005:8).

·The higher education institution policies

The higher education institution are required to provide a working atmosphere in which entrepreneurship can thrive. Venkataraman (2003:154) proposes the current it is not easily the injection of capital that enhances the development of entrepreneurship. Rather, it is the tangible infrastructural essentials this as capital markets, advanced telecommunications, sound legal and transportation systems. In addition, intangible components ought to be in place. These intangibles are access to novel ideas, informal forums, role models, region specific opportunities, access to large markets, safety nets and executive leadership. As policy within the institution is developed it must mull over and include a planning technique to accommodate these essentials.

Policy have to also substantiate the entrepreneurial culture within the higher education institution as a new mindset of students have got to be established based on data from one of expecting to be employed, to one of only if work opportunities for others. Technology licensing offices (TLOs) should be established at the higher education institutions. Stanford University sponsored research expenditures of US$391 million generated 25 TLO start ups in 1997 (Gregorio & Shane, 2003:209). An possession in patent rights by the better education institutions could ensure coming years capital investment opportunities into the institution. Intellectual property (IP) policies should be framed so as to capture the wealth generated and to distribute it equitably between investors, partners, the university and the entrepreneur. Such rewards will generate future interest for both the investors and the entrepreneurs. Policies, legislation and network contacts to capture venture capital must be established.

Research and Development policies in entrepreneurship must be refined and focused. Currently, the focus of entrepreneurial research at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa falls within the three niche areas of business clustering, business development and management of innovation. In each of these niche areas it could be necessary to develop Masters and Doctorate programmes in entrepreneurship and innovation. This in turn will mean a seek for the improvement of the workers qualification profile for the duration of these areas. Along with the Masters and Doctorate programmes, accredited exploring outputs are required to be produced in entrepreneurship and innovation (Grundling & Steynberg, 2006:6). In addition to the Masters levels in Entrepreneurship and the Masters degree in Comparative Local Development, a Masters degree in Cognitive Reasoning would be considered for the future. Such a course should include a thorough foundation in financing reasoning along with creative thinking and business planning.

Institutional structures to be established

The higher education institution will suffer to establish itself as a seamless knowledge node into which a variety of parties can contribute. Parties contributing to such a knowledge node might include industrial partners, specialists for industry, relevant government agencies, international investors, community forums, labour unions, academic specialists, research foundations, funding agencies, undergrads and prospective entrepreneurs. Such a node would provide the necessary contact between entrepreneurs, funding agencies, industry and labour. This will ensure exposure of research and innovative ideas to the signficant parties. It would furthermore provide a relevant export/import platform for entrepreneurship within the country. In addition to this, regular colloquia would be held to allow probable entrepreneurs to expose such a innovative innovations to the funding agencies. An information network connecting entrepreneurs to venture capitalists should be established for the duration of this knowledge node.

Such forums would allow industrial partners to present commercially-oriented research proposals to the higher education institution which funding governments in turn would be willing to fund. Gregorio and Shane (2003:212) too emphasize the would like for the higher education institution to demonstrate intellectual eminence. It is implied the current even greater worth researchers are more probably to exploit inventions than lesser qualified researchers. The intellectual eminence in addition makes it easier for researchers involved to start enterprises and to exploit their inventions (Gregorio & Shane, 2003:212). In addition, more eminent researchers supply a bigger knowledge base and this moment in turn will attract better qualified researchers and students. To ensure an intellectual eminence of this outputs, higher education institutions should select students carefully.

The higher education institution should in addition encourage the development of incubators, either close to the institution or close to the involved industry. This will certainly influence the start up capital expenditure. Gregorio and Shane (2003:213) suggest who such incubators would allow entrepreneurs to “ripen” technologies in end proximity to inventors and specialists.

The establishment of technology parks am able to be instituted at the institution. Dana, et al. (2005:12) report that the first technology parks were established in the Netherlands. It is hardly surprising that the Netherlands is one of the leading nations in promoting entrepreneurship, comparing favourably with Israel, Singapore and Silicone Valley. Perhaps these parks could be demonstrated in conjunction in on the government and serve to expose students to the entrepreneurial culture.

Information networks connecting entrepreneurs to venture capitalists should be established within the even greater education institution. Dushnitsky and Lenox (2004:618) reinforce such view. Gregorio and Shane (2003:214) also recommend that in exchange for taking an equity stake in TLO start-ups the institution provided pay patenting, marketing or other up-front costs. These measures may encourage the formation of start-up enterprises. Furthermore, locating a even greater education institutional foundation presence in physical proximity to the enterprises donating the capital should be an advantage (Gregorio & Shane, 2003:211).

Strategy to develop an entrepreneurial innovative culture

·Re-curriculation of syllabi within Entrepreneurship programmes

When training entrepreneurs two realms of knowledge should be recognized, “tacit” and “explicit”. “Explicit knowledge is simply identifiable, easy to articulate, capture and share. By contrast, tacit knowledge consists predominately of intuition, feelings, perceptions and beliefs, often difficult to express and therefore difficult to capture and transfer. Of the two, tacit knowledge carries the greater value in that it is the essence of innovation” (Dana et al., 2005:10). Perhaps an illustration given by Ali (2001:339) serves to illustrate the difference between the skills involved in producing an artifact. The engineer is a man of action developing mental skills but seldom having the opportunity to develop manual skills. The craftsman uses his hands a good amount of as opposed to his head, tools additionally than instruments and rarely uses science or mathematics. Both are geared towards inventing. The engineer is concerned with ideas and artifacts, while the craftsman is alarmed with the rendering of artefacts. The craftsman has no ready assembled methods and the technique is devised for the duration of the process. The engineer draws mainly on explicit scientific skills while the craftsman draws on intuitive, tacit knowledge. This person is faced in the creation of something new, an innovative skill. The engineer's plans and blueprints are able to well involve tactic knowledge.

In curriculum design one must recognize the difference between infrastructure supporting recursive skills which are typically routine in nature and infrastructure supporting the nurturing of innovation and making skills. These involve designing, innovating, communicating in groups, crisis solving, face-to-face communication, idea generation and group-work (Ali, 2001:41). Brown and Duguid (1991) quoted by Ali (2001:342) build use of the expression “communities of practice” to describe the social context for developing work, learning and innovation. Lin, Li and Chen (2004:4) and Markman and Baron (2003:291) make use of the term “social capital” to describe the ability to establish networks of supporting relationships. This ability is seen as a leads to of mobilizing environmental supplies to overcome obstacles and threats within the entrepreneurial process. Others own noted how monumental social capital is in the creation of new business ventures. Lin, et al. (2004:4) recognize the need for formal and informal funding relationships within the business environment. Such entrepreneurs are termed “business angels” for properties go up access to critical resources, such as capital investors, suitable distributors and talented employees from the external environment. Lin, et al. (2004:6) thus regard social capital as “entrepreneurial social infrastructure”. Harris, Forbes and Fletcher (2000:125-126) suggest that planning “dampens” the entrepreneurial spirit and that emergent trouble tended to be ideal training triggers than planned approaches. It is proposed that the learning style for entrepreneurs should be one using facilitators, learning by doing, interactive classroom approaches, peer group work, problem solving, grasping opportunities and holistic approaches. It is recommended that inputs should be made by outside speakers and entrepreneurs (Harris, et al., 2000:126). Johnson (1987:31, in Harris et al., 2000) states that an entrepreneur's planned approach to any problem should be trouble awareness, hassle diagnosis, the development of solutions and the choice of a solution. Once again the need for “an emergent” approach rather than a “planned approach” is emphasized. In addition, Harris, et al. (2000:133) emphasize the ask for for long standing close relationships in the development of the entrepreneur. Such partners can share vision, and work on the behalf of as sounding boards for ideas and concerns. These relationships are vital for the development of innovative thinking. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs must be trained in a less structured way, that involve group work, quality discussions, specialist input, a concentration of social skills, communicating and conflict management. The methodology ought to involve have to take care of to face contact and the developing of lasting relationships.

Another component that should be written into the curriculum is the ability to deal with headaches overly arise and then to reschedule goals so as to accommodate the new situation. This is clearly illustrated by Ireland, Kuratko and Morris (2006:12) springing the presence of internal and external triggers of corporate entrepreneurship. External triggers that encourage entrepreneurship arise from developments in the external environment. These include diminishing opportunities, rapid fluxes in technology, labour shortages, aggressive moves by competitors, change in the market housing or regulatory threats. Internal triggers include employee rewards, directives from managers, tension between staff, problems amidst cost control, etc. Ireland, et al. (2006:12). Triggers for entrepreneurship may be summed up in the statement “necessity is the mother of invention”. This once again emphasis the crisis for trainers to concentrate on the entrepreneurial process rather as opposed to the content, amongst individual emphasis on change, the unexpected and resolving problems that emerge within any specific process.

Markman and Baron (2003:288) claim self-efficacy as an important success factor in developing entrepreneurs. Self-efficacy is defined as “the extent to which persons believe that they can organize effectively, execute actions to produce handed out attainments” (Bandura, 1997 quoted by Markman and Baron 2003:288). Successful entrepreneurs will have high self-efficacy and tend to believe that their actions ought to cause to a profitable venture. It is also suggested that entrepreneurs want to recognize choices from possible businesses. In addition it is suggested that entrepreneurs need perseverance and need to be able to overcome adversity and uncertainty. The curriculum should so contain training on self esteem, reliability, perseverance, overcoming setbacks, having a vision, setting goals and rescheduling if things go wrong.

Boussouara and Deakins (1999:204) signal overly a regular approach to a insane technology business can be an advantage in that it allows era to develop contacts, strategy, and networks as well as gives time to acquire funding and income. The latter authors emphasize the fancy to bring in market-based knowledge for a successful business (Boussouara & Deakins, 1999:205). It is thus recommended that networks and external business real estate agents present relevant market research to the trainees. These findings should be brainstormed and shared in the large group.

Conclusion

In this article an attempt has been obtained to develop a framework for the development of entrepreneurial thinking within a ideal education environment. This framework needs to be supported by government policy initiatives and input taxation incentives for entrepreneurs, encouraging investment in research and development, incentives for industry for active venture capital and alterations to the labour law to accommodate small entrepreneurial industries. In addition techno-parks should be developed in conjunction with government to expose students to the entrepreneurial culture.

Research should be wound up within the business development niche area to investigate these policies and communicate the needs to government. If authorities officials are participating in the knowledge node it could find the pivotal exposure to government.

Policy initiatives from within the higher education institution will verify the knowledge node which should include academic specialists, research foundations, relevant government officials, industrial partners, experts from industry, foreign investors, state forums, labour unions, funding agencies, students and potential entrepreneurs. Information networks connecting entrepreneurs to venture capitalists can be established within this knowledge node. Intellectual Property policies should be matured by the economy development niche area to ensure that possible TLO start-ups within the even greater education institution are protected and that patenting, marketing or other up-front costs are dished out by the even better education institution or associated enterprises. The ideal education institution could liaise with the Innovation Hub established in conjunction with the CSIR. A cooperation agreement could benefit both parties. Research should be carried out by the business clustering niche area to select the the majority of appropriate combinations and networking through the knowledge node.

To ensure intellectual eminence the correct researchers, academics and industrialists should be particular within the entrepreneurship cluster. Incubators and TLOs should be based to “ripen' developing technologies and to form compressed innovative industries. Research within this area could be done by the niche communities business development and management of innovation.

A funding agency for the entrepreneurship innovation (previously termed the institutional foundation) were able to be located close to the market partners for fundraising. All three niche areas should be actively networked with industries on an ongoing basis, communicating needs and proposals.

A teaching strategy should be developed to foster tacit knowledge development. Group work, problem solving, notion generation, innovating, designing and face to face communication should be for a while used. Smaller classrooms need to be utilized allowing for group work. Curricula should input problems such as self efficacy, perseverance and the need to overcome adversity. In addition market-based knowledge might be presented by experts from the world on an ongoing basis. Networking should be a normal part of the curriculum and will allow venture capitalists to be connected to the ideas developed within the duration of the knowledge node.

If South Africa and establishments of ideal education do not see the need to develop entrepreneurship over all communities, people may be delegated to a livlihood of poverty, in no opportunity to work or to develop South Africa's rich natural resources for future generations.

References

ALI, Y. 2001. The intranet and the management of making and using skills. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(4):338-348.

BANDURA, A. 1997. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman & Co.

BOUSSOUARA, M. & DEAKINS, D. 1999. Market-based learning, entrepreneurship and the high technology small firm. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research. 5(4):204-223.

BROWN, J.S. & DUGUID, P. 1991. Organisational learning and community-of-practice; towards a unified view of working, learning and innovation. Organization Science, 2(1):40-57.

DANA, L-P., KOROT, L. & TOVSTIGA, G. 2005. A cross-national comparison of knowledge management practices. International Journal of Manpower, 26(1):10-22.

DA RIN, M., NICODANO, G. & SEMBENELLI A. 2005. Public policy and the generation of active venture capital markets. Journal of Public Economics. Article in press.

DUSHNITSKY, G. & LENOX, M.J. 2005. When do incumbents learn from entrepreneurial ventures? Corporate venture capital and investing association innovation rates. Research Policy, 34:615-639.

GREGORIO, D.D. & SHANE, S. 2003. Why do some universities generate more start-ups as opposed to others? Research Policy, 32:209-227.

GRUNDLING, J.P. & STEYNBERG, L. 2006. MTech Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Techniques VA. Pretoria: Centre for Entrepreneurship, Tshwane University of Technology.

HARRIS, S., FORBES, T & FLETCHER, M. 2000. Taught and voted for strategic approaches in young enterprises. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 6(3):125-145.

IRELAND, R.D., KURATKO, D.F. & AND MORRIS, M.H. 2006. A health audit for corporate entrepreneurship: Innovation at all levels. Part 1. Journal of Business Strategy, 27(1):10-17.

JOHNSON, J.M.G. 1987. Entrepreneurial intentions and outcomes: A comparative causal mapping study. Journal of Management Studies, 34(6):895-920.

LIN, B-W., LI, P-C. & CHEN, J.S. 2004. Social capital. Capabilities, and entrepreneurial strategies: A study of Taiwanese high-tech new ventures. Technological Forecasting and social change. Article in press.

MARKMAN, G.D. & BARON, R.A. 2003. Person-entrepreneurship fit: Why some people are more successful as entrepreneurs than others. Human Resource Management Review, 13:281-301.

SINGAPORE STATISTICS. 2006. www//singstat.gov.sg/keystats/annual/indicators.html# economic%20indicators Accessed on 28/01/06.

VENKATARAMAN, S. 2003. Regional transformation through technological entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing. 19:153-167.