Enhancing Higher Education Students' Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: An Actionable Process
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47963/jobed.v13i.1985Abstract
In principle, emerging countries such as many in Africa offer great opportunities for innovation, growth, and entrepreneurship to serve the growing middle class both locally and in neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, few young graduates from Higher Education Institutions (HEI) engage in entrepreneurship, even many may remain unemployed at the start of their careers or take jobs for which they are overqualified. Preparing the young generation of HEI graduates and encouraging them to choose entrepreneurship as a career option is key to sustaining economic growth and raising qualified job opportunities. This may require a paradigm shift in higher education to go beyond the development of technical and managerial competencies of students, train them in entrepreneurship, and connect them to entrepreneurs, resources, and business ecosystems. This paper aims to contribute to answering the question: What should HEIs' educational and support conditions be to enhance students' engagement in entrepreneurship and have entrepreneurship as an institutionalized career path? This paper provides a conceptual design of a three-stage entrepreneurship development process, namely intention development, opportunity recognition, and opportunity transformation and and related 5S activities, namely, Starting the process, Sensing, Selecting, Shaping, and Seizing entrepreneurial opportunities, to help students progress successfully through the process. The Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm, based on the concept of ‘knowing through making’, is used for the development of the process and the related 5S activities, and for the pragmatic validity of the process. The paper illustrates the relevance of the proposed process by using the Academy of Traditional Arts (ATA) in Casablanca as a case study and draws first conclusions on the process and its practice. For the rigor phase of the DSR paradigm and to further validate the findings, more applied research is needed, both for the review of the proposed design and the evaluation of the impact of the process and the related 5S activities on the rate of generation of graduate entrepreneurs. This will also be done to ensure the adoption and replicability of the process in different contexts.
Downloads
References
Aldrich, H. E., & Zimmer, C. (1986). Entrepreneurship Through Social Networks. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291165757
Alvarez, S. A., & Barney, J. B. (1993). How Entrepreneurial Firms Can Benefit from Alliances with Large Partners (Vol. 15, Issue 1). http://www.jstor.orgURL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165716http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165716?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
Arranz, N., Arroyabe, M. F., & Fdez. de Arroyabe, J. C. (2019). Entrepreneurial intention and obstacles of undergraduate students: the case of the universities of Andalusia. Studies in Higher Education, 44(11), 2011–2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1486812
Barratt, M., & Barratt, R. (2011). Exploring internal and external supply chain linkages: Evidence from the field. Journal of Operations Management, 29(5), 514–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2010.11.006
Birley, S. (1985). The role of networks in the entrepreneurial process . Journal of Business Venturing , 1(2), 107–117.
Bruton, G. D., Ahlstrom, D., & Li, H. L. (2010). Institutional theory and entrepreneurship: Where are we now and where do we need to move in the future? Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 34(3), 421–440. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00390.x
Choo, S. (2007). Commercialising technological innovations: a conceptual framework for designing entrepreneurial mentoring programmes. Int. J. Technoentrepreneurship. 1(2), 146-164.
Cooney, T. M. (2012, November 28). Entrepreneurship Skills for Growth-Orientated Businesses. Skills Development for SMEs and Entrepreneurship. Copenhagen.
Draksler, T. Z., & Širec, K. (2018). Conceptual Research Model for Studying Students’ Entrepreneurial Competencies. Naše Gospodarstvo/Our Economy, 64(4), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.2478/ngoe-2018-0020
Draksler, T. Z., & Sirec, K. (2021). The study of entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial competencies of business vs. non-business students. Journal of Competitiveness, 13(2), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.7441/JOC.2021.02.10
Drucker, P. F. (1985). Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles. Harper & Row , New York.
Gibb, A. (2010). Towards_the_entrepreneurial_university. The National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), Birmingham.
Glackin, C. E. W., & Phelan, S. E. (2020). Improving entrepreneurial competencies in the classroom: an extension and in-study replication. New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, 23(2), 79–96. https://doi.org/10.1108/NEJE-04-2020-0005
Gnyawali, D. R., & Fogel, D. S. (1994). Environments for Entrepreneurship Development: Key Dimensions and Research Implications. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 18(4), 43–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/104225879401800403
Guerrero, M., Liñán, F., & Cáceres-Carrasco, F. R. (2020). The influence of ecosystems on the entrepreneurship process: a comparison across developed and developing economies. Small Business Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-020-00392-2
Hak, T., & Dul, J. (2008). Case Study Methodology in Business Research. Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann.
HCP-Principales caractéristiques de la population active et ses composantes en 2023 (2023), HCP. https://www.hcp.ma/Principales-caracteristiques-de-la-population-active-et-ses-composantes-en-2023_a3847.html .
Hevner, A. R. (2007). A Three Cycle View of Design Science Research A Three Cycle View of Design Science Research. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 19(2), 87–92.
Iwara, I. O. (2025). Graduate Employability in Africa: Reimagining Rural-Based Entrepreneurial University Paradigm. Sustainability (Switzerland), 17(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/su17104628
la Guardia, D., Gentile, M., Dal Grande, V., Ottaviano, S., & Allegra, M. (2014). A Game based Learning Model for Entrepreneurship Education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141, 195–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.05.034
Liñán, F., & Santos, F. J. (2007). Does social capital affect entrepreneurial intentions? International Advances in Economic Research, 13(4), 443–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-007-9109-8
Man, T. W. Y., Lau, T., & Chan, K. F. (2002). The competitiveness of small and medium enterprises: A conceptualization with focus on entrepreneurial competencies. Journal of Business Venturing, 17(2), 123–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-9026(00)00058-6
Mitchelmore, S., & Rowley, J. (2010). Entrepreneurial competencies: a literature review and development agenda . International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research (, 16(2), 92–111.
Mwenda Ntarangwi. (2021). Rethinking Entrepreneurship and University Education. Academia Letters, May 2021, 1–4.
Okolie, U. C., Nwosu, H. E., & Mlanga, S. (2019). Graduate employability: How the higher education institutions can meet the demand of the labour market. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 9(4), 620–636. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-09-2018-0089
Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. A., & Chatterjee, S. (2007). A design science research methodology for information systems research. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(3), 45–77. https://doi.org/10.2753/MIS0742-1222240302
Prat, N., Comyn-Wattiau, I., & Akoka, J. (2014). Artifact evaluation in information systems design-science research - A holistic view. Proceedings - Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS 2014.
Rasmussen, E., Mosey, S., & Wright, M. (2011). The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Competencies: A Longitudinal Study of University Spin-Off Venture Emergence. Journal of Management Studies, 48(6), 1314–1345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00995.x
Reyes, G. U., Mariano, R. A., Herrera, M. N. Q., & ... (2018). Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies and Entrepreneurial Intention of Non-Business Students Enrolled in an Introductory Entrepreneurship Course. Journal of Economics, Management and Agricultural Development, 4(1), 93–102.
Reynolds, P. D., Reynolds, P. D., & White, S. B. (1997). The Entrepreneurial Process: Economic Growth, Men, Women, and Minorities. Westport, CT: Quorum Book.
Shane, S., & Venkataraman, S. (2000). The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 217–226. https://doi.org/10.2307/259271
Singh, J. v., Tucker, D. J., & House, R. J. (1986). Organizational Legitimacy and the Liability of Newness. Administrative Science Quartely, 31(2), 172–193.
Srinivasan, A., & Venkatraman, N. (2018). Entrepreneurship in Digital Platforms: A Network-Centric View. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 12, 54–71. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1272
Stinchcombe, A. L. (1965). Social structure and organizations. In J. March (Ed.), Handbook of Organizations, (pp. 142-193.). Rand McNally.
Tolbert, P. S., David, R. J., & Sine, W. D. (2011). Studying choice and change: The intersection of institutional theory and entrepreneurship research. Organization Science, 22(5), 1332–1344. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0601
Vahidov, R. (2012). Design-Type Research in Information Systems: Findings and Practices. IGI Global Scientific Publishing, Hershey.
Venesaar, U., Malleus, E., Arro, G., & Toding, M. (2022). Entrepreneurship competence model for supporting learners development at all educational levels. Administrative Sciences, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci12010002
We, L. (2017). Towards Creating an Entrepreneur Competencies Model. Journal of Entrepreneurship & Organization Management, 06(02). https://doi.org/10.4172/2169-026x.1000215
Wei, F. A. N., Ning, Z., Xuejun, C. A., & Jianchun, F. U. (2012). Overseas Returnees’ Entrepreneurial Competency and Personality Research. Canadian Social Science, 8(6), 186–1948. https://doi.org/10.3968/j.css.1923669720120806.1158
Wu, F., & Mao, C. (2020). Business Environment and Entrepreneurial Motivations of Urban Students. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(July), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01483
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Mohammed Khalil, Mohammed Barkaoui
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
