Entrepreneurial Education - Three Perspectives of Development : A multiple case study about identifying important factors concerning the development of entreprenurial education.

Sammanfattning: “Individuals that have never touched a keyboard or who have no idea exactly what an email is have heard about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. They are known throughout the world as entrepreneurs who have changed the world through their innovation “ (Brockhaus, 2001, p. 1). Although these persons help us in identifying what entrepreneurship is and what an entrepreneur looks like, they forget to show that there can be some sort of an entrepreneur in all of us. Today we can find education in many different forms, some theoretical and some more practically oriented, such as entrepreneurial education. Both education and entrepreneurship are a part of the society that is highly exposed to change. Therefore, the development of education is of high importance for the future society. The main purpose of this study is to increase understanding and knowledge of what factors are considered important when developing entrepreneurial education in Umeå. The importance of these factors will be found through examining three different stakeholder perspectives, consisting of educator, entrepreneur and student perspective. The study aims to answer the following research question: “What factors are important to consider, when developing entrepreneurial education within business schools?” The findings in this study was collected through a multiple case study, where 11 semi- structured interviews were conducted. The interviews consisted of four students, four entrepreneurs and three educators. This was done in order to get their viewpoint on which factors they consider important when developing entrepreneurial education. The conclusions drawn in the study shows that there is four factors that are recurrent when contrasting the findings from the different stakeholder perspectives. The factors that are important to consider when developing entrepreneurial education within business schools are; context, content, design and the individual. This study will contribute with recommendations to entrepreneurial education at Umeå School of Business and Economics. The study will moreover provide more knowledge in the area of entrepreneurial education as well as to some extent contribute to other schools in Sweden with indications of important factors to consider when developing entrepreneurial education.