Entrepreneurial thinking in Paris

In September I got the opportunity to go to Paris to attend the 12th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2017, and to discuss entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship education with colleagues from all over the world. This is a topic close to my heart and something I see as very important to consider for our students. When I talk about entrepreneurship I emphasise the holistic process and the so called entrepreneurial mindset. The how to create your venture or set up your business is not enough. With my colleague Birgitte Wraae, TU Berlin (and UCL, Odense, Denmark) we are very much interested in the entrepreneurial thinking. Inspired by Saras Sarasvathy and other we talked about our applied research during the conference. The entrepreneurial mind goes beyond business models, budgets and linear thinking. To help to understand this I use the word effectuation (Sarasvathy) – a few principles lived by entrepreneurs (External link). Effectuation, the mindset thinking and self-reflectiveness go well together and this is what I study together with my colleague Birgitte Wraae. We presented a paper with the name: Self-reflectiveness Among Entrepreneurship Students and have looked at students in Finland and Denmark.

Our poster named Video-clip talk in entrepreneurship education – A tool for deeper learning and effective qualitative assessment was also presented. Here we included the triggering of entrepreneurial thinking through reflective processes and enabled by video-clips. In our research we emphasize the importance of awakening or triggering entrepreneurial thinking among students and this through self-reflection. Both of us believing and agreeing with many others that we need more entrepreneurial thinkers inside and outside organizations. We need entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to drive innovation in our societies.

The conference as such was great knowledge sharing and a chance for us to work together. A nice twist to the visit in Paris was the we won the award for the best poster. And, for this we also thank our research assistant Stefan Schwery who helped with layout! Sometimes you get the gold medal ;).

/Christa Tigerstedt
Senior lecturer in Business