A recent trend in entrepreneurship education has been the emergence of microcredentials. This note provides some cautionary observations on the current state of microcredentials in entrepreneurship, organized around the themes of credibility, legitimacy, and relevance. It then provides some recommendations for the future development of the field, including creating evaluation mechanisms, establishing international standards in entrepreneurship, undertaking more research to establish credibility, forming alliances, and safeguarding relevance.
ArrowK. J. (1973) Higher education as a filter. Journal of Public Economics2(3): 193–216.
3.
Backes-GellnerU.WernerA. (2007) Entrepreneurial signaling via education: A success factor in innovative start-ups. Small Business Economics29(1–2): 173–190.
4.
BarnettM. L.KingA. A. (2008) Good fences make good neighbors: A longitudinal analysis of an industry self-regulatory institution. Academy of Management Journal51(6): 1150–1170.
5.
BeckerG. S. (1993) Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference to education (3rd ed.), Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
6.
BergI. (1970) Education and jobs: The great training robbery, New York, NY: Praegar Publishers.
7.
BillsD. B. (2003) Credentials, signals, and screens: Explaining the relationship between schooling and job assignment. Review of Educational Research73(4): 441–469.
8.
BirdB. (1995) Toward a theory of entrepreneurial competency. In: KatzJ. (ed) Advances in entrepreneurship firm emergence and growth, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 52–72.
9.
BloomB. (1956) A taxonomy of cognitive objectives, New York, NY: McKay.
10.
BlundellR.DeardenL.MeghirC.SianesiB. (1999) Human capital investment: The returns from education and training to the individual, the firm and the economy. Fiscal Studies20(1): 1–23.
11.
BordenV. M.YoungJ. W. (2008) Measurement validity and accountability for student learning. New Directions for Institutional Research2008(S1): 19–37.
12.
BrownD. K. (2001) The social sources of educational credentialism: Status cultures, labor markets, and organizations. Sociology of Education74: 19–34. doi:10.2307/2673251.
13.
CaplanB. (2018) The case against education: Why the education system is a waste of time and money, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
14.
CashD. W.ClarkW. C.AlcockF.DicksonN. M.EckleyN.GustonD. H.MitchellR. B. (2003) Knowledge systems for sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences100(14): 8086–8091. doi:10.1073/pnas.1231332100.
DoddS. D.AndersonA. R. (2001) Understanding the enterprise culture paradigm: Paradox and policy. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation2(1): 13–26.
23.
Duval-CouetilN.GotchC. M.YiS. (2014) The characteristics and motivations of contemporary entrepreneurship students. Journal of Education for Business89(8): 441–449.
GallowayL.BrownW. (2002) Entrepreneurship education at university: A driver in the creation of high growth firms?Education + Training44(8/9): 398–405.
27.
GanderS. L. (2016) The authority behind the badge: A practice analysis case study. In: IfenthalerD.Bellin-MularskiN.MahD.-K. (eds) Foundation of digital badges and micro-credentials: Demonstrating and recognizing knowledge and competencies, Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 421–442.
28.
Gedeon, S. A. (2019). Theory-based design of an entrepreneurship microcredentialing and modularization system within a large university ecosystem. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy. doi: 10.1177/2515127419856612.
29.
HeinkU.MarquardE.HeubachK.JaxK.KugelC.NeßhöverC.VandewalleM. (2015) Conceptualizing credibility, relevance and legitimacy for evaluating the effectiveness of science–policy interfaces: Challenges and opportunities. Science and Public Policy42(5): 676–689. doi:10.1093/scipol/scu082.
Hitchcock, L. (2007). Industry certification and academic degrees: Complementary, or poles apart? Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference on Computer personnel research, The Global Information Technology Workforce.
33.
HodgsonD.CicmilS. (2006) Are projects real? The PMBOK and the legitimation of project management knowledge. Making Projects Critical29: 50.
34.
HoltzmanJ. (1999) Getting up to standard. PM Network13(12): 44–46.
35.
JacobyT. (2016) The certification revolution. In: PetrilliM. J. (ed) Education for upward mobility, London, England: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 50–69.
36.
JohnsonC. (1988) Enterprise education and training. British Journal of Education and Work2(1): 61–65.
37.
Katz, M.L., & Shapiro, C. (1992). Product introduction with network externalities. The Journal of Industrial Economics, 40(1), 55–83.
38.
KlepperS.SimonsK. L. (2005) Industry shakeouts and technological change. International Journal of Industrial Organization23(1–2): 23–43.
39.
LeeY.KreiserP. M.WredeA. H. (2018) University-based education and the formation of entrepreneurial capabilities. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy1(4): 304–329.
40.
LevineA. (2018) The “just in time” learner and the coming revolution in higher education. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning50(3–4): 27–29.
41.
MaritzA.BrownC. R. (2013) Illuminating the black box of entrepreneurship education programs. Education + Training55(3): 234–252. doi:10.1108/00400911311309305.
42.
McCallum, E., Weicht, R., Lisa, M., & Price, A. (2018). Entrecomp into action: Get inspired, make it happen. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
43.
MorrisM. H.KaplanJ. (2014) Entrepreneurial (versus managerial) competencies as drivers of entrepreneurship education. In: MorrisM. H.MatthewsC. (eds) Annals of entrepreneurship education and pedgagogy - 2014, Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 134–157.
44.
MorrisM. H.WebbJ. W.FuJ.SinghalS. (2013) A competency-based perspective on entrepreneurship education: Conceptual and empirical insights. Journal of Small Business Management51(3): 352–369. doi:10.1111/jsbm.12023.
45.
NabiG.LiñánF.FayolleA.KruegerN.WalmsleyA. (2017) The impact of entrepreneurship education in higher education: A systematic review and research agenda. Academy of Management Learning & Education16(2): 277–299.
Rosendale, J. A. (2016). Valuing non-degree, online training: An examination of hiring managers’ perceptions of MOOCS (Doctoral Dissertation). Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA. Retrieved from http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/etd/1373.
50.
SánchezJ. C. (2011) University training for entrepreneurial competencies: Its impact on intention of venture creation. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal7(2): 239–254. doi:10.1007/s11365-010-0156-x.
51.
SarkkiS.NiemeläJ.TinchR.Van Den HoveS.WattA.YoungJ. (2013) Balancing credibility, relevance and legitimacy: A critical assessment of trade-offs in science–policy interfaces. Science and Public Policy41(2): 194–206.
Taylor, J. L. (2018). The new credentialing landscape. In M. Gasman & A. C. Samayoa (Eds.), Contemporary issues in higher education (pp. 79–97). New York: Routledge.
61.
TierneyW. G. (2011) Too big to fail: The role of for-profit colleges and universities in American higher education. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning43(6): 27–32.