A Systematic Review of the Impacts of Entrepreneurial Support Programs in Science,Technology,Engineering,and Math Fields

Abstract

Programs dedicated to entrepreneurship education in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields have expanded tremendously. However, much remains unknown about the current state of research and practice of these programs. This article presents results from a systematic review designed to explore how Entrepreneurial Support Programs serving science and technology innovators conceptualize and measure individual-level impacts. Results suggest that the intended impacts of programs are often ill-defined. While many programs focus on improving entrepreneurial mindset, the term is frequently not well defined, operationalized, or clearly measured. Likewise, results suggest that understanding the impact of programs is challenging due to the quality of the research or evaluation procedures employed. Finally, results suggest that there is a strong lack of diversity awareness or acknowledgment in the field; the vast majority of the papers did not mention gender, race, or other demographic characteristics. Moving forward, researchers and practitioners have an opportunity to strengthen data-driven work to assess the impact of entrepreneurship support programs through the use of clear definitions, well-documented methods, and assessment instruments with sufficient validity evidence.

Keywords

systematic review entrepreneurial mindset entrepreneurship programs assessment

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Physical Society (APS) PIPELINE . (n.d.). Professional societies, funders, and industry should support PIE – but how? Retrieved June 14, 2021, from https://epic.aps.org/supporting-pie/.

Bandera

Santos

S. C.

Liguori

E. W.

(2021). The dark side of entrepreneurship education: A Delphi study on dangers and unintended consequences. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, Advance online publication. 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127421994785

Borrego

Foster

M. J.

Froyd

J. E.

(2014). Systematic literature reviews in engineering education and other developing interdisciplinary fields. Journal of Engineering Education, 103(1), 45-76.

Brooks

Green

W. S.

Hubbard

R. G.

Jain

Katehi

McLendon

Plummer

Roomkin

(2007). Entrepreneurship in American higher education. A report from the Kauffman Panel on entrepreneurship curriculum in higher education. Kauffmann.

Duval-Couetil

Reed-Rhoads

Haghighi

(2012). Engineering students and entrepreneurship education: Involvement, attitudes, and outcomes. International Journal of Engineering Education, 28(2), 425-435.

Duval‐Couetil

(2013). Assessing the impact of entrepreneurship education programs: Challenges and approaches. Journal of Small Business Management, 51(3), 394-409.

Dweck

C. S

. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Ballantine Books.

Gorlewicz

J. L.

Jayaram

(2019). Instilling curiosity, connections, and creating value in entrepreneurial minded engineering: concepts for a course sequence in dynamics and controls. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 3(1), 60-85.

Gough

Thomas

(2016). Systematic reviews of research in education: Aims, myths, and multiple methods. Review of Education, 4(1), 84-102.

10.

Huang-Saad

A. Y.

Morton

C. S.

Libarkin

J. C.

(2018). Entrepreneurship assessment in higher education: A research review of engineering education researchers. Journal of Engineering Education, 107(2), 263-290.

11.

Hunter

S. T.

Cushenbery

Friedrich

(2012). Hiring an innovative workforce: A necessary yet uniquely challenging endeavor. Human Resource Management Review, 22(4), 303-322. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.Hrmr.2012.01.001

12.

Katona

Zappe

S. E.

Tranquillo

(2020). A systematic review of student entrepreneurial failure in engineering education. In Proceedings of the 2020 Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Virtual, Montreal, Canada, June, 2020.

13.

Katz

J. A.

(2008). Fully mature but not fully legitimate: A different perspective on the state of entrepreneurship education. Journal of Small Business Management, 46(4), 550-566.

14.

KEEN . (n.d.). The entrepreneurial mindset. (Retrieved February 9, 2021, from https://engineeringunleashed.com/mindset

15.

Kriewall

T. J.

Mekemson

(2010). Instilling the entrepreneurial mindset into engineering. Journal of Engineering Entrepreneurship, 1, 5–19.

16.

Liguori

Winkler

Winkel

Marvel

M. R.

Keels

J. K.

van Gelderen

Noyes

(2018). The entrepreneurship education initiative; introducing EE&P. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 1(1), 5-7.

17.

Linton

J. D.

(2020). Research on science and technological entrepreneurship education: What needs to happen next? The Journal of Technology Transfer, 46, 393-406. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09786-6

18.

Long III

L. L.

Sun

(2018). Entrepreneurial mindset: Integrating creative thinking and innovation into a graphical communications course. The Engineering Design Graphics Journal, 82(2).

19.

McKenna

Lichtenstein

Weilerstein

Monroe-White

(2018). The entrepreneurial mindset: Using the questions of what, why, and how as an organizing framework. Advances in Engineering Education. 7(1): 1-8.

20.

Morton

C. S.

Huang-Saad

Libarkin

(2016). Entrepreneurship education for women in engineering: A systematic review of entrepreneurship assessment literature with a focus on gender. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference and Exposition of the American Society for Engineering Education, New Orleans, LA, June, 2016.

21.

National Academy of Engineering . (2004). The engineer of 2020: Visions of engineering in the new century. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10999

22.

Neck

H. M.

Corbett

A. C.

(2018). The scholarship of teaching and learning entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy, 1(1), 8-41.

23.

Neck

H. M.

Greene

P. G.

(2011). Entrepreneurship education: known worlds and new frontiers. Journal of Small Business Management, 49(1), 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2010.00314.x

24.

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship . (n.d.). Entrepreneurial mindset resources. Retrieved January 28, 2021, from https://www.nfte.com/entrepreneurial-mindset/

25.

NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub . (2020). Broadening participation in STEM: Evidence-based strategies for improving equity and inclusion of individuals in underrepresented racial and ethnic groups (research brief No. 1). https://www.includesnetwork.org/viewdocument/coordination-hub-research-brief-im?CommunityKey=5e902dcd-362e-47be-a076-16bc71e2f038&tab=librarydocuments

26.

Oswald Beiler

M. R.

(2015). Integrating innovation and entrepreneurship principles into the civil engineering curriculum. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 141(3), 1-8.

27.

Purzer

Fila

Nataraja

(2016). Evaluation of current assessment methods in engineering entrepreneurship education. Advances in Engineering Education, 5(1), 1-27.

28.

Rayess

N. E.

Garner

B. A.

Kleinke

D. K.

Blust

R. P.

Jordan

W. M.

Dougherty

E. J.

(2014). Intercollegiate Student Design Projects: Lessons Learned by Four Universities. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, Indianapolis, IN.

29.

Reid

K. J.

Ferguson

D. M.

(2011). Work in progress—Enhancing the entrepreneurial mindset of freshman engineers. In 2011 Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), (pp. F2D-1). IEEE, Rapid City, SD.

30.

Servo

J. C.

Verostek

Smith

Lidoro

Meade

Johnson

Pipher

(2020). Women’s inclusion in small business innovation research & small business technology transfer programs. Dawnbreaker, Inc.

31.

Shartrand

Weilerstein

Besterfield-Sacre

Golding

(2010). Technology entrepreneurship programs in U.S Engineering schools: An analysis of programs at the undergraduate level. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference and Exposition of the American Society for Engineering Education, Louisville, KY, June, 2010.

32.

Shekhar

Huang-Saad

(2019). Conceptualizing entrepreneurial mind-set: Definitions and usages in engineering education research. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference and Exposition of the American Society for Engineering Education. Tampa, FL, June, 2019.

33.

Singh

Moncada

M. V.

(2015). Instilling the Entrepreneurial Mindset by International Development Project Work. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, Seattle, WA.

34.

Vanevenhoven

Liguori

(2013). The impact of entrepreneurship education: Introducing the entrepreneurship education project. Journal of Small Business Management, 51(3), 315-328.

35.

Wheadon

Duval-Couetil

(2017). Entrepreneuring gender diversity in entrepreneurship through critical theory and reflexivity. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 9(2), 188-202. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-02-2017-0010

36.

Woodman

R. W.

Schoenfeldt

L. F.

(1990). An interactionist model of creative behavior. Journal of Creative Behavior, 24, 279-290. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1990.tb00525.x

37.

Zappe

S. E.

(2018). Avoiding construct confusion: An attribute-focused approach to assessing entrepreneurial mindset. Advances in Engineering Education. 7(1): 1-12.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.38 MB