Proposal of a Comprehensive Model of Teachable Entrepreneurship Competencies (M-TEC): Literature Review and Theoretical Foundations

Introduction

The assumption that formal education develops specific competencies in young people has rapidly increased the number of entrepreneurship programs and courses in universities around the world (Fayolle & Gailly, 2008; Oosterbeek et al., 2010; Bell et al., 2015; Edwards-schachter et al., 2015; Piperopoulos & Dimov, 2015; Hatt, 2018). In spite of it, and according to different researchers, the entrepreneurship education field is in its early stages since there is no universal theoretical framework nor best practice as to how to educate or train entrepreneurs (Vesper & McMullan, 1988; Gorman et al., 1997; Hills, 1988; Fiet, 2001; Gibb, 2002; Bechard & Gregoire, 2005; Kuratko, 2005; Matlay, 2006; Rasmussen & Sørheim, 2006; Fayolle & Gailly, 2008; Bruton, 2010; Bagheri & Pihie, 2011b; Albornoz, 2013; Fayolle, 2013; Gedeon, 2014; Ghina, 2015; Hatt, 2018).

Entrepreneurship education takes relevance under two assumptions. The first is regarding the fact that those entrepreneurs who create an enterprise within a university environment have a more significant impact on the economic development of their ecosystem (von Graevenitz et al., 2010; Wurthmann, 2013), and they perform much better (Shane, 2003; Godsey & Sebora, 2010). The latter is due to the fact that institutions provide entrepreneurs with skills, attitudes, and knowledge which allow them to be alert to business opportunities and create a business from them (Ali et al., 2012; Piperopoulos & Dimov, 2015). Besides that, it has been established that entrepreneurship education plays a fundamental role in the development of more and better entrepreneurs (Martin et al., 2013; Hatt, 2018). The second assumption affirms that entrepreneurs can be nurtured. This is, there is not entrepreneurial gen, one is not born an entrepreneur (Gorman et al., 1997; Kuratko, 2005; Neck & Greene, 2011). There is sufficient evidence that entrepreneurship can be taught or at least encouraged through entrepreneurship education (Solomon, 2007). Stating that entrepreneurs can be “made” (Sánchez, 2013) whether through formal education or training has significant implications. Amongst them, the theoretical framework of what should be taught and how should it be taught (Kuratko, 2005); even the place where it should be educated (Hindle, 2007).

In the context of the entrepreneurship education, one consistent stream of research focuses on how to develop competencies among students. In this regard, the competency-based approach has become more often a way to study the characteristics of effective entrepreneurs (Man et al., 2002). Explicitly, by competency, is understood all those attributes possessed by an individual which are suitable to perform a specific function (Chell, 2013). This way, if the feature concerns the creation of a company, then, the competencies a person should develop are those concerning entrepreneurship. The development of entrepreneurship competencies amongst youngsters would increase their perceived feasibility, therefore, their entrepreneurial intentions (Sánchez, 2011, Obschonka, 2017).