Entrepreneurship Culture and Engineers

Entrepreneurship can refer as the way of starting a business (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000; Hjorth, 2003) and also as the way of increasing people's entrepreneurial spirit (Léger-Jarniou, 2001, 2008). This paper explores to what extent it is possible to develop an entrepreneurial culture in students studying in a French engineering school. The thinking behind our study is that business organisations recruit employees with new competencies (Zarifian, 2004; Reynaud, 2001), including entrepreneurial skills, and their requirements for young engineers are the same. Consequently, engineers needs to evolve in line with the appropriate relational and social values (Robin, 1994). As the education of engineers tends to focus more on technical know-how, however, these new competencies (autonomy, responsibility, risk-taking and leadership) do not always come naturally. We assume that some 'acculturation' is possible if we use a specially designed constructivist and engaging education programme. The originality of our study is that it comes within the framework of a new field, that of culture and pedagogy. Many studies have been performed with students, often with the aim of evaluating their intentions, in the wake of the models developed by Shapero and Azjen, and the studies by Kolvereid & Moen (1997). This study is not about intentions, however, but instead explores the notion of an entrepreneurial culture and its development. The concept of entrepreneurship remains vague and can cover a number of realities. In the first part of this paper, we therefore attempt to clarify the term 'entrepreneurship' and explore its different visions. We focus on one of these visions via a teaching programme designed to develop the entrepreneurial spirit in young students studying in a French engineering school. In the second section, we introduce the background context with respect to the school, the course and the teaching methods. We describe the research methodology (using a Likert scale questionnaire before and after the course) and present some of the results. In part 3, we show that in certain conditions, the introduction of a specifically designed, interactive and engaging teaching approach based on a well thought through strategy and led by a specially selected teaching team, can help young engineers to evolve in their practices and their behaviour and consequently acquire an entrepreneurial culture. In this way, they come closer to the sought-after professional competence that includes a combination of knowledge, know-how, experience and behaviour. We then describe and discuss the different forms of measurement. The conclusion identifies limitations to the study and makes some recommendations for future improvements and extension.