Knowledge Acquisition and Business Modeling Using Experiental Learning Approach to Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Boosting entrepreneurial thinking and emphasizing its usefulness at all levels of education is a response to support the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan (European Commission, 2013), use the international potential, and revolutionize the culture of entrepreneurship in the EU. In order to increase both the attractiveness and effectiveness of entrepreneurship education, mainly at HEI, a variety of methods, tools and materials will be developed. Entrepreneurship, creativity and interpersonal communication are the key transversal skills necessary for working today in a multicultural environment. However, for shaping an entrepreneurial mindset, students need clear objectives and understanding embedded with multidisciplinary knowledge as well as competences to implement useful solutions in business practice. In this sense, an approach based on experiential learning and teaching has become a requirement in the education process. The purpose of the conducted research is to explore and carry out a synthesis of practice-oriented methods and experiental learning activities in entrepreneurship education to support students in solving real business problems by interacting in multicultural teams. The cognitive aim of this paper is to present the iterative and participatory co-creation process of business models generation by international students based on their experience, observation, and reflection within the framework of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project titled Entrepreneurship and Communication in Multicultural Teams (ECMT+). During the three entrepreneurship training workshops (Intensive Programmes 2017-2019) in total nearly 150 students from seven European high education institutions represented 16 nationalities. The study reveals positive effects of applied methods of experiental entrepreneurship education, significant involvement of participants in achieving the goal and gaining professional knowledge regarding to business model generation.