Starting from scratch: Understanding the learning outcomes of undergraduate entrepreneurship education

Entrepreneurship education in business schools is experiencing tremendous growth, and there are many innovative programs at the college level (Newton and Henricks 2003). Several factors support this trend. First is a general shift in teaching methods away from programmed instruction in favor of experiential learning (Schank et al. 1999). As business schools look to implement experiential learning, entrepreneurship is emerging as a natural fit for this instructional technique. Many of the courses in university entrepreneurship programs rely upon experiential or ‘learning by doing.' For example, at Babson College, one of the top-ranked institutions in the United States for entrepreneurship education (Newton and Henricks 2003), some courses require students to start and run actual businesses (www.babson.edu).