Lisa Bosman, an assistant professor at Purdue University and Stephanie Fernhaber, a professor at Butler University, are experts on integrating the entrepreneurial mindset into any higher education classroom. In April, Bosman and Fernhaber introduced faculty members to the concept of incorporating an entrepreneurial mindset in the classroom during a workshop in the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at DePaul University. Bosman and Fernhaber also discussed the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset for students from all disciplinary backgrounds and discussed concrete examples and tools to implement the ideas into teaching.
The biggest takeaway is that the entrepreneurial mindset shouldn’t be in a silo, but it should be integrated into the course so that the students understand the connection.” – Lisa Bosman
Contrary to the traditional view, the entrepreneurial mindset is not just for business majors and students seeking to start their own business. Across organizations and careers, entrepreneurially skilled individuals can demonstrate higher levels of confidence, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communications skills. These are skills that can be applied to a variety of situations and contexts – from creating music to caring for the elderly. As such, graduates who develop an entrepreneurial mindset can add more value to their organizations, and also benefit from an entrepreneurial approach in their personal lives and career paths.
Everyone has heard of the entrepreneurial mindset, but what does it actually mean? Bosman and Fernhaber describe entrepreneurial mindset as the inclination to discover, evaluate and exploit opportunities. In practice, entrepreneurial individuals can add value to their companies by developing new products and taking an approach of continuous improvement throughout the work environment. Being entrepreneurial became especially valuable during the pandemic, when companies were faced with constant, new challenges. Graduates with an entrepreneurial mindset are also more likely to address societal challenges, such as hunger or reversing climate change, through innovative approaches. In the end, adopting an entrepreneurial mindset allows one to create value, whether it is in an economic, social or environmental setting.
It is important to start with the ‘WHY’ before you actually start integrating entrepreneurial mindset. Remember to share the why with the students so they understand why we are doing this and why it is important.” – Stephanie Fernhaber
Despite the benefits of embracing the entrepreneurial mindset, universities have yet to adopt it as an integral part of teaching, especially outside of business classrooms. Certain factors negatively affect the number of students reached, such as labeling entrepreneurship classes as optional, having limited room in the curriculum to add new courses, and insufficient training of faculty. Bosman and Fernhaber have found a solution to overcome these challenges by integrating the entrepreneurial mindset across existing curriculum, rather than trying to add entrepreneurship as a separate topic to be studied. This way, the entrepreneurial mindset can become a part of multiple, existing courses, making it easier for professors and administrators to adopt. The key is to cultivate the students’ mindset, where their most recent book “Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset Across the Curriculum – An Integrative Approach,” published in 2021, serves as a valuable resource for any instructor interested in the topic. The book offers concrete examples from weekly online discussions to five-week modules and semester-long projects that help facilitate the integration of the entrepreneurial mindset into existing curriculum, in ways that align with instructors’ and students’ needs.
Contributor Bio
Ainoriikka Anttonen is a second-year MS student in Business Management at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. She is currently working as an entrepreneurship research and program assistant at the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center. After completing her bachelor’s degree in Germany, she moved to Chicago in 2019. Her plan is to pursue a career in management consulting and eventually, start her own business.