Pedagogy and Professional Development

Active Entrepreneurship Learning: An Industry-Specific Consulting Experience for Apparel and Hospitality Students

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Abstract

Entrepreneurship education has been a hot topic for several years within academia and cross university campuses. Universities have started to add entrepreneurship courses outside of traditional business college offerings. However, despite the interest in entrepreneurship among key stakeholders, there is a lack of research on how to teach entrepreneurship to non-business majors. The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how consulting projects with a start-up retail company impacted students' perceived ESE and EI, constructs shown to predict a student's future entrepreneurial objectives. The study was conducted within an elective entrepreneurship course geared towards non-business majors. Data was collected through a pre-project survey, post-project survey, and follow-up interviews with students to help triangulate the findings. The findings of this study indicates that hands-on industry specific consulting projects impact specific items within students' ESE and EI in varying ways. The structure of the consulting project also impacted student entrepreneurial learning outcomes. By participating in a consulting project, students were able to gain an understanding and awareness of entrepreneurship and the elements that go into running a small online retail business. 

Keywords: consulting projects, hands on learning, Entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurship for apparel majors, entrepreneurship for non-business majors

How to Cite:

Schumm, C. Z., Schrimpf, E. & Linda, N. S., (2022) “Active Entrepreneurship Learning: An Industry-Specific Consulting Experience for Apparel and Hospitality Students”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 78(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.13727