Research

Title of the research project: 
Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Music Education

Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to examine how entrepreneurship education can help prepare music students to sustain careers as professional musicians

Research Question:

Methodolgy:
Qualitative and quantitative research methods

Potential implications of findings:
Compared to other fields of study, music students have higher career uncertainty and unstable employment patterns characterized by multiple, concurrent professional roles in various contexts — whether as a teacher, performer, or composer. This research hopes to examine how entrepreneurship education can help students sustain careers as professional musicians through the development of entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.

Originality/value:
This project will result in practical insight for practitioners looking to improve career outcomes of their students as well as research insights for the growing research community whom is interested in understanding how entrepreneurship education can be made accessible to all students in all disciplines

Key words:
Arts entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial mindsets

Name: 
Ben Toscher

Affiliation:
NTNU, Department of Industrial economics and technology management

Phone:

Email:
benjamin.toscher@ntnu.no

Title of the research project:
Venture Creation Programs: More Than New Ventures

Purpose:
Understand how VCPs provide learning and value beyond the establishment of new ventures

Research Question:

Methodolgy:
Qualitative (ZMET, case study, etc.) and quantitative (statistics)

Potential implications of findings:
Informing policy makers about what we get from VCPs

Originality/value:
Researching outcomes of VCPs and EE using improved methods

Key words:
Venture creation programs, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial learning, assessment, outcomes, university students, new ventures

Name:
Dag Håkon Haneberg

Affiliation:
NTNU, Department of Industrial economics and technology management

Phone:
+47 95909622

Email:
dag.haneberg@iot.ntnu.no

Title of the research project:
Nurses Becoming Entrepreneurial

Purpose:
The purpose of this PhD-project is to provide a multifaceted answer to the question of how nurses become entrepreneurial, by looking through the lenses of entrepreneurial nursing, entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial passion.

Research Question:
How do nurses become entrepreneurial?

Methodolgy:
Literature review and qualitative methods including interviews and observation

Potential implications of findings:
Nurses may become entrepreneurial through internal factors, such as passion and resilience, and contextual factors, such as education.

Originality/value:
This is to my knowledge the first dissertation examining the phenomenon of nurses becoming entrepreneurial through entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial passion. This PhD-project will have practical and theoretical implications to the fields of nursing education and entrepreneurship education.

Key words:
Nurse, Nurse Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Nurse, Nurse Education, Entrepreneurial Education, Passion, Resilience, Venture Creation Program, Entrepreneurship Camp, Innovation Camp, Self-made entrepreneur,

Name:
Gunn-Berit Sæter

Affiliation:
NTNU, Department of Industrial economics and technology management

Phone:
+47 92834506

Email:
gunn-berit.sater@ntnu.no

Title of the research project:
Entrepreneurial learning: learning through failure for nascent entrepreneurs in context of action-based entrepreneurship education.

Purpose:
To investigate entrepreneurial learning process in context of venture creation programs

Research Question:
• How does experiential entrepreneurial learning unfold through the process of opportunity exploration in VCPs?
• How do new skills, acquired in VCPs, facilitate commercialization process?
• What entrepreneurial competence does alumni students, from a venture creation program, perceive as the main learning outcome after graduation?
• How does the entrepreneurial failure experience in VCP influence further involvement in entrepreneurial activity in future career of VCP students?

Methodolgy:
Qualitative and quantitative studies

Potential implications of findings:
Practical implications: contribute to better design and quality of action-based entrepreneurship education
Theoretical: contribution to learning through failure

Originality/value:
Little research was done on venture creation programs. With my research I will contribute to understanding of entrepreneurial learning process and learning through failure for nascent entrepreneurs/students.

Key words:
Entrepreneurial learning; Learning through failure; commercialisation; VCP.

Name:
Aleksandra Bieliei

Affiliation:
NTNU, Department of Industrial economics and technology management

Phone:
+47 91307351

Email:
oleksandra.bieliei@ntnu.no

Title of the research project: 
Educating confidence

Purpose:
Understand the mechanisms of how an educational experience can increase a persons self-efficacy in the discipline of his/her field of interest. I would like to highlight increased confidence as a learning goal, together with traditional goals of obtaining knowledge and understanding.

Research Question:
How can we train students to become confident in the skills they aquire through their studies?

Methodolgy:
Quantitative with surveys and some qualitative work with interviews.

Potential implications of findings:
Provide insights which might be used for designing educational experiences/courses, as well as shifting the focus of the goal of these experiences.

Originality/value:
The concept of self-efficacy, belief in ones abilities, is not new. It has also been explored in the field of engineering previously. My novelty lies mostly in attempting to create concrete projects/experiences/learning tools based on the academic models.

Key words:
Self-efficacy, confidence, engineering education, change agents, learning methods

Name: 
Kristoffer Slåttsveen

Affiliation:
NTNU, TrollLABS

Phone:
+47 41447213

Email:
kristoffer.slattsveen@ntnu.no

Title of the research project: 
Assessment in Entrepreneurship Education

Purpose:
The purpose of this thesis and research project is to explore the assessment activities in entrepreneurship today, and to develop new tools and methods enabling scholars to assess the outcomes from entrepreneurship education.

Research Question:

Methodolgy:
The project applies different methods in the work, and both qualitative and quantitative methods are used, where some of these are more novel in the field of entrepreneurship education, like the ZMET method.

Potential implications of findings:
The goal of the thesis is to illustrate the difficulties and shortcomings in how entrepreneurship education is assessed today, but also to develop new methods based on the thesis’ findings.

Originality/value:
The thesis introduce new methods for assessing entrepreneurship education, both on the individual level, but also on course or programme level.

Key words:
Entrepreneurship Education; Assessment

Name: 
Torgeir Aadland

Affiliation:
NTNU, Department of Industrial economics and technology management

Phone:

Email:
torgeir.aadland@ntnu.no

Title of the research project: 
Engineering students and entrepreneurship

Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the development of entrepreneurial mindset among students of engineering in the university context. At this point, the project focuses on the organisational and cultural impact on engineering students becoming entrepreneurial.

Research Question:

Methodolgy:
This project will mainly apply qualitative methodological design due to the fact that the area of inquiry is rather new, and the need for explorative and theory development approach in needed.

Potential implications of findings:
The study will have implications for both educators in entrepreneurship, as well as universities willing to implement entrepreneurship education in the context of engineering studies, by presenting the understanding of how the environment influences the process of becoming entrepreneurial of engineering students.

Originality/value:
There are very little studies presenting how the study environment influences students of engineering in developing entrepreneurial mindset. With growing demand on the combination of engineering skills and entrepreneurial mindset, the project will be timely for those working with innovating the engineering education.

Key words:
entrepreneurial university, engineering, entrepreneurial mindset, culture, organisation, influence, entrepreneurial environment, extra curricular activities

Name: 
Karolina Lesniak

Affiliation:
NTNU, Department of Industrial economics and technology management

Phone:

Email:
karolina.lesniak@ntnu.no

Title of the research project: 
Venture creation process in Venture Creation Programs

Purpose:
To cope with the future challenges the world is facing there is an increasing need for innovative entrepreneurs, with the ability to create value through starting up new ventures or further developing exiting firms, creating new products, services or technologies. The education system is used as a tool of governments to foster an entrepreneurial culture and to give individuals competence and skills required to be able to start a business.We have several forms of entrepreneurship education, and this study explores a form of an action-based entrepreneurship education called venture creation programs. Venture creation program allows students to start real-life ventures as the main part of the formal curriculum. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how entrepreneurship education in the form of venture creation programs develop practices that influence the students when they are trying to commercialize new ventures. As the entrepreneurs, opportunity and its context is central factors in the venture creation process, I explore how the development of the venture team and opportunities occurs over time in a venture creation program.

Research Question:
My overall Research question is: How do the practices developed by venture creation programs influence the venture creation process? I plan a composite thesis consisting of four papers. Each of my papers contribute to the overall resarch question and are as follows:
RQ1: How do VCP practices influence the team formation process?
RQ2: How does the VCP influence the team development process?
RQ3: How does the context of a VCP affect the development of entrepreneurial opportunities?
RQ4: How do team processes affect the development of entrepreneurial opportunities?

Methodolgy:
Qualitative Method, Case Studies, Practice-based approach

Potential implications of findings:
The results from this study will have implications for organizers of VCPs and other types of action-based entrepreneurship education. We need knowledge about what these programs actually do to teach students to start a business, and how the program are influencing the students venture creation process. An understanding of how the activities and culture of the venture creation program influence the development of the new ventures have important implications for further development of venture creation programs. Knowledge about this also gives us a better foundation for developing and evaluating these programs, is it a good solution for educating entrepreneurial-minded people that is capable to foster new ventures or nor? Which impact have a venture creation program on the development of a business idea? How does the students manage to transfer theory to practice when they are developing their business idea? Do they actually take the advices given in lectures or they find the way themselves? These are all relevant question to ask when developing, supporting or considering venture creation programs.

Originality/value:
Venture creation programs are still uncommon; hence, the related research is still in an early stage. Earlier conducted studies of these types of action-based entrepreneurship education programs show a variety in both the practices and activities used to educate entrepreneurs and to stimulate the formation of new ventures. However, so far, research has not looked at how the activities and culture of the VCP influence the development of the new venture team and entrepreneurial opportunity. By examining the initial process of team formation and entrepreneurial opportunity development in a VCP, I seek to reveal practices of successful and less successful processes thereby giving important insights to VCP organizers seeking to support successful student-led venture teams.

Key words:
Venture Creation Programs, Entrepreneurship Education, Team formation, Entrepreneurial learning, Entrepreneurial opportunities

Name: 
Iselin Kristine Mauseth

Affiliation:
Nord University, Business School

Phone:

Email:
iselin.k.mauseth@nord.no

Title of the research project: 
Entrepreneurship education and mental health

Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between entrepreneurship and mental disorders, and how entrepreneurship education can harness the positive aspects of such symptoms for providing education and better career options to this group of students. The literature on entrepreneurship education has generally overlooked issues related to diversity and inclusion related to mental health, which is unfortunate because entrepreneurship seem to be particularly attractive to people outside of the norm.

The purpose of this research project is therefore to examine how entrepreneurship education can be designed and delivered in ways that embrace diversity in the form of mental disorders, as well as inclusion in the classroom. There is a need for information on whether or not the entrepreneurship education today fits the diversity of the population, including individuals with different mental disorders.

Research Question:
How can entrepreneurship education meet the diversity among students, and increase the inclusion of people with different mental disabilities?

Methodolgy:
There has not been conducted a lot of research on the connection between entrepreneurship and mental disorders and this topic is in its infancy. Its characterized by nascent theory and it is important to gather rich, detailed, and evocative data, that can shed light over the phenomenon.

I will use an inductive approach and aim to build a conceptual understanding of potential linkages between entrepreneurship education and how it is aligned with the needs of individuals with mental disorders. I will start by using the Delphi method for this project and will base the research on statements from entrepreneurs with mental disorders, experts in entrepreneurship education, educators with deep experience with inclusion of students with disorders, as well as experts from the psychiatric sector with deep knowledge on such disorders.

The Delphi method is a systematic approach to gain expert consensus on topics where little research have been conducted, or that are otherwise hard to measure. It involves repeated questioning of a group of experts, by either interview or questionnaire, and avoids direct confrontation of the experts with another.

The method has been used in both entrepreneurship education and mental health research (Jorm, 2015; Morris et al. 2013).

Potential implications of findings:
By linking the insights from entrepreneurs, educators and experts on mental disorders, this paper is expected to show how entrepreneurship education can be designed to benefit individuals with mental disorders, as well as how it can help individuals with mental disorders achieving their true potential. A better design of entrepreneurship education programs can contribute to give individuals with mental disorders a better life and rather take advantage of the potential they actually have.

Originality/value:
This project is contributing to both entrepreneurship research as well as research on mental health, by looking into how different entrepreneurship education programs can include individuals with mental health disorders. In contrast to previous research, this project focuses on the positive aspects of having a mental disorder and how to use it as an advantage in an entrepreneurial setting. Hopefully this will create an important fundament for further empirical studies.

Key words:
Diversity, inclusion, mental health, mental disorder, entrepreneurship education, action- based entrepreneurship education

Name: 
Cecilie Haukland

Affiliation:
Nord University,  Business School

Phone:
+47 90889619

Email:
cecilie.haukland@nord.no

Title of the research project: 
Entrepreneurial mindset: The difference between those who do, and those who only talk about it.

Purpose:
The project examines the difference in mindset between those entrepreneurs who manage to start a firm, and those aspiring entrepreneurs who only talk about it.

Research Question:
What is the diffference in mindset between those who start a new firm, and those who only talk about it

Methodolgy:
Mixed methods: utilising quantitative methods to analyse language, and qualitative methods to examine interviews

Potential implications of findings:
Getting greater calrity around mindsets will provide further insights for measuring and teaching the concept of the entrepreneurial mindset

Originality/value:
The project aims to provide greater clarity and measurability to the existing field of research that examines the concept of entrerpreneurial mindset

Key words:
Mindset; Entrepreneurial mindset; mental models; schemas

Name: 
Matthew Lynch

Affiliation:
NTNU, University College of Østfold

Phone:
+47 95366830

Email:
matthewl@hiof.no

Title of the research project: 
Data’s role in concept creation of early-stage product development of connected devices

Purpose:
The research aims to explore the specialities of prototyping process of IoT devices, and the interaction of data and the product itself.

Research Question:
How to apply iterative design-build-test prototyping loops to the connected devices?

Methodolgy:
Case studies, qualitative methdods and action research. The cases are from heavy industry, medical field and academia.

Potential implications of findings:
Explore how connected devices should be developed.

Originality/value:
This research is applying old and building new theory around new product development of connected devices

Key words:
prototyping; IoT; Industrial Internet; human-machine interaction

Name: 
Heikki Sjöman

Affiliation:
NTNU, TrollLABS

Phone:

Email:
heikki.sjoman@ntnu.no

Title of the research project: 
Student team processes when facing real world challenges

Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to explore the team processes when students are exposed to real-world challenges, and further investigate how these processes can be designed and facilitated to enhance learning.

Research Question:
The overall research question is “What characterizes team processes in Entrepreneurship education, and how can these processes be facilitated to enhance learning?”

Methodolgy:
Qualitative (case study, including observations and interviews) and quantitative (survey).

Potential implications of findings:
A better understanding of these processes can enable improved design and facilitation of the learning process in EE, that ultimately leads to a higher quality in the development of the students´ entrepreneurial skills and mindset. This research will also contribute to EE by introducing theories new to this context, mainly theory from action learning, the concepts from deep, surface and strategic learning, and practice theory.

Originality/value:
There are few process studies of student teams in Entrepreneurship education research, and there is lack of research exploring what charachterizes team processes when students work with real world challenges. Considering the movement to more student centered methods in higher education, and closer collaboration between universities and work life, it is valuable to gain more knowledge on these processes and how to organize and facilitate them in ways that enhance learning.

Key words:
Team processes, real world challenges, Entrepreneurship education, action learning, stuckness, liminality, learning theories, practice theories

Name: 
Sigrid Westad Brandshaug

Affiliation:
NTNU, Department of Industrial economics and technology management

Phone:
+47 97148131

Email:
sigrid.w.brandshaug@ntnu.no

Title of the research project: 
Designing Human System Interaction Experiments

Purpose:
This research project aims to contribute to design and development of adaptive systems, investigating graphical user interface (GUI) adaptivity and physical adaptivity. Research activities will encompass running human-system interaction experiments to explore designs through user testing. To do so, adaptive systems will be designed and built.

Research Question:
How to detect and measure relevant affective states of the human, in an engineering setting. Furthermore, making a sensible adaptation of the system in an attempt at reaching a desired affective state and performance in the human.

Methodolgy:
Human experiments in an engineering context will enable the core data capture. Systems engineering thinking combined with a human-centered approach to engineering design and product development will be important to incorporate here. Furthermore, a mixed method approach will be employed with weighting majority will be given to the quantitative approach and these proposed techniques for analysis.

Potential implications of findings:
Adaptive systems as described above will enable a more effective and enhanced performance of system and system operators while they experience a more optimized cognitive workload and thus reducing negative stress. In turn, system resource usage will be more efficient, decision-making and precision will better, and the number of accidents reduces.

Originality/value:
These systems will not only adapt to the actual environmental context and the user (operator or pilot), a but also the current affective state of the user such as stress and cognitive load. Physical (environmental and interior) adaptivity and virtual (interface and graphical user interface) adaptivity are the two main pillars to be built here.

Key words:
human – machine interaction, affective state, adaptive system, GUI, user experience, experiment setup, sensors

Name: 
Henrikke Dybvik

Affiliation:
NTNU, TrollLABS

Phone:
+47 95417245

Email:
henrikke.dybvik@ntnu.no