Abstract
At some point in their careers, many professors ponder the idea of taking a group of students abroad. This notion is especially true for entrepreneurship professors interested in exposing students to international entrepreneurship. In this article, we discuss how a professor and a student organization turned organizing a study abroad trip to China into an experiential exercise in entrepreneurship by creating and managing a short-term business to fund and plan the trip. Specific recommendations for a new set of entrepreneurial experiential best practices are outlined and illustrated.
Educators are charged with providing students with the training needed for future success. In this article, we discuss how the first author developed an experiential exercise in entrepreneurship to meet student desires to study entrepreneurship in China. Students learned entrepreneurial skills, first hand, by negotiating contracts and managing strict travel requirements with the Chinese embassy (i.e., special visa requirements for students from India). After managing these barriers, the students were rewarded with the opportunity to study Chinese entrepreneurship, first hand. However, the real learning may have come from the struggles that led to the trip. Suggestions for using experiential exercise best practices are offered for those educators interested in conducting a similar trip with their students.
Best Practices in Experiential Exercises Linked to the Entrepreneurial Process
Inclusion of real-life scenarios can be an effective centerpiece of learning, since students recognize these activities as meaningful learning experiences (Morrison, Rha, & Helfman, 2003). One reason these activities are so successful is that they often include barriers that must be overcome. Such barriers impede successful achievement of goals while simultaneously increasing learning opportunities; however, aspiring entrepreneurs may perceive barriers differently than others. For example, Shinnar, Pruett, and Toney (2009) found that risk, lack of capital, the economy, competence, and knowledge were perceived by students to be the largest barriers to achieving their entrepreneurial goals. Furthermore, Hatten and Ruhland (1995) found that those with a high locus of control were more likely to have a more positive view of entrepreneurship than those without a high locus of control. By combining these two findings, one can argue that students who feel they have control over their success or failure are more likely to see entrepreneurship as a viable option for employment. Thus, the goal of entrepreneurial experiential exercises should be to increase student self-efficacy, thereby allowing students to overcome the business-related issues they may face as entrepreneurs.
Increasing student self-efficacy requires entrepreneurial experiential learning exercises that integrate (1) active participation, (2) realism, (3) decision-making pressure, and (4) mirror the excitement and anxiety associated with the entrepreneurial process. Plumly et al. (2008) outline how entrepreneurship training should provide students with the opportunities to actively participate in entrepreneurial experiences, such as setting work schedules for employees/volunteers. Evident in these recommendations is the realization that experiential exercises need to be complex enough to increase learner motivation.
Similarly, experiential exercises should include intricate decision-making that results in high-pressure decision-making situations (Turner & Turner, 2015). An important decision-making process that was evident in the exercise presented herein was negotiation, that is, negotiating a contract with a sports team to run a concession stand. Researchers have found that active learning experiences can increase student negotiation skills and sharpen their critical thinking skills (Page & Mukherjee, 2007).
Finally, students are most willing to learn when excitement and anxiety are in play at the same time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). Entrepreneurial simulations should, therefore, mirror the excitement and anxiety associated with the entrepreneurial process (Robinson, 1996), such as announcing plans for a trip to China, before raising necessary funds. It often seems like everyone is watching when an entrepreneur starts a new venture. Such an attempt is stressful and causes anxiety levels to rise. Self-efficacy plays a role in how one copes with this type of anxiety (Bandura, 1988). Developing student self-efficacy may reduce the arousal of anxiety for future ventures.
Overview of the Experiential Exercise
For several months a student entrepreneurship organization discussed ideas for starting a business and often entertained the idea of taking a trip to China to study entrepreneurship abroad. The students decided to do both simultaneously. Ten students (five undergraduate and five graduate) immediately faced the problem of deciding what type of business to create. Initial research identified a local sports team that contracted concession services to a series of private organizations. The students and professor negotiated and signed a contract to run a concession stand at 35 games for the 2014 season. This endeavor proved to be challenging due to issues with staffing, weather, cash flow, unruly (often intoxicated) customers, and conflict with other vendors and management of the sports team. It also proved to be an excellent experiential exercise in the formation, management, and dissolution of a business venture.
Simultaneously, the students and the professor negotiated all things associated with planning a trip to China. First, they navigated the mountain of paperwork and bureaucracy from the university (see Appendix A for China Trip Disclaimer; available online at http://mtr.sagepub.com/supplemental). Second, they purchased airline tickets, obtained travel insurance, and contracted with a company to handle the passport and visa application. The final aspect of the trip was negotiating the ground accommodations through a Chinese travel agency. While this choice was economically beneficial, it added an additional level of difficulty to the process. While arduous at times, this challenge proved to be an effective experiential exercise in the intricacies of conducting business internationally.
Another challenge occurred when the list of available businesses to visit was limited for two reasons. First, the Chinese government is intimately involved in managing foreigner’s access within the country, so some businesses were off limits. Second, travel was limited to businesses with ties to the travel agency.
Based on the recommendations by Koernig (2007), the trip itself balanced visiting points of cultural interest with business tours and interactions with local business leaders (see Appendix B for the itinerary; available online at http://mtr.sagepub.com/supplemental). Students visited a Volkswagen plant in Shanghai, had dinner with the staff of a Beijing agricultural equipment manufacturing company, and toured a privately held company that develops and produces facial recognition devices and technology. This gave the students exposure to the entrepreneurial side of business in China and insight into how entrepreneurship can flourish—even in a communist country.
Link to Best Practices in Entrepreneurial Experiential Exercises
Active Participation
Similar to the development of leadership skills (see Morrison et al., 2003), entrepreneurial skill development includes both understanding concepts and the opportunity to practice on real-life problems. In this exercise, students contributed to every aspect of the trip: they raised funds, negotiated contracts, and helped address the regulatory burden associated with the trip. Dealing with this large set of tasks allowed students to apply course knowledge (negotiating and addressing cultural differences) in the areas outlined by Plumly et al. (2008).
Realism
Fundraising and planning for this trip was real. Students negotiated real contracts, for real money, with real organizations. Through this process, students learned valuable business lessons. For example, the sports team verbally stated that students would be paid a specific amount of money per night for running the concession stand. In reality, the amount received was much lower. The students were obviously upset, but it gave them valuable experience in understanding the difference between verbal and written agreements.
Decision-Making Pressure
Funds were very limited for this trip. Airline ticket prices fluctuated wildly from moment to moment and stood to derail the project if prices were too high. Students watched ticket prices very closely, for months, as they went up and down. Finally, a decision had to be made, and tickets were purchased at a rate that fit the budget (see Appendix C; available online at http://mtr.sagepub.com/supplemental). The pressure was real, and a poor decision could have ended the trip.
A second important factor in decision-making is that entrepreneurial decision-making often does not fit the rational-analytic business decision paradigm (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001). Entrepreneurs must often make decisions where objective data are missing or where measurable outcomes are not clearly defined. In these situations, entrepreneurs often rely on intuition. However, intuition is typically not part of a traditional management education curriculum (Sadler-Smith & Burke, 2009). This exercise allowed students to develop intuition and provided a setting for the educator to provide rich feedback to the students.
Excitement and Anxiety
Once the concession stand failed to generate sufficient funds to fully fund the trip to China, the pressure was on the students to generate additional funds. This realization dramatically influenced the students’ moods. One student totaled all of the hours worked and calculated that the group made less than $2 per hour. Students felt unfairly treated and complained they were being punished for something that was not their fault. With approximately 1 month to reach their funding goal, the students had to push aside their feelings and create another funding stream in order to make the trip happen. They knew they only had enough time for one more chance at another short-term entrepreneurial venture to raise the additional funds. If they were successful, the trip would proceed as planned; if unsuccessful, the trip would be cancelled. There was no promise of success, failure was likely, and anxiety was high.
On perceiving these negative emotions in the students, the professor turned to the inspirational motivation dimension of Transformational Leadership (see Judge & Piccolo, 2004) to address this issue. This aspect of Transformational Leadership states that successful leaders must articulate an appealing vision that is inspiring to followers. The professor also began to experience emotional distress over the situation, but he knew he could not show this emotional distress to the students, since leader emotions flow to followers (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1993). The professor engaged in surface acting (Hochschild, 1979, 1983), displaying positive emotions and projecting a positive outlook toward this situation, although the emotions were contrary to those he was actually experiencing. The goal was to create a sense within the student group that “if the professor is not panicking, why should we?” The professor proposed an alternative plan (articulated a vision) to the students: sponsor a local sporting tournament to raise the necessary additional funds.
The students agreed to the plan even though it required risking the loss of their precious funds, since tournament costs had to be paid in advance. Students were advised that sporting tournaments are risky endeavors because they are so dependent on uncontrollable events, such as the weather (this risk simulates that of entrepreneurs). Through working hard and successfully working through the fear and anxiety of potential failure, the students raised enough funds to finance the remainder of the trip. It was at this moment that the students’ anxiety turned to excitement.
Evidence of Success
This exercise was a success on many levels. First, it gave students a personal recognition of learning (Morrison et al., 2003). In this exercise, students gained first-hand experience in starting and running a business on their own. Second, this process was very beneficial to Student CEO (the student organization conducting the trip). Their membership has doubled since the trip. In the 4 weeks after their return from China, students were interviewed by three local news organizations, increasing their campus visibility. This visibility and success has resulted in increased university funding. It is reasonable to assume that these results could be experienced by other groups/classes that undertake similar endeavors (see Daly, 2001, for discussion).
Recommendations and Conclusions
It is important that educators use their limited class time as effectively as possible (Gosen & Washbush, 2004). It is recommended that entrepreneurship exercises include the formation, running, and dissolution of a short-term entrepreneurial venture for the purpose of funding a student activity. The short-term business element is essential because nothing simulates entrepreneurship like creating a new venture. In designing this exercise, the professor must ensure that it includes active participation, realism, decision-making pressure, anxiety, and excitement.
The basic concepts discussed in this article can be applied in a classroom immediately through short, targeted exercises where students are given challenging, time-based assignments that arouse anxiety and excitement in the students. Furthermore, when conducting such exercises, students should take turns leading their team in these activities so they can develop the ability to manage their emotions in a way that will inspire followers to persist in the face of adversity.
Finally, this article provides an example of how an entrepreneurship professor needs to be on alert for teaching opportunities and seize these opportunities when they present themselves. While it is unlikely another professor could precisely duplicate the exercise presented herein, it is highly likely that reading this exercise can have an immediate impact on professors by making them more alert to serendipitous opportunities in their environment.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
References
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