Type of Paper: DiscussionObjectives: A current limitation of UK entrepreneurship education is an insufficient emphasis on ‘cross-cultural’ competencies (Muzychenko, 2005) to help prepare students to meet the needs of the global economy. The aim of this paper is to critically discuss an innovative European Entrepreneurship Exchange Programme (EEE) established to address this. The paper documents how this exchange programme was created and delivered to Scottish and German students to ensure an effective cross-cultural enterprise learning experience. Feedback from students is presented as well as a discussion on how to effectively introduce students to the inherent complexities of international entrepreneurship.Prior work: In the global economy that emerged at the end of the 20th century, it has become imperative that entrepreneurs adopt a worldview and interact with an ‘international culture’ (Ratten, 2006). How to prepare entrepreneurs/intrapreneurs to operate businesses successfully across dispersed geographies, in an assortment of cultures and under different economic, legal and political limitations has become a growing concerning to entrepreneurship educators (Bell et. al, 2006) and government policy makers (HM Treasury, 2005).Approach: The EEE programme involved twenty-two students from both Napier University, Edinburgh, UK and HAW Hamburg, Germany who were exposed to a business development programme run in two countries over two weeks during a six month period. Qualitative evaluation of the programme was drawn from the experiences of the students, and reflections of the teaching staff who took part in the exchange.Results: The result of the research highlights the positive impact on both sets of students’ attitudes and awareness of enterprise issues. Students also related a new appreciation of the potential to operate businesses in Europe and Internationally. Cross-cultural benefits were also acknowledged. Staff on the exchange programme benefited from the increased cooperation with other European entrepreneurship educators and identified further opportunities for collaboration.Implications: Evaluating the outcomes of entrepreneurship education exchange programmes is critically important to university educators and university policy makers. More longitudinal studies are needed on innovative enterprise exchange programmes to better appreciate the scope and limitations of this kind of educational experience.Value: The findings of the research offer a valuable insight into how cross-cultural enterprise experiences can support students’ entrepreneurial learning. In particular, it provides awareness of the challenges in organising and participating in short exchange programmes when semester or year long exchanges are the norm. A variety of stakeholders could benefit from the results of this study - university and governmental policy makers, entrepreneurship educators, and students.
Brodie et al. (Thu,) studied this question.