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Issues to consider for study of entrepreneurship (based on studies conducted at Universities) Shurenchuluun T.1, Banzragch B.2, Nyamkhuu B.3 Вопросы для изучения предпринимательства (на основе исследований, проведенных в университетах)
1 2 3
Шурэнчулуун Ц. Д. , Банзрагч Б. Ш. , Нямхуу Б. Х.
1Шурэнчулуун Цэрэндулам Дамдин / Shurenchuluun Tserendulam Damdin - аспирант
бизнес-управления;
2Банзрагч Болор Шош /Banzragch Bolor Shosh - кандидат экономических наук;
3Нямхуу Батдэлгэр Хюуд / Nyamkhuu Batdelger Khyud - кандидат бизнес-управления,
Институт бизнеса,
Монгольский государстенный университет, г. Улан-Батор, Монгольская Республика
Abstract: the main goal of this research is to establish issues to consider on the current state of study model conducted at universities on entrepreneurship, students' interest and usefulness on the subject, as well as future improvement. Results indicate students acquire basic knowledge on entrepreneurship as well as skills needed to become entrepreneurs. Some students have already started to exhibit entrepreneurial spirit, and their attitude towards business has grown more positive. However, it is clear that the research needs to cover larger scale in Mongolia, in order to improve courses on entrepreneurship as well as further development on the subject.
Аннотация: основная цель данного исследования заключается в рассмотрении проблем предпринимательства, возрастаюшем значении предпринимательской деятельности и необходимости совершенствования учебной программы. Результаты показали, что студенты успешно приобретают базовые знания по предпринимательству, а также навыки, необходимые, чтобы стать предпринимателями. Некоторые студенты уже обрели навыки для успешного запуска бизнеса, а их отношение к бизнесу стало более позитивным. Очевидно, что исследования должны иметь больший масштаб в целях улучшения качества курсов по основам предпринимательства, а также необходимо широкое развитие предпринимательского мышления в Монголии.
Keywords: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial thinking, startup business.
Ключевые слова: предприниматель, предпринимательство, предпринимательское образование, предпринимательское мышление, запуск бизнеса.
The article considers an understanding of the importance of entrepreneurship in the world and the need to improve the educational program of the Institute of business students to have interests and skills to successfully run the start -up business and eventually the widespread development of entrepreneurial thinking in Mongolia.
I. Introduction
With the discovery of large economic deposits and foreign investment, mining industry boomed in Mongolia, making up 94 % of total export and 17 % GDP as of 2013. Between 2008 and 2013 mining sector in Mongolia, on average, made up 19.8 % of GDP, 88 % of income from export per year. This statistic shows Mongolia's over dependency on mining furthermore making Mongolia vulnerable to global economic fluctuations. [9, С. 219-234]. Proven method for avoiding over dependency on natural resources is to have diverse economic structure. (Gelb, 2010) Therefore, Mongolia's main focus for economic and social development between 2012 and 2016 is to avoid dependency on natural resources and diversify its economic structure.
In order to become structurally diversified economy it is essential for citizens to have basic understanding of business and be responsible. The Government has implemented policies to educate and train the public as well as private sectors on entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs put people together in particular ways and combine them with physical capital and ideas to create a new product or to produce an existing [6, 649-680]. People with most productivity, who create new opportunities are said to have the most work ethics. People with good work ethics, dedicate most of their time, energy in the process of developing an idea with value, and in return get financial, social, and psychological benefit. In general, it can be defined that an entrepreneur is someone who start his or her own business, makes it valuable, which in return contributes to overall economy of the country [1, c. 6-8]. Policy makers in EU and US have come to a conclusion that entrepreneurs are an essential piece of puzzle in innovation and development of the economy [8, c. 67].
The view of entrepreneurship taken here is that it is the process of assembling necessary factors of production consisting of human, physical, and information resources and doing so in an efficient manner [6, c. 649-680]. Entrepreneurship is an essential factor both as a means of generating employment and as a means of encouraging economic growth [3, c. 880-885]. Entrepreneurship is considered to be an important mechanism for economic development through employment, innovation and welfare effects (Schumpeter 1934; Acs and Audretsch 1988; Wennekers and Thurik 1999; Baumol 2002). There are considerable differences across countries in the orientation of entrepreneurial activities (Autio 2007). The nature and structure of entrepreneurial activities varies across countries as reflected by, for example, the relative volumes of necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship. Acs and Varga (2005) studied 11 countries and found that opportunity entrepreneurship has a positive signifi- cant effect on economic development, whereas necessity entrepreneurship has no effect.
Operating with good work ethics means achieving positive results (through independent business operation) by maximizing the use of available resource. (Peter Drucker, Joseph Maciariello, 2004). According to this anyone with any profession such as chemist, weather analyst, teacher, researcher, engineer or even translator can work with positive work ethics, in other words, operate their own business.
Entrepreneurial skills are not equal among everybody. In today's competitive and ever-changing social environment, 90 % of start-ups fail during the first year of their operation can be attributed to lack of business experience. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to conduct workshops and courses on improving skills as well as educating the people on business.
II. Research Methodology
This research was conducted at Mongolian prominent higher education institution (henceforth: School «A ») as part of its academic curriculum program on entrepreneurship. These courses were aimed to instill basic understandings of entrepreneurship for students as well as training them to start their own businesses as well as spreading entrepreneurial spirit.
To achieve the main goal of the study, school A conducted a survey among 400 students from randomly selected 738 students. Questions from the survey were based on the survey conducted by Kikuko Harada of Entrepreneurship Development Center in Japan, on the topic «Opportunities and challenges in promoting entrepreneurship education in Japan» [7, c. 10-12].
The survey questionnaire consisted of 3 parts. First part included 4 questions on general information. Second part of the survey asked abou t participants' knowledge on business or subjects they wished to study as well as their understanding of the subject before they took the course and after they took the course. Second part consisted of 49 questions with following answers: 5- Strongly Agree, 4-Agree, 3-Somewhat agree, 2-Disagree, and 1-Strongly disagree. The third part asked about participants' opinion on the course study on entrepreneurship.
III. Results of the Survey
Table 1. Shows the main results of the survey. Participants answered the questions regarding their knowledge on business, or subjects they wished to study as well as their understanding of the subject before they took the course, with average score of 3 and below. However, column 4, 5 shows results from after they took the course which shows an average score of 4 and above (Agree). These results show that after taking the course students have demonstrated the ability to think critically, develop their own ideas, present their ideas among peers and resolve conflict.
Table 1. Comparison of survey answers
Ability Before the course (n=381) SD After the course (n=381) SD
1 Ability to produce new idea 2.90 1.87 4.31 0.79
2 Ability of how to develop a new idea 2.63 1.46 4.41 0.76
3 Ability to express my own opinion in a group 2.90 1.92 4.34 0.84
4 Ability to talk in front of many people 2.82 1.16 4.21 0.92
5 Ability to work as a team 3.19 1.12 4.39 0.86
6 Leadership 2.95 1.11 4.07 0.94
7 Ability to work as a our team 2.98 1.12 4.13 0.97
8 Creativity 3.11 1.03 4.33 0.75
9 Finding Problem 2.97 0.98 4.19 0.80
10 Solving Problem 3.03 1.01 4.31 0.77
11 Negotiation 2.90 1.03 4.23 0.85
12 Presentation 3.01 1.05 4.35 0.80
13 Communication 3.25 1.09 4.42 0.77
14 Solving Conflict 3.02 1.05 4.26 0.81
15 PC Skills 3.12 1.14 4.08 0.94
Opinion about entrepreneurs
1 I came to respect entrepreneurs more than before 3.43 1.11 4.42 0.76
2 I became more interested in business than before 3.48 1.15 4.48 0.75
3 I come to stai think o^e day I w( t a business on my u1 24e own t0 4.31 0.98
4 I became more interested in starting a business and company management than before. 3.58 1.21 4.47 0.86
5 I more interested in business and would like to start a business on my own in the future 3.62 1.30 4.46 0.92
Source: Primary a questionnaire survey results Note: SD - Standard Deviation
Students taken the course could bring more respects to business owners, and higher desire to start their own businesses or even some of the students could possibly establish their businesses while they're taking this course. For example: According to our survey conducted among some sample students by asking «How much do I respect entrepreneurs?» and before they took the course average point on that question was 3.43, but after the entrepreneurship course, that number has increased up to 4.32.
IV. Conclusion
Our study shows the following results:
1. Our sample students haven't had clear vision about how to work with team, how to plan their future businesses and how to be productive. Also they lacked some essential which is needed for entrepreneurship education.
2. After they took the course, they've developed better understanding of how to express themselves, what is good team work dynamic, how to build their business plans, and some problem solving techniques, which is useful in business environment.
3. This entrepreneurship course has had influence on students to become more respectful to entrepreneurs, and interest in leading business organizations, or establish their own business. These factors lead students to closely observe to different types of business organizations and their operations.
4. As we predicted, students who took the course are more likely to answer: «Yes, I wanted to start my own business in any given opportunity». Which indicates the course of entrepreneurship is helping them to set the mind of entrepreneurship.
5. Even though students who took the course have positive feelings towards entrepreneurships and entrepreneurs with basic knowledge about them, they still need more help or positive conditions to have successful business model. Therefore we need to educate people on entrepreneurship or entrepreneurs at macro or micro level.
6. Based on our research we found that it is essential to study for start-up business environment here in Mongolia and apply these results to entrepreneurship courses in order to have high quality of educational training.
References
1. Enhkmaa B. Business and Sociaty. Ulan-bator, 2008. P. 6-8.
2. Zoltan J. Acs, Sameeksha Desai and Jolanda Hessels. Entrepreneurship, economic development and institutions, Small Business Economics.Vol. 31, No. 3, Special Issue: Entrepreneurship, Economic Development and Institutions (October 2008). P. 219-234.
3. Robert E. Nelson Entrepreneurship Education in Developing Countries, Asian Survey, Vol. 17, No. 9 (Sep., 1977), University of California Press. P. 880-885.
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8. Hisashi Yaginuma (2010), «Entrepreneurship and education», Journal of Regional Policy Studies [in Japanese].
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