Research Process - Overview

Research conducted for the development of the National Content Standards for Entrepreneurship Education entailed an extensive literature review, telephone calls, modified focus groups, and web surveys. The literature review consisted of entrepreneurship curriculum guides/competency lists/standards/courses of study, textbooks, books, journal articles, trade/professional organization materials, and websites dealing with entrepreneurship and small-business management.

A round of telephone calls was conducted in August and September 2003 to discuss the relationship between entrepreneurship and related specialty areas such as economics and money management. Individuals contacted had been identified by the Executive Director of the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (the Consortium).

A modified focus group was conducted in August 2003 in Columbus, Ohio with 11 entrepreneurs identified by members of the Consortium. The entrepreneurs represented small businesses in nine states and had diverse backgrounds in such areas as retailing, technology, technology services, diversity marketing, remanufactured parts sales, title insurance, and creativity with food preparation. Executive committee members of the Consortium and a former Kaufmann Foundation staff member, observed the discussion.

To guide the discussion, the researcher identified five "stages" of business start-up:

1. The Dream
2. Idea Creation
3. Early Stage Start-Up
4. Early Stage Management
5. Expansion and Growth/Renewal Process

Participants were asked to focus on the first two business start-up "stages" to identify the skills/tasks/activities they went through when starting their businesses. The goal of this activity was to assist with the identification of duty areas that will be presented to other entrepreneur focus groups.

Participants indicated little time had actually been spent on the dream. They felt that the difficulty in starting a business is choosing ideas that represent opportunities rather than coming up with business ideas. The group identified a variety of personal characteristics, including achievement orientation, risk-taking, passion for doing something, confidence, competitiveness, and action-orientation that contributed to their entrepreneurial success. They discussed the importance of other people, the ability to link resources, and the need to scan the environment.

The researcher then had participants discuss ways to create new ideas, and strategies, tools, and activities for recognizing opportunities. The group was also asked to identify broad areas of entrepreneurial skill/understanding in order to generate labels for instructional areas. The group recommended that teachers should help students learn how to communicate with others, prioritize activities, and focus their attention.

Given the input from the literature review and the entrepreneur focus group, an initial draft of the Standards and a conceptual framework for organizing the Standards were created and presented to the executive committee of the Consortium for review and reaction. Modifications were made to the Standards based on this input.

Performance Indicators were then identified and assigned to their relevant standard. The comprehensiveness of the Performance Indicators was reviewed by the executive committee of the Consortium. Modifications were made, and a data collection instrument was created to use with industry focus groups. To generate a list of Performance Indicators that mirrored the reality of entrepreneurship, the groups were asked to determine whether the Performance Indicators were:

• Critical - venture would fail without it
• Important, but venture would survive without it
• Nice to Know/Do - no impact on survival of venture
• Not Needed/Not Done

Participants were invited to contribute additional Performance Indicators if gaps were found in the listing. The data collection instrument was e-mailed to the industry focus groups for review and comment to prepare for the focus group meeting. Between October 2003 and March 2004, industry focus groups were conducted in Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wisconsin. In each session of the seven meetings, the groups reacted to the Standards and Performance Indicators. The comments of the 48 participants were analyzed and changes were made to the listings.

In November 2003, a draft of the Standards and Performance Indicators was presented to the Consortium members and to participants who attended the Seattle conference of the Consortium. Their feedback was elicited, and a discussion of a visual/graphic representation of the standards ensued. Recommendations were evaluated and incorporated, as appropriate. One recommendation that was incorporated from this meeting was the re-organization of the conceptual model for the Standards. The Standards were thus divided into three groups: Entrepreneurial Skills, Ready Skills, and Business Functions.

In December through February 2004, a listing of the Standards and Performance Indicators was posted on the Consortium's website. Feedback was obtained, evaluated, and incorporated as appropriate. A final version of the Standards, Performance Indicators, and conceptual model were presented to the Consortium and this toolkit was subsequently developed.