Perception of education and entrepreneurship matters…

Sustainable developers of education systems know how education affects entrepreneurial intentions, attitudes, and perception 

Scientists, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, and experts of governmental programs from all over the world agree that education is critical for the entrepreneurship dynamics. Many countries, such as Lithuania and France, are involved in education reforms, but they are not always capable to reach sustainable results. GILE experts Miliute and Lauzikas (2016) add the perception of education (in particular, the role of perception of education on entrepreneurship intentions, attitudes, and activities) as a success factor of education reforms.

The perception of education may be examined via such factors as the fear of failure, career choice, and motivation. According to GILE experts, success factors should be examined in the longer run, as this is a way to measure the sustainability of education reforms. Many governments start a new education reform on top of a previous one without waiting for its effects and without learning from their mistakes.

The fear of failure is related to education…

In 2014 GILE experts Miliute and Lauzikas won the best paper award for their article ‘Impacts of the fear of failure on the dynamics of Entrepreneurship in CEEC belonging to the EU since 2014’ (the7th Annual EuroMed Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business, 2014), where, based on GEM data and methodology, the attitude and perception factors related to the fear of failure were examined while linking  such aspects as the perceived opportunities, perceived capabilities, the fear of failure as well as entrepreneurial intentions.

It could be assumed that the fear of failure has a remarkable effect on the perception of opportunities and capabilities. A stronger fear of failure leads to a lower number of perceived opportunities and/or perceived capabilities and as a result affects entrepreneurial intentions. According to Miliute and Lauzikas (2014) countries with common economic, social, political, and business context of CEEC are similar in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation orientation; however, the fear of failure is more complex and culture-related factor.

Miliute and Lauzikas (2016) add that the fear of failure in many cases is related to peculiarities of education systems, and, in particular to how education at both early stage and post school levels encourage the creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Start considering education as a constitutive part of culture and social capital

In 2015 Dailydaitė and Lauzikas measured impacts of three social capital dimensions (social relations, human capital development and innovation/knowledge diffusion) on transformation from efficiency to innovation-driven business (based on GEM data and methodology). Experts believe that successful businessmen are related to a high status in the society, and their career is an attractive choice; however, the national culture of Lithuania does not encourage citizens to involve in entrepreneurial activities, does not facilitate the creativeness and innovative projects.

Without key strategic cooperation with other social players education reforms cannot be sustainable

According to Dailydaite and Lauzikas (2015), more intensive cooperation among such social players as universities, businesses and governments and establishment of formal process of generating and commercializing innovative ideas within organizations should draw attention of Lithuanian entrepreneurs. Scholars believe that building an innovative environment, thinking tools, reward system could help generating new ideas, particularly when intrapreneurship levels (employees’ entrepreneurship) are high.

Do education reforms equally affect entrepreneurs of different age groups?

Currently GILE experts are preparing the chapter for Springer book “Diverging Paths: Entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States”, where they focus on the role of education on the entrepreneurship in Lithuania. Miliute and Lauzikas (2016) intend to examine effects of early stage and post-school education on entrepreneurial intentions, perceptions, motivations and activities among adults of different age groups, which will be particularly useful for both the government (to check a current progress of education reforms) and companies (to develop business expansion, human resource and innovation strategies).

GILE Experts will share results of their investigation as soon as the book is published.