The social mechanisms of supporting entrepreneurial projects beyond the classroom

Abstract

There are now 2, 100 colleges and universities in the US that have entrepreneurship programs, yet the number of new businesses per capita being created, especially those by persons aged 20-34, is at its all time lowest points in 2014-2015, since the Kauffman Center began gathering data in 1996. At the University of Virginia (UVA), the Entrepreneurship wave came and we now offer most of the programs that peer institutions offer; however, there was no real evidence that any more student entrepreneurial projects were moving forward than before. It begged the question, was there a huge blind spot in actually cultivating a Founder s mindset? Here, we have done an extensive literature review of the shortcomings of current entrepreneurial education paradigms and have identified an opportunity to apply the wellresearched effects of social contextual factors within a practical application to address these shortcomings. As we have begun to explore the entrepreneurial education landscape from the perspective of UVA students, we found parallel findings as the broader literature and began to implement initiatives to address the shortcomings of our entrepreneurial education offerings at UVA toward the goal of new venture creation. Works in Progress is a community of practice for dedicated, passionate student founders across the University. It is not a club or class, it is a peer-driven community. The main purpose of Works in Progress is to build an effective support system within the University for its most advanced student entrepreneurs, who inherently possess the strongest entrepreneurial mindset and culture within the University community. At this time, last year, there were 10 known student entrepreneurial projects that were being worked on, and the majority of them were on the verge of quitting due to other priorities. A year later, we have pulled together 26 active projects into an active community. This paper has larger implications to activate many of the entrepreneurial education offerings at many institutions of higher education to increase their output of successful new ventures.