Fostering entrepreneurship in an international university collaboration

Abstract

[EN] The European Union is taking action on enhancing entrepreneurship in Europe and recommends appropriate entrepreneurship training in schools and higher education institutions. Due to the globalization of businesses it seems to be appropriate to realize an international perspective on entrepreneurial issues and to develop international programmes for young entrepreneurs. In this case study, we examined an international university collaboration between two universities, one in Austria and one in the United States. The programme’s goals include the establishment of an international network for students and an awareness of the students of different cultural dimensions and entrepreneurial mindsets. Our findings show how this programme enables the students to work on their professional and behavioural skills, how these students work practice-oriented under the guidelines of experts from different entrepreneurial mindsets and how they become aware of cultural differences. Besides other aspects, it seems to be advantageous for international entrepreneurship programmes to remain open and flexible during the whole process and to offer a programme that allows students to integrate participation into their regular studies. Furthermore, it seems beneficial that students can tailor the programme to meet their specific needs.