Journal ArticleDOI
Small Firms' Training and Competitiveness. Building Upon the Small business as a Learning Organisation
TLDR
It is argued that the benefits to society of this holistic approach to learning is a reduction in the 'discontinuities' between the SME and its environment and therefore a lowering of transaction costs.Abstract:
PROFESSOR ALLAN GIBB IS CHAIRMAN OF the Small Business Centre at Durham University Business School, England. This paper begins with a review of the present concerns to link training with competitiveness in the United Kingdom and Europe. It notes that many of the issues raised in this respect are over 20 years old. It suggests therefore a new way to approach the problems, namely by considering the learning needs that will reduce the transaction costs of the small firm operating its stakeholder environment. After defining the concept of learning it makes the distinction between contextual learning (via experience) and the associated tacit (subjective) knowledge that is gained by this, and objective and abstract knowledge frequently purveyed by teachers. It then explores the issue of the SME as a 'learning company' and argues that the key to its learning is via the transactional and other relationship that it has with its immediate network environment. The concept of learning circles and learning partnership...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Process of Entrepreneurial Learning: A Conceptual Framework
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a conceptual framework that explains the process of entrepreneurial learning as an experiential process and identifies three main components in the process: entrepreneurs' career experience, the transformation process, and entrepreneurial knowledge.
Journal ArticleDOI
Toward a Dynamic Learning Perspective of Entrepreneurship
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship that builds upon existing "dominant" theoretical approaches to understand entrepreneurial activity and propose three distinctive, interrelated elements of entrepreneurial learning: dynamic temporal phases, inter-related processes, and overarching characteristics.
Journal ArticleDOI
Learning by doing – An exploration of experience, critical incidents and reflection in entrepreneurial learning
Jason Cope,Gerald Watts +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the impact of critical incidents from an individual perspective and highlight the need for mentoring support programs designed to help entrepreneurs to interpret critical incidents as learning experiences, to increase the power of the learning outcomes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Entrepreneurial learning from failure: An interpretative phenomenological analysis
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a deeper conceptualisation of the process and content dimensions of learning from venture failure and propose that recovery and re-emergence from failure is a function of distinctive learning processes that foster a range of higher-level learning outcomes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Entrepreneurship education and training - can entrepreneurship be taught? Part I
TL;DR: In this paper, a two-part paper aims to address the question of whether or not entrepreneurship can be taught, which has led to an ongoing debate in the entrepreneurship academy about whether we can actually teach individuals to be entrepreneurs.
References
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Book
Competing for the Future
Gary Hamel,C. K. Prahalad +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how to get off the treadmill and how to learn to forget and how competition for the future is different from the traditional competition for industry foresight.
Book
Understanding the small business sector
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the key characteristics of the small business sector and examine the specific problems that face small business owners, showing how the business environment for the smaller firm differs from that of larger companies, and how far their success or failure depends on the wider economic climate.