480899965 Developing An Entrepreneurship Culture The Greenwich Experience 1

Developing an entrepreneurship culture

The Greenwich experience

Danny F. Sondakh and Kanes K. Rajah

Abstract: Entrepreneurship is increasingly relevant to economic output and job creation in both developed and developing countries. It is espe- cially important for the UK, so as to reverse a century of relative economic decline. This paper discusses the UK government’s policy on entrepreneurship, and the objectives it has set for higher education institu- tions. It then goes on to present the initiatives taken by the University of Greenwich to develop an enterprise culture, both within and with the wider community. The paper focuses on the role played by the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship in helping it to contribute towards the UK’s economic development and competitiveness. The conclusions reached indicate that higher education institutions need to behave entrepreneurially at both the staff and student levels in order to build an enterprise culture. Staff need to be bold in taking initiatives to seek out processes that can help shift the established paradigm and to introduce new content to achieve breakthroughs in the culture. This is also required to engage students and to help build their personal intangible assets as much as to facilitate them in starting up new enterprises.

Keywords: knowledge economy; enterprise culture; entrepreneurship education; Greenwich University; UK

The authors are with the Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Greenwich Business School, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, UK. E-mail: [e-mail].

Entrepreneurship is the driving force behind the growth in the modern economy. The evidence from the last 10 years indicates this, with the likelihood that it will continue for the foreseeable future (Mazzarol, Volery et al, 1999) in both developed (Audretsch, 2002; Olson,
1985) and developing countries (Jack and Anderson,
1999). Entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly relevant to economic output and labour

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