Abstract:

The aim of this study is to compare the achievement of students’ entrepreneurial competences when developing a business plan, depending on whether this is developed individually or in group.

In order to analyse these effects we present an empirical study to know the role played by business plans and teamwork in achieving entrepreneurial competences. We will conduct the analysis from the point of view of the perception of student’s achievement of competences and from the point of view of the real achievement of these skills. In this sense, we use data obtained from assessment rubrics and questionnaires distributed among 254 students of the Bachelor in Business Administration at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). The questionnaires measure the students’ perception of competences achievement, while the assessment rubrics measure the students’ real competences achievement according to their grades.

The results show that in recent years, with the reforms involved in the Bologna Process, studies on entrepreneurial skills and their relationship with the teaching/learning process have risen considerably. Thus, we have seen that there are many experiences in the scientific literature addressed to the study of competences or entrepreneurial competences, in general, and their relationship to education. However, to our knowledge, there are not studies that analyse the achievement of entrepreneurial competences by students when developing a business plan, and more specifically, the potential influence of teamwork.

Our main aim is to analyse whether or not there are differences in how students involved in the development of a business plan perceive and achieve entrepreneurial skills, comparing students who develop the business plan individually and students who work in teams.
The results show that, the students’ perception on their acquisition of entrepreneurial skills is superior for most of these competences when they work in teams. However, we haven’t found significant differences in the mean values of the majority of perceived competences, except for the ones related to ethics, teamwork and negotiation. From these results we can conclude that the implementation of the business plan in teams is highly recommended in order to achieve these three entrepreneurial skills. This result highlights that these competences are closely related to teamwork and are essential for the proper functioning of teams.

Regarding the real achievement of entrepreneurial competences, we obtained similar results. So, in the same way of perceived skills, the achievement of entrepreneurial skills was higher for students working in teams, except for the competence “orientation to results” which was higher valued by students who developed the business plan individually. Therefore, we can conclude that usually teamwork involves a higher achievement of entrepreneurial competences. In this case, we obtain significant differences in the mean values of many achieved competences, when comparing students who work individually and in teams.

To sum up, we can point out that teamwork involves a greater perception and a greater achievement of entrepreneurial skills when they are developed through a business plan. We must therefore encourage teamwork skills among students as they generate positive results in terms of entrepreneurial skills.

Keywords:

Business plan, entrepreneurship, competences, team work.