Abstract:

Purpose:
This paper introduces an assessment tool designed for higher education entrepreneurship program participants to understand their changes and growth in entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets.

Background:
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan initiated and completed a 3-year cycle of the Enhancing Development of Global Entrepreneur (EDGE) program. EDGE was carried out in various higher education settings, between 2014 to 2018.

Hiroshima University (HU) was one of the 13 universities to design and implement the EDGE program. We developed an original assessment tool to ensure its usefulness for program participants to understand their changes and growth in entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets and to improve the program.

Design an Original Assessment Tool:
The goals of the EDGE program were to:
1) foster entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets in participants; and
2) form and maintain an innovation ecosystem with participants and relevant internal and external human resources and organizations (MEXT, 2014).

To assess the first goal, we created an original tool with a 6-point Likert scaled-response format.

The tool includes 56 questions in 7 competencies which were developed from findings and frameworks from previous studies. We conducted a literature review to learn when and how innovators and entrepreneurs think and take concrete actions when casting their ideas into shape, including the work done by Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen (2008; 2011).

Program participants responded to the same set of questions at the start and end of the program. The tool assesses the entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets from two approaches. The first approach helps participants understand how innovators and entrepreneurs find their potential ideas and what point-of-view they focus on to add an innovative dimension. The second approach helps participants see the change and growth in their entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets. The teaching strategies used to support these approaches are also discussed in the paper.

Verification of Assessment Tool Validity:
[Approach]
One hundred three (103) responses were collected from 3 universities between January 2015 to March 2017.

[Findings]
Analyzing usable responses from 20 EDGE participants at HU, we found a statistically significant increase in the average scores for all 7 competencies. This indicated that the increase in assessment scores was unlikely due to chance.

[Discussion]
The result suggested that the 6-point Likert scaled-response format was able to capture the effectiveness of the EDGE program operated by HU.

Values:
Because the 6-point Likert scaled-response format was based on previous international studies about entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets, it can be internationally used and modified by other entrepreneurship educators.

The assessment helps program faculty and teaching staff understand participants’ changes and growth, and it helps them evaluate and improve the program content if necessary.

The tool also benefits program participants by:
• Helping them understand their entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets at the beginning of the program.
• Helping them see the changes and growth of their entrepreneurial mindset and skill sets.
• Informing program improvement for future participants.

The paper also provides guidance for future examination and refining of the 6-point Likert scaled-response format.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship Education, Assessment, Higher Education, PBL, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Entrepreneurial Skill Sets.