Role of Experiential Learning at Business Schools in Developing Entrepreneurship and Future Business Leaders

Abstract

This paper aims to determine the effectiveness of business schools' experiential learning programs in facilitating the development of entrepreneurial skills among their students. There is a growing consensus that to develop strong entrepreneurship skills, the education and training of the students should be in the actual workplace or simulated environments. While most business schools recognize this need, not all of them can successfully replace their functional approach and pedagogy with modern experiential learning techniques.

This paper provides an innovative approach towards determining the extent of experiential Learning in business schools. The study identified seven experiential learning indicators: case studies, capstone project, internship, incubator/accelerator, consulting, business competitions, and simulations. Further, it selected a sample of 50 small business schools in the U.S. and India and extensively researched their curriculum and website to determine experiential Learning provided by these schools. In further research, this study aims to create an innovative index: Composite Experiential Ranking Index (CERI). This experiential ranking index would rank the business schools based on their adoption and implementation of the seven indicators of experiential Learning. The key findings of this research show that many of the small business schools still lack an effective pedagogical approach to entrepreneurship education. It also identifies the challenges small business schools face in implementing experiential Learning and provides suggestions to overcome those challenges.

The research in this paper was presented in the Annual Conference of Accreditation Council of Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) and was selected as the International Best of Regions Presentations.