Resumen de Integrating Entrepreneurship into Capstone design: an analysis of faculty practices & perceptions
Victoria Matthew, Thema Monroe White, Morgan Miller
Capstone design courses have traditionally provided students with a culminating, project-based experience that fosters theintegration of prior academic learning, a connection with industry, and by nature of that connection with industry,preparation for employment. However, in today’s competitive global economy, where organizations gain value from theinnovativeness of their employees, capstone design courses that integrate innovation and entrepreneurship might betterprepare students for employment. There are multiple examples of capstone courses that integrate innovation andentrepreneurship, but it is unclear how and to what degree most capstone instructors integrate different entrepreneurialelements into capstone design. To better understand how and to what degree entrepreneurial elements are integrated, anexplanatory multiphase mixed methods design was used, involving the collection and analysis of quantitative survey data,qualitative survey data, and post-survey interview data. One hundred and thirty-eight capstone design faculty weresurveyed withaninstrumentdesigned usingthe entrepreneurialcapstone practicesdescribed byShartrand andWeilerstein.The quantitative and qualitative data illustrate the extent to whichfaculty incorporate different entrepreneurial practicesintheir capstone design courses, how important faculty believe it is to increase different entrepreneurial practices in capstonedesign, the challenges (perceived and actual) to implementing entrepreneurially focused Capstones, and how facultymembers’ understanding and experience of entrepreneurship impacts their integration of entrepreneurial elements intocapstone courses. These findings are useful for faculty and administrators interested in integrating entrepreneurialelements.
