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Teaching Entrepreneurship on Science and Technology Degrees in Developing Economies: Egypt case

Dr Simon O'Leary Lecturer, Faculty of Business & Management, Regent's College London

Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NS, UK olearys@regents.ac.uk

Dr Hatem El-Gohary Senior Lecturer, Birmingham City University Business School

Hatem.elgohary@bcu.ac.uk ABSTRACT Objectives:-

This paper aims to add to the accumulative knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship through investigating the influence of teaching entrepreneurship in science and technology degree courses in developing economies and the impact of this teaching on students’ attitudes towards starting a small business enterprise (SBE). An organised examination of the literature related to entrepreneurship teaching is discussed and illustrated to provide an archive of past research points to explore and develop a clear understanding about the influence of teaching entrepreneurship to science and technology degree students in developing economies (Egypt).

Prior work:-

The paper is trying to build on the current body of knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship by investigating the different influences of teaching entrepreneurship to science and technology degree students on their attitudes towards starting a SBE. Such investigation will help in achieving a deep and reflective understanding of entrepreneurship teaching practises by Egyptian Universities. Approach:-

The paper reviews the published literature related to entrepreneurship teaching in general and in developing countries (e.g. Egypt) in particular. Based on this review, the study validates a conceptual model utilising a positivist research philosophy with a quantitative approach, in which quantitative data is collected based on survey strategy through questionnaires to address different levels of the study. Results:-

The findings indicated that there is very few research studies in the literature related to entrepreneurship teaching in developing countries in general and there was no single study related to entrepreneurship teaching (in science and technology degrees) in Egypt. The findings also illustrated that teaching entrepreneurship in science and technology degree courses in developing economies (Egypt) have an impact on students’ attitudes towards starting a small business enterprise. Implications:-

The study will provide great benefits for entrepreneurs, policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and educators though providing a clearer view and deep understanding for all the issues related to teaching entrepreneurship on science and technology degree courses in developing economies (Egypt).

Value:-

This research adds to the extremely limited number of empirical studies that has been conducted to investigate entrepreneurship teaching by Egyptian Universities. Depending on this research, researchers and scholars in the field of entrepreneurship can have a clearer view to set their attitude towards suitable future research studies which in turn will contribute to the related accumulated knowledge in the field. Keywords:-

Entrepreneurship, Small Business Enterprises, Science, Technology, Degrees, Egypt.

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INTRODUCTION

The concepts of Enterprise, New Product Development and Entrepreneurship has gained a lot of interest and attraction from researchers, policy makers and practitioners during the last two decades, to develop a better understanding of how they can be used to increase organisations productivity efficiently and effectively. Unlike business students, higher education science and technology students often appears to be on the disadvantage side of the complete adoption and diffusion of these very important concepts as a result of: their academic background, the nature of the modules provided to them by higher education science and technology schools around the world, the nature of their specialisation as well as the lack of training provided to them regarding enterprise, new product development and entrepreneurship.

In the light of that, the current global economic crises affecting all countries (especially developing

countries), the fact that entrepreneurial graduates can create a great change in the business environment, the arguments of entrepreneurship researchers that the world today (including Europe) requires more entrepreneurs that are willing to innovate and create new ventures to facilitate economic growth (Packham et. al., 2010), and keeping into consideration that most governments are working very hard to encourage higher education institutions to develop able and talented graduates that have a wide variety of entrepreneurial and innovation skills that can be used in starting their own businesses, it is extremely important to investigate the influence of teaching entrepreneurship on science and technology degree courses in developing countries and the impact of this teaching on students’ attitudes towards starting a small business enterprise (SBE) or their own businesses.

On the other hand, developing economies face many challenges, not least of which are the approaches to

higher education as a foundation for its potential future prosperity. World leaders have recognised (in a survey of entrepreneurship in higher education, World Economic Forum, 2009) that high-growth enterprises are essential for the success of national economies and that such activities have been insufficiently supported in most countries over recent decades. Moreover, they illustrated that decision-makers across society need to help in promoting collaboration between universities and business, and that entrepreneurship education has an important contribution to make. In addition, it is argued in the same report that, with the world facing unprecedented economic, environmental and social challenges, all members of society need to be more entrepreneurial in the way they live their lives. It has also been highlighted that entrepreneurship is not for business alone and that public bodies and social ventures need to recruit such graduates to effect change in their own organisations (Herrmann et al., 2008).

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW Entrepreneurship:-

An entrepreneur is often considered to be someone who is prepared to undertake a new enterprise or

someone who wants to change things. Entrepreneurs may be considered those who are able, or at least willing, to realise a new opportunity, whereas management may be focused on the best and most efficient way of operating the existing processes. Entrepreneurship is now widely recognised along with innovation as a pathway to prosperity, essential for the acceleration of economic growth in both developed and developing countries to create wealth, reduce unemployment and tackle poverty (Economist, 2011).

Historical context:-

Entrepreneurship is not a new concept as businesses have been launched all around the globe for

centuries. The word entrepreneur is understood to have been introduced over 250 years ago (Burns, 2011), based on the French ‘entreprendre’, which mean the ability to take charge. However, entrepreneurship has come to prominence in recent years in the higher education sector and many studies had been published on entrepreneurship teaching (including: Rae, 2007a; Jones et al., 2009; Mullins, 2010; Williams, 2010; Ashton, 2010; and Mariotti and Glackin, 2010). Many of these and others are used as core or supportive studies for entrepreneurship and enterprise modules in higher education. Typical content of entrepreneurship textbooks includes:-

o Generating and nurturing of ideas and the different types of businesses that can be set up. o Preparing a business plan and understanding the potential customer base.

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o Determining local, regional, national and international potential. o Marketing and converting all this preparation into sales. o Financing the start-up and the development of the business and legal and regulatory issues. o Managing people effectively and managing growth phases.

Such materials are of use not only to business start-ups but also to the development of existing

businesses and other organisations as well. By learning about issues such as these, students start to learn the language of business and are therefore in a better position to converse with potential employers, thus enhancing their employability as well as their ability to start a new business.

Entrepreneurship in higher education

By reviewing the literature, it is noticed that there are a good number of studies that had been conducted

to investigate entrepreneurship education (e.g. Franco et. al., 2010; Kirby and Ibrahim, 2011; Matlay, 2011; Davey et. al., 2011; Iakovleva et. al., 2011; Sandhu et. al., 2011; and Packham et. al., 2010). It is also noticed that although a considerable number of studies were conducted in developed countries like: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands (e.g. Iakovleva et. al., 2011; Moriano et al. 2011; Engle et al., 2010; Packham et. al., 2010; Franco et. al., 2010; Liñán and Chen, 2009), there is paucity in the literature investigating the causal relationship between entrepreneurship teaching and science and technology students’ entrepreneurial attitudes within these developed countries. Furthermore, there are very limited literature investigating entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship teaching as well as the causal relationship between entrepreneurship teaching and science and technology students’ entrepreneurial attitudes in developing countries.

In a systematic review of the literature on entrepreneurship education, Pittaway and Cope (2007) found

that, while entrepreneurship education certainly increases student propensity and intention toward entrepreneurial activities, it is unclear to what extent this enhanced propensity is translated into actual behaviour and that there is a lack of consensus generally on what entrepreneurship or enterprise education actually is when implemented in practice. So, entrepreneurship education may not necessarily result in direct entrepreneurial activity, such as a new business start-up, but it may be enhancing the employability of students to existing organisations. Within the same line, a report for the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship (EKOS, 2010) concluded that “graduates who have formal entrepreneurship training are more likely to display entrepreneurial skills that can drive innovation and change in a business environment” and that “entrepreneurship training offers a wide range of skills that are able to add value in a modern competitive global environment”. This appears to confirm the broader benefit to business as a whole of students having an understanding and experience of entrepreneurship.

Furthermore, in a report commissioned by a triumvirate of interested parties, the National Endowment for

Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NGCE) and the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE), it is highlighted that entrepreneurship can help to not only transform the business world but also has significant potential for societal change (Herrmann, 2008). The report also illustrated the potential benefits for students across the whole spectrum of disciplines and its impact on developing graduates with entrepreneurial mindsets who can help to impart innovation, creativity, collaboration and risk-taking in all areas of the private and public sector. This suggests that it is not only businesses that can benefit from entrepreneurship education, but also the public sector, social enterprises and charitable organisations.

In assessing the connection between enterprise and employability, Rae (2007b), concluded that any

associated learning experience must be relevant to the student’s core degree subject and be both stimulating and enjoyable. The focus needs to be on developing entrepreneurial qualities rather than producing entrepreneurs. This reinforces the point that the potential benefit of entrepreneurship education is in the development of the characteristics of an entrepreneur within the higher education student population rather than in the direct launch of new businesses themselves. Such qualities or capabilities are outlined in a self-assessment entrepreneurship toolkit (Rae, 2007a) which brings together includes entrepreneurial capabilities (personal organisation, investigating opportunity, applying innovation, strategic venture planning, market development) and management capabilities (leading and managing people, managing organisation and operations, managing finance and resources, responsible management).

Although there is great attention towards entrepreneurship education in developed countries, only very few studies were conducted to investigate entrepreneurship education in developing courtiers. Bruton et al.,

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(2008); Jones et al., (2008); Tkachev and Kolvereid (1999); Gird and Bagraim (2008); and Wu and Wu (2008) are examples of such studies. Within this regard, Bruton et al., (2008) conducted a comparative study to investigate entrepreneurship education in more than one country to address the dissimilarity among developing and developed countries in entrepreneurship education. Within the same line, Iakovleva et al. (2011) conducted a comparative study to investigate entrepreneurial intentions in developing and developed countries (a total of 13 countries, namely: Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Romania, Czech Republic, Russia, France, Ukraine, Germany, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands). Furthermore, Gird and Bagraim (2008); Jones et al., (2008); Tkachev and Kolvereid (1999); and Wu and Wu (2008) investigated entrepreneurship education in: South Africa, Poland, Russia, and China respectively.

The review of the literature showed that there is no literature investigating entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship teaching as well as the causal relationship between entrepreneurship teaching and science and technology students’ entrepreneurial attitudes in Egypt which reflect a major gap in the field. RESEARCH AIMS AND IMPORTANCE

By reviewing the literature, it is noticed that although there is a large number of studies that had been conducted on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education, only very few studies were conducted to investigate its direct or indirect influence on students’ attitudes towards starting a new business.

Hence, this study aims to add to the accumulative knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship and to build on the current body of knowledge in the field through investigating the influence of teaching entrepreneurship in science and technology degree courses in developing countries (i.e. Egypt) and the impact of this teaching on students’ attitudes towards starting a small business enterprise (SBE) or a new business. Such investigation will help in achieving a deep and reflective understanding of entrepreneurship teaching practises by Egyptian Universities.

The end goal of this work is an improved understanding of how entrepreneurship teaching could potentially improve the propensity to start up a new business of students studying sciences and technologies and, potentially in the longer run, those studying other disciplines as well. The aim is to base the research methodology on the key themes for social science research, that is, a clear and relevant purpose within the resources available, showing originality and accuracy and a transparent level of accountability, producing findings from which it is hoped that cautious generalisations can be made in an objective and ethical way (Denscombe, 2002).

The study will provide great benefits for entrepreneurs, policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and educators though providing a clearer view and deep understanding for all the issues related to the impact of entrepreneurship teaching on Egyptian science and technology students attitudes towards starting a new business. Moreover, this research adds to the extremely limited number of empirical studies that has been conducted to investigate entrepreneurship teaching by developing countries Universities. Depending on this research, educators, researchers and scholars in the field of entrepreneurship can have a clearer view to set their attitude towards suitable future research studies which in turn will contribute to the related accumulated knowledge in the field. RESEARCH PROBLEM, QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES

The fundamental problem motivating this study is the need to know and understand the impact of entrepreneurship teaching on Egyptian science and technology students’ attitudes towards starting a small business enterprise. On the other hand, as entrepreneurship practises in developing countries is still in its infancy stage and yet not well established there is a need for having more well-established studies that can be considered as a step toward a theory building in entrepreneurship practises in developing countries. To conduct these well-established studies, researchers within the field need to acquire a good understanding about different entrepreneurship practises in developing countries like Egypt.

Accordingly, the main three questions that the study attempts to answer are:-

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- What is the impact of entrepreneurship teaching on Egyptian science and technology students’ attitudes towards starting a new business? - What is the impact of entrepreneurship teaching on Egyptian science and technology students’ intentions towards starting a new business? - What are the thoughts of Egyptian science and technology students’ towards entrepreneurship modules taught by Egyptian Universities in their courses?

Based on the research problem and to achieve the research aims and objectivise the following research

hypotheses were developed to be tested:-

H1: Entrepreneurship modules taught by Egyptian universities on science and technology degrees are relevant to current entrepreneurship knowhow H2: Entrepreneurship modules taught by Egyptian universities on science and technology degrees are interesting. H3: Entrepreneurship teaching by Egyptian universities has a positive impact on Egyptian science and technology students’ attitudes towards starting a new business H4: Entrepreneurship teaching by Egyptian universities has a positive impact on Egyptian science and technology students’ intentions towards starting a new business

Based on the previous hypotheses the research framework was constructed (figure 1) to investigate the research problem. Figure 1: The research conceptual framework.

Delivery

Intentions Towards Starting a

New Business

Attractiveness

Updated Knowhow

Entrepreneurship Education

Attitudes Towards Starting a

New Business H1

H2

H3

H4

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METHODOLOGY

From this research point of view, there is no optimal approach that can be used for any type of investigation regardless of the nature of enquiry. Moreover, it is believed that the research approach depends on the problem that the research is trying to solve and the questions that the research is trying to answer. Within this context, this research aims to explore the current practices of entrepreneurship teaching within developing countries HE with a focus on Egypt, as well as investigating the influence of teaching such subject on science and technology students’ attitudes towards starting a small business enterprise (SBE) or a new business. In other words, the main aim of the research is to test and investigate the causal relationship between entrepreneurship teaching and science and technology students’ entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions.

Entrepreneurship studies have utilised a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. It is noticed that qualitative approaches have been used mainly where profound understandings were needed in respect of particular entrepreneurship phenomena (e.g. Nabi and Li�an 2011; Matlay, 2011; Mwasalwiba, 2010; Matlay, 2008; Kirby, 2004; Hynes, 1996; and Garavan and O’Cinneide, 1994), whilst quantitative approaches have been useful in cases where the data was available (e.g. Iakovleva et. al., 2011; Davey et. al., 2011; Sandhu et. al., 2011; Kirby and Ibrahim, 2011; Packham et. al., 2010; Franco et. al., 2010; Petridou et. al., 2009; Li�an and Chen, 2009; Jones et. al., 2008; and Gallaway and Brown, 2002). As very limited literature were found investigating entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship teaching as well as the causal relationship between entrepreneurship teaching and science and technology students’ entrepreneurial attitudes in developing countries, a robust in-depth examination of the phenomenon is highly needed. Moreover, there is a great need to have highly reliable results that can be generalised. Consequently, quantified descriptions of the phenomenon that employs quantitative techniques will be very useful to be used in this study.

Based on the general principle that the research methodology employed must be appropriate for the

questions that the researcher wants to answer, it is believed that quantitative approach is the most suitable methodology to be used in this research to increase the validity and credibility of the research conclusions and findings. Accordingly, there are sufficient philosophical and practical reasons for depending on the positivist approach in conducting this research. Research population and sample:-

To validate the research conceptual model a positivist research philosophy was utilised with a quantitative approach, in which quantitative data was collected based on survey strategy through questionnaires to address different levels of the study. To test the research hypotheses a major survey was conducted and structure equation modelling and other advanced statistical tools were used to analyse the data collected. The survey questionnaire targeted a sample of 952 Egyptian final year science and technology students’ that had been selected randomly from a population of 4759 Egyptian final year science and technology students’ within Cairo University. The population frame was generated from the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Cairo University databases which contained complete information about all the Egyptian science and technology students’ in all Egyptian Universities. The population frame was generated to include only the students that can satisfy the essential requirement to be considered as a unit of analysis.

The sample size was planned to be determined according to the Aaker and Day (1986) sample size

equation which is highly accepted by social science researchers since it takes into account the degree of required confidence, the sample error, ratio of population characteristics available in the sample (50% in social sciences) and population size. As the sample size generated by the Aaker and Day (1986) sample size equation was relatively small, the sample was chosen to represent 20% of the population not only as accepted by most researchers within the field but also to increase the sample confidence and decrease the sample error. All the selected students were registered as fulltime final year students in a science or technology degree within Cairo University. A research packet, which contained a covering letter and an anonymous (self-administering) questionnaire (952 in total), was mailed to final year module leaders in 9 faculties within Cairo University (namely: the faculty of computer and informatics sciences, the faculty of oral dental medicine, the faculty of engineering, the faculty of medicine, the faculty of pharmacy, the faculty of physiotherapy, the faculty of science, the faculty of agriculture, and the faculty of veterinary medicine) to distribute it among their students and encourage them to compete it and return it to the research team. This procedure resulted in 101 useful responses or a 10.6 % overall response rate. The response rate was calculated using the method proposed by De Vaus (1991: 99).

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The development of the survey instrument was based mostly on new scales that were newly developed as the research team could not identify any past studies directly addressing the phenomena under investigation in Egyptian context. However, and where possible, validated measures that have been previously applied were used (such as the measures of intentions of starting a business which was adopted from: Iakovleva et al., 2011; Liñán and Chen, 2009; and Kolvereid, 1996 as well as the measures of attitudes towards starting a business was adopted from: Liñán and Chen, 2009; and Kickul and Krueger, 2004). The instrument was pre-tested more than once (a total of three times) to guarantee that the research respondents will understand all the research measurement scales used in the study easily. Afterwards, the research survey instrument was piloted with a selective sample of the research participants. Based on the feedback provided, the instrument was modified to fully reflect the phenomena under investigation.

Based on the descriptive analysis of the data collected through the survey it was found that the majority of students (65.3 %) were less than 20 years old and 34.7% were more than 20 years old. In addition, the majority of students with a percentage of 73.3 % of the total number of students participating in the study were males while 26.7 % were females. The research sample was distributed among nine different faculties within Cairo University with the largest number of students (24) in the faculty of engineering, representing 23.8 % of the sample followed by 16.8% and 15.8% in the faculties of computer and informatics sciences, and oral dental medicine respectively. The following table illustrate the distribution of the students participating in the study according to their faculties. Table 1: Distribution of the students participating in the study according to their faculties

Faculty Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Faculty of computer and informatics sciences

17 16.8 16.8

Faculty of oral dental medicine 16 15.8 32.7 Faculty of engineering 24 23.8 56.4 Faculty of medicine 9 8.9 65.3 Faculty of pharmacy 3 3.0 68.3 Faculty of physiotherapy 15 14.9 83.2 Faculty of science 5 5.0 88.1 Faculty of agriculture 7 6.9 95.0 Faculty of veterinary medicine 5 5.0 100.0

Total 101 100.0

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

Firstly, reliability analysis was conducted depending on the calculation of the item-to-total correlation and

the coefficient alpha (Cronbach alpha) for the research measures and constructs. The results showed that all the research variables had a very good item-to-total correlation values ranging from 0.610 to 0.744 and high reliability coefficient ranged from 0.882 to 0.885 with a Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items equal 0.902 (Table 2). The values of item-to-total correlation and Cronbach’s Alpha are considerably and significantly higher than the reliability acceptable levels suggested by Edgett (1991), Magal et al., (1988) and Nunnally (1978). Consequently, the research measures are satisfactory acceptable for conducting further data analysis through inferential statistics to test the research hypothesis. Table 2: Research measures and constructs reliability

Constructs

Cronbach's Alpha if Item

Deleted

Corrected Item-Total

Correlation

Mean

Std.

Deviation Intentions 0.884 0.608 4.0644 0.46858 Attitudes 0.885 0.610 3.9250 0.42697

Attractiveness 0.884 0.646 4.3441 0.44979 Updated Knowhow 0.883 0.665 4.1163 0.53217

Delivery 0.882 0.744 4.0767 0.50217

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RESULTS OF HYPOTHESES TESTING

To satisfy the analysis requirements, the multivariate normality of the data was investigated by conducting

skewness test of normality (Garson, 2009) and investigating the histograms of the adoption different variables. The results indicated no departure from normality. The framework (figure 1) indicated very good fit of the data (table 3) and the obtained results confirmed that the model have a very good fit. Table 3: Fit Indices for the Path Model

Goodness of Fit Index (GFI)

Root Mean square Residual (RMSEA)

Comparative Fit Index

(CFI)

Incremental fit index (IFI)

0.989 0.039 0.955 0.878 Testing the Hypothesised Causal Relationships:-

Figure 2 shows the Path diagram for the study model which reflects the estimated standardised

parameters for the paths, their level of significance and the square multiple correlations for each construct. Table 4 illustrate the regression weight of all the causal paths and the significance of each path.

Figure 2: Results of Path Analysis (where: *** Significant at 0.001, ** Significant at 0.01, * Significant at 0.05, ns not significant) Table 4: Regression weight of all the causal paths and the significance of each path within the model

Hypothesised Relationships Standardised Estimate

Significance From To

Attractiveness Attitudes 0.074 0.399 Updated Knowhow Attitudes 0.038 0.615

Delivery Attitudes 0.245 ** Attitudes Towards

Starting a New Business Intentions Towards

Starting a New Business 0.484 ***

Delivery

Intentions Towards Starting a

New Business

Attractiveness

Updated Knowhow

Entrepreneurship Education

Attitudes Towards Starting a

New Business

0.074 ns

0.245**

0.038 ns

0.484***

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DISCUSSION

The results of the study indicated that entrepreneurship teaching positively affects Egyptian students in science or technology degrees attitudes towards starting a new business. Within this regard, entrepreneurship teaching attractiveness (Standardised Estimate = 0.074, P = 0.399) and updated knowhow (Standardised Estimate = 0.038, P = 0.615) have insignificant positive impact on students’ attitudes towards starting a new business. Meanwhile, entrepreneurship teaching delivery has significant positive impact on students’ attitudes towards starting a new business (Standardised Estimate = 0.245, P< 0.01). Furthermore, students’ attitudes towards starting a new business were found to have positive impact on students’ intentions towards starting a new business.

Finally, based on the data analysis it was found that Egyptian find that entrepreneurship modules taught by Egyptian universities on science and technology degrees are relevant to current entrepreneurship knowhow and interesting. As a result, hypotheses: H1, H2, H3, H4 can be supported. RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS

This research has theoretical (academic) and managerial (practical) implications. In terms of academic implications, the research can be considered as a unique research in the field of entrepreneurship teaching in general and entrepreneurship teaching in Egyptian universities in particular. The study has not only made a considerable contribution to the accumulative knowledge in its direct field, but it has also some implications for the wider body of knowledge. The first significant implication of this research in entrepreneurship teaching field is based on its investigation of entrepreneurship teaching in the context of developing economies.

Also this research contributes to the theory of entrepreneurship by the examination of the phenomenon under investigation in Egyptian universities context. Through this, the research also contributes to the expansion of the studies on entrepreneurship teaching.

CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMNEDATIONS

Generally, the research findings support the research model and place support to all of the hypotheses.

The results help to understand the effect of entrepreneurship teaching on Egyptian students’ attitudes towards starting a new business. Within the study, it has been found that entrepreneurship teaching attractiveness and updated knowhow have insignificant positive impact on students’ attitudes towards starting a new business. Meanwhile, entrepreneurship teaching delivery has significant positive impact on students’ attitudes towards starting a new business. Furthermore, students’ attitudes towards starting a new business were found to have positive impact on students’ intentions towards starting a new business.

A lot of attention has been given and put into the planning of this study as well as the development of the research methodology, data collection and data analysis. As a result, it is hoped that the research contributes in a significant way to the accumulative knowledge of entrepreneurship teaching in general and entrepreneurship teaching in Egyptian universities in particular. Despite that, as is the case with other research studies, this study also has a number of limitations, the mentioning of which can be valuable to future research. Most of the limitations are principally associated with the broadness of the phenomenon under investigation and lack of measurements of entrepreneurship teaching in developing countries. This motivated the research team to follow an empirical approach in this study to develop a holistic and integrated understanding of entrepreneurship teaching. This required increasing the scope of the study by reviewing a large body of appropriate literature and collecting a large set of related data. However, while the research team has attempted to meet such a requirement by reviewing various literatures in the field, it could not be claimed that the empirical investigation of this study has come from across all the different issues related to this perspective.

An extra limitation of this study is associated to its reliance on the subjective, self report and judgmental

indicators to measure the research constructs within the survey questionnaire. However, the reliability examination for the research measures through the calculation of item-to-total correlation and Cronbach Alpha

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coefficient are considerably and significantly higher than the reliability acceptable levels suggested by Edgett (1991) and Nunnally (1978). This indicates that the research measures are satisfactorily acceptable. Subsequently, the above limitation notwithstanding, the results represent a promising step toward the establishment of good measures for the research variables.

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