The promise of entrepreneurship education: Reconceptualizing the individual–opportunity nexus as a conceptual framework for entrepreneurship education

Abstract

This article develops a conceptual framework for entrepreneurship education based on a reconceptualization of the individual–opportunity nexus as presented by Shane and Venkataraman. In order to achieve this objective, we reinterpret both the basic assumptions pertaining to the individual and the ontological and epistemological nature of entrepreneurial opportunities. On this basis, we build a six-step teaching model, which operationalizes a series of entrepreneurial learning elements. These include (1) identity work, (2) disclosing disharmonies, (3) qualifying disharmonies into general anomalies, (4) constructing innovative solutions, (5) prototyping and (6) business modelling. Finally, we discuss the implications of the reconceptualized framework in terms of the research questions governing the field of entrepreneurship education, for the practice of entrepreneurship education and for policy to promote entrepreneurship education.