Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the entrepreneurship education and training (EET) needs of small family businesses operating in the agricultural sector of the Indian economy. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a survey of 122 agricultural family firms in the Indian state of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provocatively enter four imagined worlds of enterprise education with the express aim of contemplating an emerging future. The authors do so not to expressly determine what positioning is most appropriate for enterprise/entrepreneurship education, but rather to consider the issues associated with each of…

Purpose: This paper seeks to draw attention to the importance of appreciating and using ever-present diversity to achieve increased legitimacy for entrepreneurship education. As such, it aims to draw the reader into a reflective process of discovery as to why entrepreneurship education is important and how such importance can be prolonged.…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore how creative disciplines education is taught, delivered, and assessed, and how this might inform the development of enterprise education UK. Design/methodology/approach: The paper makes use of empirical data from three main sources across creative disciplines: interviews with entrepreneurs; job adverts…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact that entrepreneurship education can have on succession in ethnic minority family firms that operate in the highly competitive UK economy. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a complex conceptual model of ethnic minority graduates' economic activities and outlines the possible…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the importance of service excellence in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The research upon which this paper is based employed a phenomenological approach. This method was selected for its focus on respondent perceptions and experiences. Both structured and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal perspective, of a contributor and Guest Editor, on the impact of "Education + Training" on promoting quality research and dissemination in the area of vocational education and training (VET) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It has been written specifically to commemorate the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to set out to evaluate the financial education needs of ethnic minority SMEs in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. Design/methodology/approach: A postal survey was used to investigate the financial needs of owner/managers in 64 ethnic minority SMEs and a control sample of 23 non-ethnic SMEs.…

Purpose: This paper seeks to investigate the provision of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Small Ethnic Minority Businesses (SEMBs) operating in the West Midlands region of the UK. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach is employed, involving in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 66 owner/managers of small ethnic minority…

Purpose: This paper is the second in a series of conceptual, contextual and empirical contributions that, individually and cumulatively, seek to analyse, develop and link two important fields of research: "entrepreneurship" and "entrepreneurship education". Part 2 aims to provide a critical evaluation of entrepreneurship education and its impact…

Purpose: This article is the first in a series of conceptual and empirical contributions that, individually and cumulatively, seek to analyse, develop and link two important fields of research: "entrepreneurship" and "entrepreneurship education." Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper undertakes a critical literature review and a methodical…

A great deal has been written in recent years about the internet and the emergence of e-businesses operating in the global e-economy. Although a small proportion of the expanding literature on this topic is based on empirically rigorous research, the bulk of publications tend to be of limited value to small business owner/managers. Furthermore,…

China's recent economic success resulted, to a great extent, from the release of the entrepreneurial potential inherent in its business sectors. Yet, entrepreneurship education as a whole remains a relatively new concept and practice, in particular in the higher education sector. This explorative article reviews the recent developments in…

A survey of 6,000 British small businesses, 600 interviews, and 120 case studies found that 70-80% were family owned; most favored informal management styles. In family-owned businesses, training of nonfamily employees was considered less crucial; investments in the latter were related to long-term business strategies and potential succession.…

Reviews the status of National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications in the United Kingdom in terms of employer acceptance, role in company training, employee participation, small business usage, and overall employer investment in training. Considers the implications of concerns about the system for the learning targets to be achieved by the new…