11 May, 2019

3E Conference Gothenburg, Sweden, May 8th-10th, 2019.

Helen McGuirk from the Hincks Centre and Lisa Murphy, lecturer Department of Management and Enterprise travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden on the 8th May to present research findings derived from a survey undertaken in March distributed to students attending 10 Higher Education Institutes (HEI’s) in Ireland, the findings of which are outlined in the paper titled “Social Entrepreneurial Intention – Are we Behind the Curve?”.

Lisa and Helen in Gothenburg

The 3E conference is one of the main highlights of the academic year for educators and researchers in the Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy (EEE) space and provides a wonderful opportunity to discuss all things EEE related with peers. The feedback provided on working research papers is invaluable.

The purpose of the paper was trifold; determine whether there is an appetite among students for Social Entrepreneurship Education; Provide insights into students’ interest levels in Social Entrepreneurship; Determine if there is a connection between Social Entrepreneurship Education and Social Entrepreneurial Intention.

We are motivated to undertake this research because HEI’s worldwide are heavily invested in entrepreneurship education with a significant number of modules in entrepreneurship embedded in programme curricula, predominantly in business schools. However, programmes and modules with a social focus are less prevalent thus limiting student opportunities to avail of social entrepreneurship education. To develop further the area of Social Entrepreneurship Education a deeper understanding of the students and their interests relative to Social Entrepreneurship is warranted.

Lisa and Breda Kenny in Gothenburg