TY - GEN
T1 - Investigating contemporary research methods in the exploration of community engagement and entrepreneurship in higher education
AU - O’Brien, Emma
AU - Cooney, Thomas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Academic Conferences Limited. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Promoting an entrepreneurial culture through the development of entrepreneurial mindsets has become an important mission on the education and enterprise policy agenda of many governments and supranational organisations. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have responded to this call by developing entrepreneurship / enterprise education pedagogies that now place a greater focus on engendering entrepreneurial competencies within individuals rather than on the creation of new ventures. Such competences are relevant for all aspects of an individual’s life and may assist them in navigating the ever changing, chaotic, global world in which they live. This paper describes a research project which investigates how HEIs can move outside of their formal education setting and dynamically support the development of entrepreneurial competencies and mindsets amongst people within their local communities. In this paper, contemporary research methods in the study of higher education, entrepreneurship and community engagement are explored with the aim of answering the project research question. The study involved a wide review of the literature to determine a suitable methodological strategy that would embrace the transdisciplinary nature of the project. It was determined that the case study as a research strategy would be a best fit for this research, particularly, as case-studies are a common research method in many diverse disciplines. This paper explores the link between theory, case method and empirical phenomena from several perspectives and provides insight on design, data collection and data analysis through this research strategy. Uniquely, this project has selected the new campus development of an established Irish Higher Education Institution in the heart of a community in Dublin City as a case-study for exploring the research questions. The project output will make a significant contribution to knowledge in this emerging research nexus of community engagement, higher education and entrepreneurship and enable HEIs to engage more widely with society.
AB - Promoting an entrepreneurial culture through the development of entrepreneurial mindsets has become an important mission on the education and enterprise policy agenda of many governments and supranational organisations. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have responded to this call by developing entrepreneurship / enterprise education pedagogies that now place a greater focus on engendering entrepreneurial competencies within individuals rather than on the creation of new ventures. Such competences are relevant for all aspects of an individual’s life and may assist them in navigating the ever changing, chaotic, global world in which they live. This paper describes a research project which investigates how HEIs can move outside of their formal education setting and dynamically support the development of entrepreneurial competencies and mindsets amongst people within their local communities. In this paper, contemporary research methods in the study of higher education, entrepreneurship and community engagement are explored with the aim of answering the project research question. The study involved a wide review of the literature to determine a suitable methodological strategy that would embrace the transdisciplinary nature of the project. It was determined that the case study as a research strategy would be a best fit for this research, particularly, as case-studies are a common research method in many diverse disciplines. This paper explores the link between theory, case method and empirical phenomena from several perspectives and provides insight on design, data collection and data analysis through this research strategy. Uniquely, this project has selected the new campus development of an established Irish Higher Education Institution in the heart of a community in Dublin City as a case-study for exploring the research questions. The project output will make a significant contribution to knowledge in this emerging research nexus of community engagement, higher education and entrepreneurship and enable HEIs to engage more widely with society.
KW - Case study
KW - Community engagement
KW - Entrepreneurship
KW - Higher education
KW - In-depth interviews
KW - Transdisciplinary research
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85054013582
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85054013582
SN - 9781911218401
T3 - Proceedings of the European Conference on Research Methods in Business and Management Studies
SP - 461
EP - 467
BT - Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Research Methods in Business and Management, ECRM 2017
A2 - Lawlor, Katrina
A2 - Buckley, Anthony Paul
PB - Academic Conferences Limited
T2 - 16th European Conference on Research Methods in Business and Management, ECRM 2017
Y2 - 22 June 2017 through 23 June 2017
ER -