1. Best Practices for
Internationalizing
Entrepreneurship Education and
Virtual Teamwork
Sadan Kulturel-Konak Abdullah Konak
sadan@psu.edu
konak@psu.edu
Penn State Berks
S

2. Penn State Berks
S 54-year-old campus in the system of
S 159-year-old university
S 2,800 undergraduate students
S 15 four-year programs and
S The first two year of 160 Penn State programs
S Mascot: The Nittany Lion

3. Virtual Teams
S A virtual team works across
time, distance, culture and organizational
boundaries
S The majority of the communication occurs
online through computer-mediated systems
S A team of geographically distributed students
working on a class project

4. Why Are Virtual Teams
Important?
S Global economy
S Corporations may work 24-hour shifts

5. For Our Students
S Broadening their horizons
S Preparing them for the global business
world
S Exposing them to different cultures and
beliefs

6. Virtual Team Projects
S The US-Turkey-> Variations of Product
Innovations in both cultures
S The US-the Netherlands-Turkey-> Designing
and evaluating the Groupware software
S The US-the US-> Defining technology based
solutions for a company’s communication
problems
S The US-Kenya-> Electronic waste initiative

7. Challenges
S Lack of face-to-face interactions
S Different time zones
S Cultural differences reflected in communication
S Building trust

8. Assignments Remedying the
Challenges
S Memorandum of Understanding
S Contract
S Mandatory weekly meetings
S Choosing the project team structure

9. Blindfold Activity

10. Course and Program
Development Grant by the NCIIA
S Internationalizing the Entrepreneurship
Education at Penn State Berks
S the students from Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to build
technology-based sustainable solutions to solve
communities’ problems in Kenya
S the Children and Youth Empowerment Centre
(CYEC)

12. Visit to Kenya in Summer 2011
Jambo!bo!
There are always obstacles, but don’t let them stop you!

13. Earrings

14. Hard Drive Table Clock

15. Opportunities
S Milking the Rhino
S Most Innovative Solution
S Local Competitions
S Greater Chamber of Reading- Keystone
Innovation Zone- Business Idea Challenge
S New Student Enterprise Award
S Bringing the project back to the US

16. Lessons Learned
S Time difference makes communication between subteams
difficult
S Schedule conflicts make meeting outside of class difficult
S Internet problems
S Trust and Respect are important in teamwork
S Majority of the teams are more comfortable with the
Decentralized Leadership configuration

17. Questions
S sadan@psu.edu
S konak@psu.edu