1. Preferable process of
entrepreneurship training and
e-mentoring for business start-up:
A case study of the CReBUS project
Dr.paed. Svetlana Surikova
Dr.habil.paed. Irina Maslo
University of Latvia
The International Conference “Entrepreneurship Education - A Priority for
the Higher Education Institutions – CReBUS”
October 8-9, 2012, Bucharest, Romania
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2. Empirical research purpose
To identify students/graduates and young
entrepreneurs’ learning and support needs
in order to develop e-mentoring system of
business start-up for CReBUS e-Learning
Community.

3. Research stages and sample
– research preparation stage(December 2010
January 2011);
– data collection stage (February 2011);
– data processing and analysis stage –
(March 2011).
The total research sample size was consisted of 109
students/graduates and 49 entrepreneurs from Romania,
Italy, Spain, Austria, and Latvia.

4. Theoretical background
• study of important support needs of students for
business start-up and factors of negative influence to
business start-up (Kailer, 2009);
• case studies of mentoring and e-mentoring of young
entrepreneurs and students in environment of
networking and peer learning (Deakins et al., 1998; Cull,
2006; Zhang, Hamilton, 2009; Colvin, Ashman, 2010;
Stewart, McLoughlin, 2007)
• studies of experience-based learning by doing, reflecting,
networking (Deakins et al., 1998; Neck, Greene, 2011;
Zhang, Hamilton, 2009; Oganisjana, 2010)
• previous surveys on entrepreneurial issues (EC reports,
GEM study, VITA project, INTERACT project,
WOMEN@BUSINESS project, etc.)

5. Proposed definition
Entrepreneurial environment is a
dynamic system of causally interrelated
entrepreneurial opportunities of
learning/support/mentoring and barriers as
challenges for discovering new
opportunities.

6. Empirical finding 1
Importance of the learning ways for students/graduates and
entrepreneurs
3,67
learning by doing 3,64
3,65
3,55
experience-based
3,5
learning
3,51 Entrepreneurs
Students/graduates
3,24 Total
self-directed
3,2
learning
3,22
3,12
networking 3,13
3,13
2,8 3 3,2 3,4 3,6 3,8

7. Empirical finding 2
Understanding of entrepreneurship education and training
(by students/graduates)
The most frequently mentioned categories of
students/graduates’ understanding of entrepreneurship
education and training were the following:
– entrepreneurial potential (n=93),
– practical skills (n=46)
– opportunities of practical experience
(n=44).

8. Empirical finding 3.1
Optimum proportion (in %) between theory and practice in a course of
entrepreneurship education (students/graduates and entrepreneurs)

9. Empirical finding 3.2
The comments of students/graduates and entrepreneurs regarding the
theory and practice in a course of entrepreneurship education
• Universities already offer economics
courses – we need practice.
• Doing the practice you learn the theory.
• I think that practice is more important
than theory.
• It would be useful if the theory is
For entrepreneurs always supported by real and concrete
examples.
• It's almost impossible to learn
• It’s essential to know the theory, but if
how to be an entrepreneur from is not related with a lot of practice,
books. 90% of time you will need theory means nothing. Theory is
to learn new things just to keep something general, but practical things
your business going. bring the real challenge.
• Educational system has to give • Theory is necessary to understand how
practice works and what the differences
theoretical training and facilitate are between theory and practice (and
access to practical experiences practice can be linked with theory).
out of the educational system.
For students/graduates

10. Empirical finding 4.1
Opinion about an e-mentoring activity
• The e-mentoring activity as value, good idea, good
solution had been mentioned the most frequently (n=85)
both by the entrepreneurs and students/graduates.
However, there were 39 responses throwing doubt upon
the effectiveness of e-mentoring.
• About 83% (n=91) of students/graduates were interested
in attending an e-mentoring activity for those interested
in entrepreneurship, but about 17% (n=18) were not
interested.
• About 90% (n=98) of students/graduates were
interested to learn from an experienced entrepreneur,
but about 10% (n=18) were not interested.
• About 65% (n=32) of entrepreneurs were interested in e-
mentoring of a youngster who wanted to start a
business, but about 35% (n=17) were not interested.

11. Empirical finding 4.2
Hours of e-mentoring activity per week
For students/graduates
For entrepreneurs

12. Conclusion 1
According to the empirical findings of the
CReBUS project research the most important
way of learning both for students/graduates and
entrepreneurs is learning by doing.
Entrepreneurial potential, practical skills and
opportunities of practical experience are the
most frequently mentioned categories of
students’ understanding of entrepreneurship
education and training. Italian respondents
preferred more practice in a course of
entrepreneurship education than respondents
from Austria, Romania, Latvia and Spain.

13. Conclusion 2
The students/graduates were more interested to
learn from an experienced entrepreneur how to
start their business than entrepreneurs were
interested in e-mentoring of a youngster who
wanted to start a business. The e-mentoring
activity as value, good idea, good solution had
been mentioned the most frequently both by the
entrepreneurs and students/graduates.

14. Conclusion 3
The following characteristics of preferable
process of entrepreneurship training and e-
mentoring for business start-up were identified:
optimum proportion between theory and practice
(e.g. 30% of theory and 70% of practice),
preferable attending hours per week (e.g. two
hours per week), efficiency and effectiveness of
the process, providing of the opportunities of
practical experience and learning from
successful experienced entrepreneurs.

15. Conclusion 4
Efficient and effective process of
entrepreneurship training and e-mentoring
is a necessary component of
entrepreneurial environment. The main
objective of the entrepreneurship training
and e-mentoring is providing the
opportunities of developing
entrepreneurial potential and motivation.

16. svetlana.surikova@lu.lv
irina.maslo@lu.lv