A Preliminary Exploration of the Development of Wisdom in Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

Though the development of wisdom is a primary goal of higher education, it has received little empirical attention in an entrepreneurship education (EE) context. We conduct a preliminary, exploratory investigation into the teaching of wisdom in EE. Applying Sternberg’s (1998) balance theory of wisdom, we examine whether entrepreneurship courses deliver on the potential of wisdom development by studying the syllabi of 50 university entrepreneurship courses from around the world. We also examine the contents of the major entrepreneurship textbooks used in EE classrooms today. We find that both textbook use and course design are negatively related to the development of wisdom in the classroom. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

• Wisdom
• entrepreneurship education
• management education
• syllabi
• course outlines
• textbooks.