NEW RESEARCH | How student entrepreneurs learn from each other

Social interactions are good for learning entrepreneurship. This is shown by former Norsi doctoral student Ragnhild Nordeng Fauchald in her doctoral thesis where she has studied the learning that takes place when experienced student entrepreneurs supervise less experienced student entrepreneurs.

Congratulations on your dissertation! Tell us about the background to your research.

– My PhD project is funded by Engage – the Center for Engaged Education through Entrepreneurship, which equips higher education students with entrepreneurial tools and mindsets to solve complex problems facing the world.

– We know that entrepreneurs gain new knowledge and input to ideas by interacting with many different types of people and actors. And I quickly realized that this also applies to entrepreneurship students. I saw a clear example of this in an extracurricular initiative where more experienced student entrepreneurs mentor less experienced student entrepreneurs. The social interactions that occur in such initiatives play a major role in student entrepreneurs’ learning processes. And since there is very little literature on it in entrepreneurship education, I chose to write a thesis that deals with this, so-called peer learning.

Describe the main practical results.

– Learning entrepreneurship is a complex, experiential process where more experienced student entrepreneurs can help the less experienced ones to develop their ability to reflect and absorb experiential learning. Regular mentoring meetings between experienced and less experienced student entrepreneurs result in all involved learning a great deal about entrepreneurial processes.

– My research shows that both the student entrepreneurs who mentor and those who are mentored develop their ability to manage complex learning processes. In addition, the less experienced ones learn a lot about idea exploration in the early phase. The more experienced ones acquire important competences related to communication and leadership skills.

Is it common for higher education institutions to offer this type of informal learning situation to their entrepreneurship students?

– It varies a lot, but I would encourage them to do so, and contribute with funding. It is important to create low thresholds for these initiatives, which must be based on voluntary participation for learning processes to take off. Education and training institutions should also incorporate peer learning into their teaching.

How has the Norsi network helped you in your doctoral studies and how do you benefit from it now that you have completed your studies?

– The research network has been very important for me. For example, I took the course “Emerging Perspectives in Entrepreneurship Education” where we were able to develop our thoughts on our contributions to the research field. The relationships I have built within Norsi are very important for my research career. I have recently written a research paper together with two PhD colleagues from the Norsi network, which is currently under review by an international journal. How great is that!

Contact ragnhild.n.fauchald@ntnu.no

This article is produced in collaboration with Norsi.

More about the thesis and Norsi
Ragnhild Nordeng Fauchald recently defended her doctoral thesis at NTNU, Norway Social interaction in student entrepreneurs’ experience-based learning processes. During her PhD studies, she participated in the Nordic Research School in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Norsi) research network. It is primarily a graduate school for doctoral students in the Nordic countries in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. Read more about Norsi.