A study on effects of system thinking and decision-making styles over entrepreneurship skills

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has an uncertain environment requiring several abilities to achieve the goal. The article explores the effects of individuals’ system thinking level, decision-making styles and family background on their entrepreneurial skills. In the study relational screening model is used as a research method. The sample group of the study consists of 65 students of the 4th grade students of a private university in Istanbul, Turkey in 2019. Three questionnaires have been applied and descriptive statistics and all the other tests have been conducted by using SPSS 26 to examine the extent of involvement, significance, direction and degree of the relationships. The results show that there is a positive moderate significant (r = 0.542) relationship between individuals’ entrepreneurship skill and system thinking level. Also a positive low level relationship (r = 0.374 p <0.05) has been detected between entrepreneurship skills and vigilance type of decision-making style. Negative low level of relationships (r = -0.123 and r = -0.244, p <0.05) among entrepreneurship skills, hypervigilance and procrastination types of decision-making styles. Moreover, no significant relationship has been found among entrepreneurship skills, parental education/job status and entrepreneurship experience/history in the family supporting the idea that entrepreneurship is a learnable skill rather than an innate skill.

Keywords

• Entrepreneurship Skills
• System Thinking
• Decision Making Styles
• Relational Screening Model

References

1. Arvai J L, Campbell V E A, Baird A & Rivers L (2004). Teaching students to make better decisions about the environment: lessons from the decision sciences. The Journal of Environmental Education, 36(1), 33-44.
2. Assaraf O B Z & Orion N (2005). Development of system thinking skills in the context of earth system education. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42(5), 518–560. DOI: 10.1002/tea.20061
3. Berglund H & Wennberg K (2006) Creativity among entrepreneurship students: Comparing engineering and business education. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-long Learning. 16 (5), 366-379.
4. Cantillon R (1775). Essay on the nature of trade in general, London.
5. Carlman I, Grönlund E & Longueville A (2014). Models and methods as support for sustainable decision- making with focus on legal operationalization. Ecological Modelling, 306, 95-100
6. Casson M C (2010). Entrepreneurship: Theory, Networks, History. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, U.K.
7. Davidsson P (2006). Nascent entrepreneurship: Empirical studies and developments. Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, 2 (1), 1-76.
8. Deniz M E (2004). Investigation of the relation between decision self-esteem, decision making style and problem solving skill of the university students. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 4(15), 23-35.

9. Dori D & Sillitto H (2017). What is a system? An ontological framework. Systems Engineering, 20 (3), 207–219.
10. Drucker P F (1985). Innovation and entrepreneurship. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
11. Evagorou M, Korfiatis K, Nicolaou C & Constantinou C (2009). An investigation of the potential of interactive simulations for developing system thinking skills in elementary school: a case study with fifth-graders and sixth graders. International. Journal of Science Education 31, 655–674. DOI: 10.1080/09500690701749313
12. Fayolle A & Gailly B (2013). The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial attitudes and intention: Hysteresis and persistence. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 75- 93.
13. Forrester J W (2007). System Dynamics – a personal view of the first fifty years. System Dynamics Review, 23(2-3), 345-358.
14. Freeman S, Eddy S L, McDonough M, Smith M K, Okoroafor N & Jordt H (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(23), 8410–8415.
15. Gay L R (1996). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application. 5. Edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc., USA.
16. Gelderen M V & Masurel E (2012). Entrepreneurship in context. Routledge, New York
17. Gibb A (1987). Enterprise Culture - Its Meaning and Implications for Education and Training. Journal of European Industrial Training, 11(2), 2-38
18. Gibb A (2011). Concepts into practice: meeting the challenge of development of entrepreneurship educators around an innovative paradigm. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research 17(2), 146–165.
19. Graevenitz G V, Hardoff D & Weber R (2010). The effects of Entrepreneurship Education. Journal of Economic Behavior Organization, 76, 90-112.
20. Greenspan A & Rosan R M (2006). The Role of Universities Today: Critical Partners in Economic Development and Global Competitiveness. http://www.icfconsulting.com/Markets/Community_Development/docfiles/role-niversities.pdf, [Accessed 30.12.2019].
21. Guzmán J Y & Liñán P (2005). Perspectives on Entrepreneurial Education: A US-Europe Comparison. Jean Monnet European Studies Centre Universidad Antonio de Nebrija
22. Hall S R, Waitz I, Brodeur D R, Soderholm D H & Nasr R (2002). Adoption of active learning in amlecture-based engineering class. In 32nd Frontiers in education conference, T2A-9. https://doi.org/10. 1109/fie.2002.1157921.
23. Haan G (2010). The development of ESD-related competencies in supportive institutional frameworks. International Review of Education, 56(2-3), 315-328.
24. Hernandez G, Allen J & Mistree F (1998). Approxımate-Cooperatıve Desıgn Formulatıons for Enterprıse Desıgn and Integratıon. Proceedings of Detc98/Dac. Asme Design Engineering Technical Conference September 13-16, Atlanta, GA
25. Henry C, Hill F & Leitch C (2003). Entrepreneurship Education and Training: The Issue of Effectiveness. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., London.
26. Kalyani B P R & Kumar D M (2011). Motivational factors, entrepreneurship and education: Study with reference to women in SMEs. For East Journal of Psychology and Business, 3(3), 14-35.
27. Kashif M, Darain H, Islam S, Javed S & Irshad S (2016). Entrepreneurial Aptitude among the University Students of MBBS, BDS and DPT. Indian Journal of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, 10(1), 66-70
28. Korkmaz O (2012). Üniversite öğrencilerinin girişimcilik eğilimlerini belirlemeye yönelik bir araştırma: Bülent Ecevit Üniversitesi örneği. Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi İİBF Dergisi. XIV (II), 209-226.
29. Kuratko D (2003). Entrepreneurship Education: Emerging Trends and Challenges for the 21st Century: From Legitimization to Leadership. Coleman Foundation White Paper Series.
30. Long C (2012). Teach Your Students to Fail Better with Design Thinking. Learning & Leading with Technology, 9(5), 16-20.
31. Mann L M, Radford P, Burnett S, Ford M, Bond K, Leung H, Nakamura G & Malindi M M (2014). Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intent at Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in South Africa. Gordon Institute of Business Science. University of Pretoria, MBA.
32. Matlay H (2008). The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial outcomes. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 15(2), 382-396.
33. McGrath R G & MacMillan L C (1995). Discovery Driven Planning.” Harvard Business Review, 73, 44-54.
34. McGrath R G & MacMillan I C (2000). The entrepreneurial mindset: Strategies for continuously creating opportunity in an age of uncertainty (Vol. 284). Harvard Business Press.
35. Michaels C (2012). Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking: What Successful People Didn't Learn in School. Amazon. Published by cliff Michaels and associated Inc. Santa Monica. USA.CA (www.CliffMichaels.com)
36. Miller B K, Bell J D, Palmer M & Gonzalez A (2009). Predictors of entrepreneurial intentions: A quasiexperiment comparing students enrolled in introductory management and entrepreneurship classes. Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship, 21 (2), 39-62.
37. Moore S M, Dolansky M A, Singh M, Palmieri P & Alemi F (2010). The Systems Thinking Scale. https://nursing.case.edu/nursing/media/nursing/pdf-dox/STS_Manual.pdf
38. Mueller S (2011). Increasing entrepreneurial intention: Effective entrepreneurship course characteristics. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 13, 55-74.
39. Nunnally J C & Bernstein I H (1994). The Assessment of Reliability. Psychometric Theory, 3, 248-292.
40. Orgill M, York S & MacKellar J (2019). Introduction to systems thinking for the chemistry education community. Journal of Chemical Education 2019 96 (12), 2720-2729, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00169
41. Pagani M & Otto P (2013). Integrating strategic thinking and simulation in marketing strategy: Seeing the whole System. Journal of Business Research, 66, 1568–1575
42. Pappas E, Pierrakos O & Nagel R (2012). Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to teach sustainability in multiple contexts. Journal of Cleaner Production, 48, 54–64.
43. Patel S & Mehta K (2016). Systems, design, and entrepreneurial thinking: Comparative frameworks. Systemic Practice and Action Research, ISSN 1094-429X, 29(6), DOI 10.1007/s11213-016-9404-5
44. Patır S & Karahan M (2010). Girişimcilik eğitimi ve üniversite öğrencilerinin girişimcilik profillerinin belirlenmesine yönelik bir alan araştırması. İşletme ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi. 1 (2), 27-44.
45. Rayawan W & Efrata T C (2017). The effect locus of control and need for achievement towards entrepreneurial performance. Review Management Entrepreneurship, 1, 36–49.
46. Saaty T L (2008). Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Service Sciences 1(1), 83–98
47. Sadler T D & Zeidler D L (2005). The significance of content knowledge for informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues: Applying genetics knowledge to genetic engineering issues. Science Education, 89(1), 71-93.
48. Solomon J & Aikenhead G S (Eds.). (1994). STS education: International perspectives on reform. New York: Teachers College Press
49. Thunholm P (2009). Military leaders and followers – do they have different decision styles? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 50(4), 317-324
50. Verhoeff R P, Waarlo A J & Boersma K T (2008) Systems modeling and the development of coherent understanding of cell biology. International Journal of Science Education, 30, 543–568
51. Yesilyaprak B (2003). Eğitimde rehberlik hizmetleri ve gelişimsel yaklaşım. Ankara: Nobel Yayincilik.
52. Zeidler D L, Sadler T D, Applebaum S & Callahan B E (2009). Advancing reflective judgment through socioscientific issues. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46(1), 74-101.