Teaching Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Building on the Singapore Experiment

Charles Hampden-Turner author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:29th Oct '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Teaching Innovation and Entrepreneurship cover

This book draws on a teaching experiment at Nanyang Technological University to show how we can teach innovation and entrepreneurship.

Is innovation something that can be taught? There are many reasons to be sceptical about the practicalities of teaching innovation but this book shows that, not only is it possible to describe the innovative process, we can also teach it, measure it, evaluate it and model it.Is it possible to teach someone to be an entrepreneur? Is innovation something that can be assessed and taught in a classroom? Teaching Innovation and Entrepreneurship answers these and other questions by focusing on a teaching experiment in Singapore at Nanyang Technological University, wherein classes of English-speaking Singaporeans and Mandarin-speaking students from the People's Republic of China were subjected to an 'entrepreneurial eco-system'. Extending from the west coast of the USA to Singapore and Shanghai, this programme subjects students to a wide range of activities, including a four-month business simulation game where teams of students select their favourite inventions and pitch them to real venture capitalists with the inventors present. Drawing on the lessons learned from this highly successful experiment, the book argues that not only is it possible to describe the innovative process, we can also teach it, measure it, evaluate it and model it.

'Economic growth is now the world's top priority, and the only way to generate growth is through greater numbers of innovative entrepreneurs. Yet the question of how to foster them remains much disputed. Can innovation be taught? Can entrepreneurs be trained? With remarkable scope and depth, Charles Hampden-Turner not only answers these questions but also produces a work of great insight. This book should serve as the manual for twenty-first century economic growth.' Carl Schram, Ewing M. Kauffman Foundation
'If the global business landscape is more and more shaped by innovation and entrepreneurship, then, by demonstrating how it may be taught, Professor Charles Hampden-Turner is at the leading edge of world business thinking. Breaking through the boundaries of the conventional classroom, the Singapore experiment is about how to teach international students in an international setting. Yet, perhaps above all, drawing on his admirably comprehensive knowledge spanning a wide spectrum of fields, the author shows why business teachers have to search for 'not things in some limited space but a pervasive pattern of connectivity' so as to create their own innovative, effective teaching solutions. An entertaining read that combines academic rigour with practical wisdom, this is a rare as well as timely book for the world of business education.' Wei Wang, Managing Director of 2W China Investment Consulting Ltd and author of The China Executive (2006)
'Since entrepreneurship and innovation have become the watchwords for so many commentators seeking to predict the qualities and characteristics needed by tomorrow's successful leaders, the questions 'Can capabilities in these activities be taught?' and 'If so, by what means?' seem to be amongst the most important such questions for academics, policy makers and business people to be able to answer. Charles Hampden-Turner, in his search for answers, has produced a work of telling rigour which makes compelling reading. 'Entrepreneurship and innovation CAN be taught!' he concludes, and sets out to prove the assertion in thorough academic form, describing a wonderful piece of research. Of course, such work throws up more questions and will lead to more excellent research - groundbreaking work always does that.' Alan Barrell, Professor and Entrepreneur in Residence, Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
'Hampden-Turner is a prophet of innovative pedagogy. With great good fortune he and the Technopreneurship and Innovation Program (TIP) at NTU discovered one another.' Anthony Teo, Secretary to Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
'What an inspiring and innovative book! The book provides a review of breakthrough in education innovations.' Michael Song, Charles N. Kimball MRI / Missouri Endowed Chair in Management of Technology and Innovation, Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri-Kansas City

ISBN: 9780521760706

Dimensions: 235mm x 160mm x 19mm

Weight: 530g

244 pages