Taken for granted or wilfully ignored? Seeking legitimacy for the entrepreneurship educator
Walmsley, Andreas and Wraae, Birgitte (2024) Taken for granted or wilfully ignored? Seeking legitimacy for the entrepreneurship educator. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research. ISSN 1355-2554 (In Press)
|
Text
Taken for granted or wilfully ignored Seeking legitimacy for the entrepreneurship educator.PDF - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (448kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Purpose –This study offers insights into how the entrepreneurship educator is legitimised in higher education. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study is based on content analysis of 73 university programme specifications, 61 university strategies, and 35 job advertisements. The study uses Suchman’s (1995) conceptualisation of organisational legitimacy to assist in categorising the results according to type of legitimacy. Findings –Connections are made between the legitimacy of the entrepreneurship educator and wider societal discourses surrounding the legitimacy of enterprise/entrepreneurship as expressed in university strategies. Attempts to legitimise the entrepreneurship educator specifically, as opposed to ‘the educator’ more broadly understood, are quite limited. Programme specifications mainly offer a cognitive form of legitimacy relating to teaching, with elements of pragmatic legitimacy arising from educators’ links to industry and research prowess. Job descriptions are more focused on the educator’s research as a form of legitimation. Originality/value –The concept of legitimacy, despite widespread application in other disciplines, has found very limited application in the study of entrepreneurship education. Using three sources of data, the paper offers a first application of Suchman’s (1995) conceptualisation of legitimacy to entrepreneurship education. It thereby offers a critical perspective on the role of the entrepreneurship educator as shaped by institutional norms. Research implications: The study creates a baseline of knowledge surrounding the legitimacy of the entrepreneurship educator, which raises important questions as to how the educator is supposed to add value in relation to different stakeholders.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship education, enterprise education, entrepreneurship educator, legitimacy, strategic legitimacy, institutional legitimacy, systemic, cognitive legitimacy, pragmatic legitimacy, moral legitimacy |
| Depositing User: | Ms Raisa Burton |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Sep 2024 14:12 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Sep 2024 14:12 |
| URI: | https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17888 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit Item |