Classifying entrepreneurial approaches in developing a business plan for a new venture among third year engineering students

Previous research specified requirements for engineering educational programs to boost students’ creative skills in engineering. My teaching team has developed an interdisciplinary subject integrating entrepreneurship components into a traditional operational management perspective. The teaching team’s objective was to allow future engineer graduates to engage in a creative process to solve a problem or to design a new artefact and become engineer entrepreneurs. I analysed whether a major assessment within a subject in third year engineering curricula – a team project to develop a business plan based on a new idea – help students to implement their learning into tangible outcomes and develop their creative skills. The research question was whether students utilize or implement the lecture content in their group projects to learn effectively and enhance their learning. The findings showed that majority of engineering students were focusing on new technologies to introduce new products or services. On the other hand, although the concepts of creativity and innovation are necessary for their projects, students mainly followed up the current trends in technologies that pioneered by large corporations in high tech industries. It seems students followed the type of innovation known as “incremental innovation” or steady improvements based on sustained technologies.