Entrepreneurship Education in Latin America

Guido Caicedo and Jose Lerosa Siqueira presented Questions (different participants gave their opinions) 1. What are the drivers of entrepreneurship education in Latin America? a. There is a missed opportunity. In the USA there is a lot of support. In Europe, the question was how to get EU to give money? In Asia, how to build dynasties? In Latin America is like waiting a flag. There is a hunger that cant be seen in other places of the worlds. A lot of potential. b. Similar to enablers: being part of middle class is very comfortable and detracts form peoples interest to improve themselves. There is a lot of disruption because apparently there is less and less middle class and more upper class. With middle class not getting so much support from government, it is left to universities to inspire people to better themselves. c. communities (immigrants in US) have a lot of ties with Latin American. d. Brazil: one of highest percentages of entrepreneurs. But a lot of necessity!! People become entrepreneurs out of necessity. But there is huge need for knowledge. Opportunity to bring that knowledge of basic business skills for example e. Endeavour: Entrepreneurship toward Shifting culture, e.g. ethical issues. f. Economic development (both personal and societal basis) g. Model to provide education to poorer side of population should be different to other. h. 2. What are the cultural enablers/ barriers for entrepreneurship in Latin America? a. University system in Mexico has not been able to create so many opportunities. Rigid education system in some cases. b. Religion = barrier. (catholic: profit is evil) but that is not so prominent anymore c. Corruption. Ethical entrepreneur can even become almost an oxymoron in some cases. If you are ethical sometimes you cant compete d. Endeavour: model rapped up in being a role model. e. Cultural challenges: e.g. attitudes towards risk, entrepreneurs are crazy!! f. History of business ownership. People have been entrepreneurs for centuries but need infrastructure and business knowledge to take businesses to the next level. But barrier= thats not possible here, only in the US need to work on that g. Entrepreneurship has been about outsiders coming and doing something in given network. Need to convince owners of the wealth to adopt this mode of operations (involve existing industries to be more competitive). Thats how it has worked in the US in some cases. h. Need social and economic development. Enterprises tend to be small and medium and they are not competitive as globalization requires it so losing markets. Losing capacity for new development. Macroeconomic need of reorganization of economy : need more velocity for companies.

i. 3. Opportunities for collaboration a. Latin American countries dont exchange so many ideas. We should exchane more ideas. We should learn more about models in US Europe Asia etc. b. Collaboration between Latin American and US institutions c. Trend for social entrepreneurship. Combine high tech from US with local entrepreneurs d. Increase flow of research knowledge from universities e. Universities can be the laboratories of companies. Government is creating more opportunities. General presentation Most entrepreneurs in Latin American are like hunters gatherers and market is very cruel. There is a lot of entrepreneurship o Capitalist entrepreneurship fair unfair advantage o Mercantilist unfair unfair advantage Countries in Latin America to bet on need: o Ethical conscience o Social and environmental conscience o Good economic foundations o Strong institutions o Desire to be global player o Bet on education in the long run Size? Does not matter really o Small boats maneuver more quickly than gigantic ships o BRIC is just a bad acronym 3 features of the entrepreneurial phenomena o Nature of opportunities Many entrepreneurs efforts are informal, disorganized, unplanned, few high tech startups. o nature of individuals general tendency to instant gratification general concept of entrepreneurs being thieves o nature of decision making context within which entrepreneurs operate business schools want to teach it, engineering schools dont see why Drivers and barriers for entrepreneurial education o reward system is very inconsistent with enhanced entrepreneurial activity o there is a lack of training for faculty members, post-docs and graduate students in starting new ventures o the P word (profits) : if you are entrepreneur in university then you are unethical o Engineering and sciences are not attracting the best brains anymore. o Economic development High growth/the based companies

SMEs o Student enrichment Cultural barriers o Investors risk averse COUNTRIES WITH UNSTABLE CONTEXT o NOT ENOUGH NETWORKING o NO REGIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP Cultural enablers o Incubators and major instruments o Bootstrapping entrepreneurs