Teaching infopreneurship: students’

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perspectives
Adeline du Toit
Rand Afrikaans University, PO Box 524, Auckland Park 200, South Africa
asadt@LW.rau.ac.za

A university course in infopreneurship could contribute to bridging the gap between the
so-called security of full-time employment and the imagined insecurity of an own infor-
mation business. At present the Rand Afrikaans University in South Africa offers info-
preneurship courses to Information Science and Computer Science students. The course
content and presentation methods of the courses are similar in nature, but the same
cannot be said about the two groups of students. It was therefore decided to conduct
a questionnaire-based survey of the two groups of students and to compare their
responses. The exploratory investigation reported here scrutinises the status quo of info-
preneurship education at universities. The perceptions of the two groups of students
with regard to the objectives of an infopreneurship course at the university, course con-
tents and presentation methods are compared. In conclusion possible adaptions and
improvements to the course are considered.

Introduction ployment problem, complicates the task of

Entrepreneurs are those individuals in socie- information specialists finding employment
ty who take the lead as well as the risk in at existing information services. This state
mobilising the production factors (natural of affairs will force more information science
resources, human resources and capital) in graduates to start their own businesses.
specific combinations to produce products However, to expect people, who studied for
and services for their communities. Those the sole reason of securing a fixed appoint-
parts of the world that foster an entre- ment one day, to take the risk of starting their
preneurial culture are characterised by own businesses could be unrealistic. In this
economic wealth – something that is neces- regard a university course in infopreneurship
sary for social and political stability. This is the could contribute substantially to bridging the
case in countries such as Japan, those in uncertainty gap between the so-called secu-
Europe and the USA. The opposite occurs rity of steady employment and the imagined
in countries that lack entrepreneurial insecurity of an own business.
economies, such as those in Eastern Europe In this article a literature review of devel-
and Africa. Presently, there are signs of a opments in infopreneurship are discussed.
developing entrepreneurial culture in South Based on the findings of the literature review,
Africa. Research by Lascaris and Hunt in 1998 a questionnaire focusing on aspects such as
showed that 69% of young South Africans the objectives of an infopreneurship course at
would rather work for themselves than work a university, course content and presentation
in an existing enterprise [1]. A reason for this methods was developed. A questionnaire
may be that the world economy is at present based survey was then conducted among two
characterised by the phenomenon of shrink- groups of students in the Department of
ing job opportunities experienced in most Information Studies at the Rand Afrikaans
countries. This is also the case in the infor- University, Johannesburg, South Africa. This
mation industry in South Africa. was specifically done to gauge the opinion
The smaller demand for graduates at uni- of students as customers. The respective
versities in South Africa, as well as the low responses of the two groups were compared
economic growth rate and the serious unem- and recommendations made on how to

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 Teaching infopreneurship: students’ perspective

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improve the teaching of infopreneurship at years increased the need to find the right
universities. information in a timely manner. The gap
between information produced and infor-
Infopreneurship as a subject mation consumed continues to widen,
Information, the essential ingredient in because of the rapid developments taking
today’s knowledge-based economy, is place today. One solution to this problem
dynamic, expensive, and continually being is electronic access to information,
reconfigured and repackaged [2]. Enterprises because this allows infopreneurs to access
are prepared to pay for information that will desired information, select what is valuable
enable them to increase their profit margins and, finally reconstruct and disseminate
and remain ahead of their competitors. A information selectively to clients.
wide variety of enterprises and individuals ● Speeding up the flow of information: The
have seized the opportunity of turning infor- time-sensitive nature of information
mation provision into a successful commer- requirements ensures a high demand for
cial venture. Although a few of these ventures the speeding up of the flow of information.
have issued from libraries, the majority have Today infopreneurs are capable of gener-
originated from the business sector. Many of ating, sending and receiving data virtually
these businesses provide the same type of instantaneously via the World Wide Web,
information provided by libraries, whereas from and to remote locations thousands of
others provide information which libraries kilometres away.
have either ignored in the past, or which they ● Repackaging information: The process
have regarded as being of no real value to of repackaging information includes the
anyone. Effectively managing organisational organising of information into new infor-
information and knowledge provides infor- mation products and services. The goal of
mation professionals with the key to person- repackaging information is to locate unre-
al and professional competitive advantage. lated and yet possibly relatable information
Today, information specialists are com- and create new products combining the
pelled to use new skills and strategies in order information.
to change, survive, and continue to compete ● Around the clock delivery of informa-
in the world of virtual information. Weitzen tion: As computers begin to substitute
[3] identified six ways in which infopreneurs human effort, it becomes possible to deliv-
generate, organise and disseminate informa- er information instantly at any time of day
tion profitably. These are broadly accepted by or night. This process causes information
different researchers as the way to operate to take on a value-added quality.
infopreneurship. The six ways identified by Even though entrepreneurship is wide-
Weitzen are: spread in the world today, it is still unclear
● Leveraged information: Infopreneurs what exactly makes some people good
make use of databases or the Internet to entrepreneurs. MaCleod [4] found that the
obtain general market information and qualities that are shared by successful entre-
support data for research, as well as for the preneurs include a need for achievement and
creation of marketing plans, pricing strate- acknowledgement, a desire to use their skills
gies, distribution channels and advertising to the full, and to be in control of their envi-
programmes. ronment. Above all, entrepreneurs also tend
● Customised information: Information that to be those people who are willing to take
is synthesised and tailored to the user’s risks.
needs. This included the manipulation of The past thirty years have seen an enor-
information into a format that is easily mous increase in the number of universities
understandable (e.g. computer generated that started to offer entrepreneurship as a
graphics). subject. Zeihaml and Rice [5] found that there
● Facilitating access to information: The was a high demand for entrepreneurship
information explosion of the last few courses at both undergraduate and graduate

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 Teaching infopreneurship: students’ perspective

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level at the majority of the 140 universities information retrieval services and research
surveyed in the USA. In South Africa, the services.
majority of universities are now offering ● Market: Clients, mostly persons with pro-
entrepreneurship as a subject or planning to fessional qualifications, are usually drawn
introduce it in the near future. It has become from the private sector. The majority of
crucial that departments teaching Information clients come from the Pretoria-
Science in South Africa include infopreneur- Witwatersrand area. Services are also
ship courses in their curricula. rendered to overseas clients. Most clients
During the seventies, information broker- repeatedly use the same information
ing and consulting services experienced a broker or consultant.
period of expansion, specifically in the USA. In general, South African information
The industry became well developed in the brokers and consultants were positive and
USA, with courses being conducted and optimistic about the future of their industry in
papers delivered at conferences by members South Africa. They indicated that success
of the industry. In Europe a code of conduct depends on the following conditions:
was developed for information brokers and ● clients should be made more information
information consultants [6]. In South Africa conscious and regard information as an
there was also a marked growth in demand essential resource;
for the services of information consultants. ● information brokers and consultants
This was strongly stimulated, for example, by should adjust to changing needs;
the need to manage information as an eco- ● good market research should be under-
nomic resource in enterprises. While there taken;
appeared to be a wealth of IT equipment in ● value-added information services and
many enterprises, information skills were products should be rendered.
lacking in staff who were expected to be able Infopreneurship is action-orientated. The
to control their own systems, and to search design of a course on infopreneurship should
cost-effectively and knowledgeably for infor- encourage imagination, creativity and inno-
mation in internal and external systems. In a vation, and address the issues of setting a
survey by Kotze and Boon [6], a profile of the balance between teaching entrepreneurial
South African information broker and con- skills and managerial skills. Entrepreneurs
sultant revealed the following: identify needs in changing environments; they
● General characteristics: The industry is create and innovate with active imagination,
relatively young and not established and a quality of a developed right hemisphere
designations are used loosely. Practices are of the brain. Traditional schooling focuses on
usually registered as closed corporations. developing the left hemisphere of the brain.
Vocational experience is regarded as an Entrepreneurship education should address
important prerequisite. Most information the need to train students in the skills and
brokers and consultants enter the industry knowledge required to bring an idea, inven-
after identifying a specific need in the tion, product or process from the stage of
market. conception to its full commercial potential [7].
● Resources: Most information brokers and Entrepreneurship education should place
consultants practise from their homes. greater emphasis on practical experience and
The industry is not capital intensive. application. Since entrepreneurs are action-
Information brokers and consultants orientated rather than concept-motivated, the
usually employ part-time personnel. art of learning skills should be developed by
● Services: A large variety of information increasing awareness. Pragmatic demands
services and products are rendered. These for relevance and the application of knowl-
services/products vary from system analy- edge will be required, while the student has
sis and design to the analysis of informa- to fully integrate the scholarly and practical
tion needs and the evaluation of software. learning styles, therefore making the lecturer’s
Information brokers generally deliver role that of a facilitator of the learning

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 Teaching infopreneurship: students’ perspective

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process, thus helping students to experience a more practical approach to the teaching of
and assimilate observations into personal infopreneurship, the presentation methods
conceptions of reality. could, among other things, include speeches
It is challenging to teach infopreneurship. by infopreneurs, videotapes, creativity, inno-
When considering the curriculum of a course vation, product development projects and
in infopreneurship, one should look at the case studies [8]. Research by Holoviak, Ulrich
knowledge and skills an infopreneur would and Cole [9] concluded that entrepreneurial-
need in order to be successful. The course ly minded students prefer a more active
content should focus on two aspects, name- learning style. Significant methods include
ly, the teaching of creative and analytical skills field projects, role-playing, management
on the one hand and teaching business basics simulation, structured experimental exercises
on the other. and experiments. The possibility of differenti-
The section on creativity and analytical ating infopreneurship programmes according
thinking should include programmes to stim- to stages of development, career paths and
ulate ideas generation and the ability to iden- regional and cultural demands could be con-
tify opportunities in the market. The section sidered [10].
on business basics should include: entrepre-
neurship theory, definition and profile; how to Research method
draw up a business plan; forms of enterprise; Since 1996 the Rand Afrikaans University, sit-
legal matters and licensing; basic training in uated in Johannesburg, South Africa, has
the various functional areas such as market- offered a BA (Information Science) degree.
ing, financial and administrative manage- Information Science is a compulsory major
ment. The major objective of the course subject and a further major subject must
should be to create enterprise capability and, be chosen from Business Management,
in particular, self-reliance. Enterprise capabil- Economics, Informatics, Industrial Psych-
ities would involve creativity, initiative taking, ology or Communication Science. This
persuasiveness, leadership, analytical ability, degree has been specifically designed to
imagination, networking, moderate risk- equip undergraduates with the know-how
taking and achievement motivation. and skills to develop as infopreneurs. The
By implication the end-product should Department has a business approach
be a creative individual who understands in teaching Information Science with the
how to establish and operate an information emphasis on information as a resource.
enterprise. It would be unrealistic to expect a The target market is the end-user, that is, any
relatively short course in infopreneurship to employee or person who needs information
achieve such ambitious objectives. Education for effective decision-making, especially elec-
for infopreneurship should be a long-term tronic information available on the Internet/
challenge. The contribution of the university World Wide Web. Infopreneurship is a
is restricted to a rather small section of this semester course in the second year of study.
educational process. Students who attend this course can be
divided into two groups: students registered
Presentation methods for a BA (Information Science) degree with
The offering of infopreneurship courses Information Science as a major, and students
requires a radical change in the thinking, registered for a BSc (Information Technology)
culture and environment of Information degree with Computer Science as a major.
Science departments at universities [8]. The Students are taught how to:
very nature of the entrepreneur, which is ● be creative yet practical in their search for
action-orientated, requires that courses on business ideas;
infopreneurship be closely linked to the real ● research their business idea and ensure
world. The role of the infopreneurship that it will be profitable;
lecturer should therefore rather be that of a ● develop information products suitable for
facilitator, coach and mentor. To achieve the market;

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● plan the way they will be doing business Computer Science students. Both groups
and handle important issues such as were more positive about starting an own
financing the start-up and marketing their information business after completion of
products or services. the infopreneurship course, with 61%
Students who attended the 1998 course of Information Science students and 83% of
were asked to complete a questionnaire. The Computer Science students stating that they
survey was conducted towards the end of the were more positive after the course.
course. As this was only an exploratory study,
no claims of generalising the findings to other Objectives of a course in infopreneurship
universities are made. Of the sample of 107 The respondents had to indicate on a Likert
students, 83 students (77.6%) completed the scale, from 1 = irrelevant to 5 = extremely
questionnaires; 42 were Information Science important, the importance of a given set of
students and 41 Computer Science students. objectives. In order of preference, the aver-
The responses of the two groups were record- age rankings were as illustrated in Table 1.
ed and averages calculated. A Likert scale The most important difference occurred
was used in ranking opinions. with regard to assisting students to become
self-employed, which was placed first by
Findings Computer Science students and fourth by
Information Science students. This percep-
Profiles of Information Science and tion of Computer Science students may stem
Computer Science students from the strong competition in the computer
The average age of both groups was 19 years. industry in South Africa. Computer Science
Forty-five per cent of the Information Science students regarded the contribution of the
students were male compared to 67% of the course towards an entrepreneurial culture as

Table 1. Objectives of a course in infopreneurship

Objectives of course Average ranking: Objectives of course Average ranking:

Information Science Computer Science
students students
To create entrepre- 3.9 To assist students to 4.2
neurial awareness become self-
employed
To teach the know- 3.9
how to start and run a To create entrepre- 4.0
business neurial awareness
To prepare students 3.7 To teach the know- 4.0
to start their own how to start and run a
businesses business
To assist students to 3.7 To prepare students 4.0
become self- to start their own
employed businesses
To develop analytical 3.7 To contribute towards 3.9
and creative skills an entrepreneurial
culture
To develop students 3.6
into intrapreneurial To develop analytical 3.9
employees and creative skills
To contribute towards 3.5 To develop students 3.5
an entrepreneurial into intrapreneurial
culture employees

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less important than Information Science Information Science students expressed a
students did. Comments by Computer greater need for training in these areas than
Science students stated that they already Computer Science students did. The percep-
see themselves as entrepreneurs who are tion of Computer Science students that they
going to start their own businesses. had a lesser need for training in creative and
analytical skills may stem from the emphasis
Course content in the Computer Science department on cre-
In this section respondents had to indicate the ativity, analysis and design. It appeared as
importance of the inclusion of 18 different top- though Information Science students did not
ics in an infopreneurship course. The Likert regard themselves as very creative.
scale used varied from 1 = irrelevant to 5 = Both groups gave a low ranking to defi-
extremely important. In order of preference, nition and theory of entrepreneurship. This
which was based on the average rating, course was in accordance with the finding of the
content was rated as shown in Table 2. literature survey; namely that entrepreneur-
The most important differences between ship should be practical. Examples of
the two groups occurred with regard to the infopreneurship received a much higher
improvement of creative ability and improve- ranking from Computer Science students
ment of analytical thinking. In both instances than from Information Science students.

Table 2. Course content

Content Average ranking: Content Average ranking:

Information Science Computer Science
students students
Financial management 4.1 Risk and the entrepreneur 4.3
Improvement of analytical thinking 4.0 Infopreneurship in the new South 4.0
Africa
Improvement of creative ability 4.0
Marketing management 4.0
How to draw up a business plan 3.9
Examples of infopreneurship 4.0
Ideas generation techniques 3.8
Profile of the entrepreneur 3.9
Risk and the entrepreneur 3.7
How to draw up a business plan 3.9
Financing the new venture 3.6
Improvement of creative ability 3.9
Infopreneurship in the new South 3.5
Africa Evaluation of new ideas 3.9
Profile of the entrepreneur 3.5 Ideas generation techniques 3.9
Market research 3.5 Financial management 3.8
Evaluation of new ideas 3.5 Improvement of analytical thinking 3.8
Examples of infopreneurship 3.5 Sources of new ideas 3.8
Feasibility analysis of new ideas 3.4 Personnel management 3.7
Definition and theory of 3.3 Financing the new venture 3.7
entrepreneurship
Market research 3.7
Sources for new ideas 3.2
Feasibility analysis of new ideas 3.7
Marketing management 3.1
Intrapreneurship 3.5
Personnel management 3.0
Definition and theory of 3.4
Intrapreneurship 3.0 entrepreneurship

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Table 3. Teaching methods

Teaching method Average ranking: Teaching method Average ranking:

Information Science Computer Science
students students
Lectures on infopreneurship 3.5 Group visits to information 4.0
businesses
Practical assignments 3.5
Lecturer relating own infopreneur- 3.9
Research paper assignments 3.5
ship experience
Lecturer relating own 3.5
Business plan preparation 3.9
infopreneurship experience
assignment
Business plan preparation 3.5
Practical assignments 3.8
assignment
Lectures on infopreneurship 3.7
Case studies 3.5
Speeches by infopreneurs 3.7
Creativity, innovation and product 3.4
develop exercises Case studies 3.7
Group visits to information 3.4 Research paper assignments 3.5
businesses
Text reading and discussions 3.4
Text reading and discussions 3.2
Creativity, innovation and product 3.3
Speeches by infopreneurs 3.1 development exercises
Videotapes 2.8 Videotapes 3.2

The Information Science and Management this section of the questionnaire respondents
Science background of the lecturer, and con- were requested to indicate the most effective
sequently the more frequent use of examples methods to stimulate entrepreneurship abili-
of entrepreneurs with Information Science ties among students. The teaching methods
training, could be the reason. The most were ranked on a Likert scale, where 1 =
important differences between the two totally ineffective and 5 = extremely effective.
groups occurred with regard to the teaching The average ranking is given in Table 3.
of financial management and marketing man- In similar fashion to the response with
agement. Financial management was placed regard to course content, creativity, innova-
first by Information Science students tion and product development were rated
and tenth by Computer Science students, and much higher by Information Science students
marketing management third by Computer than by Computer Science students. The high-
Science students and sixteenth by er perceived need for such teaching among
Information Science students. No logical Information Science students most probably
explanation can be provided since the major- stemmed from less training in the field of
ity of students of both groups also attended creativity and innovation than amongst
Business Management courses. Both groups Computer Science students.
gave a low ranking to the teaching of intrapre- The lecturer relating own infopreneur-
neurship, which is an indication that students ship experience, and practical and business
already decided that they would rather work plan assignments were ranked high by
for themselves than in an existing enterprise. both groups. This confirms the requirement
stated in the literature that entrepreneurship
Teaching methods courses should be practically orientated
As already mentioned, it appears to be diffi- and that the lecturer should have practical
cult to teach infopreneurship effectively. In experience in applying infopreneurship.

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Both groups expressed strong dislike for fuller understanding of the entrepreneurial
the use of videotapes as a teaching method. phenomenon, and become more competent
The very poor ranking of videotapes was most stakeholders – whether as employees in
probably caused by the fact that there is still the information industry or, possibly,
much room for improvement in the quality infopreneurs.
and appropriateness of the videotapes avail-
able for use in infopreneurship courses. This
area surely offers a business opportunity for References
a prospective entrepreneur!
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wells. 1998. http://www.fm.co.za/98/0904/
Conclusion focus/young.htm
The introduction of infopreneurship at
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3. Weitzen, H.S. Infopreneurs: turning data into
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for example business games, videos, case
4. MaCleod, G. Starting your own business in
studies, guest speakers and establishing inter-
South Africa. Cape Town: Oxford, 1995.
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