E-Learning Solution for Enhancing Entrepreneurship Competencies in the Service Sector

Introduction

The increasing role of the service sector for the economic growth, competitiveness and employment was revealed by studies which were carried on in the last 10-15 years (de Jong, Bruins, Dolfsma & Meijaard, 2003; Howells & Tether, 2004; Tether, 2005; Jose Silva et.al, 2011). Considering the importance of this sector, it becomes important to identify the main factors of the innovative capability of the service organizations. Entrepreneurship, as a major source of innovation allows these organizations to undertake their role (Harper, 2003; Barth, Yago & Zeidman, 2006; Vicens & Grullón, 2011; Ragalie et al., 2007). The term of entrepreneurial innovative capability was introduced by Jose Silva et.al (2011) to integrate the various components arising from the innovation process, namely product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation and marketing innovation. Entrepreneurial innovative capability varies from one organization to another, and is determined by a number of factors, the most important one being the individual competencies, as the application of knowledge, skills and abilities in order to achieve the desired results. Besides the individual competencies, there are team competencies, that address the collective performance of individuals joined toward a purpose and the organizational competencies, which address the strategic capabilities of a self-sustaining unit of people (IPMA, 2015).

By enhancing the individual competencies, the entrepreneurial education and training has a positive impact on the entrepreneurial mindset of young people, on their intentions towards entrepreneurship, their employability and finally on their role in society and economy (Audretsch & Thurik, 2002), (Valerio, Parton & Robb, 2014). E.U. (2012) concludes that the objectives of entrepreneurship education should be the improvement of the young people's entrepreneurial competences, and increasing the role of entrepreneurs in the economy and society at large. European Commission launched several official documents, such as Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan and Rethinking Education Communication, to emphasize the need of embedding the entrepreneurial learning in all levels and sectors of education, including the non-formal one. Before leaving compulsory education, all young people should benefit from a practical entrepreneurial experience (E.U., 2013).

The conceptual framework developed by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Amorós & Bosma, 2014) includes the following key entrepreneurial conditions: entrepreneurship education and training (the extent to which competences for creating or managing business are developed by the education and training system at all levels), the availability of financial resources, the presence and quality of governmental programs, R&D transfer (the extent to which national research and development will lead to new commercial opportunities and is available to SMEs), commercial and legal infrastructure (the presence of property rights, commercial, accounting and other legal and assessment services and institutions that support or promote SMEs), market entry regulation (for assuring market openness and dynamics), physical infrastructure and cultural and social norms.

Although the need for entrepreneurial education and training is growing, there are still many obstacles to its development. One of these obstacles is represented by the controversy on the competences repository which should be taught in the entrepreneurship programs and courses and the extent to which they are really teachable. Entrepreneurship competences are often considered to be only a subset of managerial competences and, for this reason, extensive managerial subjects are included in the entrepreneurial educational programs. But, entrepreneurship can occur outside the corporate sphere, making the managerial competences as being in some context less important. Even if there are common elements, specific entrepreneurial competencies can be still identified and firstly considered by every educational program or course on entrepreneurship.