Study of Competences Required for Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation: Comparative Case of Different Mexican Universities

Introduction

Social innovation and social entrepreneurship are related concepts (Drucker, 1985) and although these are current topics nowadays, there is a manifest lack of literature. This is because of the dominant paradigm, which still leaves behind the social aspect, without considering that a knowledge-based economy is an essential factor for endogenous growth (Schmitt, 2015; Julien, & Molina, 2012; Contreras Soto, 2001), as it holds that social innovation process can emerge from a unique human being´s actions who is going to appear as a leader, in a determinate context, usually a dispossessed one, being then considered as an endowed individual with special skills and characteristics. (Schmitt, 2015; Schmitt, Berger-Douce, & Bayad, 2005). Social tendency is a result of the problematics experienced in many countries all around the world (Kliksberg, 2012). For instance, Salinas Ramos and Osorio Bayter (Salinas Ramos, & Osorio Bayter, 2012) detail how the financial capitalism and utilitarianism approaches, promoted by the USA neo-liberalism, and the anti-ethical speculation of floor brokers at the New York Stock Exchange in 2008 precipitated the economic and financial crisis, which highly impacted the whole world in the beginning of the 21st century, enhancing social exclusion, inequalities and extreme poverty. Social innovation appears then as an answer to unfriendly conditions (Schmitt, Berger-Douce, & Bayad, 2005; Marin, Morua, & Schmitt, 2012) and can be defined as a social process of value creation as well as useful knowledge generation (Castellaci et al., 2005) in which different actors, at a local or regional level, look forward to develop new ideas generating new products or services for the benefit of the community. This process requires a multiplicity of actors of change, from individuals or small associations initiating processes of innovation and entrepreneurship, to institutions which give financial support, guidelines and accompaniment Universities are one of these actors of change which encourage students' development of skills and accompanies innovating ideas (Schmitt, Berger-Douce, & Bayad, 2005). As a consequence, undergraduate programs and syllabus are being revisited in order to get aligned with universal principles and human aspirations such as liberty, equality, fairness and with the citizen model we would wish to form by the end of the 21st century (ONU, 2018). Universities are also implementing accompaniment services for entrepreneurs and innovators where students as well as general staff are welcome. (Marin, Morua, & Schmitt, 2012). Even if new economical models emphasize the need to connect universities with innovation and development (Rivera, & Morua, 2015), the effort, results and effects of this participation are still to be measured, reinforcing that necessity. The various competence-based education models implemented in several countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at the end of the 80's and the beginning of the 90's constitute a tentative to remedy the situation (Mertens, 1992). Farías (Farías, 2010) establishes that universities' undergraduate programs must be orientated to entrepreneurship and innovation. The actual challenge in competence-based higher education is to incorporate learning spaces where students would be able to meet the professional reality, to give them the opportunity to interact with and confront partners in order to enhance their impulse to change reality with a social innovator vision, joining other realities, other global visions to this reality. We would have then future competent and engaged citizens and professionals, using new technologies for public benefit and social well-being.