On using games for practicing entrepreneurial mindset

Today, innovation and entrepreneurship are key words for many universities, as it constitutes an important part of most universities’ public and scientific outreach task. Universities are striving to increase the number of innovations and entrepreneurs generated by the university. Teaching and learning entrepreneurship is therefore of importance and schools, colleges and universities can play an important role by including entrepreneurship and innovation in their curricula (Sidhu et al., 2015a).

Some of the most crucial elements of entrepreneurship at the level of individuals are attitudes, skills and actions (Wennekers, 2005), i.e. the entrepreneurial mindset of the individual. This is an element that is seldom included in traditional classes at schools, colleges and universities. Creating entrepreneurial mindsets in students also calls for the use of innovative models and contents in teaching.

As part of the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE) research project, the entrepreneurial mindset has been studied and ten behaviors have been identified (Sidhu et al., 2015b). These are behaviors that are frequently found with successful entrepreneurs in the highly innovative and entrepreneurial area of Silicon Valley, California. Another part of the same research project has been to identify and design various games that can be used with the entrepreneurship students and that has the intension to advance the individual’s entrepreneurial mindset (Sidhu et al., 2015a).

This paper describes two BMoE-games (Story-telling and Collaboration) and discusses experiences of using them for teaching and learning entrepreneurship in higher education. Reflections from both teachers and students are provided.