Standard Template for PM and Short Reportsat JIBS
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
J ÖNKÖPING I NTERNATIONAL B USINESS S CHOOL JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY Up-lift in Vaggeryd Qualitative Analysis of Entrepreneurial Education in Vaggeryd Paper within ZMASTEM Author: Dejan Jordanov Tutor: Helén Andersson Jönköping May 2007 Master thesis in Entrepreneurial Management Title: Up-lift in Vaggeryd: Qualitative Analysis of Entrepreneurial Education in Vaggeryd Author: Dejan Jordanov Tutor: Helén Andersson Date: June 2007 Subject terms: Qualitative research methods, interview, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial education, start-up of new businesses Summary PROBLEM DISCUSSION: Vaggeryd is a small municipality Småland. In addition to its strategic position along the main traffic route E4, Vaggeryd is very interesting also because of its advanced view on growing of the business sector, in both short and long-term per- spective. To meet that goal the municipality of Vaggeryd started to invest in “Egenföretagareut- bildningen” EFU in cooperation with Jönköping International Business School (JIBS). The main idea is that students attend the courses that are held by JIBS and during their studies start their own business in a local business incubator called Fenix. PURPOSE: To host such education requires a huge amount of energy and resources from the municipality, which consequently would like to get answers to questions like “Is it worth investing in the education?” or “What are the results of such education?” The aim of this paper is to give the answers to those crucial questions though I believe that the time that has passed from the beginning of the education is too short and that the number of the students was not large enough to get definitive answers. This paper concentrates on a narrow part of the qualitative research methods – an inter- view. It is divided into two parts, a theoretical part and the empirical findings. FINDINGS: The research showed that six students out of a total of ten from generation 2005 started a new venture, three will take over a family business, and one has not decided to start a business yet. Of six students in generation 2003 four have started a business and one of them finished in bankruptcy, one plans to start a business in the future and one does not have a good business idea. RECOMMENDATIONS: Answers that the interviews returned gave interesting sugges- tions to both the municipality of Vaggeryd and JIBS about how to improve EFU. I would emphasise two, I believe, the most important recommendations. First municipality has to attract neighbouring municipalities in the EFU project. In addition, a greater effort should be made to help students build a spider’s web of business contacts. i Table of Contents Summary 1 1 Introduction .................................................................................................4 2 Background .................................................................................................5 2.1 Research methods in general ............................................................5 2.1.1 Perspectives in research ....................................................................8 2.1.1.1 Positivistic approach ........................................................................8 2.1.1.2 Relativistic approach ........................................................................8 2.2 Types of research...............................................................................9 2.3 Sampling ............................................................................................9 2.3.1 Random Sample ..............................................................................10 2.3.2 Stratified Sample..............................................................................10 2.3.3 Cluster sampling...............................................................................10 2.3.4 Systematic sampling ........................................................................10 2.3.5 Accidental sampling .........................................................................10 2.3.6 Quota sampling ................................................................................11 2.3.7 Theoretical sampling ........................................................................11 2.3.8 Purposive sampling..........................................................................11 2.3.9 Systematic matching sampling.........................................................11 2.3.10 Snowball techniques ........................................................................11 2.3.11 Conclusion .......................................................................................11 2.4 Qualitative research .........................................................................11 2.4.1 Interviews .........................................................................................11 2.4.1.1 Structured interviews......................................................................12 2.4.1.2 Semi-structured interviews.............................................................12 2.4.1.3 Unstructured interviews..................................................................12 2.4.2 Focus groups ...................................................................................13 2.4.3 Participant observation.....................................................................13 2.4.4 Personal learning logs......................................................................13 2.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................13 2.6 Quantitative research methods ........................................................14 2.6.1 Questionnaires .................................................................................14 3 Ethics in research .....................................................................................14 4 Conclusion.................................................................................................15 5 Specification of the problem ....................................................................16 6 Purpose and method.................................................................................17 7 Delimitations..............................................................................................17 8 Method used ..............................................................................................17 8.1 Data collection......................................................................................18 8.1.1 The day of the interview ...................................................................18 8.1.1.1 Introduction to the interview ...........................................................18 8.1.1.2 During the interview .......................................................................19 8.1.1.3 Closure of the interview..................................................................19 8.1.2 Data processing ...............................................................................19 8.1.3 Problems and weaknesses ..............................................................22 2 9 Up-lift in Vaggeryd - Outcome of the interviews.....................................23 10 Analysis ...................................................................................................38 11 Conclusions ............................................................................................41 References.......................................................................................................43 12 Appendix..................................................................................................45 12.1 Appendix 1: Questions for the interview.........................................45 12.2 Appendix 2: EFU book-post ...........................................................46 12.3 Appendix 3: Kreativ Arena in Vaggeryd .........................................48 Figures Figure 2-1: A Traditional model of research process. .....................................................7 Figure 2-2: Positivistic research design. .........................................................................8 Figure 2-3 Qualitative research design. ..........................................................................9 Figure 8-1 Phases of the interview................................................................................17 Figure 8-2 XSight interface ...........................................................................................20 Figure 8-3 A jigsaw .......................................................................................................22 Figure 8-4 Four contextual levels of the interview.........................................................23 Figure 10-1: Map showing where the students live today .............................................38 Tables Table 2-1: Kinds of interviews.......................................................................................12 Table 4-1: Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative methods..................................15 Table 8-1: Transcription symbols in conversation analysis...........................................21 Table 8-2: Communications area..................................................................................22 3 1 Introduction Vaggeryd is a small municipality in the Gnosjö region in Småland. It has 12,800 inhabitants and covers 830 km2. Central towns of Vaggeryd municipality are Vaggeryd with 4,530 and Skillingaryd with 3,800 inhabitants. Skillingaryd is about 10 kilometres to the south of