Parallel training leads to entrepreneurship

 

 

Korea is developing educational and training systems that will provide workers with the knowledge they need to be productive and globally competitive. While recent research has found that entrepreneurs tend to be generalists (or “jacks-of-alltrades”), little if any research has addressed the question of how to train people to become the kinds of generalists who become entrepreneurs.

 

 

Chihmao Hsieh, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Chair of the Creative Technology Management Division at Underwood International College, has found some answers to this conundrum. Appearing in March 2016 in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, the top journal in the field of Entrepreneurship, he theorizes and finds evidence that there is a difference in effectiveness between sequential training and parallel training of business function in becoming an entrepreneur.

 

Most notably, he hypothesized that parallel training is more likely to help people making connections among the different business functions. While sequential training (e.g. in the form of job rotations) can also valuably lead to entrepreneurial entry, this is more likely when a person is analytically pre-disposed. The power of analysis is less relevant when people learn domains in parallel. Professor Hsieh examined the career progressions, educational history, and demographics of over 13,000 scientists and engineers in the USA and found out that these hypotheses are supported.

 

The title of the research article: Do the Self-Employed More Likely Emerge from Sequential or Parallel Work Experience in Business-Related Functions?