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Entrepreneurship as a Liberal Art
Author(s) -
Rennie Henry G.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.259
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 1555-5623
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.2007.00101.x
Subject(s) - entrepreneurship , liberal arts education , curriculum , creativity , the arts , liberal education , sociology , compartmentalization (fire protection) , value (mathematics) , management , political science , public relations , pedagogy , economics , higher education , law , biochemistry , chemistry , enzyme , machine learning , computer science
This article looks at the role liberal arts colleges or universities can play in developing individuals with a comparative advantage in new enterprise creation. The thesis is that entrepreneurship is a creative act and, as such, has more in common with the liberal arts than the narrower fields of both market economics and business. The article concludes by integrating entrepreneurship, creativity, and liberal arts. It is shown that entrepreneurship can be the foundation of a liberal education because: (1) entrepreneurship will create a distinctive competency and generate increased value added in the liberal arts experience of students; (2) entrepreneurship will promote learning through applications of the consilience of inductions; (3) it will integrate the curriculum, reduce time, and subject compartmentalization of the curriculum; and (4) entrepreneurship will minimize external competitive threats to the liberal arts college. Implications of this conclusion for the curriculum in American colleges are suggested.