Entrepreneurship at Macromedia University
Assessing Students’ Perceptions Towards Start-Up Activities to Build Engagement
Master Thesis in Design Management
Abstract
This thesis investigates the low student engagement in the Macromedia Start-Up Community despite the high interest in entrepreneurship among students, as evidenced by the high number of start-ups per graduate student. The research aims to understand the students' current perception of the start-up activities at Macromedia University and to develop strategies to enhance engagement and establish an interconnected community across campus locations.
The study employs a qualitative research approach, including interviews with students and participant observations, to identify factors influencing students' engagement and assess the effectiveness of current communication strategies. The findings reveal that low engagement is not due to a lack of interest but is linked to communication methods and the perceived exclusivity of the program.
The thesis proposes solutions such as the establishment of an online community platform that can be easily accessed by students, a revised service blueprint, to optimize the communication and promotion of the start-up programs, and a tiered structure for entrepreneurship activities to cater to different levels of entrepreneurial readiness. The research highlights the need for improved communication strategies and more relevant and appealing entrepreneurship activities for students, who are yet only curious, but are hesitant to join and participate in the program.
This study contributes to the discourse on entrepreneurship education and provides insights good practice in this field, with a specific focus on enhancing student engagement in entrepreneurship activities.
Key Terms:
• Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurial Education
• Communication
• Community building
Key Words:
• Entrepreneurship Education
• Macromedia Start-up Community
• Communication Strategy
• Entrepreneurial Activities
• Service Design
• Customer Experience
Process Overview
Take a minute to write an introduction that is short, sweet, and to the point. If you sell something, use this space to describe it in detail and tell us why we should make a purchase. Tap into your creativity. You’ve got this.
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o develop a solution for the research problem, a literature review is conducted to develop an understanding of the whole topic.
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This thesis employs a qualitative empirical research design to understand the experiences and perceptions of students at Macromedia University of its start-up community. The choice of a qualitative approach allows for rich, detailed data to be collected, which is particularly useful when exploring new or complex phenomena. The main theoretical framework is grounded theory, accompanied by ethnographical research, such as participant observations and qualitative interviews.
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To understand the target group the following methodologies were used:
Interviews
Participation Observation
Analysis of Case studies
Grounded Theory to synthesize the insights
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The insights from the target group research were used to identify the main pain points of the target group, potential problems, and areas of improvements
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After successfully identifying key improvement areas and the point of view of the target group, a strategy and solution needs to be ideated.
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The end prototype in this project is a Service Blueprint and a written proposal for a strategy and concept. The proposed service can then be tested on a smaller scale before implementing it to the whole institution.
Target Group Research
The research phase in an academic research process is often the longest and most throughout. However, this step is important to generate a high-quality result that is not based on pure assumptions.
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Qualitative interviews were employed to delve into the diverse perspectives and experiences of students. These semi-structured interviews provided the flexibility to explore emerging themes and issues. Through transcription and thematic analysis, patterns within the data were identified and reported. Interviews serve as a fundamental research method for gathering firsthand personal accounts, opinions, and attitudes. While traditionally conducted in person to capture nuances like body language, they can also be conducted remotely via audio or video calls. Often integrated into broader research strategies, interviews complement methods like questionnaires and observations, particularly in ethnographic research.
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Ethnography, a research methodology prominent in social sciences like anthropology and sociology, involves immersive fieldwork and participant observation to understand human cultures and social phenomena deeply. It aims to provide rich descriptions of cultural contexts and social dynamics, utilizing interviews, focus groups, and artifact analysis. The focus is on uncovering meanings, patterns, and structures within specific cultural groups from an insider's perspective. In the study of the Macromedia Start-Up Community, participant observation will be utilized, incorporating interviews to gain a holistic understanding. Ethnographic methods are ideal for this research objective, providing insights into the community's dynamics and the role of start-ups within it.
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Grounded theory serves as the primary theoretical framework for this research, emphasizing the systematic construction of theory through comparative analysis of data. Originating from sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, this approach allows theories to emerge directly from the data, ensuring findings are rooted in participant experiences. The process involves constant comparative analysis, including open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, to identify patterns and themes. The goal is to construct a theory that explains and predicts phenomena based on data-driven insights. Grounded theory prioritizes understanding social processes and interactions from participants' perspectives, emphasizing empirical evidence and iterative theory development.
The grounded theory has been conducted with MAXQDA.
Defining...
The next step after all the target group research is the “define” stage. It synthesises all insights and information gained through the research phase.
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Empathy mapping is a tool used to gain a deeper understanding of a target audience's thoughts and emotions. By visually organizing information about a group's needs, goals, and behaviors, empathy mapping helps teams develop products and services that truly resonate with their intended users. Through the process of empathy mapping, businesses can cultivate a more empathetic approach to problem-solving and decision-making.
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Personas are a valuable tool in the design process, providing a clear picture of the target audience's needs, goals, and behaviors. By creating personas, designers can better empathize with users and make more informed decisions about design elements and features. Understanding the diverse personas within the target audience helps ensure that the final design caters to a range of user preferences and requirements.
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Understanding the status quo of the customer journey is crucial for businesses looking to improve customer experiences. Customer journey mapping allows companies to visualize the current state of interactions and touchpoints, identifying pain points and areas for enhancement. By gaining insights into the status quo, informed decisions can be made to optimize the customer journey, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.
Empathy Map
Through the interviews and participant observation of the target group, valuable insights for the empathy map were gained. The empathy map includes areas such as: What do people hear? Think and feel. See? Say and do? And what are their pains and gains in context with the start-up community and their activities? The insights gathered through research were summarised in this map.
Personas
Personas are a useful tool for understanding and empathizing with the diverse needs and behaviors of target audiences. Also, not every student of the university can be part of the target group. Thus, through qualitative interviews and research, the primary, secondary, and tertiary personas were identified.
Customer Journey Map of Status Quo
This customer journey, deprived from the prior research insights mirrors the current journey the students go through in context with their entrepreneurial journey at the university. Having an overview of the current state helps identify potential areas to improve in the future.
Ideation Phase
Brainstorming and mind-mapping solution ideas
Ideation is the Design-Thinking Process phase where ideas are generated. The initial idea came up through a brainstorming and mind-mapping session, which were starting points for the service blueprint, the concept of the start-up community, which should benefit everyone and consider the aspiring founders at their stages, and a community platform, mainly for networking.
Service Blueprint
A Service Blueprint is a visual tool used in service design to map out the relationships between service components, such as people, props, and processes, within a specific customer journey. It offers a comprehensive view of both front-end interactions and back-end processes, aiding in the identification of potential points of friction in the service experience. In the context of optimizing student engagement with start-up activities at Macromedia University, a service blueprint consisting of six stages has been developed. This blueprint includes provisions for a centralized platform listing entrepreneurial offers and recommendations, as well as the establishment of a potential community platform for communication within the start-up community.
In addition to this Service Blueprint, a set of entrepreneurial activities has been proposed to suit students who are in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.
Service Blueprint
Potential Prototype and Testing:
Due to time constraints, this research does not provide any tested prototypes of proposed services and suggestions. For potential prototyping and testing, a storyboard or customer journey based on the proposed service blueprint can be created and validated through feedback from the staff of Macromedia University or students. The input can also be collected through feedback surveys. A similar approach can be used to test the proposed stages of the Start-Up Community. Additionally, pilot testing can be implemented, and the service can be rolled out on a smaller scale first, making necessary adjustments before full-scale implementation.
Conclusion
This thesis highlights the significance of entrepreneurship and the cultivation of an entrepreneurial mindset within Macromedia University, essential for navigating the future workplace. It provides an extensive analysis of existing offerings and activities within the university's Start-Up Community.
Recognizing universities as catalysts for fostering entrepreneurial cultures, the research underscores the importance of preparing students for entrepreneurial challenges and future workplaces. The findings advocate for a multifaceted approach, advocating for diverse activities tailored to varying levels of entrepreneurial readiness, enhanced communication strategies, and digital platforms to facilitate community engagement.
This thesis features only a glimpse into the months-long research and only contains a fraction of the 194-page master thesis. This overview should provide a brief overview of the process to the solution. It does not include the detailed results, as these details are enclosed.
However, if you are an educator or are interested in the research, you may contact me.
