Methods for creating generic E- & I-ship

Modern societies are increasingly dependent on entrepreneurship and innovation to develop their competitiveness and wealth. The agenda of today is ‘Innovate or evaporate' where innovation, entrepreneurship and the development of new business is paramount. All societies are therefore dependent on the survival of entrepreneurs which necessitates a focus on securing the unique capabilities and ideas in the entrepreneurs business in a sustainable manner. Otherwise the society and the entrepreneurs will only stay innovative shortly and the business will be easy to copy and easy to compete against.  

Whatever academic stance we may have on the psychological characteristics of innovation  and entrepreneurship , or the background, experience and attitudes of  entrepreneurs  . The educational systems have many options for increasing students competences and to improve innovation and entrepreneurial behaviour  - but the system often lack options on how to develop the commercialization process and the entrepreneurs to become central in the customer process. Only 1 out of 5 entrepreneurs survive the first year into business. Only 10 % of those who survive reach a level of more than 10 employees. Only 5% reach a turnover of more than 1. million US dollars. Such figures call for this focus, that aims to ensure more sustainable companies and companies with better abilities for growth.

The educational systems have met a big challenge  today - but has still a long way to go teaching how entrepreneurs improve their survival and develop their innovation into sustainable businesses.

With the importance of societies being able to rely on the educational systems abilities to provide students with innovative and entrepreneurial competencies that facilitate and motivate for innovation and more young people to become entrepreneur - the question remains, how can we improve the survival of innovation and entrepreneurs. One of the methods to help us answer this important question is to understand better what keeps entrepreneurs alive on a long term perspective and what creates sustainable innovation. This knowledge can be used to differentiate between the curricula of courses in: innovation and entrepreneurship to develop sustainable new business, new business development and models.  

Therefore new ways to envisage and develop entrepreneurship courses must be met. We propose a change in focus to innovation and entrepreneurial education - from product innovation to customer process innovation - this focus seems to be more obvious related to long term survival of innovation and entrepreneurs.  

The paper presents a theoretical innovation framework based on understanding the difference between creating a business and developing sustainable business with specific focus on the customer process. The framework is used to illustrate a new focus in innovation and entrepreneurship related to to-days innovation and entrepreneurship courses. The understanding of keeping close to customer groups can be also be applied by existing companies that wish sustainable customer relationships and growth.