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7 Cyberpreneurship Education:
A New Frontier
Mariati Norhashim, Kamarulzaman Ab. Aziz, Anisah Jumaat and Muhammad Nizam
Zainuddin
Introduction
Recent times have seen an increase in the interest and demand in entrepreneurship
research particularly in entrepreneurial personalities, skills and its relationship with
entrepreneurial tendency (Basu & Virick, 2008; Peterman & Kennedy, 2003; Yusof et
al. 2007). This trend may have started as a result of perceptions about
entrepreneurship as a social adjuster (Jack & Anderson, 1999) within an economy that
can lead to positive economic growth (Garavan & O’Cinneide, 1994; Ibrahim, 2006;
Murphy et al. 2000).
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Furthermore, with the emergence of new business models (Venkatraman, 1996), the
shift of the world’s economy towards a knowledge based economy has resulted in a
whole spectrum of business and market challenges that the traditional entrepreneurs
of yesteryears are not equipped to tackle. The question thus becomes, ‘Can the current
entrepreneurship syllabus prepare students in becoming entrepreneurs in e-
commerce’? An entrepreneurship course is differentiated from a management course
by the emphasis on creativity and innovation although they share many of the same
subjects such as accounting, human resource management and information systems.
Just as ‘entrepreneurship’ is similar but distinct from ‘small business management’, in
the same way, a ‘cyberpreneurship’ syllabus is distinct from ‘entrepreneurship’. The
purpose of this paper is to discuss and dissect the similarities and differences between
the two and put forth our arguments that with the advent of information and
communication technology, digital economy, the internet and ubiquitous technology;
cyberpreneurship is not a mere trend but a legitimate branch of entrepreneurship
studies that should be given its deserved focus. We are proposing cyberpreneurship
as a syllabus for a course that can be incorporated into a business degree or an
entrepreneurship degree rather than a degree programme on its own. In so far as
entrepreneurship has found its place among subjects like management and business
studies, we propose that cyberpreneurship should have a place among subjects such
as e-commerce, e-business and management information systems.
This view seems to be shared by many, judging from the fact that entrepreneurial
education has become a popular addition to many institutions around the globe (Gibb,
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1987; Linan et al. 2005; Souitaris & Zerbinati, 2004). This is certainly true in the case of
Malaysia as the number of courses offered at various levels in the education system
and efforts at public education by the government through the MOHE, the now
defunct Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development (MECD) as well as
other agencies have been on the increase (Othman et al. 2004; Ramayah & Harun,
2005). The trend is definitely timely as the deadline for developed nation status looms
in year 2020 where achieving a knowledge society is on the agenda. Entrepreneurship
development is a key national agenda and incubator. Thus, entrepreneurship
development agencies have made their presence felt (Ariff & Abubakar, 2002).
This paper will discuss the common approach to entrepreneurship education from the
syllabus perspective and highlight the distinctive attributes of cyberpreneurship. The
distinction of cyberpreneurship from entrepreneurship also argues for the need to
provide cyberpreneurship education separately. A prescription for teaching
cyberpreneurship as a separate subject and how it would fit into an entrepreneurship
course structure is offered. This paper will also highlight the unique challenges in
creating a cyberpreneurship education curriculum from the aspects of technology,
business models and ethics.
Many researchers have opined that entrepreneurial instinct is innate and cannot be
taught. However, studies have shown that certain entrepreneurial attitudes and skills
can be inculcated through education and training. Henry et al. (2005) found that
entrepreneurship education and training have been differentiated based on the
intended outcomes as in Jamieson (1984) or the level at which training is offered
(Garavan & O’Cinneide, 1994). The differences in categorisation however, they
observed, does not seem to reflect the variation in content and methodology of
entrepreneurship courses. Teaching methods vary from the theoretical classroom
based approach to the experiential learning techniques. Although there is still much
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Baron & Shane (2005) define entrepreneurship as a field of study that seeks to
understand how opportunities to create new products or services, markets,
production processes, ways of organizing existing technologies or raw materials arise
and are discovered by specific persons, who then use various means to exploit or
develop them.
The ‘flattening world’ means that old skills and ideas of how value is created
may now be deemed obsolete (Friedman, 2006). It is pointed out that jobs
would go to the ‘best, smartest, most productive, or cheapest worker –
wherever he or she resides’. If these superlatives do not apply, then
individuals must acquire the right knowledge, skills and ideas to remain
employable. This is particularly so when secured employment gives way to
freelancing self-employment which is a close cousin to entrepreneurship. It
may be very soon when entrepreneurship must look beyond the creation of
business systems to sell products and services because the individual is the
product and service all in one.
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Identifying opportunity
Planning
Assembling Resources
One of major attractions of doing an internet business is the low cost of entry.
Usual entrepreneurship syllabi would include issues such as financing and
credit management. However, resources needed for a business encompass
more than seeding and start up capital. Students may have difficulty
transferring brick and mortar ideas of what resources are to cyberspace.
Business dealings with digitised products and services will find that sourcing
the ‘product and/or services’ for sale is not about finding the cheapest or
logistically viable supplier. Rather it may be about ‘manufacturing’ a product
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The above vignette (Norhashim et al. 2006) illustrates several ways in which
cyberpreneurship can be taught differently than entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship
education normally focuses on idea generation and recognition of opportunities,
launching of the new venture and building lasting success. Among common
objectives of entrepreneurship education are to equip students with the needed skills
and knowledge to:
However, it is important to take note that the issues above are still hotly debated both
in the industry and academia. There is still no strong theoretical rigor or framework
that has withstood the test of time. It is precisely for this reason that tertiary
educational institutions should take the lead in filtering and refining ideas and
knowledge that has been generated in the new economy. What is the role of a
university if not to provide digestible and practical applications of the latest thinking?
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We do recognize that the topics tend to be part of the syllabi of courses such as
entrepreneurship, business, Information Technology, E-commerce, Management
Information System, etc. Our argument is that these topics are pertinent when
discussing cyberpreneurship, giving cyberpreneurship enough depth, breadth and
unique aspects that warrant it to be presented as a syllabus of its own. We feel that
with ICT, digital economy, internet, ubiquitous technology, etc, cyberpreneurship is
not a mere trend but a legitimate branch of entrepreneurship studies that should be
given its deserved focus. This syllabus is appropriate at the final stage in an
entrepreneurship major or course that will allow students to put together their
existing knowledge from the courses mentioned to form their understanding of
cyberpreneurship.
ICT has had a moderating and confounding effect on almost all aspects of business
and individual success in entrepreneurship. Popular media abounds with internet
success stories of previously disadvantaged groups such as women, the elderly, racial
minorities and the disabled in the same way it has allowed new markets to be opened
and exploited through low cost entry as well as niche market development (Friedman,
2006). The impacts of ICT and the internet brought about the need for specialised
strategies, technology challenges as well as a spectrum of new opportunities.
Multimedia University is one example of an institution that has taken the plunge and
exhibit leadership by introducing cyberpreneurship as a compulsory subject for all of
its students irrespective of their majoring. This experience however has brought to
light challenges that had to be tackled when trying to implement a cyberpreneurship
syllabus. It was found that in order to deliver cyberpreneurship education, a sound
syllabus must at least address the technology dimension as technology is the primary
differentiating factor between cyberpreneurship and entrepreneurship courses.
Secondly, the course needs to study the implications of the cyberpreneurship value
matrix on the cyber business model; and finally, the course needs to address the legal
and ethical challenges that face the cyberpreneur.
Technological Issues
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A cyberpreneur needs to tackle technological issues right from the beginning or even
before they start their businesses. For example, when developing a business plan,
cyberpreneurs may decide whether some functions, such as the website, are to be
done in-house or outsourced. Nevertheless, even when a cyberpreneur decides to
outsource, he/she needs to know and understand what solutions are exactly needed.
Right from the beginning, cyberpreneurs will be using information systems. The
online transactions and the internet in general also lend itself extremely well for the
creation of databases. Cyberpreneurs should have an understanding of information
systems and the advantages as well as benefits of having databases. There are times
when the information systems and databases become central to a business’s
competitive advantage as well as the sources for alternative revenue streams. In short,
the educator must know not only the managerial and business aspects of an online
business but also the technological aspects of the various technologies, especially its
impact on the business aspects such as managing practices, cost, productivity and
profitability.
Rayport & Sviokla (1996) illustrate the differences between the physical value chain
and the virtual value chain. This brings to the fore the fact that ICT and the internet
also have implications on the general principles and methods of identifying
opportunities. The cyber (internet) markets require entrepreneurs to change from
linear to non-linear thinking.
Friedman (2006) concurs by asserting that the internet allows small businesses to act
big and the big businesses to act small either by adding bells and whistles for little
added costs for the former and enabling personalized customer service for the latter.
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Understanding the differences between these two chains has implications for the
opportunity identification as well as the structuring of a new venture.
Yip (2004) illustrates two cases where the technologies available require reevaluating
the impact on business model fundamentals such as cost and revenue relationships.
This is a major difference that must be understood by cyberpreneurship educators.
The challenge here is that the educators need to impart the understanding that the
cyberpreneurial business model demands the ability to configure ICT skills and
knowledge as well as entrepreneurial skills towards creating a successful organisation
in cyberspace.
The relationships between business, government and society are complex. Multiple
theoretical approaches are used to understand and manage the relationships.
Economics, politics, sociology and management disciplines are but some of the
viewpoints from which legal and ethical issues can be debated and policies
formulated. Cyberpreneurship suffers from being very new and in itself not very well
understood, much less attempted to be understood in the legal and ethical aspects and
the ways in which it should be handled. This section will attempt to illustrate the
legal and ethical challenges facing cyberpreneurs in terms of [1] compliance [2]
contractual obligations and [3] community.
Compliance
Steiner & Steiner (2003) list ten reasons for government regulation over the private
sector which they assert comprise flaws in the market as well as social, political and
other reasons. They are (i) natural monopolies (ii) natural resources regulation (iii)
destructive competition (iv) externalities (v) inadequate information (vi) socially
desirable goods and services (vii) protecting individual rights and privacy (viii)
resolution of national and global problems (ix) regulation to benefit special groups
and (x) conservation of resources. The government sets out rules and regulations not
just through the highest court or governing body but also through specialised
agencies. Government agencies are created with the authority to not only set up the
rules and regulations but also be the enforcing arm. More often than not, a business
must deal with not just one but multiple agencies depending on the business they are
in. At times, there may even be rulings from different agencies that could be in direct
conflict with one another.
In most businesses, the idea of a regulation being obsolete dawns slowly whereas, the
cyber industry have yet to achieve a maturity where innovations are no longer a daily
if not a minute-by-minute phenomenon. How then do cyberpreneurs prepare
themselves so as to not suffer from an unexpected backlash from an unforeseen
regulation?
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Contractual Obligations
Contract laws are designed to protect each party’s interests clearly delineating each
party’s rights and responsibilities including remedies for breach of contract. Several
major issues arise in electronic transmitted transactions. There is difficulty in
translating traditional contract principles to internet based agreements. Concepts like
authentication, legal capacity and warranties can be difficult to enforce.
The issues above are but a few legal issues that a cyberpreneur must think about when
dealing with business partners be they suppliers or customers.
Community
Consumer and children protection, equity and the digital divide, online gambling,
pornography and piracy are on the agenda of every connected country. In the physical
economy, delivery of goods and services are often subject to border controls. These
borders allow governments not only to exert taxes and levies but also protect their
markets and people. Contraband exists in the cyberspace just as they do in the
physical domain but are much harder to detect and control. Policing is just as much a
concern in the cyberworld as it is in the physical world.
Privacy is a very important issue when it comes to the internet. Coupled with the
ubiquity of mobile personal communication devices, no one is safe from having their
privacy violated and published online or worse, being subjected to identity theft.
However, personal information is becoming a commodity and there is a market for it.
Information that is collected from the internet is just one side of the picture, a business
must also be aware of the consequences of publishing information on the net. Just as
in real life, defamatory or information that could be dangerous (e.g. health advice)
must be handled with care. A certain level of self-censorship is important not only for
ethical reasons but also for managing legal risks. Hinduja (2004) notes the lack of
social control in an online setting and narrates some developments on the
constitutional and legal front responding to the need for a citizen’s privacy concerns.
He further emphasises the need to constrain the unethical and infringing behaviours
of corporations and organisations online.
Conclusion
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References
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