Una propuesta didáctica para la creación de microempresas. La Escuela para Emprender

The social and economic importance of micro-entrepreneurship is undeniable according to the data offered by different economical observatories such as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. However, this observatory also reveals the high rates of business failure related to this particular type of entrepreneurship. The present study considers that, like other types of entrepreneurship, micro-entrepreneurship success is linked to dynamic capabilities of adaptation. These capabilities derive from the processes that the new entrepreneurs develop before the creation of their firms. For this reason, the study considers that the entrepreneurial training process plays a fundamental role in micro-business success. The study argues for the importance not only of entrepreneurial training, but also for the methodology used, as long as it contributes to the development of the entrepreneur’s ability to re-evaluate. In fact, the entrepreneur’s ability to re-evaluate has a significant influence on the development of dynamic adaptive capacity in the firm’s entry phase. In this sense, we argue that experiential learning facilitates entrepreneurs’ development of the ability to re-evaluate when it allows students to design new experiments, validate them, measure their results and learn from the market. The study also presents “La escuela para emprender” as an example of good practice based on experiential learning principles. In “La escuela para emprender” we prepare a specific didactic proposal designed and adapted to the needs of the micro-entrepreneurs in order to help them to specify their micro-business opportunity and the best strategy to adapt their market opportunity. Finally, we present the main results obtained from the first two editions of “La escuela para Emprender”. From these results, we can deduce that the methodology used in this course not only contributes to the development of re-evaluation skills but also entrepreneurial intention. These results emphasize the importance of entrepreneurial education and training, especially when this training contributes to the development of the entrepreneur’s re-evaluation skills. In this regard, these results contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial education by analyzing its influence on the intention to start a business and on the development of transversal skills as the ability to re-evaluate.