摘要：An educator’s competence is a decisive factor regarding the development of entrepreneurship education initiatives (Hytti & O'Gorman, 2004). This suggests that the competence of an educator cannot be overemphasised particularly because practical business skills and experience are required to inculcate entrepreneurial skills in students. Business planning as an entrepreneurial activity involves the totality of the entrepreneurship process, hence it is still considered as an important aspect of entrepreneurship education and training (Albornoz-Pardo, 2013). A business plan creates diverse scenarios that may affect a business, thus its development requires an accurate analysis in order to transform business ideas and opportunities into successful businesses. Although, some studies such as Honig (2004), Bhide (2001) and Sarasvathy (2008) have criticised the business plan method of teaching entrepreneurship, nevertheless business plan competitions are increasingly becoming a popular option for partnering financial institutions, organizations, individuals, angel investors as well as venture capitalists as an opportunity to stimulate entrepreneurship development among start-up entrepreneurs and university graduates. This is premised on the fact that writing a business plan is considered as an expression of entrepreneurial intentions (Honig & Karlsson, 2004; White, Hertz & D’Souza, 2011). This suggests that the experience and training of an educator in this aspect is very important and decisive for students’ commitment to learn and write business plans. Fiet (2000) looked at the role of the educator in entrepreneurship education generally; other studies such as Shulman and Shulman (2004) stressed the role of practical business experience and training of entrepreneurship educators in motivating considerations of entrepreneurship as a career by university students. However, considering the role of business planning activities in inculcating entrepreneurship skills in learners, the objective of this research was to examine the role of an educator’s competence in enhancing students’ commitment to write business plans as expression of entrepreneurial aspirations and intentions.
关键词：Entrepreneurship Education;Educator’s Competence;Commitment to Learning;Business Plan Writing
