Entrepreneurship: Theory and Application in a University Arts Management Setting

This article explores the applicability of entrepreneurship as an academic course of study with respect to the broader area of arts management pedagogy. A historical overview of primary texts ranging from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries serves as a preface for a discipline-based perspective of its twentieth-century articulations. Primary theoretical exponents reveal the economic, sociological, and psychological underpinnings of entrepreneurship as it is developed as an academic topic. Mahoney and Michael’s subjectivist theory informs the relationship between entrepreneurship and the study of creative and cultural industries. Recommendations for specific pedagogical application include structuring and content for in-class activities and outreach projects. In all cases the use of analogy, non-linear thinking, and the critique of textbook decision-making protocol supplement the implementation of outreach programs including practicum, externship, as well as study abroad, student leadership, and alumni-involvement initiatives.