Entrepreneurship Development: Programme or Process

This paper investigates the less than acceptable performance of rural entrepreneurship development programmes in the state of Rajasthan (India). A case study method of research was deployed seeking feedback of participants of three entrepreneurship development programmes. Feedback was obtained from two audiences- those who completed the programme and those who either did not attend the programme or dropped out at some stage. Investigation resulted into identification of several areas of inadequate performance- choice and deployment of faculty, course material, expectations of the participants, timing, delivery and focus of the programme. Authors recommend a major shift in delivery of these programmes. In place of a fixed duration one-off programme, authors suggest institutionalizing an entrepreneurship development process. The study departs from earlier studies those suggest some disparate improvements against the immediate problems identified. The paper strongly argues a radical rethink in delivery of the contents as part of continuous ongoing hierarchical process.