14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

IMPROVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH SERIOUS GAMES

Eliza-Olivia Lungu, Liliana Grecu
National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection

Abstract:

The article presents an ongoing Leonardo da Vinci project, Entrepreneurship in Serious. Improving the
Entrepreneurs Skills through the Serious Games Supported on Social Networks (EiS), which aims to improve the entrepreneurial
mindset through the development of certain key skills for entrepreneurship using serious games and social networks. First we present
a short description of the entrepreneurship culture in Romania, emphasizing on the Romanian entrepreneurs profile and training
opportunities for entrepreneurs and secondly we describe the project in the context of serious games.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, serious games, labour market, social networks

1. Introduction
Over the last 10 years, the percentage of Europeans wishing to become self-employed did
not change significantly, in spite of the current economic crisis. According to the Entrepreneurship
survey (2008), 45% prefer to be self-employed, while 50% opt for employment. Lately, the
European Commission has developed a series of recommendations intended not only to train for
entrepreneurship, but to learn to be entrepreneur, learning by being entrepreneur.
Nowadays the new learning methodologies based on games and social networks allow
building learning communities that combine non formal and informal activities for improve the
entrepreneurial skills. These methodologies, based on a tested and realistic theoretical background,
will provide with practical experiences of the world of work to the new entrepreneurs.
In this article we present such an initiative that wants to develop and improve a series of
essential soft skills for future and new entrepreneurs using serious games and social networks.
The article is structured as following: the next part presents a short description of the
training opportunities for entrepreneurship in the case of Romania, than a short description of the
Leonardo Da Vinci Transfer of innovation project Entrepreneurship in Serious. Improving the
Entrepreneurs Skills through the Serious Games Supported on Social Networks (EiS), followed
by a discussion regarding game based learning for entrepreneurs and conclusions.

2. Entrepreneurship culture in Romania

The dynamic data analysis of the Romanian SMEs reveals two distinct time periods: a
steady growth between 2003 and 2008 and decline during the crisis period 2008-2010. In 2010 the
number of SMEs is close to the one of 2006. The main form of market exit in 2009 was by
suspending their activity: over 133,000 SMEs have suspended business activities, compared with
only 12,000 in 2007 or 2008 [2]. Even thou the total number of SMEs declined with the economic
crises, the total number of newly created firms remained relatively constant during this period. It
comes as a natural consequence of the public policies of the last years, which facilitated more the
process of starting a new business than the consolidation and development of the existing ones and
proves the Romanian entrepreneurship potential. The density of SMEs reported at the total
population is still low comparing with the EU average (24 SME/1000 people vs. 42 SME/1000
people) [4]. This situation is highly frequent in the case of Eastern Europe countries, including

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

Romania, who underwent a period of profound structural changes of the economic system, while
encountering also a decrease in the total population.
The percentage of employees in SMEs, in the total active population varied between 56.82%
in 2003, to 62.9% in 2008, followed by a decrease to 58.24% in 2010. In nominal terms, more than
470,000 jobs in the SME economic activity were lost between 2008 and 2010. As a matter of fact,
70% of all jobs lost during the crisis were by SMEs [5,6].
During 2011, the total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) was around 10%, almost
double than the one from 2010, exceeding countries such as Hungary and Croatia. For both genders
the TEA increased between 2010 and 2011, in the case of males from 5.13% to 12.52%, while in
the case of females from 3.19% to 7.33% [3]. The main causes have been the new business
opportunities that emerged and the necessity motivation found in the adult population, at a high
extend.
2.2. Romanian entrepreneurs profile
According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Country Report for Romania (2011), share
of nascent entrepreneurs1 among the adult population increased by 2.26 percentage points (pp)
between 2010 and 2011; the rate of owners of a new enterprises has also increased by 3.42 pp, in
the same period; while the established business ownership rate by 2.49 pp.
Over the last twenty years, the profile of the Romanian entrepreneur improved in terms of
the ratio between women and men, education, technical skill and entrepreneurship experience.
According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor the profile of the Romanian entrepreneur for
2011 is male, 25 - 34 years old, with secondary education, situated in the upper 33% in terms of
household income.
From a gender perspective, almost two thirds (63.4%) of entrepreneurs who have set up a
business in 2008 were men. Although the percentage of Romanian entrepreneurs is higher in the
case of males, the difference between the number of female entrepreneurs and male entrepreneurs
has been gradually reducing since 90 (in 1995 a percentage of 70.9% of entrepreneurs were males).
Romanian entrepreneurs skills level has improved in recent years, the percentage of workers
unskilled who set up their own businesses decreased to one third in 2008 to two-thirds as it was in
1995. However, the level of managerial experience of the owners is still very low; around 2.4% of
start-ups in 2008 were created by entrepreneurs with previous experience in managerial positions.
This lack of managerial experience must be supplemented by professional training or oriented
disciplines including management/entrepreneurship education into the curriculum of technical and
scientific universities, taking into account that according to a research conducted by the National
Institute of Statistics showed that more than half of the Romanian entrepreneurs have completed
higher education level [7].
According to National Council of SMEs, in 2011 just 5.17% of the Romanian entrepreneurs
attended any form of training.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) studies provide insights on the societal attitudes,
perceptions and aspirations regarding the entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activity. According to
their last national report on Romania (2011), 57.5% of the Romanian early-stage entrepreneurs
(TEA)2 are motivated by opportunity, while around 41.3% by necessity. Even thou if the percentage
of entrepreneurs motivated by necessity is lower by 16.2 pp than the ones motivated by opportunity,
their percentage increased significantly since the beginning of the economic crises (13.8% in 2007
vs. 41.3% in 2011).
Also there have been chances on the personal motivations for the ones motivated by
opportunity, over the last five years. Increase income has remain the main motivation (59.1% in
2011), maintain income noticed a steady increase (0.1% in 2007 vs. 14.9% in 2011), while
independence recorder a decrease (48.17% in 2007 vs. 26.0% in 2011).
1

Active adults that are actively planning to start a new business.

TEA refers to active adult population that who actively planning to start a business in the near future or who has been
running a new business for less than 42 months.
2

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

Around half of the TEA offers products and/or services which are new to all or some of their
clients, their level of technology exposure and usage being higher than the one of the established
entrepreneurs. Most of their activities tend to be consumer-oriented services and less extractive
service activities.
2.2. Training for entrepreneurship in Romania
According to a recent study of the European Commission3, entrepreneurship education has a
positive impact on the entrepreneurial spirit of the young generation; they tend to mark better at:
creativity, innovation, risk taking and projects management. Furthermore, it helps to understand a
given context and assessment opportunities so determined entrepreneurship and starting a
commercial activity.
Romania registered considerable in this direction by including the entrepreneurship
education at all levels - primary, secondary, university and continuous vocational training. By
modifying the educational curricula at all school levels, entrepreneurship education is explicitly
recognized as a cross-curricular objective.
One of the successfully way for introducing entrepreneurial education in vocational and
technical high schools has been achieved through the training firms and simulated enterprises.
These are interactive learning methods that aim to develop entrepreneurship mind-set by integrating
and applying interdisciplinary knowledge, in order to the students to develop and improve their
business skills. They achieve this by simulating the processes and activities that take place in a real
enterprise and also see the relations that exist between companies and institutions4.
At the university level, there have encounter also progresses during the last years, regarding
the entrepreneurship education. This has been possible both by developing educational
programme/curricula and by facilitating students to participate in projects on entrepreneurships
founded by the European Structural Fund through the Operational Sectorial Programme - Human
Resources Development (POSDRU).
Also the Junior Achievement Romania encourages through its programmes students to take
initiative and get involved into games and simulations regarding entrepreneurship knowledge and
values. According to their annual report, around 1 million pupils and students participated in their
programs in the period 2000 2013, 153 000 just last year, from 1100 educational institutions.
Among their initiative in 2013, we mention: Company of the Year 20135, Banks in Action
Challenge 20136, Virtual Business Challenge 20137, Start Up entrepreneurship program for
students 20138 and START Internship Romnia9.
In the case of life-long learning, entrepreneurship training is achieved through the projects
financed by the European Structural Fund through the Operational Sectorial Programme - Human
Resources Development (POSDRU); projects financed through the Agency for Implementing
Programs and Projects for SMEs10 (AIPPIMM) and projects related to entrepreneurship education
developed by several NGOs such as Post-Privatization Foundation (FPP).
Post-Privatization Foundation (FPP) was created in 1996 by the European Commission as a
private organization that promotes entrepreneurial education and supports initiatives aimed at the
sustainable development of the Romanian business environment with a focus on small and
medium-sized enterprises through its programs on entrepreneurial development, improvement of
the business environment and promotion of business social responsibility. 11 Since 2011, FPP
3

Effects and impact of entrepreneurship programmes in higher education, European Commission, 2012,
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=5894
4
http://www.roct.ro
5
http://www.compania.jaromania.org/despre_prog.php
6
http://sponsor.ja-ye.org/pls/apex31mb/f?p=17000:1016:2480897957839004::::P1016_HID_INSTITUTION_ID:31763
7
http://sponsor.ja-ye.org/pls/apex31mb/f?p=17000:1016:2231878955294343::::P1016_HID_INSTITUTION_ID:31762
8
http://www.start-business.ro/node/990
9
http://www.startinternship.ro/
10
http://www.aippimm.ro/
11
http://www.postprivatizare.ro/english/

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

launched two projects for entrepreneurship education: Schools for Startups Romania (S4S) and
Business Mentoring Program (BMP).
National multi-annual program (2005-2012) for developing the entrepreneurial culture
among women managers in the SME sector12 was a program developed by the National Agency
for Implementing Programs and Projects for SMEs (AIPPIMM), whose goal was to promote an
information and training system for facilitating the mobility of women on labour market and
develop their entrepreneurship skills and competences. Between 201 and 2012, around 1000
women participated at the trainings.
The program UNCTAD/EMPRETEC Romania to support the development of SMEs13,
developed by the National Agency for Implementing Programs and Projects for SMEs (AIPPIMM)
whose was created to support the creations of new jobs and increase SMEs competitively. During
2011-2012 there were organized 16 workshops, attended by 348 participants.
The program for developing the youth entrepreneurship skills and facilitate their access
to START financing14, developed by AIPPIMM in order to stimulate start-ups and improve the
economic performance of the existing ones by increasing their access to founding sources and
entrepreneurship skills development.
The program for encouraging the creation and development of micro companies by young
entrepreneurs, developed by AIPPIMM to increase the potential of accessing founding develop the
entrepreneurship skills and competences of young people in order to get them more involved into
the economic processes.
Part of the Operational Sectorial Programme - Human Resources Development (POSDRU)
there is a founding line called Increase the adaptability of workers and enterprises, which has as
main objective the promotion of entrepreneurship culture, flexi security and labour market
adaptability by supporting the labour force and enterprises. During 2011, there have been financed
around 620 projects in which participated 10 856 entrepreneurs, 36 990 individuals interested in
starting a business and 2 402 managers [1].

3. Entrepreneurship in Serious (EiS)

Leonardo Da Vinci Transfer of innovation project Entrepreneurship in Serious. Improving
the Entrepreneurs Skills through the Serious Games Supported on Social Networks (EiS) is a two
years project that started in 2012 which aims to improve the entrepreneurial mindset through the
development of certain key skills for entrepreneurship using new methodologies, such as serious
games and social networks.
The project transfers the results of a previous Leonardo da Vinci project, SEE A GAME15,
focusing on methodological transference, target group and geographical transference.
The SEE A GAME project was developed as a game board addressed to the
entrepreneurship for fostering some entrepreneurial attitudes. We start from their list of attitudes
presented in the handbook, such as: creativity, self-confidence, self-reflection, empathy and select
those key skills that could support an entrepreneurship process. The use of games (serious games, or
games for learning) turns out to be one of the main challenges of the area of education and training,
helping not only strength the concept of non-formal or informal learning in the lifelong learning
dynamic but improve different training scenarios special whose related to the training on work.
Between the main objectives of the project we mention: adaptation and development of a
series of games for improving key competences and skills for entrepreneurs; creation of a learning
12

http://www.aippimm.ro/otimmc/targu-mures/articol/programul-national-multianual-pe-perioada-2005-2012-pentrudezvoltarea-culturii-antreprenoriale-in-randul-femeilor-manager-din-sectorul-intreprinderilor-mici-si-mijlocii-2/
13
http://www.aippimm.ro/articol/programe/2.programul-unctad-empretec-rom-nia-pentru-sprijinirea-dezvoltariintreprinderilor-mici-si-mijlocii/programul-unctad-empretec-rom-nia-pentru-sprijinirea-dezvoltarii-ntreprinderilor-micisi-mijlocii
14
http://www.aippimm.ro/otimmc/cluj-napoca/articol/programul-pentru-dezvoltarea-abilit-259-355-ilorantreprenoriale-n-r-ndul-tinerilor-351-i-facilitarea-accesului-acestora-la-finan-355-are-start/
15
http://www.seeagame.eu/

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

community and to encourage the recognition of competences acquired through non-formal and
informal learning.
The previous initiative was addressed to adult population, independently of their
professional profile. The direct target group of the current project is formed by people that are
planning to start a business in the near future, new entrepreneurs and nevertheless entrepreneurs in
general. Also, we consider a secondary target group formed by the trainers in entrepreneurs
interested in these types of serious games.
The beneficiaries of the project are formed by labour counselors and advisors, trainers,
stakeholders and social actors, public authorities and bodies etc. The project partnership is formed
by 7 partners from 5 countries: Spain, Romania, Belgium, Denmark and Greece.
After the implementation of the project, entrepreneurs of new countries could use this
learning tool, improving and fostering the entrepreneurial process across Europe.

4. Game based learning for entrepreneurs

There are strong debates in the literature regarding the nature of entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurship education[4], but the agreed belief and practice is that during training sessions
the entrepreneurs benefit the most from practical case studies and hand-on applications [8, 9, 10].
During the first part of the EiS project, we performed a quantitative research consisting in a
series of interviews with experts in serious games, trainers for entrepreneurs and young
entrepreneurs.
Game based learning may be defined in various ways depending on the target group,
domain, duration etc., but at least some elements of it can be identified in all the training methods
presented above. The definition provided by G. Lemnaru, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of
eRepublika, during our interviews, is an activity with educational purposes that uses game
mechanics and game design rules to improve students' motivation and to improve the process of
learning. He also considers that in game based learning the focus should be more on the
experiences the student has during the training, than the actual knowledge he/she gets. In order to
make the experience fruitful for the students, the trainer has to bring them in state of mind in which
they feel motivated to try and learn new things. The key role of motivation appeared in all the
interviews as an essential factor for a successful game based learning experience.
The games are wide used in the training process, and even more in the case of entrepreneurs.
R. Mihil pointed out that its important, in care of entrepreneurs, to provide them at the beginning
of the training, some basic economic and financial notions in order to establish a common ground
and after that enrich their educational experience with a hand-on experience. At this stage usually
the trainer provides them case studies or challenge them to develop a business plan (individual or in
teams) or play with a simulated business.
Serious games for entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are not widely used in Romania, this
approach being relative new for our market. However, there are training companies that offer
trainings using serious games for employees. These courses aim to improve the communication
between work teams, to develop the creativity and initiative of the employees, to help teams solve
conflicts etc. They focus mostly on soft skills, most of them similar to the ones that entrepreneurs
aim to improve, so looking at their experience could be a fruitful exercise in order to develop good
custom made solutions for entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs.

5. Conclusions
During the last years there has been an increase in the number of new created SMEs,
showing that the entrepreneurship culture is getting stronger in Romania and that there is a legal
framework that encourages these initiatives.

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

The profile of the Romanian entrepreneur is similar to the one found in most of the country,
according to the measurements and studies performed by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor:
male, 25 - 34 years old, with secondary education, situated in the upper 33% in terms of household
income.
The entrepreneurship training and education improved over the last years, by including
entrepreneurship notions as a mandatory course in several high school and vocational training
centers and by providing the entrepreneurship skills and competences through an increasing number
of trainings, online platforms, conference, online work groups etc.
Game based learning is highly used by almost all the trainers, because it facilities the
learning process of adults. In the case of entrepreneurs, are agreed the scenario based games where
they can acquire competences regarding the budgeting, team work, management etc. but online and
offline games are not so common. Still the trainers interviewed were really enthusiastic about our
initiative and keen to use this type of games in their classrooms.

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