Academic Thesis Process as Entrepreneurial, Self-negotiated Process

Questions we care about (The objectives of the study): How can students strengthen their entrepreneurial selves towards self-negotiated actors while producing their academic theses in higher education? Is their enough space for students’ training in autonomous decision making and creative solutions in a thesis formulated and written according to the certain rules typical in the methodologies and style in the research field of educational sciences?Approach: The study follows a case study methodology using content analysis in the data.Results: Despite such exact formula of the thesis and thesis process, it is able to find space in the process for the students’ self-determination, which enables their growth towards entrepreneurial, self-negotiated actors. Implications. It is important to focus on students’ participation and enable it in all courses in the higher education.Value/Originality: There are plenty of entrepreneurship education studies carried out focusing on different educational contexts, but the thesis process has not yet been studied in depth. Especially in non-business studies, practicing entrepreneurialism is challenging, though its usefulness even in working life has been addressed in many previous studies. The present study needs more data to be considered, but the preliminary findings with one student case were encouraging.