Enterprise Education: Investigating the benefits for organisations/businesses from linking with schools

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the benefits a business gains from linking with a school. Benefits were categorized into immediate and long-term, while the influence of a referring organisation, a business rationale for linking, motivators, and constraints were also investigated. Design/methodology – This study summarizes the relevant research literature and identifies how important stakeholders affect, and are affected by, business-school links. It also uses a mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative data (surveys and semi-structured interviews) obtained from New Zealand business participants. Finally, the study summarises the results and discusses implications. The empirical analysis focusses on New Zealand, but applications for Bahrain are also considered. Findings – Results presented suggest that New Zealand businesses benefit on both an overall business level and a personal level from linking with schools. Business’ perceptions of their immediate benefits differed significantly depending on the category/industry type, its size, or the type of school it is linked with. In contrast, no differences were found between businesses with regards to their perception of the long-term benefits they gained from business-school links. The results identify the effective role referring organisations play in enhancing business-school links, and higher benefits being perceived when a rationale for linking exists. Motivators were categorized into social and economic benefits and constraints included those relating to business, school, students and teachers. Originality/value – to the author’s knowledge this is the first empirical study which explores New Zealand business-school links from a purely business point of view. Unlike previous national and international studies, this study identified the benefits from a range of approaches used by businesses to link with schools. Overall, the study provides evidence to support currently established business-school links, and encourages new partnerships to be created, whether in New Zealand or Bahrain.