Entrepreneurship Education and Design Thinking: A Conceptual Threshold for Their Integration in Indonesian Higher Education

Abstract

Many ongoing discussions in design thinking show similarities to the current entrepreneurship education debate on integrating both disciplines in the con-text of higher education. In that case, some articles, mainly from the devel-oped countries, have addressed this issue, though fragmentedly. In contrast, this integration-educational type is rarely found in developing countries, par-ticularly Indonesia. Additionally, very few studies have broadened the dis-cussion to include the teaching entrepreneurship-design thinking process cy-cle and the conceptual threshold to support the integrated teaching process. This paper uses the narrative literature review and in-depth qualitative case-study discussion as the methodology. It aims to establish a conceptual link and threshold between these two areas and provide conceptual strategies for integrating and teaching them in Indonesian higher education. In doing so, this paper has essentially reviewed and reconciled both parts of the entrepre-neurship education and design thinking discourse. The details and signifi-cance of the conceptual threshold have also been reviewed. The finding of this study is the five-main entrepreneurship-design thinking process cycle (i.e., understanding the problem comprehensively, generating ideas, experi-menting iteratively, testing the solutions, and implementing solutions). The process strongly incorporates the "empathy-reflect-visualize" cycle and the integrated conceptual threshold as a teaching support tool. This conceptual study provides new pathways for enriching current teaching and research practices of entrepreneurship education and design thinking.