Learning Sources and Methods Used by Famous Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Study about Three Entrepreneurs from Iran, Japan and United States of America

Entrepreneurial perspective emphasizes on idea generation and putting them into action or creation of business. Learning methods used by entrepreneurs have a crucial impact on their capabilities. Entrepreneurs use various sources and methods of learning to achieve the expected capabilities. The main question of this article is: Which sources and methods of learning are mostly used by famous entrepreneurs? Do entrepreneurs who live in different countries use similar learning sources and methods? This research is aimed to examine Kuratko’s framework and has added a source and some methods. This framework contains four main sources of learning: “Publications”, “Observation”, “Speeches and Presentation” and “doing business activities”. Content Analysis of documents is used as the research method, which is done by reviewing reliable documents on the three famous entrepreneurs. Amir Kabir, Matsushita and Welch respectively from Iran, Japan and America are selected as research sample. The logic and the reason of our selection are based on their influence in business. Results show that top entrepreneurs learn mostly from informal learning methods including: doing activities, duties, observations and conversations or dialogues, although there are differences for each of the chosen entrepreneurs dependent on his environment. It seems that entrepreneurs select their own sources and learning methods based on contingency approach. Authors suggest that the sources and methods of learning used by top entrepreneurs should be identified and used at universities as formal educational sources. In other words, informal learning sources and methods are recommended for simulation in schools of entrepreneurship.


Introduction
Entrepreneurial learning has always been an important field of research and, particularly in applied science it has been discussed in order to educate early-stage entrepreneurs, scientifically.Despite all these considerations, there is no clear answer to how it happens and to its different dimensions (Rae, 2005;Cope, 2005).Entrepreneurial learning has direct impact on the quality of action, as Minniti and Bygrave (2001) believe that entrepreneurship is the process of learning and ideas about entrepreneurship should identify their position on how entrepreneurs do the learning (Minniti & Bygrave, 2001).Timmons (1999) points out that entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and practice with a holistic view which is based on opportunity.Entrepreneurship leads to creation, improvement and recreation of value for owners and stakeholders.In other words, entrepreneurship is the process of dreams and putting them into action (Kuratko, 2005).Entrepreneurship is discussed as a hidden and silent economic revolution which has a definite role in business creation and the gains originated from businesses.Authors believe universities and educational institutions around the world are trying to change entrepreneurship from individual-experimental efforts made by a few practitioners to a scientific, general skill for individuals, organizations, ethnicities, industries, regions, different genders and ages.But the key issue is to find out: how do empirical entrepreneurs learn entrepreneurial actions?Have they learned dreaming and turning it into action via formal education or through informal methods, mainly originated from work and social interactions (Rae, 2005)?Authors believe that universities and educational institutions active in entrepreneurship should at least try to identify learning methods utilized by top entrepreneurial practitioners and simulate them in college and educational environments to train young and emerging entrepreneurs.Sad to sad, this important issue During his 20 years of leadership in this position, Welch increased the value of the company from $13 billion to several hundred billion.His management system was his innovation which was so different from bureaucracy.
Managers were given free reign as long as they followed the GE ethic of constant change and striving to do better He ran GE like a small dynamic business able to change as opportunities arose or when a business became unprofitable.Through streamlining operations, acquiring new businesses, and ensuring that each business under the GE umbrella was one of the best in its field the company was able to expand dramatically from 1981 to 2001.He used 6sigma in 1995 successfully.
"Amir Kabir and Iran" is the most reliable reference on Amir Kabir's biography and has been used in this research as the main reference.About Matsushita's life there are considerable numbers of books written."Matsushita Leadership", which is a work of Harvard University's research team, is selected as a reference together with other books of Matsushita, himself."Jack: Straight from the Gut" is a book written by Jack Welch and surely is a reliable reference on his life.All the references used in this section are listed in table 1.

Goals and Questions
The main goal of this research is to realize the sources and methods of learning which are mostly used by famous entrepreneurs.The question posed in this research is: Which sources and methods of learning had Amir Kabir, Matsushita and Welch used?In other words, do famous entrepreneurs use similar sources and methods of learning in different countries?

Criteria Definition
We have extended Kuratko's framework to analyze the events related to learning mentioned in reliable documents.Considering this Framework, learning has four sources including: publications, observations, speech-conversation, and learning by doing.Special methods are defined for each source as the framework is explained in the literature review section.

Unit of Analysis
Stories and events are the units of analysis.Events or stories are recorded if there exists clues and evidences of learning in them.In this step, we have reviewed all the given references to find the events and stories related to entrepreneurs' learning.Events and stories are analyzed based on Kuratko's extended framework.

Categorization
Each dimension of the Kuratko's extended framework is considered as a category in the research.

Analysis Technique
Quantitative analysis is done using descriptive statistics (frequencies).

Findings
In order to detect and extract stories and events related to entrepreneurial learning, the most reliable biographies and books were chosen and reviewed.The chosen stories and events are recognized and categorized.Table 2 lists some examples of the process of recognizing the entrepreneurial learning methods from the stories and events which are extracted from the entrepreneurs' lives.
Table 2. Samples of events and stories Entrepreneurs The events and stories Learning Method Source Matsushita In 1927, Matsushita selected an employee as the manager of the whole process of electric heater.This was so useful.Expanding one's authorities made the manager act as an entrepreneur and grow.Independency and being apart from the whole organization nurtured employees' creativity and tendency for work.Therefore, Matsushita announced segmentation system in 1933 (Kotter, 1997: 107).

Trial and error Learning by doing
Amir Kabir Amir Kabir's missionary trip to Russia when he was still young was so instructive.
There he showed his well manner to Amir Nezam Zangene, and in return he got a job in the government (Adamiat, 1967: 60).He visited academies in Russia and he established Dar-al fonoon institute right after he became the great minister.The same happened about industry, which led to the building of many factories (Adamiat, 1967: 353).

Welch
Having failed in the final game of hockey, Jack was in the changing room while his mother came in and said: "You are worthless.You won't learn how to win as far as you cannot deal with failure.You shouldn't have played."Grace Welch thought him his first lesson of contest along just like the pleasure and need of accepting failure.(Welch and Byrne, 2001:18) Conversation with family and friends

Speeches and conversations
Frequency of the stories and events extracted of appointed entrepreneurs' lives, are shown in table 3. Observation: Amir has used people's feedback and trips as methods of learning.Welch has also mostly learnt through other people's feedbacks, but Matsushita used through trips and visits (figure 6).
Figure 6.Learning from observations: comparison between Amir Kabir, Welch and Matsushita Source of Speeches and Conversations: Welch and Amir seem to learn more from having conversations to practicing entrepreneurs, but Matsushita has mentioned listening to speeches as his method of learning (figure 7).Matsushita has mostly learnt from trials and errors which support Petkova's research (2008) which is based on learning from the errors as an important method of learning.But this doesn't seem to be true about Amir and Welch.A reason for this might be that Matsushita was a business man and a pioneer and these are bound with trials and errors.Amir was a man of politics and has mostly imitated other people in other countries; this helps him more immune to errors.Welch also was a manager and his entrepreneurship was through changes in bureaucracy and business development.Table 4 shows the result of this research compared to the previous researches.which is based on learning from the errors as an important method of learning.But this doesn't seem to be true about Amir and Welch.

Conclusion
This research illustrates that the top entrepreneurs learn mostly from informal learning methods including: doing activities, duties, observations and conversations or dialogues.However formal educational systems such as learning from education and specialized publications do not have unique impacts on their entrepreneurial ways and activities.
On the other hand the sources and methods of learning for each of the chosen entrepreneurs are almost different and depend on some key factors like individual characteristics, family status and educational system, based on key factors.It appears that entrepreneurs select their own sources and learning methods, the so-called contingency approach.Through contingency view, entrepreneurs should choose sources and learning methods based on some factors mentioned above.
With a view to the findings of this research, we suggest that the sources and methods of learning used by top entrepreneurs should be identified and used at the universities, which are operating entrepreneurial departments or centers as formal educational process.Recent years, visionary universities have shifted towards the entrepreneurial education with the aim of training young generation and nascent entrepreneurs.The universities have paid considerable attention to behavioral simulation as an approach to entrepreneurial education.They are trying to simulate sources and methods of learning which are used by experiential entrepreneurs.In this approach, the informal learning sources and methods are recommended for simulation in schools of entrepreneurship as follows: 1. Learning from observing successful people in various ways such as: visiting industry and successful people's businesses (learning from observation).
2. Learning from speech and dialogue with top entrepreneurs including: using resident entrepreneurs' method, inviting entrepreneurs as guests speakers during the course, hiring entrepreneurs as consultant or mentor at the universities (learning from dialogue).
3. Learning from doing by internship in industry, establishing students' business at universities, idea generation projects and projects of evaluating the idea and opportunities (learning from practical application).

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Learning from speech and conversation: comparison between Amir Kabir, Welch and Matsushita Source of Learning by doing: Amir has mostly learnt through assigned projects, Matsushita has used trialserrors and also assigned projects and Welch have used feedback from work (figure 8).

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Learning by doing: comparison between Amir Kabir, Welch and Matsushita and experimentation were the top ones which account for nearly half of the learning activities mentioned in the research.This research supports the results of Mulder's research, which has represented observation, feedback and trials as the main source of learningof learning are suggested in psychology and organization theory: "(a) learning by repetition of efficient practices ("learning by doing"), (b) memorizing new information as a result of training or tutoring, and (c) replacement of incorrect knowledge and practices with new ones based on negative feedback"Matsushita has mostly learnt from trials and errors which supportPetkova's research (2008) Konosuke Matshushita is the Founder of Panasonic.Konosuke was born in 1894, in a poor Japanese family.He began working for himself in 1918 when he actually had nothing: no money, no formal education, and no relations.But, his small firm flourished by the leadership of a smart, wise entrepreneur and finally placed Matsushita's company on the map in the Japanese's electrical manufacturing and retail industry.In 1929, Matsushita began setting up a new structure for his company.The company was structured as a parent company and branches of divisions that specialized in a particular product were created.He used new organization and management methods and suggested divisional system as an innovation.He also founded the "Matsushita institute of government and management".He invented battery-powered bicycle lamps, light sockets earlier and produced them in his own company.He had innovations in marketing, selling and production process.Jack Welch, a native of Salem, Massachusetts, served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Electric (GE) from 1981-2001.He received his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1957 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1960.He began his career with the General Electric Company in 1960, and in 1981 became the Company's 8th Chairman.

Table 1 .
Documents used to analyze stories

Table 3 .
Frequencies and percentage of the stories related to entrepreneurial learning

Table 4 .
Comparison of research findings with previous studies