Learning to Be an Entrepreneur: Evidence from a Technology Enhanced Learning Tool - 2nd International Workshop on Evidence-Based Technology Enhanced Learning - page 65

be able to perform their game regardless of their geographic location. Our software
could be indeed run just pointing the browser to an URL and inputing username and
password. Moreover, by using the Java language the software is able to gather and
store data on a remote database.
As regarding informal learning, the web-based software model described in the
paper is based on an innovative experimental economics technique (for a survey see,
[8], [5]) which allows to explore a number of economic and financial aspects of the
entrepreneurial management.
The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we describe the theoretical frame-
work and how it was implemented in the web-based software. Section 3 shows the
evidence based on students and professional performances. Section 4 concludes.

2 A Technology Enhanced Learning Tool

Starting from a theoretical model rooted in the Hyman P. Minsky's theory of the firm
[9] we built a virtual dynamic corporate environment where subjects behave as en-
trepreneurs and/or managers by taking economic and financial decisions which will
determine their utility (i.e. the final score). In the next section we briefly summarize
the virtual environment theoretical (subsection 2.1) and operating (subsection 2.2)
principles.

2.1 Theoretical Background

The technology enhanced learning tool we built intends to be a small scale abstrac-
tion of the real world and it is meant to capture the essence of the Hyman P. Minsky
economic thought. The theoretical aspects of the present work are summarized here-
after. For a more detailed presentation of the theoretical aspects see Giulioni et al.
(2011) [7].
According to the economic theory which underlies our software, the process of
decision making (i.e. production and balance sheet structure decisions) is character-
ized by uncertainty . The balance sheet consists of a set of assets owned or controlled
by firms and a set of liabilities used to finance those assets. Assets and liabilities
involve cash-flows and payment commitments in a delayed future. Cash-inflow de-
pends on sales of the produced items which in turn depend on the level of inputs
employed in the production process. In our simplified environment the value of pro-
duction inputs is equal to the sum of the firm balance sheet assets entries. Firms
fulfill commitments on liabilities (interest and dividends payments) using the cash-
inflow that will be realized in a delayed term. Each firm must decide the “proper
mix” of assets and liabilities and how to manage their own capital structure accord-
ing to their subjective perception of the demand volatility for the produced item.
This can be defined as a “traditional” portfolio choice which is invariably linked to
payment obligations undertaken in the past and to the uncertainty that affects future
prospects, which in turn must validate such obligations.