Enhancing entrepreneurial and innovation skills by creating training materials on sustainable market platforms and hybrid business models for HE students.
Context
The rapid evolution of business models today is driven by two key factors: technological transformation and changing consumer expectations. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, automation, and cloud computing are reshaping how products and services are delivered, optimizing operations, and enabling digital transformation. Traditional business models based on physical goods and face-to-face interactions are increasingly being replaced by online platforms, e-commerce, and virtual tools. At the same time, consumers now demand more personalization, convenience, accessibility, and corporate responsibility, emphasizing sustainability and ethical practices. To remain competitive, businesses must integrate these innovations or risk obsolescence. In this context, entrepreneurship education must evolve to prepare future professionals capable of building sustainable and competitive ventures. However, current higher education in entrepreneurship often overlooks the importance of sustainable market platforms (SMP) and hybrid business models (HBM), which can provide significant advantages for new enterprises. The SAMPLE project addresses this gap by developing a low-barrier program that integrates innovative tools and materials to support entrepreneurship students in creating and scaling sustainable businesses. The project aims to enhance the entrepreneurial skills and international mindset of both teachers and students in higher education (HE) by embedding sustainability into entrepreneurship curricula. By fostering cooperation among institutions, SAMPLE seeks to modernize entrepreneurship education and establish a coherent training program and digital platform focused on sustainable market platforms and hybrid business models. Ultimately, the initiative aspires to prepare students to contribute to a more sustainable, equitable, and competitive global economy.
Objectives
- Transform entrepreneurship higher education and research to become modern, digital and both ecologically and socially engaged.
- Support students and aspiring entrepreneurs to immerse sustainability in their business models.
- Facilitate successful ventures via market innovations which at the same time can trigger economic, environmental and social impacts.
Activities
- National Focus groups involving students, market actors, and educators to explore current and future market needs for sustainable entrepreneurship;
- implementation of the SAMPLE Teacher Guide to facilitate the gradual integration of sustainable market platforms;
- Creation of a platform to support entreprenurship students and entrepreneurs in utilising these sustainability driven solutions
Resources
- Training Toolkit for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Hybrid Business Models;
- SAMPLE Teacher Guide and Strategic Roadmap to facilitate the gradual integration of sustainable market platforms (SMP) and hybrid business models (HMB) into higher education curricula;
- SAMPLE learning platform
Impact
- Teachers, lecturers, trainers, higher education administrators, curriculum/training designer, entrepreneurship researcher positively affected by the SAMPLE methodology;
- Academic staff equipped with a structured pedagogical framework for teaching sustainability-driven entrepreneurship;
- Students, academic, non-academic staff and researchers trained to use platforms that supports entrepreneurship and sustainability.
Partners
- UNIWERSYTET LODZKI (Poland, coordinator)
- UNIVERSITY OF GALWAY Ireland GALWAY (Ireland)
- FUNDACJA GELISME NA RZECZ ZRÓWNOWAZON EGO ROZWOJU (Poland)
- EGE UNIVERSITY (Türkiye)
- CESIE ETS (Italy)
- UDRUZENJE DUBOKE TEHNOLOGIJE BALKANA (Serbia)
