can entrepreneurship be taught?

Ten years ago, it was rare to find a course in entrepreneurship at a business school, even a large, well endowed one. Now, entrepreneurship courses of all kinds are everywhere -- from community colleges to the best business schools. The question is: can you teach this kind of thing?

The Small Business Administration recent released a study of business school alumni to compared the entrepreneurial activities of those who took an entrepreneurship course and those who did not. Here are the higlights:

-Those who took an entrepreneurship course both worked at and started their own entrepreneurial organization at a higher rate than those who didn't.

-Of those working at entrepreneurial organizations, the organizations of those who took an entrepreneurship course were much more likely to offer new services and products, file patents and use new production techniques.

-Those who took an entrepreneurship course were more likely to see themselves as effective or extremely effective at identifying new business opportunities.

Interesting stuff and begins to get at the question: Are entrepreneurs born or made? Of course, these are self-reports, and maybe all entrepreneurship courses do is teach people to talk a good game...