Netrepreneur simulation: enterprise creation for the online economy

E‐business is being heralded as the “new economy”. However, developments in the area of new online business‐to‐consumer (B2C) venture creation has been accompanied by varying degrees of success, and it is increasingly recognised that online venture creation does not materialise overnight. E‐business development typically follows an evolutionary cycle of initial experimentation with Internet technologies and the transformation of consumer propositions towards the creation of a commercially viable online presence. To enable entrepreneurs to negotiate this new business landscape, Netrepreneur simulates the initial start up phases of e‐business creation in the online economy. Through the modelling and electronic simulation of the e‐commerce environment, Netrepreneur aims to create a holistic understanding of the entrepreneurial process as well as encouraging participants to “learn by doing” in the simulated virtual world, instead of trial and error in the real e‐economy. This paper reviews the underpinning objectives for design conceptualisation, and the integration of the real and virtual business worlds within the netrepreneur system development. The latter section of the paper reports user survey responses collected from a questionnaire in two pilot investigations. The questionnaire collected information concerning acceptance, criticism and perceived learning achievement.