Gaining Entrepreneurial Insight through Mind Maps for Innovation: Applications in the Brewing Curriculum and Craft Beer Industry

Chip Baumgardner

doi:10.31686/ijier.vol7.iss7.1579

Authors

Chip Baumgardner

Pennsylvania College of Technology, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol7.iss7.1579

Keywords:

Craft Beer Industry

Abstract

A critical component of the entrepreneurial mindset is the ability to be innovative and creative. Often seen as the top soft skill for entrepreneurs, innovation entails far more than brain storming. One of the most useful tools of innovation is the mind map, a simple tool that blends related and unrelated stimuli into generating new ideas. Given the increased emphasis on craft brewing as a major component of the beer industry, many facets of brewing have become quite popular in higher education. Within brewing education, one must consider the process by how students learn how to engage in multiple activities, including innovation. To address innovation in new flavors, a study of students’ abilities to create new beer flavors by brainstorming was compared with the same students who used mind maps in a pre- and post-test format. The result of the statistical study is to look at the concept of mapping innovation and the truncated findings with an emphasis on generating new ideas on beer flavors for a market with an expanding number of taste connoisseurs.

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