Taylan Demirkaya
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CR-EEM · Context-Responsive Experiential Entrepreneurship Model

The cycle is already turning. Education lowers its cost.

A short visual explainer of the model I developed in my doctoral thesis: its logic, four spirals, four layers, and how it works in three settings. The details are in the book I am writing.

1 · The idea

Entrepreneurs are already learning.

For my thesis I interviewed ten entrepreneurs. All of them had gone through the same cycle: they lived something, stopped to look at it, gave it a name, then tried again. None of them had learned this in a course. They learned it with their own money and time.

So education cannot be there to start the cycle. The cycle is already turning. Education is there to make every turn cheaper and faster.

Four-stage learning cycle: Live it, Stop and look, Name it, Try it Live itconcrete experience Stop and lookreflection Name itconcept Try itactive experiment Entrepreneurs already live this cycle. Education makes each turn cheaper.
Kolb's four stages, in everyday words.
2 · Four spirals

The same cycle, a little harder each time.

The model runs the cycle four times, not once. With each spiral the experience gets more real and the risk a little bigger. No stage is skipped.

1

Meet

First contact with entrepreneurship. The cycle is lived once, in a small and safe step.

2

Discover

Real customers, a real market. The idea is tested in the field.

3

Build

Setting up and running the business. Mistakes become learning material.

4

Connect

Real contact with mentors, investors and incubators. The bridge is built before the programme ends.

Four nested layers: ecosystem ring, context layer, support layers and the learning cycle at the centre ECOSYSTEM RING mentors · investors · incubators · alumni CONTEXT LAYER conditions in Türkiye: the cost of failure, relationship culture, imported tools SUPPORT LAYERS decision logic · AI scaffold Learning cycle four spirals Educator: experience designer and facilitator
The cycle sits at the centre; the layers wrap around it.
3 · Four layers

Four things around the cycle.

  • ContextEvery stage is tuned to conditions in Türkiye. The social cost of failure, a business culture that runs on relationships, and imported tools that don't travel all enter the design.
  • Decision logicTeaches planning; under uncertainty, stretches toward acting with the means at hand.
  • AILearning journal, content at the moment of need, customer simulation. Beside the educator, not instead of them.
  • EcosystemMentors, investors, incubators and alumni are inside the programme, not outside it.
4 · Where it works, and how

One core, three settings.

The core does not change: the cycle, four spirals, the layers, the educator's role. Calendar and dosage are tuned to the setting. One rule: a compressed programme reduces the number of spirals; it never skips a stage.

University course

One semester, four spirals

  • Length14 weeks
  • FormatTwo hours of theory and two of practice per week. Field tasks and the learning journal count as out-of-class workload.
  • AssessmentPortfolio and jury
  • GoalThe entrepreneurial mindset. Those who start a company gain, and so do those who don't.
Incubator and accelerator

Cohort, three spirals

  • Length8-10 week cohort, 48-60 contact hours
  • FormatOne full day per spiral, a field week, a half-day debrief. Spirals two and three merge.
  • AssessmentOutput and mentor validation
  • GoalA real application or investor pitch, before the programme ends.
In-company programme

Intensive block, same structure

  • LengthShort, intensive blocks
  • FormatThe company's existing training content becomes preparation. Contact hours go to experience, reflection and experiment.
  • AssessmentA first-step assignment followed up after the programme
  • GoalTesting internal venture ideas with real users.

The model has not yet been tested experimentally. Pilot applications are the next step.

If you are curious

Write, and let's talk.

If you are considering the model for your own course or programme, a short email is enough.

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Thesis

A Model Proposal for Entrepreneurship Education (in Turkish). Dokuz Eylül University, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Business Administration, 2026. Interpretivist qualitative case study, 20 semi-structured interviews, thematic analysis. Turkish name: BADEGEM.