Is there a market potential for an EdTech startup in Italy?

Details

Supervisors

Schuiling, Isabelle

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

The paper research aims at identifying a market potential for an innovative idea of a startup providing online learning in the EdTech market in Italy. The Italian EdTech environment is in its early stage and there are no available data to determine the exact size of it. However, global trends in EdTech such as the growth of the industry and the growth of investments in EdTech might assume that the market is expanding. In addition, the complexity of the online education ecosystem made even more winding to determine the EdTech market size in Italy. Therefore, the research explores the educational and the EdTech ecosystem using literature, secondary data, qualitative and quantitative research in this study to provide valuable insights to EdTech entrepreneurs and professional who wants to do business in the EdTech market in Italy. The objective of the research is to provide to EdTech entrepreneurs and professionals advices to do business in EdTech. In the specific, the research identifies the feasibility of an online educational platform which aims at enhancing self-learning skills and other critical skills, providing a lifelong and ongoing learning solution to support people in facing future job and societal challenges. From the available data, it appears that Italy scores very low in term of educational metrics compared to other European countries. In addition, Italy presents critical gaps in relation to digital skills, the English language and entrepreneurial skills, which are considered very important to face future challenges such as globalization, aging and technological changes. The qualitative and quantitative researches focus on the self-learning area, which is thoroughly examined and it is assumed that self-learning skills could potentially enhance the learning of many other hard and soft skills. From the experts, it emerged that self-learning skills such as self-awareness, self-development and mental flexibility are very important to improve people’s lives, to be better prepared for the jobs of the future and to have a better quality of life. Then, from the quantitative research it emerged that in average self-learning skills are considered by the Italian respondents as the most important skills, followed by the management of anxiety, stress and conflicts and the knowledge of English language skills. Moreover, the study combines the secondary data, the qualitative and the quantitative research to give EdTech entrepreneurs and professionals advices regarding the managerial implications of the results of the research. Results show that the female group is statistically more interested than the male group in self-learning skills and that there is a significant positive correlation between the interest in self-learning skills and the willingness to pay a certain monthly subscription price for an online platform which provides the mentioned skills. Hence, the results of the study could be useful to define a potential interested segment to focus the initial resources during the launch of an online EdTech startup providing self-learning skills development. A digital startup in EdTech could potentially support the traditional education system by being more flexible and agile in providing the needed skills. Overall, although the EdTech market is not developed in Italy, it is concluded that there is a market potential for an EdTech startup in Italy and the development of self-learning skills may present an untouched market potential. The paper presents a preliminary study of the potential market for an EdTech startup focused on self-learning skills in Italy. However, further and deeper marketing research to better investigate variables such as pricing and the competition should be carried out before launching the startup or testing a minimum viable product.