International Journal on Science and Technology

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Cultivating Kidpreneurship in the USA: The SPARK Framework for AI-Driven Business Simulation-Based Entrepreneurial Development in K-12 Education

Author(s) Md Raihanul Islam, Robert Taylor
Country United States
Abstract The United States is simultaneously experiencing a historic surge in entrepreneurial activity and a deepening readiness gap in its K-12 education system. U.S. Census Bureau data show that 5,479,144 new business applications were filed in 2023 - a record high - and the 2024-2025 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor U.S. report finds that 18-to-24-year-olds now exhibit the highest entrepreneurial intentions of any cohort, with 24% currently engaged in early-stage venture activity (Babson College, 2025; U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). Yet 17% of American 15-year-olds fall below baseline financial-literacy proficiency (OECD, 2024), 86% of students report using generative AI in school, while 58% of educators have received no formal AI training (Hunt Institute, 2025), and the post-ESSER fiscal cliff has constrained district capacity to invest in advanced ed-tech (Utah State Board of Education, 2025). This paper proposes the SPARK Framework - a conceptual integration of Quidwai's (2023) human-centered prompting routine (Situation, Problem, Aspiration, Results, Kismet) with AI-driven Business Simulation Games (BSGs) - as a scalable pedagogical architecture for cultivating kidpreneurship in U.S. K-12 education. Adopting Jaakkola's (2020) theory-synthesis methodology, the paper integrates Kolb's (1984) Experiential Learning Theory, Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour, Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) SECI knowledge-creation model, the European Commission's EntreComp competence framework (Bacigalupo et al., 2016), and Long and Magerko's (2020) AI literacy competencies. The synthesis yields a five-panel conceptual architecture that operationalizes kidpreneurship development across cognitive, affective, behavioral, educational and economic outcome layers. Findings indicate that AI-augmented BSGs, when scaffolded by SPARK, are positioned to enhance entrepreneurial self-efficacy (Newman et al., 2019), opportunity recognition, financial literacy and AI literacy concurrently. The paper further offers original contributions in the form of (i) a novel mapping of SPARK phases onto SECI knowledge dimensions and EntreComp competence areas, (ii) a developmental K-12 scaffolding pathway across elementary, middle and high school, and (iii) an actionable policy roadmap addressing the digital divide, algorithmic bias, and the human-in-the-loop imperative. The paper concludes with a structured agenda for empirical validation.
Keywords Kidpreneurship, SPARK Framework, Artificial Intelligence, Business Simulation Games, K-12 Education, Experiential Learning, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, EntreComp, AI Literacy, Theory Synthesis.
Field Business Administration
Published In Volume 16, Issue 1, January-March 2025
Published On 2025-01-10
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