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Entrepreneurship education through successful entrepreneurial models in higher education institutions.

1. Introduction

2. theoretical framework and hypotheses, 2.1. successful entrepreneur profile, 2.2. entrepreneurial role models.

• A greater likelihood for a person to adopt entrepreneurial intentions when he or she is personally acquainted with individuals who have recently become entrepreneurs. The presence of an entrepreneurial role model in the family or in close social environment can make a person contemplate such a career alternative and/or shift cognitive attention towards the search for possible entrepreneurial opportunities [ 19 ].
• A focus of the individual’s attention on specific opportunities inspired by activities of the role model that modify his/her cognitive perceptions as to favour his/her decision to actively pursue entrepreneurial activities aimed at creating his/her own business [ 21 ].
• Influence of assessing an option to set up a business through cognitive representation and comparison with other existing entrepreneurs [ 20 ]. The final decision to actually start a new business is most often based on the subjective assessment of the founding decision over other alternative career and life options [ 38 ]. According to Fornahl [ 20 ], positive entrepreneurial examples can lead to an increased likelihood for setting up a firm.

2.3. Entrepreneurship Education of Students Using Successful Entrepreneurial Role Models

2.3.1. entrepreneurship education through successful entrepreneurial models and entrepreneurial intention, 2.3.2. entrepreneurship education through successful entrepreneurial models and attitude towards entrepreneurship, 3. materials and methods, 3.1. participants and data collection.

• At the beginning of the semester, students were given a questionnaire with closed questions regarding their entrepreneurial intention and attitude towards entrepreneurship. It included 11 statements related to the following themes: Level of entrepreneurial intention (5 variables), Personal attitude towards entrepreneurship—What do you associate entrepreneurship with and to what extent? (6 variables).
• In order to identify the profile of a successful entrepreneur in the students’ view, they were asked to write a brief essay outlining what characteristics they consider to define a successful entrepreneur.
• Each student then had to choose a successful entrepreneurial model, whose success story was presented in class. Students could either conduct a detailed research about a specific entrepreneur (and present it to their peers), or choose a successful entrepreneur who gave a presentation on his or her success story in front of the class. After making presentations, in order to describe the profile of the successful entrepreneurial model that each student chose, each of them filled in a record of a successful entrepreneur, in which they provided data on the entrepreneur’s socio-demographic characteristics and entrepreneurial behaviour (sources of business idea, reasons why he/she went into business, main sources of funding of the initial business).
• After exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, students answered a second questionnaire to assess their entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions after being exposed to successful entrepreneurial models. The final questionnaire included 11 statements related to the two themes included in the initial questionnaire: Level of entrepreneurial intention (5 variables), Personal attitude towards entrepreneurship—What do you associate with entrepreneurship and to what extent? (6 variables).
• To identify the students’ perceptions of the influence on their entrepreneurial intentions, they were asked to write a short essay explaining how their entrepreneurial intentions and attitudes had been influenced by exposure to successful entrepreneurial models.

3.2. Data Analysis

3.2.1. instruments, 3.2.2. content analysis, 3.2.3. descriptive statistics, 3.2.4. statistical testing for differences, 4.1. student perception of successful entrepreneur profile and behaviour.

• Previous job (M1, M6).
• Opportunities (M2, M13, M14, M17, M19, M21, M23, M25).
• Passions and hobbies (M5, M15, M18, M23, M24, M25, M28, M30): ‘Passion for agriculture and fish farming’ (M5), ‘Being passionate about sports’ (M24).
• Travels: ‘traveling to Australia, identifying a new lifestyle’ (M4), ‘a spiritual journey to India’ (M22), ‘a trip to Portugal’ (M26).
• Books: ‘Isaac Asimov’s books’ (M7), ‘Dale Carnegie’s book The Secrets of Success ’ (M8), ‘Books read, which influenced his ideas and perception towards life’ (M11).
• The family: the continuation of the family tradition in the entrepreneurial field (M3, M29), ‘The family, the skills acquired in childhood’ (M9), ‘… the idea came from my family … from my grandmother’s vegetable garden’ (M21), ‘the idea came from the family (mother), traveling abroad and having a vision’ (M16).
• National traditions and culture (M30).
• Financial independence, family welfare (M5, M13, M14, M17, M21); ‘To help their family and parents more’ (M1), ‘financial stability for the family’ (M21), ‘Out of the need and desire not to live from one day to the next’ (M23), ‘escaping poverty and hunger helped him get into business’ (M24).
• Out of desire to overcome their social status (M15, M20, M27).
• From the desire to ‘change the world’: ‘entered the business to move science, technologies globally’ (M7).
• For social reasons: to create jobs (M5), ‘helping others’ (M16), to promote a healthy life (M9, M12).
• Based on beliefs: the model promoted by parents ‘… never depend on a single income, have more jobs’ (M10).
• Desire to dedicate themselves to their passions: ‘to do what he likes’ (M4), ‘giving up the previous job and focusing on an area, where he can put his talents, passion and satisfaction into practice’ (M18), ‘He wanted his passion to become a reality, or to work for something he is passionate about’ (M11).
• Money from their relatives (M1, M12, M17, M29).
• Own sources: personal savings (M4, M6, M10, M15, M16, M18, M25, M28), ‘wedding money’ (M21); ‘own funds made from the sale of some goods, land’ (M22), ‘little savings and free Internet resources’ (M23), the money obtained from previous activities (M24).
• European funds, funding from other institutions (M2, M8, M9, M13, M14, M19, M20, M30).
• Loans (M5, M16).
• Previous ventures: they started the entrepreneurial activity with a small business that they sold and this was the source of funding of another business (M7, M11, M27).

4.2. Results on Student Entrepreneurial Intentions and Attitudes towards Entrepreneurship before Exposure to Successful Entrepreneurial Models

4.3. assessment of entrepreneurship attitudes and entrepreneurial intentions of students after exposure to successful entrepreneurial models.

• ‘It is very likely that one day I will start my own business’: The distribution of respondents by their perceptions of the likelihood of starting a business showed that, after exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 5 students (16.7%) were less willing to start a business (difference equal to −1), 19 (63.3%) were equally willing, their intention being unchanged (difference equal to 0), while for 6 (20.0%) of the 30 respondents, the intensity of the intention to set up a business increased.
• ‘I am willing to make every effort to become an entrepreneur’: After being exposed to successful entrepreneurial models, 6 students (20.0%) were less willing to make an effort to become an entrepreneur (the difference equal to −2 or −1), 14 students (46.7%) were equally willing, their intention being unchanged (difference equal to 0), and for 9 of the 30 respondents (33.3%), the intensity of the intention to make high efforts to become an entrepreneur increased.
• Regarding the statement ‘I have serious doubts that one day I will get to create a company’, after exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 8 students (26.6%) experienced a higher level of doubt that they will create an enterprise one day, for 11 students (36.7%) the level of doubt remained unchanged, while for the remaining 11 students (36.7%), it decreased.
• ‘I am determined to create a business in the future’: After exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 7 students (23.3%) were less determined to create a business in the future, 15 students (50.0%) were sure, their intention being unchanged (difference equal to 0), while, for 8 of the 30 respondents (26.7%), the intensity of the decision to set up an enterprise in the future increased.
• ‘My professional goal is to become an entrepreneur’: Following the exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 8 students (26.7%) agreed to a lesser degree that their professional goal was to become an entrepreneur, 12 students (40%) had the same intensity of intention to consider entrepreneurship as a professional goal, while 10 students (33.3%) had a higher degree of agreement in relation to establishing entrepreneurship as a professional goal.
• a similar form of the diagrams for the Creativity and innovation variable;
• similar forms of the diagrams, but with slight changes in the concentration of the scores for the variables: Confronting with new challenges (a lower median score), Creating new jobs for other people (a higher median score), Assuming calculated risks (lower number of maximum scores) and Being independent/being your own boss ;
• an extension of the chart to lower scores for the High income variable.
• Facing new challenges: After exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 15 students (46.7%) associated entrepreneurship with new challenges to a lesser extent, 7 students (23.3%) had an unchanged attitude (difference equal to 0), while 9 of the 30 respondents (30.0%), agreed to a greater extent that entrepreneurship involved facing new challenges.
• Creating new jobs for other people: Following exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 9 students (30.0%) to a lesser extent associated entrepreneurship with the creation of new jobs for other people, 10 students (33.3%) had an unchanged attitude, and 11 of the respondents (36.7%), agreed to a greater extent that entrepreneurship meant creating new jobs for other people.
• Creativity and innovation: The attitudes of most students, 21 (70.0%), remained unchanged after exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 4 students (13.3%) to a lesser extent associated creativity and innovation with entrepreneurship, while 5 respondents (16.7%) associated the two phenomena to a greater extent.
• High income: After exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 15 students (50.0%) maintained the same attitude towards associating entrepreneurship with high income, 12 students agreed less (40.0%) with this association, only 3 respondents (10.0%) claimed more strongly that entrepreneurship involves high income.
• Assumption of calculated risks: Following the exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, 14 students (46.7%) agreed to a lesser extent that entrepreneurship involved assuming calculated risks, 9 students (30.0%) had the same attitude, while, for 7 of the 30 respondents (23.3%), the values of the scores given to the association between entrepreneurship and the calculated risk-taking increased.
• Being independent/being your own boss: Following exposure to successful entrepreneurial models, most students, 13 (43.3%), associated entrepreneurship to a greater extent with an occupation allowing being independent or being your own boss, 10 students (33.3%) maintained the same attitude, while 7 respondents (23.3%) agreed to a lesser extent that entrepreneurship implied being independent.

4.4. Student Perceptions of the Influence on Their Entrepreneurial Intentions Due to Exposure to Successful Entrepreneurial Models

• ‘I have to dare and believe that my business idea will work and it will be successful’ (S4).
• ‘Due to the success stories presented, the students gained more confidence in starting a business’ (S5).
• ‘The presentations made me become more optimistic and confident’ (S11).
• ‘Exposure to successful models has aroused my interest in getting into business at one point, they have given me the urge to follow my desire to do what I want’ (S15).
• ‘The models gave me the courage to do what I want and not to be influenced by others who only speak and do nothing. … I want to set up my own company!’ (S16).
• ‘It made me learn more from the experience of other entrepreneurs to better understand the challenges of this job’ (S1—Law).
• ‘It has helped me to really discover entrepreneurship and that, having your own business is not difficult, but keeping your business and making it prosper is difficult. It is important how you make the decisions, I learned how to behave in a team and with clients’ (S3—Food Engineering).
• ‘You must never give up your ideas, but improve them and adapt them according to specific opportunities or situations’ (S8—Philology).
• ‘Even though I had some ideas about entrepreneurship, I didn’t think I was suitable for being an entrepreneur, but due to exposure to successful models I learned that if you have a well-defined idea and you work hard enough you can set up a successful business’ (S9—Philology).
• ‘Each of us had something to learn from the successful models of entrepreneurs and I understood how much work and perseverance a successful business requires. It has created in my mind a certain entrepreneurial discipline that I did not have before and also built my own confidence’ (S12—Pedagogy).
• ‘There were very interesting success stories, and our entrepreneurial intentions were influenced by the entrepreneur’s personality, his qualities and the way he acted. There have been cases of entrepreneurs who … from being nobody became somebody. How can you not be influenced and motivated by such a situation?!’ (S14—Psychology).
• ‘Attending this course has grown my interest to set up a family business. This type of business creates a sense of security, especially when there are harmonious relationships within the family’ (S19—Theology).
• ‘Exposure to a successful entrepreneurial model had the role of developing my entrepreneurial spirit. Each success story grew in us an entrepreneurial spirit’ (S23—Architecture).
• ‘Success stories have grown my interest in becoming an entrepreneur’ (S24—Physical education).

5. Discussion and Conclusions

Limitations and future research, author contributions, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Boldureanu, G.; Ionescu, A.M.; Bercu, A.-M.; Bedrule-Grigoruță, M.V.; Boldureanu, D. Entrepreneurship Education through Successful Entrepreneurial Models in Higher Education Institutions. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 1267. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031267

Boldureanu G, Ionescu AM, Bercu A-M, Bedrule-Grigoruță MV, Boldureanu D. Entrepreneurship Education through Successful Entrepreneurial Models in Higher Education Institutions. Sustainability . 2020; 12(3):1267. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031267

Boldureanu, Gabriela, Alina Măriuca Ionescu, Ana-Maria Bercu, Maria Viorica Bedrule-Grigoruță, and Daniel Boldureanu. 2020. "Entrepreneurship Education through Successful Entrepreneurial Models in Higher Education Institutions" Sustainability 12, no. 3: 1267. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031267

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Impact of entrepreneurial education, mindset, and creativity on entrepreneurial intention: mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

• 1 College of International Business, Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, Shaoxing, China
• 2 School of Management, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
• 3 School of Education, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China
• 4 Department of Economics and Business Administration, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan
• 5 University of Management and Technology, Sialkot, Pakistan

This study aimed to investigate the direct influence of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity on the entrepreneurial intention with the indirect role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This study applied the structural equation model technique using AMOS software to verify the hypothesis relationships. This study collected self-administered survey data from 365 university students of Jiangsu and Zhejiang province of China. The findings indicated that entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity have a positive and significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, results revealed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy partially mediates in the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity on entrepreneurial intention. Further implications and limitations are also discussed in this article.

Introduction

The topic of entrepreneurship has received extensive attention among researchers over the past decades ( Wadhwani et al., 2020 ). Entrepreneurship has become a dominant issue in developed and under-developed nations as well because it develops efforts in improving the economic welfare of the nation ( Värlander et al., 2020 ; Yi, 2020 ). Entrepreneurship improves the economic and social growth of nations ( Li et al., 2020a ; Neneh, 2020 ). Previous studies have remarked that entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity cultivate young talents and develop entrepreneurial intention among individuals to become entrepreneurs ( Westhead and Solesvik, 2016 ; Hu et al., 2018 ; Pan et al., 2018 ; Jena, 2020 ) and argued that with an increasing number of university graduates, appropriate job searching has become a serious concern in the higher education system in China. According to Hu and Ye (2017) in developed countries, the success rate of entrepreneurship is more than 25% as compared to Chinese university graduates, who achieve only a 10% success rate due to a lack of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity. Most of the students prefer to start a job in a company rather than start their businesses. Therefore, the Chinese government has developed measures to alleviate the pressure of unemployment and provide suitable entrepreneurial platforms for students to become entrepreneurs.

Kalyoncuoǧlu et al. (2017 ) defined entrepreneurship education as associated with nurturing creative skills that can be applied in real life. Moreover, the entrepreneurial mindset has been recognized in providing success and failure among entrepreneurs in entrepreneurship research ( Moore et al., 2021 ). Jena (2020) argued that entrepreneurial mindset is associated with the profound cognitive phenomena that reflect the inimitable commitment of entrepreneurial activities ( Saptono et al., 2020 ). The term creativity is defined as the creation of new and useful ideas ( Entrialgo and Iglesias, 2020 ). Previous scholars indicated that there are several supportive dimensions such as entrepreneurial education ( Barba-Sánchez and Atienza-Sahuquillo, 2018 ), entrepreneurial passion ( Karimi, 2020 ), entrepreneurial orientation ( Cho and Lee, 2018 ), entrepreneurial self-efficacy ( Schmutzler et al., 2019 ), and entrepreneurial mindset ( Cui et al., 2019 ) and creativity are associated with the development of an entrepreneurial intention for new business startups. Therefore, the direct relationship of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity are less studied in the context of Chinese student entrepreneurial intention. Consequently, the objective of this study is to identify the influence of these factors on entrepreneurial intention among Chinese students.

The social cognitive theory proposed by Bandura (1992) outlines that entrepreneurial education improves an individual's self-efficacy. It allows individual to have an opportunity in entrepreneurship tasks such as identifying an opportunity, making business feasibility, and implementing a business plan. In line with the entrepreneurship research in the context of developed nations, the role of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity in entrepreneurship have been discussed by several researchers ( Shi et al., 2020 ; Anjum et al., 2021 ). Some studies have outlined that individuals with a high level of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity are more prone to start their businesses ( Hu and Ye, 2017 ; Handayati et al., 2020 ). Additionally, scholars believed that the understanding of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is essential, especially on how to start, manage and develop a new business ( Chien-Chi et al., 2020 ; Lingappa et al., 2020 ). Thus, individuals that perceived a high level of self-efficacy will lead to greater cognitive minds. Neneh (2020) pointed out that self-efficacy is a social-cognitive process that elaborates the cognitive mindset of individuals in the shape of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior.

This study provides four main contributions to literature on entrepreneurship. First, existing studies have been focused on entrepreneurial traits such as family business ( Douglas et al., 2021 ), big five personality traits ( Bazkiaei et al., 2020 ), the dark side of personality traits ( Cai et al., 2021 ), entrepreneurial self-efficacy ( Ceresia and Mendola, 2020 ), and entrepreneurial alertness ( Urban, 2020 ) to determine the entrepreneurial intention of the student. Second, Wardana et al. (2020) argued that there is a lack of study into an entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial mindset on entrepreneurial intention; most of the previous studies have been investigated on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial mindset in the context of Europe ( Boldureanu et al., 2020 ), America ( Barnard et al., 2019 ), Africa ( Puni et al., 2018 ), Malaysia ( Shamsudin et al., 2017 ), and India ( Jena, 2020 ), while little attention has been paid by scholars to the context of China.

Third, a recent study by Handayati et al. (2020) examined entrepreneurship education to assess the entrepreneurial mindset of the vocational student in Indonesia. This study provides an extension to the model by Handayati et al. (2020) and Jena (2020) using entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity as independent variables and taking entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator to predict the entrepreneurial intention in Chinese students. Fourth, this study contributes to the social cognitive theory by Bandura (1985) that helps explain the individual self-efficacy, which helps entrepreneurs develop. Numerous researchers have discussed the positive influence of self-efficacy in social psychological research ( Alonso et al., 2020 ; Mozahem and Adlouni, 2021 ). Meanwhile, many researchers discuss the positive mediating influence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention ( Fernando and Nishantha, 2019 ; Burnette et al., 2020 ). Thus, this study attempts to identify the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in explaining entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity, which ultimately influence an individual when starting a new business.

Based on the above-mentioned research impetus, this study aims to address these research gaps in the conceptualization of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, creativity, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention. Thus, within the developed research model the study addresses the following questions:

RQ1 . What is the influence of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity on entrepreneurial intention among Chinese students?

RQ2 . Does entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity in entrepreneurial intention among Chinese students?

The present study discusses the development of theory and the hypothesis, before describing the methods used, before moving onto the the results and discussion, implications and limitations, and conclusions.

Theory and Hypothesis Development

Social cognitive theory refers to a learning theory that focuses on observational learning of the individual, modeling, and self-efficacy ( Beauchamp et al., 2019 ). This theory remarked that individuals are inclined to pursue their objectives if they consider their skills and abilities are capable of accomplishing the desired outcomes ( Lim et al., 2020 ; Wu et al., 2020 ). Entrepreneurial education helps individuals to enhance their social cognition, continually regulate their thoughts and make their entrepreneurial actions more directional, logical, and significant. This study employs the social cognitive theory to assess how students with a high level of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity improve their ability to develop entrepreneurial self-efficacy which in turn affects entrepreneurial intention ( Yuan et al., 2020 ).

Furthermore, previous research believed that general education emphasizes the overall progress of individuals and the entrepreneurial program lays the foundation for the overall growth of the skills of an individual ( Liguori et al., 2018 ). From the perspective of social learning theory, individuals are encouraged to learn through different multi-level channels and enhance their skills and knowledge to become entrepreneurs ( Oo et al., 2018 ). Thus, entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity improve the learning environment of individuals and enhance their confidence level that will be able to solve new and unexpected issues regarding the new business development ( Chia and Liang, 2016 ).

Entrepreneurial Education and Entrepreneurial Mindset

Prior studies argued that entrepreneurial education has a positive relationship with the entrepreneurial mindset ( Pfeifer et al., 2016 ; Karyaningsih et al., 2020 ). Entrepreneurial education defied as a learning activity that is associated with the improvement of knowledge, abilities, skills, and personal character regarding entrepreneurship education ( Cui et al., 2019 ; Yuan and Wu, 2020 ). Moreover, an entrepreneurial mindset is defined as a feeling or propensity to provide a creative and innovative thinking ability ( Günzel-Jensen et al., 2017 ). Prior studies discussed the idea of entrepreneurial mindset in the field of psychology, especially in personality psychology research, and found that entrepreneurial mindset is positively related to self-capability ( Zupan et al., 2018 ; Morris and Tucker, 2021 ). Furthermore, numerous researchers focused on the entrepreneurial mindset and its factors such as knowledge, skills, abilities, creative ideas, and attitude toward entrepreneurship ( Green et al., 2020 ; Rodriguez and Lieber, 2020 ; Saptono et al., 2020 ) believed that the entrepreneurial mindset is associated with individual attitude and entrepreneurial action.

Wardana et al. (2020) discuss how entrepreneurial education enables people to have capability, providing them with understating about how to identify opportunities and develop their attitude toward entrepreneurship. Handayati et al. (2020) remarked that entrepreneurship education promotes the entrepreneurial mindset of individuals from two perspectives. First, entrepreneurial education assists individuals to develop a culture and intensely understand entrepreneurship. Second, entrepreneurial education creates awareness among individuals to get more experience to start a new business ( Barnard et al., 2019 ). Therefore, we believed that individuals with a high level of entrepreneurial education are more likely to have an entrepreneurial mindset, which enables them to become entrepreneurs and propose the following hypothesis:

H1: Entrepreneurial education is positively related to the entrepreneurial mindset.

Entrepreneurial Education and Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurship education is related to the ability of actions of the individual in favor of knowledge and abilities ( Liu et al., 2019 ). Previous research believed that entrepreneurial education has an important role in improving the skills of the individual that stimulates business activities ( Sun et al., 2017 ). Yang (2014) remarked that entrepreneurial education has two key features. First, through entrepreneurial learning actions, it facilitates individuals to transfer knowledge, skills, and share experience of entrepreneurship. Second, entrepreneurial education through field studies motivates individuals to be successful person in the future. Moreover, a study argued that entrepreneurial education provides help to individuals in achieving entrepreneurial intention through social networks and the experience of successful entrepreneurs ( Vodǎ and Florea, 2019 ).

Entrepreneurial education assists individuals to obtain minimal resources through appropriate knowledge sharing and information transfer. Therefore, individuals who show interest in entrepreneurial learning are more likely to engage with peers and fellows and promote the entrepreneurial image ( Nowiński et al., 2019 ). The role of entrepreneurial education for entrepreneurial intentions can be demonstrated by understanding business education ( Turner and Gianiodis, 2018 ). Entrepreneurship education allows individuals to improve their mindfulness and entrepreneurship intention for a career path to work ( Kalyoncuoǧlu et al., 2017 ). The basic function of entrepreneurial education focuses on the enrichment of knowledge, skill, and attitude toward entrepreneurship. Thus, based on the existing studies we argued that individuals who perceived a high level of entrepreneurial education are more likely to pursue a career in entrepreneurship. Hence, we hypothesized that:

H2: Entrepreneurial education is positively related to entrepreneurial intention.

Entrepreneurial Mindset and Entrepreneurial Intention

According to Hsu et al. (2019) entrepreneurship intention is defined as a self-acknowledged belief to start a new career. Moreover, studies have asserted that entrepreneurial intention is associated with the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of new opportunities with the help of planning, organizing, processes, and raw materials ( Miranda et al., 2017 ; Barba-Sánchez and Atienza-Sahuquillo, 2018 ). Previous studies revealed that entrepreneurial mindset is positively related to entrepreneurial intention ( Cui et al., 2019 ; Handayati et al., 2020 ). Entrepreneurial mindset refers to an individual commitment toward entrepreneurial activities ( Kuratko et al., 2020 ). An entrepreneurial mindset contains an inclination of the individual with the combination of risk-taking, need for achievement, and passion to start a new business as well as develop, plan, and organize projects to achieve entrepreneurial goals ( Bosman and Fernhaber, 2019 ).

Handayati et al. (2020) conducted a study on the entrepreneurial minds of vocational students in Indonesia and found that entrepreneurial mindset had a positive and significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, Wardana et al. (2020) examined a study on the entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial intention using a 390 university student sample and found that entrepreneurial mindset positively related to entrepreneurial intention. Meanwhile, Jung and Lee (2020) investigated a study on entrepreneurial minds of college students to predict their entrepreneurial intention in South Korea, and results show that entrepreneurial traits such as innovativeness, autonomy, and pro-activeness were positively developed the entrepreneurial mindset of students to become entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneurial mindset develops over time and needs to be used regularly ( Aima et al., 2020 ). Therefore, individuals must make their minds more efficient during daily life and pay more attention to opportunities ( Kaffka and Krueger, 2018 ). Based upon these past studies, we believe that individuals with entrepreneurial mindsets more actively participate in entrepreneurial activities than other individuals. Consequently, we hypothesized that:

H3: Entrepreneurial mindset is positively related to entrepreneurial intention.

Creativity and Entrepreneurial Intention

Creativity is an essential feature of individual cognitive processing and can produce new and useful ideas through appropriate information and knowledge ( Zampetakis and Moustakis, 2006 ). According to Rodrigues et al. (2019) , creativity is defined as the ability and skill that people hold. Prior researchers discussed that creativity is particularly essential for entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurship itself is a creative activity ( Kumar and Shukla, 2019 ; Shi et al., 2020 ). Similarly, Hu et al. (2018) conducted a study using creativity and entrepreneurial alertness and found significant results in the context of university students in China. Furthermore, a recent study investigated a sample of 390 university students in Pakistan and found the significant impact of creativity in the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention ( Murad et al., 2021 ).

Zampetakis et al. (2011) studied the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intention using undergraduate business students and found that individuals with a higher level of creativity are more likely to become entrepreneurs. Chia and Liang (2016) conducted a study to examine the impact of creativity on the entrepreneurial intention of university tourism students in Taiwan and remarked that students who perceived high creativity are more prone to start a new business. Shi et al. (2020) studied the relationship between creativity and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) on entrepreneurial intention using a survey of 523 university students in China and found that individuals with a high level of creativity can obtain a positive attitude and high self-belief in entrepreneurial activities.

Additionally, Miranda et al. (2017) used a 1,178 Spanish university student sample to identify the influence of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on creativity and entrepreneurial intention and found that individuals with high creative minds are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Based on the above literature, most of the previous studies found a positive correlation between creativity and entrepreneurial intention. Thus, we believed that creativity will positively lead toward entrepreneurial intention.

H4: Creativity is positively related to entrepreneurial intention.

The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is defined as individual self-belief to attain goal-oriented tasks ( Barbaranelli et al., 2019 ). Self-efficacy is also associated with the inclination of individuals to achieve their personal goals ( Newman et al., 2019 ). The concept of self-efficacy is derived from social cognitive theory. This theory was proposed by Bandura (1985) which demonstrated that individual behavior is developed by numerous activities such as interpersonal, involvement, and circumstance. The relationship between these activities can form confidence in an individual in encompassing the ability to manage certain behaviors and their expectations of behavioral results ( Nowiński et al., 2019 ).

A prior study discussed that self-efficacy is an influential factor in explaining individual entrepreneurial intention and behavior ( Schmutzler et al., 2019 ). Moreover, an increasing number of researches in entrepreneurial intention/behavioral models found the significant mediating role of self-efficacy as a direct and indirect variable in the field of entrepreneurship and social psychology ( Newman et al., 2019 ; Li et al., 2020b ). McGee and Peterson (2019) revealed that self-efficacy is the essential factor that affects the behavior of an individual through the cognitive process, objective setting, and result expectations. Furthermore, scholars argued that entrepreneurs with extraordinary self-efficacy for a particular task are more likely prone to entrepreneurial activities rather than other entrepreneurs who have less self-efficacy ( Şahin et al., 2019 ; Urban, 2020 ).

Burnette et al. (2020) believed that self-efficacy explains the cognition process, develops creative thinking, and helps individuals in the decision-making process to start a new business. In the cognitive process, previous scholars paid much attention to individual creative thinking toward new business startups ( Schmitt et al., 2018 ; Hsu et al., 2019 ). Kumar and Shukla (2019) examined the direct influence of creativity and proactive personality with the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy to measure entrepreneurial intention among university students in India and found that creativity positively leads toward entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Thus, individuals with a higher level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy are more likely to perceive higher entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity. Hence, we proposed the following hypotheses:

H5: Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is positively related to entrepreneurial intention.

H5a: The relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intention will be mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

H5b: The relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial intention will be mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

H5c: The relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intention will be mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The conceptual model depicting the relationships and hypothesis is given in Figure 1 .

Figure 1 . Conceptual model.

Pilot Survey and Sampling Technique

A pilot test was applied by distributing 100 questionnaires to business students at Jiangsu and Zhejiang universities in China. We received 75 effective responses with a participation rate of 75%. Based on the pilot survey feedback, the reliability and validity of the measurement constructs were acceptable. The target population of this study includes all enrolled university students of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in China. This study focused on the entrepreneurial intention of the business student because there is a growing trend in the field of entrepreneurship that university students were more involved in business startups ( Li et al., 2020b ; Neneh, 2020 ). Moreover, this study applied a convenience sampling technique and a survey was conducted from February 05, 2021, to April 30, 2021. The original draft of the questionnaires was in English language and translation was checked by using the translation and back-translation process through the two language experts who have a good command of Chinese and English language. Furthermore, we distributed 450 paper and pencil questionnaires among respondents, and 380 received with a participation rate of 84%. We discarded 15 questionnaires due to incomplete forms of responses, thus, the final response size included 365 valid questionnaires. The participation of the respondents was voluntary and students who engaged in this survey were announced for their anonymity.

Among the valid responses (55.1%) were male and (44.9%) were female. In terms of age groups were 18–25 (44.1%), 26–35 (32.9%), 36–45 (17.5%), and 45–above (5.5%). In terms of major distribution school of management accounted for (43%), the school of finance accounted for (34.2%), the school of public administration accounted for (20%), and the school of economics accounted for (2.7%). There were (47.7%) undergraduate students (29.6%), masters students (20%), diploma and other, and (2.7%) PhD students. Also, (60.3%) came from a family with an entrepreneurial background, and (39.7%) were not belonging to the entrepreneurial family background.

Additionally, Harman single factor test was performed on the data. According to Harman methodology, all the factors are merged in the factor analysis and the first factor explained more than 50% of the total variance that means there is an issue of common method bias in the data. The results from factor analysis show that the first factor explained 30.43% of the total variance. Therefore, there is no issue of common method bias in this study ( Podsakoff, 2003 ).

This study adopted measurement scales that had been tested and validated by the previous researchers. We used a 5-point Likert scale rating from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree and evaluated the responses of students.

Entrepreneurial Education

To assess entrepreneurial education, we used six items from the prior study by Wardana et al. (2020) . This scale was used by previous researchers to predict the entrepreneurial education of students ( Handayati et al., 2020 ). A sample item “I believe that entrepreneurial education in school drives business students to be entrepreneurs.” The Cronbach's α for entrepreneurial education was 0.936.

Entrepreneurial Mindset

To measure the entrepreneurial mindset, we used six measurement constructs from the previous study by Wardana et al. (2020) . A sample item “I have seen time allocation for entrepreneurial matters.” The Cronbach's α for entrepreneurial mindset was 0.905.

Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy

To evaluate entrepreneurial self-efficacy, we used four items from the study by Zhao et al. (2005) . This scale was widely used by prior scholars to assess entrepreneurial self-efficacy ( Li et al., 2020b ). A sample item “I am convinced that I can successfully create new products.” The Cronbach's α for entrepreneurial self-efficacy was 0.918.

Entrepreneurial Intention

To measure the entrepreneurial intention of business students, we used six items from the study by Liñán et al. (2011 ). This scale was applied by several researchers to evaluate the student entrepreneurial intention ( Mahmood et al., 2019 ; Neneh, 2019 ). A sample item “I am determined to start a new business in the future.” The Cronbach's α for the entrepreneurial intention was 0.939.

To evaluate creativity, we used six measurement constructs from the study by Biraglia and Kadile (2017) . This scale was also used by previous researchers ( Kumar and Shukla, 2019 ; Murad et al., 2021 ). A sample item “I often have new and innovative ideas.” The Cronbach's α for creativity was 0.922.

Measurement Model

The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed by utilization of the AMOS software and findings were presented in Table 1 and Figure 2 ). Moreover, Table 2 results show that five measurement constructs have satisfactory reliability results because all the values of Cronbach's α surpassed 0.70 and the composite reliability ranged from 0.908 to 0.941 exceeded the recommended benchmark of 0.60 ( Bagozzi et al., 1991 ). Also, about the validity test, all the measured items factor loadings ranged from 0.725 to 0.915 (all p < 0.001). The values of the average variance extracted were satisfactory and ranged from 0.613 to 0.738 (as shown in Table 2 ).

Table 1 . Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Figure 2 . Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results.

Table 2 . Reliability and validity analysis.

Furthermore, to assess the discriminant validity, we used criteria given by Fornell and Larcker (1981) . Table 2 shows that the measurement model has satisfactory results because the square roots of AVE were greater than the values of its corresponding rows and columns. For the goodness-of-fit index, the results were presented as follow: X 2 = 804.565, X 2 /df = 2.36, GFI = 0.870, CFI = 0.941, NFI = 0.903, RMSEA = 0.060, and SRMR = 0.048. Thus, all the values of measurement model constructs were acceptable and allowed the analysis of the structural model.

Structural Model

The structural model was assessed through the 5,000 bootstrapping method using the Amos software package. The findings of the structural model are expressed in Figure 3 which presented that all the results are satisfactory. Moreover, we tested the proposed hypotheses and the findings are shown in Table 3 and Figure 3 . We found that entrepreneurial education had a direct positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial mindset ( β = 0.177, critical ratio = 3.113, p < 0.002). Therefore, H1 was accepted. Furthermore, results indicate that entrepreneurial education had a direct positive and significant influence on entrepreneurial intention ( β = 0.185, critical ratio = 3.671, p < 0.001). Thus, H2 was supported.

Figure 3 . Structural model.

Table 3 . Direct effects.

Meanwhile, results show that entrepreneurial mindset had a direct positive and significant impact on entrepreneurial intention ( β = 0.276, critical ratio = 5.240, p < 0.001). Consequently, H3 was accepted. Additionally, findings illustrate that creativity had a direct positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial intention ( β = 0.116, critical ratio = 2.300, p < 0.021). Moreover, H4 was supported. Lastly, we found that entrepreneurial self-efficacy had a direct positive and significant impact on entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.302, critical ratio = 5.665, p < 0.001). Hence, H5 was accepted.

To test the indirect effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity, the bootstrap test was applied at a 95% confidence interval with 5,000 bootstrap samples. We followed the recommendations by Preacher and Hayes (2008) to calculate the confidence interval of the lower and upper bounds of bias-corrected percentile and percentile method to analyze whether the indirect effect was significant or not. Table 4 presents the results which indicate that entrepreneurial self-efficacy had a positive and significant indirect effect in the relationship between entrepreneurial education ( β = 0.107, p < 0.001), entrepreneurial mindset ( β = 0.035, p < 0.001) and creativity ( β = 0.069, p < 0.001) on entrepreneurial intention. Thus, H5a, H5b, and H5c were also accepted.

Table 4 . Indirect effects.

Concerning H1, the result indicates that entrepreneurial education positively impacts the entrepreneurial mindset of students. The result of this study is in line with prior researchers ( Cui et al., 2019 ; Handayati et al., 2020 ) who found that entrepreneurial education provides basic knowledge of entrepreneurship that makes students capable and experts in the new business startup process. The results provide new insights into Chinese entrepreneurial education which helps business students to get knowledge and experience on how to start and manage a new business. Entrepreneurial education enables students that how to identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities in the market. It stimulates students to have greater information, knowledge, skills, and encouragement in supporting their entrepreneurial mindset to become entrepreneurs ( Yuan et al., 2021 ). Entrepreneurial education enables the entrepreneurial mindset of the student to have a better perception of numerous results that are crucial for entrepreneurial startups. Moreover, this study suggested that entrepreneurial education affects the entrepreneurial mindset of the student to gain knowledge regarding entrepreneurship and guide them into a good career choice. Furthermore, this study finding is also in agreement with existing literature by Western scholars ( Nowiński et al., 2019 ; Saptono et al., 2020 ) who believed that entrepreneurial education significantly influenced the entrepreneurial mindset of the student to manage valuable assets and resources for a new venture.

Regarding H2, the findings present that entrepreneurial education had a positive and significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. This finding is similar to previous scholars in the context of Western studies ( Westhead and Solesvik, 2016 ; Sun et al., 2017 ) who argued that entrepreneurial education effectively drives the entrepreneurial intention of students to become entrepreneurs. Moreover, in the context of the entrepreneurial culture of China, universities allow students to interact with successful entrepreneurs to get some innovative ideas regarding the new business startups. Entrepreneurial motivation from teachers and peers is essential for students in shaping their entrepreneurial intention ( Barba-Sánchez and Atienza-Sahuquillo, 2018 ).

Concerning H3, the results illustrate that entrepreneurial mindset had a positive and significant impact on the entrepreneurial intention of students. This result is similar to prior researchers and noted that students with a higher level of entrepreneurial mindset are more likely to have knowledge, skills, and experience on how to initiate and run a new business ( Benchrifa et al., 2017 ; Burnette et al., 2020 ). This finding also supports the theoretical contribution of social cognitive theory ( Bandura, 1985 ) which argued that the relationship between cognition factors such as mindset and environmental are positively associated with the entrepreneurial intentions of the student. Social cognitive theory developing an entrepreneurial mindset among students and stimulates their cognitive factors that ultimately lead toward entrepreneurial action ( Yuan et al., 2020 ). The entrepreneurial mindset is shaped by entrepreneurial education and its activities in the school which in turn affects student behavior to become an entrepreneur.

Regarding H4, we found that creativity had a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. This finding is in line with several previous studies ( Hu et al., 2018 ; Anjum et al., 2021 ), which remarked that individuals with a high level of creative minds are more likely to peruse a career in entrepreneurship. Creativity is all about something new and innovative and individuals who have creative minds are more capable to articulate innovative ideas into a reality that ultimately leads toward the entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, creativity can be regarded as a valuable factor possessed by individuals, which can stimulate the development of entrepreneurial intention among Chinese students by enhancing the awareness and abilities regarding entrepreneurship, such as opportunity, identification, and exploitation.

Concerning H5, H5a, H5b, and H5c, the results reveal that entrepreneurial self-efficacy positively mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity on entrepreneurial intention. This finding is in agreement with prior researchers ( Yang, 2014 ; Wardana et al., 2020 ). The results suggest that university management facilitates students regarding entrepreneurship education and makes them skillful in handling business activities as well as developing an entrepreneurial atmosphere that ultimately leads to entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Therefore, individuals who perceived a higher level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy are easily identified an opportunity, making an entrepreneurial mindset and think more creatively to commercialize new ideas in the form of product development.

This study examined the influence of entrepreneurial factors such as education, mindset, and creativity on entrepreneurial intention. This study provides new insights into the context of the Chinese student sample and examined their entrepreneurial intention. This study used SPSS and AMOS software to measure the proposed structural equation model based on 365 valid responses from business students in China. The findings of this study indicated that entrepreneurial mindset has a stronger influence on entrepreneurial intention than entrepreneurial education and creativity. These results show that entrepreneurial self-efficacy positively mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity toward entrepreneurial intention.

Implications and Limitations

Based on the study findings, we offered some practical suggestions for educators and policymakers. First, educators improve their ability and competence particularly regarding entrepreneurship courses, such as in-house training, attend webinars on entrepreneurship, and offer an entrepreneurship certification program. Second, university top leadership develops an entrepreneurial mindset among educators and boosts their confidence to continue their higher studies for a greater outcome. Moreover, for the enhancement of entrepreneurship, university management needs to change the syllabus of entrepreneurship courses through field expertise rather than focus on classroom teaching. Third, the university provides basic facilities to students for entrepreneurial startups, including business incubation centers and other financial supports.

Universities need to support students in developing an entrepreneurial mindset to become entrepreneurs. Fourth, the university could continue to enhance the quality of entrepreneurial education by expanding the teaching materials used on entrepreneurship courses to cultivate the creativity of the student. This would promote a wide range of different learning experiences, not only focused on classroom teaching methods but also developing extra entrepreneurship curriculum activities, which are particularly successful in forming the entrepreneurial intention in the mindsets of students in the Chinese context. Finally, the government should create a better entrepreneurial environment for university students such as setting up a social entrepreneurship support program, providing business capital, and providing free business places where they can easily start their new businesses.

This study provides some limitations that would be considered for future research opportunities. First, data were gathered from Jiangsu and Zhejiang province university students of China, representing a small sample size. The target population was focused only on business department university students. Future research might consider other provinces of China or other students of the country such as vocational schools, IT, and engineering students, and enlarge the sample size to generalize the results. Second, the nature of this study was a cross-sectional design, and data was gathered through a self-administered questionnaire. Future research could conduct on the impact of entrepreneurship education and creativity using entrepreneurial alertness as a mediator among university students with the help of longitudinal research design to add more contribution in the field of entrepreneurship. Further studies also needs to examine the influence of entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial mindset using creativity and TPB as mediators and extend this entrepreneurial intention model to measure actual entrepreneurial behavior.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of the Jiangsu University China. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author Contributions

WJ and MM proposed the research, analyzed the experimental results, and wrote the manuscript. FB and FM designed, carried out the experiments. MT and MR extensively edited and revised the manuscript. All the authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

A Study on the Type Preference, Influencing Factors and School-based Policies of Academic Entrepreneurship of University Teachers (No. 21QNYC20ZD) the Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Leading Talent Cultivation Project.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intention, creativity, China

Citation: Jiatong W, Murad M, Bajun F, Tufail MS, Mirza F and Rafiq M (2021) Impact of Entrepreneurial Education, Mindset, and Creativity on Entrepreneurial Intention: Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy. Front. Psychol. 12:724440. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.724440

Received: 13 June 2021; Accepted: 16 July 2021; Published: 23 August 2021.

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Copyright © 2021 Jiatong, Murad, Bajun, Tufail, Mirza and Rafiq. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Majid Murad, majidmurad1@gmail.com

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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N2 - Entrepreneurship education has spread enormously during the last decades, and today entrepreneurship is taught to numerous pupils and students in various disciplines and at different levels of education. Policy makers around the world view entrepreneurship as a key competence to be fostered already at an early stage of education, and an increasing amount of resources are spent on various initiatives in the field. Entrepreneurship research is, however, a heterogeneous field, and, consequently, there are numerous approaches to entrepreneurship education. Little is known about the effectiveness of these approaches, and much conceptual and definitional confusion makes it complicated to compare the different initiatives in the field. This dissertation seeks to remedy this problem. As such, the overarching research question guiding this dissertation is: What effects do different approaches to entrepreneurship education have at different levels of the education system? To answer this research question a categorization model, based on research about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial learning, and cognitive and non-cognitive skill development, which addresses the diverse foci of different approaches to entrepreneurship education, is provided. In addition, the dissertation comprises three research papers that individually address different approaches to evaluating the effects of entrepreneurship education at different levels of education.

AB - Entrepreneurship education has spread enormously during the last decades, and today entrepreneurship is taught to numerous pupils and students in various disciplines and at different levels of education. Policy makers around the world view entrepreneurship as a key competence to be fostered already at an early stage of education, and an increasing amount of resources are spent on various initiatives in the field. Entrepreneurship research is, however, a heterogeneous field, and, consequently, there are numerous approaches to entrepreneurship education. Little is known about the effectiveness of these approaches, and much conceptual and definitional confusion makes it complicated to compare the different initiatives in the field. This dissertation seeks to remedy this problem. As such, the overarching research question guiding this dissertation is: What effects do different approaches to entrepreneurship education have at different levels of the education system? To answer this research question a categorization model, based on research about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial learning, and cognitive and non-cognitive skill development, which addresses the diverse foci of different approaches to entrepreneurship education, is provided. In addition, the dissertation comprises three research papers that individually address different approaches to evaluating the effects of entrepreneurship education at different levels of education.

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BT - Assessing the Impact of Entrepreneurship Education

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CY - Frederiksberg

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the effect of entrepreneurship education on graduate students' entrepreneurial alertness and the mediating role of entrepreneurial mindset.

Education + Training

ISSN : 0040-0912

Article publication date: 25 October 2021

Issue publication date: 8 November 2022

This study investigates the effect of entrepreneurship education in terms of the development of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, on graduate students' entrepreneurial alertness and the mediating role of the entrepreneurial mindset.

Design/methodology/approach

The study collected data using questionnaires from graduate students at an Iranian university who had engaged with entrepreneurship education. The questionnaires collected data on the respondent's demographics and adopted previously validated measures to measure entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial mindset. Statistical techniques were applied to test validity and structural equation modeling was undertaken to test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrated that entrepreneurship education has a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial mindset. In addition, entrepreneurial mindset was found to have a positive and significant role in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial alertness. This finding highlights the importance of educators seeking to build an entrepreneurial mindset within entrepreneurship education, in addition to developing students' entrepreneurial alertness by focusing on opportunity identification and recognition.

Originality/value

The study addresses a gap in the literature as to the relationship between entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial alertness, and the entrepreneurial mindset, and furthers the understanding of the impact of entrepreneurship education. The results inform educational practice, as ensuring students recognize entrepreneurial opportunities is an important element of venture creation.

• Entrepreneurship education
• Entrepreneurial alertness
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Opportunity recognition

Saadat, S. , Aliakbari, A. , Alizadeh Majd, A. and Bell, R. (2022), "The effect of entrepreneurship education on graduate students' entrepreneurial alertness and the mediating role of entrepreneurial mindset", Education + Training , Vol. 64 No. 7, pp. 892-909. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-06-2021-0231

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Entrepreneurship Education’s Impact on Entrepreneurial Intention: A Predictive Regression Model of Chinese University Students

Brian A. Lavelle Follow

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Dr. Annette Nemetz, Ph.D.

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Dr. Paul Shelton, Ph.D.

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Dr. Linda Samek, Ed.D.

“Entrepreneurship education’s impact on entrepreneurial intention: A predictive regression model of Chinese university students” is a dissertation study by Brian A. Lavelle, doctoral candidate at George Fox University. The study investigates the impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention using quantitative methods and survey data from China. The study uses Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior and the Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (Linan & Chen, 2009) to investigate the impact between personal attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention. The data was collected from eleven college and university programs in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, in the People’s Republic of China. The primary methodology of the study was regression analysis which allowed the researcher to assess the individual impact of each antecedent factor in the regression model. The findings of the study provide no evidence that entrepreneurship education positively impacts entrepreneurial intention in China. The author concludes that the self-selection bias and differences between ranked universities and vocational colleges in China may explain the results of the study. This research provides findings with implications to university communities and policy-makers in China, which may serve as a performance measurement of entrepreneurship education policies. This research provides findings with implications to scholars as the entrepreneurship education-entrepreneurial relationship in China is currently inconclusive.

Recommended Citation

Lavelle, Brian A., "Entrepreneurship Education’s Impact on Entrepreneurial Intention: A Predictive Regression Model of Chinese University Students" (2018). Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) . 18. https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dbadmin/18

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Relationship between Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Intention among College Students: A Meta-Analysis

Wenyi zhang, minqiang zhang, xiaozhong lu.

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Correspondence: [email protected] (M.Z.); [email protected] (X.L.)

Received 2022 Aug 15; Accepted 2022 Sep 21; Collection date 2022 Oct.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

Meta-analysis was used to investigate the impact of entrepreneurship education on college students’ entrepreneurial intention. Based on the rules of meta-analysis, 389 empirical studies were selected from more than 1000 entrepreneurship education-related documents. The current study processed and analyzed data from 36 records (including 24 journal articles, 11 master’s theses, and 1 doctoral thesis) with a total sample of 29,736 students. The results suggested that: (1) entrepreneurship education is positively associated with entrepreneurial intention; (2) national context differences among students have a significant and moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. As compared to other countries, Chinese college students’ entrepreneurial intention is more strongly related with entrepreneurship education.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intention, meta-analysis, moderating effect

1. Introduction

With the globalization of the world economy and the normalization of the state of affairs after the COVID-19 epidemic, college students’ entrepreneurship is characterized by new opportunities and challenges [ 1 ]. According to the data of the “2019 Chinese College Students Employment Report” released in July 2020, the proportion of self-employed undergraduates (four-year course) in 2019 was 1.6%, while that of the technical graduates (three-year course) was 3.4%. A previous study has shown that the proportion of graduates who start their own businesses was around 8.1% within three years after graduation, but the proportion of self-employment is relatively low [ 2 ]. CEOWORLD magazine has assessed the 100 economies which collectively account for 95 percent of the global GDP, and has developed the “Best Countries to Start a Business” index by considering factors such as innovation, competitiveness, infrastructure, workforce skills, capital access, and openness of businesses. This magazine reported that China’s 2021 entrepreneurial activity index was 20.04, while the US and Germany’s entrepreneurial activity index were as high as 41 or more, indicating that China still lags behind in entrepreneurial activities as compared to the Western countries [ 3 ]. Entrepreneurship is a high-risk economic activity; its creativity, ambiguity, and limited resources are challenges for entrepreneurs. In particular, for college students who lack social experience and connections, the uncertainty and ambiguity is amplified [ 4 ]. Additionally, college students are usually lacking in mental preparedness for the hardship of entrepreneurial activities and in entrepreneurial skills, while the social environment for young entrepreneurs is normally not as friendly as that for experienced and older entrepreneurs [ 5 ]. Therefore, it is necessary to further investigate the entrepreneurial intention of college students, and to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. From a practical point of view, the current study enables policy makers and educators to obtain targeted advice on building an entrepreneurship education system that integrates professional and entrepreneurship education.

2. Literature Review

2.1. entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.

Entrepreneurship education refers to the educational curriculum and courses that aim to cultivate entrepreneurial spirits and competencies in students, such as identifying opportunities, integrating resources, and developing ventures [ 6 ]. In 1946, entrepreneurship education was first introduced in the entrepreneurship course at Harvard Business School. In 1967, Stanford University and New York University introduced entrepreneurship courses in their MBA programs [ 7 ]. Entrepreneurship education not only helps to promote students’ entrepreneurial intention, but also helps develop an entrepreneurial way of thinking and cultivates skills; additionally, it plays an important role in promoting the growth of human capital [ 8 ]. Furthermore, entrepreneurship education is the driving force that promotes the development of entrepreneurial ability [ 9 ], which helps in improving individual’s entrepreneurial competitiveness [ 10 ]. Entrepreneurial intention is the subjective state of mind of potential entrepreneurs that determines whether to engage in entrepreneurial activities; it is also the willingness of individuals towards entrepreneurial behaviors such as starting a new business or becoming an entrepreneur [ 11 ]. Human Capital Theory (HCT) indicates that entrepreneurial intention is determined on the basis of the human and social capital stock [ 12 ]. The growth of entrepreneurial professional knowledge and skills accumulated through entrepreneurship education can improve an individual’s entrepreneurial intention.

According to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), an individual’s behavior is influenced by personal attitude, subjective norm, and perceptual behavior control [ 13 ]. Personal attitude refers to an individual’s evaluation of a target, and individuals with positive evaluation are usually willing to carry out such behavior [ 13 ]. Subjective norm is the social pressure that individuals experience when they perform a certain behavior. Perceptual behavior control has been defined as an individual’s subjective judgments about whether they can complete expected goals successfully [ 13 ]. Entrepreneurship education not only promotes college students to learn the methods and skills needed to start a business, but also relates to students’ positive evaluation of entrepreneurship and to the belief in their ability to complete the goal successfully [ 13 ]. More importantly, entrepreneurship education improves the entrepreneurial intention of college students. Previous studies have found that entrepreneurship education is positively related to entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurship education was found to improve entrepreneurial intention among college students from Tianjin and Qinhuangdao in China [ 14 ]. Entrepreneurship education is positively associated with college students’ entrepreneurial intention [ 15 ]. Furthermore, entrepreneurship education plays a key role in college students’ entrepreneurial intention by providing awareness, knowledge, and ability [ 16 ]. However, some studies suggest that entrepreneurship education is not significantly related to entrepreneurial intention [ 17 , 18 ]. Thus, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention among college students.

Hypothesis   1: There is a positive correlation between college students’ entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.

2.2. Moderating Role of National Context Differences

National context differences play an important role in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurship education is considered highly important and has developed rapidly in the governments and universities of the United States and Europe [ 19 , 20 ]. To facilitate further development of entrepreneurship education, governments and schools offer entrepreneurship courses and organize extracurricular activities such as entrepreneurship competitions [ 21 ]. For example, in Europe, a competition pertaining to entrepreneurship teaching methods is held in schools, in which teacher groups participate and entrepreneurs are invited as judges [ 22 ]. Another important way to promote the development of entrepreneurship education is organizing Cross-Campus Entrepreneurship Education (CCEE) groups, in which business schools play a core role and multi-department cooperation is required. Supported by their sound social and economic foundation and policy, some countries in Europe and the United States have formed a well-rounded educational system with entrepreneurship education as the main body and have sought interdisciplinary integration [ 23 ]. However, entrepreneurship education in China started relatively late, and was mostly restricted to classrooms only, with less practical application [ 24 ]. In China, the concept of innovation and entrepreneurship education was first introduced in 2010, and at the same time the “Entrepreneurship Education Steering Committee of Higher Education Institutions” was established to promote professional development through entrepreneurship education [ 25 ]. In 2012, China promulgated the basic syllabus for entrepreneurship education, which carefully outlined the entrepreneurship teaching curriculum system for undergraduate schools [ 26 ]. In 2015, China began to build entrepreneurship incubation and demonstration bases, hold competitions pertaining to innovation and entrepreneurship for college students, facilitate teachers’ innovation and the development of entrepreneurship teaching capabilities, and establish an effective linkage between universities, enterprises, and society [ 27 ]. Currently, with the increasing popularization of higher education, it has been reported that there were 10.76 million college graduates in China in 2022, which shows an increase of 1.67 million compared with those in 2021 [ 28 ]. As a driving force of the economy, entrepreneurship education can provide job opportunities and play a significant role in promoting employment [ 15 ]. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to how national context differences affect the relationship between entrepreneurship education and college students’ entrepreneurial intention.

Hypothesis   2: National context differences can significantly affect the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.

2.3. Moderating Roles of Gender

Gender and education level are important factors that influence the relationship between entrepreneurship education and college students’ entrepreneurial intention. While preparing to start a business, females face greater entrepreneurial pressure than males; they are often bound by sexist and traditional beliefs, such as the belief that males should work outside and females should stay at home [ 29 ]. Some scholars attribute this to different perceptions of the social roles of males and females during childhood, leading to role consciousness in men, which is characterized by independence and a focus on work, while females tend to pay more attention to interpersonal relationships and also tend to prioritize family needs over occupational needs [ 29 ]. Furthermore, prior research has indicated that males’ entrepreneurial intention is positively related to their entrepreneurship education, while females are less affected by entrepreneurship education [ 30 ]. Therefore, it can be assumed that gender plays a moderating role in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.

Hypothesis   3: Gender plays a moderating role between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.

2.4. Education Level

In addition, there is a traditional view that individuals with higher educational qualifications have lower entrepreneurial intention. With the improvement in educational level, students with longer educational experience tend to work in a stable and better-paid state-owned enterprise, and avoid entrepreneurial risks [ 31 ]. Another study has suggested that the low proportion of postgraduate entrepreneurs should be attributed to the fact that the collaborative system of entrepreneurship education has not been established [ 32 ]. Graduate students have a positive attitude towards entrepreneurial behavior, but their own entrepreneurial intention is not strong [ 33 ]. On the one hand, the educational level of an individual is closely related to factors such as personal comprehensive quality and their social network, which serve as key resources for entrepreneurship; on the other hand, the consideration of reputation and risk factors may inhibit the entrepreneurial intention of highly educated individuals [ 34 ]. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of education level on entrepreneurial intention.

Hypothesis   4: Education level plays a moderating role between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. literature search.

The data for meta-analysis were collected from the literature published from 2010 to 2020. The current study selected JSTOR, Springer, Google Scholar, CNKI, and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform as the databases to search the literature related to entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the academics and employment of college students were negatively affected [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Hence, studies conducted in 2021 were not included in the meta-analysis.

3.2. Literature Inclusion and Exclusion

To meet the requirements of meta-analysis methods and the aim of this work, 389 empirical studies were selected from more than 1000 entrepreneurship education-related documents, which were further filtered according to the following criteria: (a) the research sample should cover college students, including technical college students (three-year higher education system), undergraduate students (four-year higher education system), and graduate students; (b) the literature must be empirical, excluding literature reviews and theoretical articles; (c) the literature must report a correlation to express the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, in the form of a correlation coefficient; (d) only one of the multiple studies on the same samples should be included; (e) the sample size is clear. Hence, after searching and filtering, 36 studies were finally obtained (see Table 1 ), including journal articles (24), master’s theses (11), and a doctoral thesis (1).

Meta-analysis literature summary.

3.3. Data Analysis

Meta-analysis highlights the differences between specific studies, comprehensively evaluates related studies, and reveals conclusions or trends at a more macroscopic level that have greater value [ 38 ]. Data processing is based on the rules of meta-analysis. The effect size was based on the sample of each independent study. The current study coded the relationship between college students’ entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intention as follows: (a) if only one correlation coefficient was reported in the study, then the correlation coefficient was regarded as an independent effect value; (b) if the correlation coefficients reported in the study were from different groups, then each correlation coefficient was regarded as an independent correlation effect value, and was included in the analysis; (c) if the coefficients expressed the relationship between different dimensions of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention in the same group, then the mean of these correlation coefficients was calculated and expressed as the effect value.

The CMA 3.0 software was used in this study. The correlation coefficient was used as the input effect value. Firstly, each r-value was converted to a Fisher’s Z value. Secondly, the weighted average of the Fisher’s Z values was calculated. Finally, the Fisher’s Z values were converted back to the correlation coefficient to obtain the final effect value. The effect values of each sample are depicted in Table 1 .

4.1. The Main Effect Size of Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Intention

4.1.1. heterogeneity test.

The heterogeneity test aims to examine whether the samples in each article belonged to the same group. There are two indexes for testing heterogeneity in meta-analysis, namely the Q-value and I2. When the result of the chi-square test with respect to the Q-value is significant ( p < 0.05), it indicates that there is heterogeneity among the samples; the value of I2 lies between 0 and 100%, where 25%, 50%, and 75% represent low, medium, and high heterogeneity, respectively. When the heterogeneity is significant, a random effects model is used for analysis; otherwise, a fixed effect model is used. In this study, with respect to the results of the meta-analysis, Q (35) = 1951.970, p < 0.001, I2 = 98.207. This shows that 98.207% of the total variance is caused by the difference in the relationship between the college students’ entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. The results of the heterogeneity test indicated that a random effects model should be selected for the follow-up analysis.

4.1.2. Publication Bias Test

Publication bias refers to the phenomenon that statistically significant findings are more likely to be published than non-significant findings. That is, only those studies that have significant results are published in journals, while those having non-significant results are excluded. Thus, publication bias is likely to affect the results of the meta-analysis. Therefore, the meta-analysis effect size must be tested before the meta-analysis to avoid the interference of publication bias [ 72 , 73 ]. In this study, the fail-safe N was used as an indicator of publication bias. If the fail-safe N value is greater than the tolerance value (5K + 10, where K represents the number of independent samples included in the study), it indicates that the meta-analysis results are not affected by publication bias. In this study, the fail-safe N value was 2627, which was greater than the tolerance value of 190, which indicated that the influence of publication bias in this study could be considered insignificant and could be ignored.

4.1.3. Main Effect Size Test

As shown in Table 2 , the main effect of entrepreneurship education and the entrepreneurial intention of college students reveals a significant correlation between the two (r = 0.394, p < 0.001), and its confidence interval was [0.310, 0.472]. This shows that there is a positive correlation between college students’ entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, and thus Hypothesis 1 was accepted.

Meta-analysis results of sample main effects.

4.2. Analysis of Moderating Effects

This study attempted to explain the heterogeneity of the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention by considering the role of the moderating factors (i.e., national context differences, gender, and education level). The results in Table 3 show that national context differences can significantly affect the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention (Qb = 8.920, p = 0.003); in China, there is a positive relationship between them (r = 0.440), while in other countries, the relationship is weaker as compared to China (r = 0.271), so Hypothesis 2 was also accepted.

Meta-analysis results of moderation effect analysis.

The test results pertaining to the moderating role of gender show that the influence of male groups on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention (r = 0.446) is stronger than that of female groups (r = 0.352), but the difference between the two groups was non-significant ( p = 0.558). Therefore, gender does not play a moderating role between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, and hence Hypothesis 3 was rejected.

The results of the moderating effect test on education level have shown that the effect size of the group of non-graduate students (r = 0.403) was stronger than that of the group of graduate students (r = 0.362), but the heterogeneity between the groups was not significant ( p = 0.691). This indicated that the moderating effect of education level was not significant, and hence Hypothesis 4 was also rejected.

5. Discussion

Meta-analysis is a statistical reanalysis of previous research results based on specific conditions and topics [ 37 ]. Compared with ordinary empirical research, the advantage of meta-analysis is that it breaks through contingencies and limitations, and overcomes the problem of result distortion caused by errors [ 74 ]. Considering the advantages of meta-analysis, the current study attempts to explore the literature to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention from a global perspective. Additionally, prior research has suggested that entrepreneurship education has an interactional effect with other variables, such as gender, in regard to its relationship with entrepreneurial behavior and entrepreneurial intention [ 29 ]. Thus, it is necessary to sort out the literature in the field of entrepreneurship education, and to further explore the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. This research used the method of meta-analysis to statistically analyze 36 studies pertaining to the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention published in the past ten years. The moderating effect of national context differences, gender, and education level on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention was discussed, and the following conclusions were drawn.

5.1. Effect of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intention

The main effect of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intention of college students shows that the random effect size of the correlation coefficient between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention was 0.394, which reached a significant level, indicating that entrepreneurship education has a positive role in promoting entrepreneurial intention. This is consistent with the findings of previous studies [ 14 , 16 ] which revealed that entrepreneurship education is positively associated with the entrepreneurial intention of college students. Therefore, entrepreneurship education is essential to improve the entrepreneurial intention of college students. Universities should develop and implement an entrepreneurship education curriculum system, which includes compulsory courses, elective courses, and practical courses, among others. Additionally, entrepreneurship education should be provided throughout the learning period at the college level. Governments and schools can build an entrepreneurship education system that integrates professional and entrepreneurship education. Furthermore, they can encourage students to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and practices. By encouraging high-quality projects on campus, providing space and entrepreneurial incubators, and implementing other practical methods, they can increase the frequency of college students’ entrepreneurial behavior. At the same time, this is likely to enhance entrepreneurial intention and increase entrepreneurial confidence.

5.2. Role of National Context Differences

National context differences have a moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, and the positive relationship between the two is stronger in China than that in other countries. Hypothesis 2 is established. The results of the study show that as compared to the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia and other countries, the entrepreneurial intention of Chinese college students is more affected by entrepreneurship education. An important indicator in the world-renowned international entrepreneurship research project, the Global Entrepreneurship Observatory, is total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA), which mainly measures two dimensions: individual entrepreneurial behavior and social surroundings. In the Global Entrepreneurship Watch 2019/2020 report, the 18- to 24-year-old population in China accounted for 10.6% of the overall measured population with early-stage entrepreneurial behavior, as compared to 15.8% in the United States and 12.2% in the United Kingdom. It can be seen that although the proportion of early-stage entrepreneurial behavior among people aged 18–24 years in China has shown an upward trend in recent years, it still lags behind other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. One possible explanation is that countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have a strong entrepreneurial culture; their college students exhibit entrepreneurial behavior irrespective of whether they receive entrepreneurial education or not. Countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have mature systems and policy support for financing college students’ entrepreneurial endeavors; in particular, the entrepreneurial environment for young people is loose. These factors may be related to the results presented in the Global Entrepreneurship Watch. The entrepreneurial intention of Chinese college students is more affected by their entrepreneurship education.

5.3. Role of Gender

The results of the meta-analysis revealed that there is a slight moderating effect of gender differences on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, but this effect is not significant. This shows that, as compared to males, the entrepreneurial intention of females is less affected by entrepreneurship education. After examining the entrepreneurship education courses, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship education is gender neutral. When males and females receive the same entrepreneurship education, the impact on their entrepreneurial intention is basically the same. However, we still need to pay attention to the differential needs of females. Entrepreneurship can increase employment opportunities, the social status of females, and help them realize their self-worth. At the same time, the active participation of females in entrepreneurship is also in line with the needs of social and economic development [ 75 ]. Therefore, entrepreneurship education in universities can appropriately enrich the content related to female entrepreneurship. In the design of entrepreneurship courses and for the realization of entrepreneurship projects, more attention should be paid to the needs of female entrepreneurs in order to understand the difficulties and bottlenecks they encounter in entrepreneurship, and to overcome the barriers to entrepreneurship.

5.4. Role of Education Level

Additionally, the moderating effect of education level in the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurship education is different. This is consistent with the conclusion that highly educated people are more inclined to have stable employment rather than take entrepreneurial risks. However, with the gradual popularization and development of entrepreneurship education in the field of higher education, entrepreneurship in postgraduates is also expected to rise. To stimulate the entrepreneurial passion of highly educated talents, cultivate their entrepreneurial willingness, and establish an entrepreneurial education system, the psychological needs of the students should be considered in future entrepreneurship education.

6. Conclusions and Future Direction

The entrepreneurship education of college students has a positive role in promoting entrepreneurial intention. National context differences have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. As compared to college students from other countries, Chinese college students’ entrepreneurial intention is more strongly affected by entrepreneurship education. One of the purposes for college students to receive higher education is to improve the students’ employment competitiveness. Entrepreneurship education brings professional knowledge and skills to students, and some students will start their own businesses after graduating from university. Obviously, in China, entrepreneurship education plays a positive role in promoting college students’ entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, it is necessary to better organize and construct the curriculum system of entrepreneurship education in college. However, there are still several limitations to this study, and further research should be conducted. First, based on the literature review and theoretical support, this study investigated the impact of entrepreneurship education on college students’ entrepreneurial intention through meta-analysis. The moderating effect of national context differences, gender, and education level on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention was also discussed. However, the influence of other factors, such as personality traits and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention needs to be further explored. Second, all the studies selected in this work were cross-sectional. Future studies can choose longitudinal studies to explore the causal relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, W.Z., M.Z. and X.L.; Data curation, Y.L.; Formal analysis, Y.L.; Funding acquisition, W.Z. and X.L.; Investigation, Y.L.; Software, Y.L.; Supervision, M.Z. and X.L.; Validation, M.Z.; Visualization, Q.Z.; Writing—original draft, W.Z., Y.L., Q.Z. and M.Z.; Writing—review & editing, W.Z., Q.Z. and M.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The data are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding Statement

This research was funded by the key project of the Chinese National Social Science Fund, “Research on Problems and System Innovation in Educational Integrated Development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” (Grant Number: AGA200016); the Guangdong University of Finance and Economics Research Project, “Survey of College Students’ Entrepreneurship Status and Psychological Activities” (Grant Number: 119-5119391102); and the Guangdong Provincial Education Science Planning Project (Higher Education Special Project), “Research on the Evolution Path and Sustainable Development of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystem in Colleges and Universities” (Grant No. 2022GXJK203).

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Uncovering dominant characteristics for entrepreneurial intention and success in the last decade: systematic literature review

• Original Paper
• Published: 15 July 2022
• Volume 5 , pages 145–178, ( 2022 )

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• Tryson Yangailo   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0690-9747 1 &
• Abubaker Qutieshat 2  

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This study presents a systematic literature review to identify dominant characteristics that predict entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial success in the twenty-first century. The aim was to provide insights to entrepreneurs, academicians, policy makers, counsellors and all those charged with the responsibility of entrepreneurship development. The study applied a systematic review of the literature contained in the two databases, namely Semantic Scholar and Google Scholar. The analysis of the literature identified self-efficacy, conscientiousness, locus of control, need for achievement and innovativeness as the indisputably and unarguably key top personal characteristics that predict both entrepreneurial intention and guarantee entrepreneurial success. The study also finds that characteristics that predict entrepreneurial intention also guarantee entrepreneurial success. The review of the existing literature shows that there are gaps in it. For example, there are not many countries where studies have been done in the area of interest, and the research methods used in those studies are not balanced because they are mostly quantitative. The major contribution of the study was the identification of key dominant personal characteristics that predict both entrepreneurial intention and lead to entrepreneurial success in today’s dynamic environment. The other key contribution is stages, methodology and the analysis that can be replicated and employed by other researchers (scholars and practitioners) to conduct other studies or better still, similar studies in the future.

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Introduction

Entrepreneurship is the major source of technological growth, economic growth, employment, competition, promotion of product and service quality, innovation and economic flexibility in today’s society (Hisrich et al., 2007 ; Kuratko, 2007 ). Apart from being a driving force for job creation and economic development, entrepreneurship contributes to personal development (Sarri &Trihopoulou, 2005 ). An entrepreneur is referred to as an individual who undertakes creative and innovative initiatives. “Why some individuals are more successful in business than others is among the influential questions in entrepreneurship research” (Isaga, 2012 ). Since the late 1980s, the pace of research on personality traits and entrepreneurial intension has slowed down (Sousa et al., 2018 ) because of inconsistency in theory and mixed empirical findings (Llewellyn & Wilson, 2003 ; Zhao & Seibert, 2006 ).

Studies have presented that successful entrepreneurs have similar characteristics to each other (see Timmons et al., 2004 ; Carland et al., 1984 ; Desai et al., 2009 ; Ehigie et al., 2003 ; Bulu et al., 2005 ; Hui et al., 2006 ; Djankov et al., 2007 ; Papzan et al., 2008 ; Abdullah et al., 2009 ; Di Zhang et al., 2011 ) with some studies arguing that some characteristics presented by other studies do not lead to entrepreneurial success or/and intention (see Ahmed et al., 2019 , 2022 ; Awwad et al., 2021 ; Biswas & Verma, 2021a , 2021b ; Sarwoko & Nurfarida, 2021 ; Mhlanga, 2019 ; Franco & Prata, 2019 ; Zhou et al., 2019 ; Setia, 2018 ; Djankov et al., 2007 ).

Purpose of study

The twenty-first century is a century that is unique from other centuries because its environment is dynamic, coupled with tense, fierce competition on a daily basis. Because not everyone can or will become an entrepreneur, it is critical to identify who will be entrepreneurs sooner rather than later (Majková & Kljunikov, 2017 ). Many researchers and authors are of the view that entrepreneurial success largely depends upon the traits of the entrepreneur but have a difference of opinion with respect to the degree of importance of various traits (Singh & Rahman, 2013a , 2013b ).

There is an increasing curiosity in today’s twenty-first century as to why there are variations in the success rates of entrepreneurs and how to determine the relevant characteristics/traits required for entrepreneurial success. Moreover, little is known about the profiles of personal characteristics of individuals who express a high level of entrepreneurial intention (Şahin et al., 2019 ). It has become difficult for policy makers, counsellors, academicians and other relevant authorities who are charged with responsibilities of entrepreneurship development to determine the most relevant dominant characteristics required for an entrepreneur to succeed in the twenty-first century or better still, predict who would be an entrepreneur based on an individual's characteristics. Amid researcher inconsistency and mixed and inconclusive literature results regarding characteristics for entrepreneurial success and intention, it became necessary to conduct a study that would determine the most dominant characteristics related to entrepreneurial success and intention in the twenty-first century using a systematic literature review of the previous decade literature.

This study focused on two areas. The first was to identify characteristics linked to entrepreneurial success and the second was to identify characteristic factors that are related to entrepreneurial intentions in the twenty-first century by systematic review of the literature from the last decade.

Literature review

This section presents studies carried out in the last decade (2012–2022) relating to studies that focused on the impact of individual characteristics on entrepreneurial success and intention.

• Entrepreneurial success

Entrepreneurial success is measured in both non-financial and financial parameters. Nag and Das ( 2017 ) used measures of success in employment and growth in profit. It can also be referred to as growth in turnover sales, growth in profit after tax and return on net worth.

• Entrepreneurial intention

Entrepreneurial intention is an indication that an individual intends to choose entrepreneurship as a career and s/he is ready to gather resources, take risks and establish their own business (Karabulut, 2016 ). Entrepreneurial intention plays a very decisive role in the process of becoming an entrepreneur, and it is not only the prerequisite for establishing a business, but it also influences an individual’s behaviour (Soni & Bakhru, 2021 ).

Table 1 summarises studies that present a positive association between some characteristics and entrepreneurial success and intensions from 2012 to 2022.

Studies that delinked some characteristics from entrepreneurial success and intension

Table 1 has the following literature, which is based on studies done from 2012 to 2022.

Ahmed et al. ( 2022 ) conducted a study in Pakistan on the influence of the big five personality traits on entrepreneurial intentions. The study found that extroversion, neuroticism, openness to experience and agreeableness do not have a big effect on whether or not someone wants to start their own business.

Awwad et al., ( 2021 ) investigated the impact of the big five personality traits on entrepreneurial intention in Jordan. The results indicated that neuroticism and agreeableness were not related to entrepreneurial intention. A study that investigated the engine of entrepreneurial intentions in India, conducted by Biswas and Verma ( 2021a , 2021b ), revealed that neuroticism has a negative significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions. In Indonesia, the study carried out by Sarwoko and Nurfarida ( 2021 ) on personality traits and the performance of business revealed that agreeableness and neuroticism have no effect on business performance.

Mhlanga ( 2019 ) conducted a study in South Africa's hospitality sector to identify personality traits that affect entrepreneurial performance. The results indicate that neuroticism has a significant negative impact on the performance of entrepreneurs. In Portugal, Franco and Prata ( 2019 ) conducted a study on the influence of individual characteristics and traits on the performance of family SMEs. The study revealed that neuroticism has a negative influence on performance. In China, Zhou et al. ( 2019 ) conducted a study on city personality fit and entrepreneurial success. The study found that neuroticism and agreeableness had a negative effect on entrepreneurial success. Ahmed et al. ( 2019 ) in Pakistan investigated the impact of personal traits on entrepreneurial intention on students. The results showed that the need for stress tolerance and the need for autonomy have no significant impact on entrepreneurial intention.

The study conducted by Setia ( 2018 ) found that out of all five big personality traits, four (extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism) were not related to entrepreneurial success. The study conducted by Dinis et al. ( 2013 ) shows that risk propensity negatively influences entrepreneurial intentions, whereas Wang et al. ( 2016 ) and Jing and Sung ( 2012 ) found neuroticism to have a negative significant effect on entrepreneurship. Murugesan and Jayavelu ( 2017 ) found that extraversion did not have an influence on entrepreneurial intention.

Research design and methodology

A systematic review of published papers on entrepreneurial characteristics, entrepreneurial success and entrepreneurial intention was employed as the methodology in this research study. Systematic review is a tool used for enhancing debate and disseminating academic results from different researchers (Tranfield et al., 2003 ). Systematic review is usually used as an approach to identify, evaluate and analyse the contributions that have already been published while being guided by a specific research question (Manatos et al., 2017 ). This research study presents a systematic review of the association between individual characteristics and entrepreneurial success and entrepreneurial intention. This study did adopt the strategy and methodology of Tranfield et al. ( 2003 ), which include: review planning, carrying out review and reporting and dissemination of the results, based upon the fact that they are bias free, reliable and transparent (Papaioannou et al, 2010 ). To carry out this review, the following steps were used: first a review plan was carried out, followed by the actual review and finally reporting and dissemination of the results.

Review planning

The study used two databases to carry out the review, namely Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar. This review was restricted to only English peer reviewed publication materials from 2012 to 2022 to obtain a clear broad view.

Conducting the review

During this second stage the following strict criteria were applied:

Only peer reviewed published materials were considered

The paper was to be composed of: characteristics/traits and entrepreneurial success or/and intention or and business performance

The paper was to be an empirical, theoretical or conceptual study

Upon obtaining published copies electronically, studies that met and passed initial screening criteria were verified and screened again for the second time to ascertain if they did meet criteria for inclusion. For inclusion, titles and abstracts were strictly verified and evaluated. Based on the related area of interest of this study, Google Scholar had 10,100 search results and Semantic Scholar had 1580 search results. However, after thorough strict evaluation criteria described above during the review process (conducting the review) and the reasons outlined below, the suitable identified studies were reduced to 81 studies as presented in Table 1 in the literature review section. Some papers found in the two search databases were removed for the following reasons:

Being a duplicate (appearing in both databases)

Wrong title and abstract

No critical review on the area under focus

Not focused on characteristics/traits and entrepreneurial success or/and intension or/and business performance in spite of having a correct title.

Reporting and dissemination

Based on Table 2 , Figs.  1 and 2 the most ten dominant characteristics that predict entrepreneurial success and entrepreneurial intention according to the recent literature in the last decade according to their ranking are self-efficacy, conscientiousness, open to experience, risk taking propensity, locus of control, extraversion, need for achievement, innovativeness, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Entrepreneurial Characteristic by Research Approach

Entrepreneurial Characteristics by Studies (Entrepreneurial Success and Intention)

Self-efficacy was revealed in 24 studies, out of which 11 of those studies were on entrepreneurial success and 13 were on entrepreneurial intention. Out of the 24 studies, 20 employed quantitative method, 3 employed qualitative and 1 was a literature review. Conscientiousness was found in 22 studies out of which 13 were studies on entrepreneurial success and 9 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 22 studies, 1 employed mixed method, 1 qualitative method and 20 quantitative methods. Open to experience was recorded in 21 studies, out of which 10 are those studies on entrepreneurial success and 11 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 21 studies, 1 employed mixed methods, 1 applied qualitative method, and 19 applied quantitative approach. Risk taking propensity was found in 17 studies, out of which 8 are studies on entrepreneurial success and 9 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 17 studies, 2 employed literature review, 1 applied qualitative method and 14 applied quantitative method. Locus control was revealed in 16 studies, out of which 9 are studies on entrepreneurial success and 7 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 16 studies, 2 employed qualitative method and 13 employed quantitative method. Extraversion was found in 16 studies, out of which 8 are studies on entrepreneurial success and another 8 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 16 studies, 1 employed mixed method and 15 applied quantitative method. Need for Achievement was discovered in 13 studies, 7 of which investigated entrepreneurial success and 6 of which investigated entrepreneurial intention. Of the 13 studies, 1 employed qualitative method and 12 applied quantitative method. Innovativeness was revealed in 12 studies, out of which 3 are studies on entrepreneurial success and 9 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 12 studies, 1 was a literature review, 1 applied qualitative method and 10 applied quantitative method. Agreeableness was found in 12 studies, out of which 6 are studies on entrepreneurial success and 6 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 12 studies, all applied quantitative method. Neuroticism was found in 11 studies out of which 5 are studies on entrepreneurial success and 6 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 11 studies, 1 was a literature review, 1 employed a qualitative method and 9 employed a quantitative method. On the other hand, from the very 81 studies reviewed, there are some characteristics that have been found not to predict entrepreneurial success and entrepreneurial intention. These characteristics have been presented in the literature review section and are presented in Figs.  3 and 4 .

Entrepreneurial Characteristics delinked from Entrepreneurial Success and Intention

The characteristics that have been delinked from entrepreneurial success and intention despite being linked to success and intention in other studies include: neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, risk-taking propensity, need for independency and stress tolerance. Neuroticism was found in 9 studies, out of which 4 are studies on entrepreneurial success and 5 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 9 studies, 1 applied a mixed method and 8 employed quantitative methods. Agreeableness was found in 5 studies, out of which 2 are studies on entrepreneurial success and 3 on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 5 studies, all applied quantitative methods. Extraversion was revealed in 3 studies, of which 1 was a study on entrepreneurial success and the other 2 were on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 3 studies, all applied quantitative methods. Open to experience was found in 2 studies, out of which 1 was a study on entrepreneurial success and the other was on entrepreneurial intention. Of the 2 studies, all applied quantitative methods. Risk-Taking Propensity was found in only 1 study on entrepreneurial success that applied a quantitative method. One study on entrepreneurial intention, which used a quantitative approach, discovered the need for independence and stress tolerance.

Table 3 and Figs.  5 and 6 show that the number of studies under review was increasing especially from 2015 to 2019. The drop in 2020 in number of research studies was attributed to the negative impact of COVID 19 pandemic that affected authorship (Kibbe, 2020 ; Raynaud et al., 2021 ). In fact, from 2020 to 2022 there was an increase in the number of studies with 2022 recording already 3 studies in the first quarter at the time this research was being conducted. Table 3 and Fig.  7 show the number of studies carried out by a particular country with the study research method used. Figure  7 and Table 3 show that, over the last decade, India recorded the most studies (11 out of 81), followed by the USA and Pakistan with 7 studies each, Indonesia and China with 6 studies each, South Africa with 5 studies, Turkey and Malaysia with 4 studies each, and Germany and Portugal with 3 studies each. Nigeria, Iran, Italy, UK and Tanzania recorded 2 studies each while, 15 other countries recorded 1 study each. Table 3 and Fig.  7 show that out of the 81 studies, the highest research method applied by those studies was quantitative approach which recorded 70 number of studies accounting for 86% of the total studies, followed by qualitative method with 6 accounting for 7.4% of total studies, then 4 literature review accounting 4.9% and then mixed method which recorded 1 study accounting for 1.23%.

Number of Studies by Year

Breakdown of Studies by Year

Number of Studies and their Approach by Country

Table 3 and Fig.  8 show that in the last decade, India, Pakistan, the USA, Indonesia, China, Turkey, Portugal, Germany, Nigeria, Iran, Italy and UK conducted studies relating individual characteristics to both entrepreneurial success and intention, whereas South Africa, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, France, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Canada, Uganda, Slovakia and Austria focused solely on studies relating entrepreneurial characteristics to success. Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Spain, Brazil and Russia focused on characteristics linked to entrepreneurial intention only.

Studies by Country

Based upon the 81 articles included in the review under this research study, it is worth noting that there has been an increase in the number of articles in the area under focus from 2012 to 2022, with a slow pace of authorship recorded in 2020 due to other factors such as the COVID 19 pandemic. The review has shown that the ten most dominant characteristics that predict entrepreneurial success and entrepreneurial intention include self-efficacy, conscientiousness, openness to experience, risk taking propensity, locus of control, extraversion, need for achievement, innovativeness, agreeableness and neuroticism. However, some studies within the reviewed articles have shown that some characteristics, such as neuroticism, agreeableness and extraversion, open to experience, fail to both predict entrepreneurial success and entrepreneurial intension. Risk taking propensity fails to predict entrepreneurial intention, whereas a need for independence and stress tolerance fails to predict entrepreneurial success. This implies that of the ten most dominant characteristics identified, self-efficacy, conscientiousness, locus of control, need for achievement and innovativeness are the undisputed and unarguable key personal characteristics that predict both entrepreneurial intention and guarantee entrepreneurial success. The locus of control, however, needs to be subjected to further research that would apply other research approaches apart from the quantitative approach, the only approach on which research was carried out in the last decade. On the other hand, the characteristics that have been positively and negatively associated with entrepreneurial success and intention also need to be subjected to further research that would employ other research approaches apart from quantitative methods. This is because, apart from neuroticism, all characteristics that presented negative results were conducted in studies that applied a quantitative research approach only. This study review has also shown that the characteristics that have an impact on entrepreneurial intension have the same impact on entrepreneurial success. This is based on the fact that the same characteristics identified to predict entrepreneurial intention also guarantee entrepreneurial success. This implies that, in most cases, the same characteristics that predict entrepreneurial intension also guarantee entrepreneurial success and vice versa. The importance of entrepreneurship in any country cannot be over emphasised. This is because it is a major source of technological growth, employment, economic growth, competition, innovation, product and service quality, and economic flexibility in society today. It is, however, unfortunately that worldwide, only 30 countries conducted studies under focus in the last decade. In Africa, for instance, only 5 countries (South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Tunisia) out of 54 countries had conducted studies in the area under focus in the last decade. This is a gap that needs to be addressed by researchers in different countries since entrepreneurs play a critical role in the economies of nations. The gap in research methodological approach is also alarming. Out of the 81 studies, only 1 in South Africa applied mixed methods, 4 were literature reviews, 6 applied qualitative methods, and the rest 70 studies employed quantitative approach. India the country that recorded the highest studies in the area under focus had all 11 being quantitative studies. Out of the 30 countries, 23 countries had studies that only employed quantitative approach representing 76.67%. This shows that there is an imbalance in research. There is a need to have well-balanced research in this area of focus. It is clear that studies that focused on entrepreneurial success had their studies conducted on various SMEs dealing with different businesses. However, studies that focused on entrepreneurial intentions had their primary targets as academic institutions. The focus on only academic institutions shows how biased these studies are, because people with business intentions are not only found in academic institutions. There are a lot of successful businessmen today who have never been enrolled in high school or university. This is also a gap that needs to be addressed by future researchers. Communities, religious organisations and youth community groups, among others, may be other places that can be a source of primary targets for studies focusing on entrepreneurial intention. There is need to address the gaps identified. First, having further research studies carried out through replication in other countries would legitimise the method to determine the validity, reliability and generalisability of studies in the area under focus. Scientists rely too much on trust instead of verification, thereby harming science and humanity (Economist, 2013 ). Replication of research studies is the core key activity in scientific endeavours (Plucker & Makel, 2021 ), and it is one of the approaches researchers use to build confidence in the validity of research results. Second, despite the fact that qualitative and quantitative research approaches each have weaknesses and strengths; they can be effective when they are combined. In future studies, a mixed research approach would allow researchers to gain both breadth and depth on characteristics associated with entrepreneurial success and intention through triangulation, thereby strengthening the study findings. A study carried out in Tunisia demonstrates that an applied qualitative research approach only cannot gain the benefits that come with the quantitative research method of replicating and generalising the study findings to either a larger population or other countries. According to Bernstein ( 1974 ), the subjective method applied by qualitative method scholars may be wrong, inaccurate and misleading. On the other hand, research conducted in 23 countries that applied a quantitative research approach only may also not gain from the benefits that come with a qualitative research method. According to Berg and Howard (2012), the sample data obtained based on experiences in quantitative research approach may not be that of the respondent’s opinion and mind (p. 61). The qualitative research method does allow an investigator to further explore in great detail the experiences and concepts that cannot be easily set into numbers to understand the human experience. In fact, the association that exists between the respondents and participants in a qualitative research approach makes it easy for respondents (participants) to contribute directly to shaping the study (Eyisi, 2016 ).

This study finds that self-efficacy, conscientiousness, locus of control, need for achievement and innovativeness are indisputably and unarguably key personal characteristics that predict both entrepreneurial intention and guarantee entrepreneurial success. The study also finds that characteristics that predict entrepreneurial intention also guarantee entrepreneurial success. There is an increase in the number of studies conducted in the last decade relating to the area under focus, though the studies have been conducted in very few countries with unbalanced research approaches skewed towards quantitative methods. More research using a variety of methods is required to gain a better understanding of entrepreneurship success. The study has provided a guide to the identified gaps that need urgent attention in the area under focus. This study greatly contributes to the existing body of knowledge on entrepreneurship success and intention and will definitely help in developing entrepreneurship in all sectors. The study will also help those who are involved in the development of entrepreneurship by channelling the needed curricula to the prospective entrepreneurs in today’s twenty-first century. The major contribution of this study is the identification of key dominant personal characteristics that predict both entrepreneurial intention and lead to entrepreneurial success in today’s dynamic environment. The other key contribution is stages, methodology and the analysis that can be replicated and employed by other researchers (scholars and practitioners) to carry out other studies or, better still, similar studies in the future. Since studies have proved that personality traits and characteristics are learnable and can be developed (Katongole et al., 2013 ; Remeikiene et al., 2013 ) during a process of studying or mentoring, this study will also help those who are involved in the development of entrepreneurship by channelling the needed right curricula to the prospective entrepreneurs in today’s twenty-first century. In Africa, for instance, there is no proper career guidance both at primary and secondary school level. This is evident by the fact that many students and pupils study courses/subjects contrary to what they will become in the future. Other students/pupils manage to pursue careers related to what they have been studying up until they graduate from university and later realise they are in the wrong field.

Limitation of study

It is acknowledged that the research study has two limitations. First, the literature review utilised in this study was from two databases, namely Semantic Scholar and Google Scholar. Therefore, it is hoped that this research will spark further debate and yield more evidence, which will undoubtedly shed more insights on the area under study and provide a more comprehensive understanding of entrepreneurial success in today's dynamic environment. Second, the review applied in this study was limited only to publications in the English language. It is suggested that more papers that have been published in languages other than English be used in future research studies.

Availability of data and materials

All materials are obtained from the literature, and there is no primary data used.

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Yangailo, T., Qutieshat, A. Uncovering dominant characteristics for entrepreneurial intention and success in the last decade: systematic literature review. Entrep Educ 5 , 145–178 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-022-00073-z

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The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intentions of University Students: An Empirical Study of a Provincial-Level Public University in China

Qian, Hui (2024) The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intentions of University Students: An Empirical Study of a Provincial-Level Public University in China. Doctoral thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

Entrepreneurship has become an important driving force for economic development in China, with university students being the group with great entrepreneurial potential. Entrepreneurship education plays a vital role in nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of students and preparing them for the job market. There is an urgent need to strengthen research in this field. The purpose of this study is to identify the key factors that affect the entrepreneurial intention of university students in China and explore the impact of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intention. This study has developed a new conceptual framework that extends the existing models of the theory of planned behaviour and social cognitive theory. A mixed methods approach was adopted in the data collection, including a questionnaire survey on 497 final-year students at a Chinese university, as well as focus groups and interviews with students, faculty and parents. The research results confirm that entrepreneurship education (classroom teaching and social practice) has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial intention. Other factors that affect entrepreneurial intention include entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and cultural values such as uncertainty avoidance. In addition, stakeholders (faculty/students/parents) have a significant impact on entrepreneurship education. These findings make a good contribution to the literature and provide useful practical implications for improving entrepreneurship education in Chinese universities.

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Technology Entrepreneurship PhD Specialization

Emily Cox Pahnke, Associate Professor of Management, on the Technology Entrepreneurship specialization in the UW Foster School of Business PhD Program

General information

The establishment of Technology Entrepreneurship (TE) addresses the critical areas of research and education in technology development, commercialization and licensing, and the new-venture creation process. The program brings together faculty involved in entrepreneurship teaching and research to guide students in this program. Through a combination of teaching methods, and curricular structure this program hopes to produce the next generation of entrepreneurship faculty focused on high technology ventures.

It is strongly recommended that students pursuing the TE specialization have a strong grounding in either strategy or organizational behavior tracks offered by the Management department.

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Admission requirements

Doctoral study is full-time and year-round. Students are admitted in Autumn Quarter only. Most candidates will require four to five years to complete the program. In ranking applicants, we give primary consideration to student background, academic potential, and aspiration. Each applicant is evaluated in terms of the following:

• Academic accomplishments to date, as evidenced by graduate and undergraduate grades and courses taken
• Institutions attended
• Scholarships, awards, and honors earned
• Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores, or Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores
• Relevant nonacademic experience
• Academic and other references
• Statement of academic objectives

In addition, it will be helpful but not required that students have an undergraduate degree (BS or BA) in science or technology (engineering fields) or have a minimum of three years’ work experience in a high-tech or related firm. A background as an entrepreneur or experience with startups is not a requirement for entering the program.

To enroll, the student must complete the Business School’s Ph.D. application, and prepare a formal written statement, outlining his or her interests and preparation for the program. To stay in the TE program, the applicant must remain in good standing and maintain an overall GPA of at least 3.2.

Recommended preparation prior to entry

Students entering the PhD Program should be comfortable with the basic concepts of calculus and statistics before they arrive on campus. It is strongly recommended that students carefully review this material during the summer before entering the program.

Technology Entrepreneurship information and support

With the guidance of a TE doctoral area adviser, students take formal coursework and participate in doctoral seminars, independent study, and research. A faculty Supervisory Committee chosen by the student early in the program will assist each student in constructing a course of study that fits that individual’s background and interests.

Students in addition to TE requirements need to complete the requirements for the Research Methods minor. Throughout the program, doctoral students receive support and training to hone their skills as researchers, teachers, and course developers.

For more information about the Technology Entrepreneurship specialization, please contact Prof. Emily Cox Pahnke by email ( [email protected] ).

Typical course schedule

Course offerings and quarter offerings might change depending on faculty availability, but a typical schedule can be as follows:

Second year

TE Faculty set a deadline by which doctoral students must complete an independent research paper and present their findings in a departmental workshop. A faculty advisor on a topic selected by the student supervises the research project. Upon the completion of the required course work, students focus on fulfilling the other program requirements.

Requirements for TE Minor

The required courses include:

There is no exam requirement associated with this minor.

Other TE requirements

Irrespective of the option chosen, TE students have to complete: (1) Qualifying examination; (2) a general examination; (3) a doctoral dissertation; and (4) a final examination where the student defends his or her dissertation.

Area examination or qualifying examination Once students have completed their coursework, students must pass a written qualifying exam. This is a written examination in Technology Entrepreneurship. The purpose of the major area examination is to enable the student to demonstrate a command of the subject matter. Students are expected to be familiar with major research findings and theory, and with appropriate research methods.

Written examinations are not required for minor areas of study. However, some major areas of specialization require a written exam covering the basic tools (economics, mathematics, psychology, research methods, statistics, etc.) that are important for that business discipline. If required, the faculty in the student’s major area administers the basic tool exam.

General examination Admission to candidacy is a formal University process signifying that a student has completed certain degree requirements and that the faculty expects that the student will successfully complete the requirements. Students are admitted to candidacy upon completion of the general examination in Technology Entrepreneurship. The supervisory committee administers this oral test after all area requirements are completed. In most cases, the general examination is a defense of the student’s dissertation proposal.

Dissertation After earning candidacy, students must successfully complete a dissertation that demonstrates their ability to identify a significant research question or problem in Technology Entrepreneurship and apply appropriate research techniques to its resolution. The dissertation must be an original and independent piece of work. A three-member reading committee supervises dissertations. After the dissertation has been written to the satisfaction of the reading committee, the student defends his or her dissertation research in a final oral examination.

Final examination The student’s Supervisory Committee administers the final defense of a student’s dissertation. With the successful completion of the dissertation defense and submission of the dissertation to the Graduate School a student will have completed all the requirements for a Ph.D.

Boeker, Warren Professor of Management Douglas E. Olesen/Battelle Endowed Chair

Chen, Xiao-Ping (Management and Organization Department Chair) Professor of Management Evert McCabe Faculty Fellow

Kotha, Suresh Professor of Management Olesen/Battelle Excellence Chair in Entrepreneurship Research Director, Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship

Steensma, Kevin Professor of Management Evert McCabe Faculty Fellow

David G. Sirmon Associate Professor of Management Robert Herbold Professor in Entrepreneurship

Pahnke, Emily Cox Assistant Professor Neal and Jan Dempsey Faculty Fellow

Hallen, Benjamin Assistant Professor

David Tan Assistant Professor