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Are different entrepreneurship-promotion activities equally effective? an analysis by academic year and gender

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Abstract

Entrepreneurial education (EE) has proliferated in recent years, however, while previous research has extensively analyzed the impact of EE on students’ entrepreneurial intentions (EI), studies tend to analyze EE as a monolithic concept without distinguishing between different types of academic activities and hence under examining how EE achieves its goals. To fill this gap in the literature, drawing on Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior and EE theory, we examine the relative effectiveness of different teaching models (supply, demand, and competence models) and specific academic activities in developing entrepreneurial intentions (EI). In particular, we focus on interdisciplinary activities (i.e., activities involving students from varying profiles and career fields), a type of academic activity that has been neglected by previous literature. We also explore potential differences in the effectiveness of these models depending on students’ educational stage and gender, factors which have also been overlooked by the literature. Using survey data from 859 business school students, a structural model, and partial least squares technique, we found differences in the impact of teaching models on students’ EI depending on activity characteristics, as well as student educational stage and gender. The results have important implications for educational practice and for public and private organizations interested in promoting entrepreneurship: i) the importance of autonomy, experiential learning, and exploratory learning in entrepreneurship-promotion activities, and ii) the convenience of tailoring these activities according to the gender, year of education, and academic field of the students.

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Notes

  1. Note that the total effect of SN on EI is still positive and significant, thanks to the indirect positive effects through EPA and PBC.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Francisco Liñán for his contribution in an earlier version of this article, and to Julien De Freyman for his help with the data. We are also grateful to the participants of the Internacional Symposium "El desafío de emprender en la escuela del siglo XXI", Universidad de Sevilla, the 10th International Research Meeting in Business and Management (IRMBAM-2019) and the 2020 Loyola Workshop on Economic Behaviour, for their helpful comments. Laura Padilla-Angulo is grateful to The Spanish National Science Foundation (PGC2018-093506-B-I00) and Excelencia Junta (PY-18-FR-0007). All errors are ours.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economics Department, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Dos Hermanas, Spain

    Laura Padilla-Angulo

  2. South Champagne Business School, Troyes, France

    René Díaz-Pichardo

  3. Université de Technologie de Troyes, InSyTE, Troyes, France

    René Díaz-Pichardo

  4. Management and Marketing Department, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Antonio Luis Leal-Rodríguez

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  1. Laura Padilla-Angulo
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  2. René Díaz-Pichardo
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  3. Antonio Luis Leal-Rodríguez
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Correspondence to Antonio Luis Leal-Rodríguez.

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Appendices

Appendix

Items in the Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (in this research, the items were translated into the French language)

 

Item

PBC1

Starting a firm and keeping it viable would be easy for me

PA2

A career as an entrepreneur is totally unattractive to me

SN3

My friends would approve of my decision to start a business

EI4

I am ready to do anything to be an entrepreneur

PBC5

I believe I would be completely unable to start a business

EI6

I will make every effort to start and run my own business

PBC7

I am able to control the creation process of a new business

SN8

My immediate family would approve of my decision to start a business

EI9

I have serious doubts about ever starting my own business

PA10

If I had the opportunity and resources, I would love to start a business

SN11

My colleagues would approve of my decision to start a business

PA12

Among various options, I would rather be anything but an entrepreneur

EI13

I am determined to create a business venture in the future

PBC14

If I tried to start a business, I would have a high chance of being successful

PA15

Being an entrepreneur would give me great satisfaction

PBC16

It would be very difficult for me to develop a business idea

EI17

My professional goal is to become an entrepreneur

PA18

Being an entrepreneur implies more advantages than disadvantages to me

EI19

I have a very low intention of ever starting a business

PBC20

I know all about the practical details needed to start a business

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Padilla-Angulo, L., Díaz-Pichardo, R. & Leal-Rodríguez, A.L. Are different entrepreneurship-promotion activities equally effective? an analysis by academic year and gender. Int Entrep Manag J 19, 1–25 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-021-00756-4

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