The impact of entrepreneurship education on university students’ entrepreneurial skills: a family embeddedness perspective

Davide Hahn (), Tommaso Minola (), Giulio Bosio and Lucio Cassia ()
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Davide Hahn: University of Bergamo
Tommaso Minola: University of Bergamo
Lucio Cassia: University of Bergamo

Small Business Economics, 2020, vol. 55, issue 1, No 13, 257-282

Abstract: Abstract To provide individuals with entrepreneurial skills and prepare them to engage in entrepreneurial activities, universities offer entrepreneurship education (EE) courses. However, the growing number of studies on EE impact offers mixed and apparently contradictory results. The present study contributes to this literature by indicating the type of EE (elective vs. compulsory) and the characteristics of students’ exposure to an enterprising family as two complementary boundary conditions that contribute to explain the outcomes of EE. To do so, the paper takes advantage of quasi-experimental research on a sample of 427 university students who participated to two consecutive waves of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS). The study finds that both types of EE contribute to students’ entrepreneurial skills; however, the impact of EE in compulsory courses is contingent on students’ perceptions of parents’ performance as entrepreneurs.

Keywords: University entrepreneurship; Student entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship education; Family embeddedness; Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS); I23; J24; L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-019-00143-y

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