This study evaluates the impact of an entrepreneurship program. Two pre-test/post-test surveys were performed among students attending the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 classes. A third pre-post survey was sent to students enrolled in an innovation management course, who served as the control group. We evaluated the influence of the program/course on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), attitudes to entrepreneurship and whether or not the students had started a company during their education. The result indicates that the entrepreneurship program was effective in enhancing ESE, attitudes to entrepreneurship and start up behavior, which was not observed in the control group. The paper concludes by pointing out some limitations of the study and discussing the possible influence of entrepreneurial education on ESE, attitudes to entrepreneurship and start up.
Interest in entrepreneurship teaching began in the early 1970s, at which stage it was only offered at a few universities around the world (Landström and Benner 2010). Since then, this interest has steadily expanded and a plethora of university courses is now available. In one of the most extensive reviews to date, Katz (2003, 2008) finds support for increasing number of institutions providing entrepreneurship educations, endowed positions in entrepreneurship, and increasing numbers of publications. In the US, courses in entrepreneurship have increased from 16 in 1970 to 504 in 2001 (Vesper & Gartner, 2001), the number of undergraduate courses to 1400, while the number of endowed entrepreneurship positions has doubled every four years since the 1990s. The scope of entrepreneurship education has also broadened, from primarily a business school topic to all fields of university education (Kuratko, 2005). Despite the rampant growth of entrepreneurship as an educational field, the question “Can entrepreneurship be taught?” is still a topic of lively debate (Neck & Greene, 2010).
This question remains relevant, as the effects of entrepreneurship education are poorly understood. Few studies have evaluated entrepreneurship education in general, and of those that did so, many had significant methodological weaknesses such as a lack of pre-post tests and control groups. Some studies revealed the positive impact of education (Fayolle, Gailly, & Lassas-Clerc, 2006; Tkachev & Kolvereid, 1999), while others demonstrated no impact (Franco, Haase & Lautenschläger, 2010) or even negative effects (Oosterbeek, Praag, & Ijsselstein, 2010). Thus, there is justification for calling the field of entrepreneurship education into question.
Several educators have argued that the rapidly growing demand for entrepreneurship education has meant that the curriculum lags far behind the advances in entrepreneurship research (Honig, 2004; Rasmussen & Sörheim, 2006). More specifically, these authors and others (e.g. Kirby, 2004; Krueger, 2007; Neck & Green, 2010; Politis & Gabrielsson, 2009) have argued in favor of experiential learning models (Kolb, 1984) and effectual decision-making (Sarasvathy, 2001). However, these learning models have yet to be evaluated.
There has been growing concern about entrepreneurship courses and programs. To what extent do they actually support the development of entrepreneurial skills and abilities? Research indicates that regular assessment of study results, grades, student satisfaction with courses etc. is inadequate for evaluating entrepreneurial skills and abilities ( Kailer, 2007; Moberg, 2011).
In the present study we performed a multi-dimensional evaluation of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), attitudes and nascent behavior using a pre-post design, on an educational program based on experiential learning models and effectual decision making. We also included a control group from an innovation management class, in which lectures constituted the main pedagogical tool.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the change in attitudes, entrepreneurial self efficacy and nascent entrepreneurship behavior among entrepreneurship students in comparison with a control group, in order to understand the impact of the education. We hope that this study will provide insights into evidence-based arguments as to whether entrepreneurship can be taught, and if so, in what way.
With the soaring interest in entrepreneurship education in different fields of higher education and at different educational levels, the need to evaluate its effects is increasing. This study clearly demonstrates that the evaluated entrepreneurship program improved the entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial attitudes and nascent entrepreneurship of the participating students. Based on previous research on entrepreneurial intentions, this appears to produce students who are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial behavior and therefore to contribute to economic development by innovation and new job creation.
