The development of entrepreneurial potential among higher education students

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how entrepreneurial potential is developed among young people. Changes in individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions and the antecedents of intentions are investigated, as well as the impact of entrepreneurship education on the changes. Design/methodology/approach – Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is applied. Longitudinal data from 197 HE students, in their first and third year of studies, is examined using path analysis. Findings – Overall the entrepreneurial intentions of HE students decreased over time. Intentions decreased particularly for those with high initial level of intentions, whereas the group with increasing intentions rose from low to neutral level of intentions. Changes in attitudes and perceived behavioral control have a significant positive impact. Versatile entrepreneurship courses have direct effect on changes in attitudes. Changes in attitudes have a dual role, as they influence change in both intentions and perceived behavioral control. The developed model explains 19 percent of the variance among women and 28 percent among men, suggesting gender differences in development of intentions. Research limitations/implications – Only one way of developing entrepreneurial potential in young people (i.e. education) is covered. The empirical sample is limited to one university. Practical implications – The results suggest versatile methods of entrepreneurship education are more effective in developing intentions than perhaps purely active modes. Gender differences should be considered when designing interventions to foster entrepreneurial potential. Originality/value – The research confirms with longitudinal individual-level data the applicability of TPB on entrepreneurial intentions and demonstrates the mediated impact of versatile entrepreneurship courses on changes in intentions.European Regional Development Fun

The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

Using a teaching model framework, we systematically review empirical evidence on the impact of entrepreneurship education (EE) in higher education on a range of entrepreneurial outcomes, analyzing 159 published articles from 2004 to 2016. The teaching model framework allows us for the first time to start rigorously examining relationships between pedagogical methods and specific outcomes. Reconfirming past reviews and meta-analyses, we find that EE impact research still predominantly focuses on short-term and subjective outcome measures and tends to severely underdescribe the actual pedagogies being tested. Moreover, we use our review to provide an up-to-date and empirically rooted call for less obvious, yet greatly promising, new or underemphasized directions for future research on the impact of university-based entrepreneurship education. This includes, for example, the use of novel impact indicators related to emotion and mind-set, focus on the impact indicators related to the intention-to-behavior transition, and exploring the reasons for some contradictory findings in impact studies including person-, context-, and pedagogical model-specific moderator

Dual training schemes promoting entrepreneurship and business transfers - experiences from Lithuania

While many political strategies focus on the promotion of start-ups, the existing companies are often neglected. Recent studies confirm, that more jobs are lost due to failed business transfers, then new ones are created. In fact, the generation change has reached the European SMEs and they suffer from a lack of successor to take over the business. Suitable successors are entrepreneurs and this article sets out to investigate a feasible way to educate and attract them to the SME sector. Based on solid literature research the paper argues, that a dual training, where students receive training in school and at the same time on the job can provide this needed expertise for entrepreneurship education. In 2016 such a dual training was initiated in Lithuania, this papers highlights results of the first comprehensive evaluation and provides an outlook on whether the graduates can become suitable successors in the long run

Entrepreneurship education and gender in Europe : a systematic literature review of studies in higher education

Entrepreneurship is considered an important factor for economic growth. And although female entrepreneurs offer outstanding socio-economic potential, there are still more men working as entrepreneurs than women. Support for female entrepreneurs is improving in Europe but compared to the United States there is still progress to be made. Major differences can also be identified between European countries. Although one way to foster entrepreneurship is via entrepreneurship education, reviews about entrepreneurship education in combination with gender studies are rare. This paper performs a systematic literature review, presenting the state of entrepreneurship education and gender within the last decade, and generating a European map of research. European samples are descriptively analyzed, and six different issues are identified. Implications for practitioners and policymakers are provided, and the article concludes with insights revealing where more research is needed and how it could be performed in Europe

Market orientation and performance measurement system adoption impact on performance in SMEs

Abstract Previous research has shown a connection between market orientation (MO) and firm performance, as well as between performance measurement systems (PMS) adoption, but their mutual interactions are as yet little understood in SMEs. Using empirical data collected by a survey from 123 Finnish SMEs we analyze the relationship between MO, PMS adoption and performance. According to the results, MO has positive relationships with PMS adoption and non-financial performance. However, the impact of MO on financial performance is mediated by PMS adoption. PMS adoption is thus an important factor in explaining variance in firm performance. Finally, empirical analysis shows that the larger SME firms adopt PMS more extensively. Keywords: Market orientation, performance measurement systems, firm performance, small firm