The Impact of Entrepreneurial Education on Entrepreneurial Mindset

Entrepreneurship education (EE) programs have proliferated in the higher education sector and universities due to the belief that EE programs have the potential to foster entrepreneurial intentions and thus, increase entrepreneurial activities. However, there is a gap in the literature as the literature so far has focused only on the impact of EE on entrepreneurial intentions and neither on the overall mindset of the potential entrepreneur nor does the literature focus on the transition from intention to behavior. This study aims to assess the efficacy of entrepreneurial education by observing its effects on the entrepreneurial mindset of the students enrolled in such entrepreneurship programs. The entrepreneurial mindset is a multi-item construct comprising entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial motivation, optimism, and innovativeness. This study attempts to assess the impact that different pedagogies of entrepreneurship education have on the measures mentioned above. Additionally, the study conducts an impact assessment of entrepreneurship education on the self-efficacy of the students. Further, the study also assesses the mediating role of self-efficacy, gender, previous work experience, and family background on the measures above.  The study uses a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental design and structural equation modeling to conduct the analysis. The study uses a sample of 400 students (almost equally divided among the control and test group) enrolled in MBA programs at various top-tier management institutes in India. The study fills a critical gap in the literature that the previous studies fail to control for the pre-existing entrepreneurial intention among the students opting for the entrepreneurship program(s).