Study on the Relationship between Entrepreneurship Education and College Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities influences college students’ entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, but previous studies have approached entrepreneurship education as a whole to obscure the relational mechanisms between the three. On the basis of the classification framework of theoretical and practical entrepreneurship education, the interactive relationships between lecture reports, entrepreneurship courses, entrepreneurship competitions, entrepreneurship training, and entrepreneurship practica and entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial self-efficacy among college students were analyzed. Analysis through structural equation modeling indicates that: Theoretical entrepreneurship education not only directly influences entrepreneurial intention among college students, but also indirectly influences entrepreneurial intention through entrepreneurial self-efficacy; practical entrepreneurship education only indirectly influences entrepreneurial intention among college students through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The influencing effect of theoretical entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention among college students is greater than that of practical entrepreneurship education, and furthermore, entrepreneurship courses have the largest influencing effect on entrepreneurial intention among college students. More importantly, relative to the direct effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention among college students, the indirect effect produced on entrepreneurial intention through entrepreneurial self-efficacy is greater.

Keywords:

• College students
• entrepreneurial intention
• entrepreneurial self-efficacy
• entrepreneurship education

Additional information

Funding

The project “Empirical Studies of the Influence of Entrepreneurship Education at Institutions of Higher Education on Entrepreneurial Accomplishments and Entrepreneurial Intention Among College Students” (Gaoxiao chuangye jiaoyu dui daxuesheng chuangye suyang he chuangye yixiang yingxiang de shizheng yanjiu) [18YJC880069] of the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Foundation of the Ministry of Education; the project “Studies of Entrepreneurial Intention Among College Students at Institutions of Higher Education under the Jurisdiction of Shaanxi Province and Its Influencing Factors” (Shanxi sheng shu gaoxiao daxuesheng chuangye yixiang ji qi yingxiang yinsu yanjiu” [2017P017] of the Social Sciences Foundation of Shaanxi Province.