Measuring and Understanding the Effects of Entrepreneurial Awareness Education

Abstract

The widespread rise in entrepreneurship education at universities is frequently not accompanied by rigorous and sustainable program evaluations. Thus, the impact of these programs is still under dispute. In order to enhance this understanding, we derive an “entrepreneurship education model” () following iñán and hen's modification of jzen's theory of planned behavior and use it as a mixed methods evaluation tool in an awareness education setting at a large erman university. We find support for the proposed causal link from awareness education to students' entrepreneurial attitudes derived in the and that perceived control over entrepreneurial tasks is not a relevant predictor of start‐up intentions in an awareness setting. Further, we observe two course‐induced effects on students' belief systems determining their personal attitude: the corruption effect of extrinsic motivation and a shift in locus of control.

Notes

1 At this point, it is worth mentioning that “acting entrepreneurially” does not exclusively relate to typical venture creation processes, but also to entrepreneurial behavior in existing organizations, forms of social entrepreneurship, and even daily life situations (EC 2004). Accordingly, entrepreneurship education not only adds value to future entrepreneurs, but is also highly relevant for other recipients.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Fretschner

Michael Fretschner, MBR, is research and teaching assistant at the Institute of Human Resource Education & Management, Munich School of Management, Ludwig‐Maximilians‐University Munich.

Susanne Weber

Susanne Weber is full professor and head of the Institute of Human Resource Education & Management, Munich School of Management, Ludwig‐Maximilians‐University Munich.