Combining teaching methods and developing students’ entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial intention: The case of students in the Faculty of Economics and Management of Tunis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of the combination of two teaching methods on entrepreneurial intention in Tunisia. The developed model suggests that entrepreneurial intention depends on eight cognitive and non-cognitive variables; namely, financial literacy and entrepreneurial knowledge developed through a theoretically-oriented course, and teaching methods, creativity, managing ambiguity, entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial attitude and core self-evaluation developed through a practically-oriented course. The authors use structural equation modeling to test the proposed model, based on a sample of 92 undergraduate management students in the Faculty of Economics and Management of Tunis, Tunisia. The results demonstrate that creativity is a good predictor of students’ entrepreneurial intention. Creativity can be developed by entrepreneurial teachers who enhance students’ ambiguity management and improve their core self-evaluation. The results also show that financial literacy positively influences entrepreneurial knowledge and managing ambiguity. Entrepreneurial knowledge positively influences entrepreneurial mindset and core self-evaluation. The management students’ entrepreneurial mindset positively influences their entrepreneurial attitude, which develops their core self-evaluation. Because the respondents were all studying at the same faculty, the results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to broaden the field of investigation and to include in their studies students from other institutions.