Abstract
Many universities in developing economies are now recognising the role of the university in entrepreneurship education and development of key entrepreneurial skills by students. Consequently many universities in these nations are expanding the curriculum contents of entrepreneurship courses and training to help students develop these key skills. As a student entrepreneur it is important that students are taught the capabilities of instantly thinking outside the box which also involves empathising in order to visualize the various outcomes. Often from these challenges a student entrepreneur can take advantage of opportunities, if they are taught how to engage empathy to clearly see them. Therefore, the goal of this paper was to examine the influence of empathy among university students as a determinant of creation of successful and innovative students' start-ups. The moderating role of experiential learning was also assessed. To achieve this goal, a sample size of 357 students of Covenant University in Nigeria, was used. The data collected were analysed by means of regression analysis and Hayes process macro. The result showed that empathy has positive significant effect on students' start-ups among university students (p < 0.05) and experiential learning moderated the relationship between empathy and students start-ups among university students. Based on the findings the study concluded that university managers and other stakeholders in developing countries may expand entrepreneurship training and education curriculum contents based on the development of empathy as an entrepreneurial skill. The findings also indicated that that moderate levels of experiential learning activities are required to achieve best results. Therefore, university managers and other stakeholders may expand the curriculum of entrepreneurship training and education regimes to cover the development of empathy as an entrepreneurial skill. It is important to state that empathy is an entrepreneurial skill that can be developed hence, teaching empathy as a theme targeted at the creation of creative start-ups is considered favourable in this regard.
Highlights
Entrepreneurship education in Nigeria, among other things, aims to provide the awareness, skills and inspiration to students in tertiary institutions to promote entrepreneurial success through a variety of projects
Most extant studies related to the subject of this research have largely ignored the role of empathy in entrepreneurship education with emphasis on motivating students’ start-ups in the university setting. This is relevant to developing nations where entrepreneurship education is still at the formative stage in most universities the goal of this paper is to examine the influence of empathy development among university students as a determinant of creation of successful and innovative students’ start-ups
Loading factor is higher than the 0.70 point, composite reliability is higher than 0.80, and the average variance extracted (AVE) is above 0.50
Summary
Entrepreneurship education in Nigeria, among other things, aims to provide the awareness, skills and inspiration to students in tertiary institutions to promote entrepreneurial success through a variety of projects. Entrepreneurship education helps students of all social backgrounds think beyond the box and develop unique talents and skills. It provides opportunities, promises social inclusiveness, builds confidence and stimulates the economy. As a student entrepreneur it is important to have the capabilities of instantly thinking outside the box which involves empathising in order to visualize the various outcomes. Often from these challenges a student entrepreneur can take advantage of opportunities, if they are able to engage empathy to clearly see them. Having empathy is such an important quality for a student entrepreneur
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