Entrepreneurial Emotions of Business and Non-Business Students in Higher Learning Institutions: Same or Different?

Abstract

Entrepreneurial emotion is a new study that is evolving in entrepreneurship education. Emotions affect the capacity of a person to cope with ambiguity in making judgments and decisions. This study aims to examine whether there is a difference between entrepreneurial positive emotions and entrepreneurial negative emotions of both business and non-business students in higher learning institutions. This quantitative study involved 477 final year students in public universities, comprising 214 business students, and 243 non-business students. The results show the entrepreneurial positive emotions are different among business students and non-business students, while the entrepreneurial negative emotions are the opposite. The mean score for business students in entrepreneurial positive emotions was higher compared to non-business students. These findings reflect that the entrepreneurial knowledge and skills acquired through entrepreneurship education have enhanced their confidence and ability to organize or use their emotions more effectively in starting a business. Besides that, the results show the negative emotions of students in starting a business are not influenced by their study program. All students take into account their negative emotions in making an action to start a business. In addition, students who have entrepreneurial potential will use their emotions as much as possible in making a decision. Therefore, this study contributes to the knowledge of entrepreneurial emotions that involve positive and negative emotions among university students in entrepreneurship education.