Abstract
This study aims to explore effective ways to improve college students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intentions through entrepreneurship education. The survey used a random sample of 804 college students in Zhejiang Province, China. The results show that: (1) In terms of the characteristics of entrepreneurial intention, there are significant differences in gender, entrepreneurial experience, entrepreneurial competition experience, and family background of self-employment. (2) There are significant differences in the characteristics of entrepreneurship education in gender, entrepreneurial competition experience, and the family background of self-employment. (3) In the relationship among entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurship education is significantly and positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is significantly and positively associated with entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays a complete mediating role between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy also has a suppressing effect on the relationship between the two. (4) Entrepreneurial competition experience moderates the second half of the mediating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Finally, the study offers several proposals for the teaching practice of entrepreneurship education.
Highlights
Entrepreneurship is the core power of growing economy in a country or region (Van Praag and Versloot, 2007)
As researchers have emphasized the important role of prior experience in explaining entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention (Morris et al, 2012; Miralles et al, 2016), we propose our hypothesis: H5: Entrepreneurial competition experience would moderate the second half of the mediating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy
The entrepreneurial intention of students with entrepreneurial experience is significantly higher than that of students without entrepreneurial experience, t(802) = 5.85, p < 0.001; the entrepreneurial intention of students who have participated in entrepreneurial competitions is significantly higher than that of students who have not participated in entrepreneurial competitions, t(802) = 3.78, p < 0.001
Summary
Entrepreneurship is the core power of growing economy in a country or region (Van Praag and Versloot, 2007). Entrepreneurial intention refers to the belief that an individual intends to start a new company and consciously plans to put it into practice at some point in the future (Thompson, 2009). It can significantly predict entrepreneurial behavior (Krueger et al, 2000). Many studies on entrepreneurial intention prediction have chosen to use the variable of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (Krueger et al, 2000; Van Gelderen et al, 2006; Liñán et al, 2011; Lortie and Castogiovanni, 2015; Mei et al, 2020). Entrepreneurship education is likely to enhance individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions by improving individuals’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
