Experiential learning in entrepreneurship education: A systematic literature review

Abstract

The debate on how to teach entrepreneurship effectively, motivating students to be entrepreneurs and assisting them in the development of entrepreneurial skills and competences, has come into evidence. With this in mind, experiential learning comes into prominence in the teaching of entrepreneurship, being considered a pedagogical approach in which students learn by doing. Therefore, the objective of this work was to carry out a systematic literature review on the application and evaluation of experiential learning in entrepreneurship education. The literature - published in journals from different subject areas and mainly concentrated in Europe - has been classified and coded, resulting in a structure of what has been done so far, with recommendations to guide future research. It is concluded that experiential learning has been recently used as an approach for entrepreneurial education as it contributes to a positive impact on entrepreneurial intention and to the development of entrepreneurial skills and competences. Different activities result in distinct benefits for the teaching-learning process in entrepreneurship, but also demand challenges to be faced. Implications to practice were thus provided.