Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Emotions among University Students

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education can emotionally impact students by instilling excitement, curiosity, and self-efficacy, influencing their decision-making when considering entrepreneurship as a career path. Emotions are essential in shaping student involvement in entrepreneurship, especially during the early stages of beginning a business. Thus, this study was aimed at determining the impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial emotions among university students in higher education institutions. Purposive sampling was employed, targeting final-year undergraduate students from Malaysian public universities. A survey was administered to 453 students in their final year of study. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS 22 for descriptive analysis and SmartPLS 3.3.0 for testing hypotheses. The results revealed that entrepreneurship education and negative entrepreneurial emotions were modest, whereas positive emotions were high. This finding confirmed that fear is the greatest obstacle for students wanting to become entrepreneurs. Through exposure to entrepreneurship education, students’ entrepreneurial abilities and emotions to venture into business were significantly heightened. This suggests that entrepreneurship education was advantageous as it inspired students toward entrepreneurship. The findings of this study implied that curriculum planning committees prudently design syllabi at the university to incorporate theoretical and practical aspects within the entrepreneurship education programme. The curriculum structure should also emphasize relevant and applicable practicality in the real world.