Self-Selection into Entrepreneurship Education and Implications for Evaluation

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a driving force for economic wealth. In past years, interest and investment in entrepreneurship education and training programs have increased substantially. However, research on the impact and success factors of entrepreneurship education remains ambivalent. While some studies find that entrepreneurship programs foster skills relevant for entrepreneurs, others find only weak or no effects. Part of this ambiguity may be explained by self-selection effects, raising the question of whether students interested in entrepreneurship education are upfront different from those who are not. Understanding this is important to choose adequate control groups when evaluating entrepreneurship education. We address this research gap by testing our hypothesis on a sample of 359 non-applicants and 495 applicants of a well-known and successful entrepreneurship program for university students in Germany. The dedicated application process allows us to clearly identify candidates who knew the program and decided against applying. Our results indicate that applicants are more “ entrepreneurial” than non-applicants along several dimensions frequently used to evaluate entrepreneurship education. Additional analyses reveal statistically significant a priori differences between male and female applicants. This suggests that researchers must pay rigorous attention to selecting suitable control groups when evaluating the impact of entrepreneurship education.