Understanding the relevance of experiential learning for entrepreneurial self-efficacy: A gender-wise perspective

Abstract

Experiential learning has been regarded as an effective tool for grasping entrepreneurial knowledge. The current study examines the influence of Experiential Learning (EL) with sub-variables [(i.e., Concrete Experience (CE), Reflective Observation (RO), Abstract Conceptualisation (AC), & Active Experimentation (AE)] on the Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) of the male and female Higher educational institution (HEI) students possessing high Entrepreneurial Intention. The study uses a Liñán and Chen (2009) tool to identify students with high Entrepreneurial Intentions (EI), selecting 323 (195 male and 128 female) respondents possessing 4–5 scores on a scale of 5. The survey considered three growing Indian regions: Punjab, Haryana, and NCR (National capital region). For EL, a self-structured questionnaire and for the ESE scale of Mcgee, Peterson, Mueller, and Sequeira (2009) was adopted. The results highlight that in the case of male and female students, all sub-variables of EL, i.e., CE, RO, AC & AE of EL, strongly predicted ESE. However, there is a difference in the degree of influence of such dimensions based on Gender. In the case of male degree of influence is maximum with RO followed by AE, CE, AC, but for females the sequence of degree of influence is different as RO is followed by CE, AC and AE. The findings can be helpful to design and support experiential learning system concerning entrepreneurship students of higher educational institutes.