Abstract
Entrepreneurial stories, such as the breathtaking experience of Steve Jobs, are often adopted as an effective teaching instrument to promote individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions in entrepreneurship education. Prior research highlights the role model’s influence and the positive effect of entrepreneurial stories, which is taken for granted in many circumstances. Since most research has treated storytelling in teaching as an undifferentiated whole, few researchers have teased out the distinctive effect of different types of entrepreneurial stories, namely that between successful stories and failure stories, and between idol stories and peer stories. To deepen our knowledge about how distinctive entrepreneurial stories affect entrepreneurial intentions, we conducted two experimental studies on 150 undergraduate students in entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs). Results show that, through the intermediary variable of entrepreneurial passion, both successful stories and failure stories positively influence entrepreneurial intentions as educators presumed, but successful role model stories have a greater impact than failure stories. While idol stories, rather than peer stories, are more inclined to arouse individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, we find that individuals with low entrepreneurial self-efficacy are less affected by the storytelling process.
Highlights
In the past decades, entrepreneurship has become increasingly prominent in reducing youth unemployment, improving financial stability and promoting economic development (Bohlmann et al, 2017)
It warrants a closer look at the entrepreneurship education mechanisms, especially the popular content, such as Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurial story, which is widely taught in college curriculums
Drawing upon the extensive use of storytelling in entrepreneurship education, we provide a deeper investigation of different types of entrepreneurial stories in this paper, arguing that the effects of different role models vary extensively
Summary
Entrepreneurship has become increasingly prominent in reducing youth unemployment, improving financial stability and promoting economic development (Bohlmann et al, 2017). In order to inspire entrepreneurship activities, governments and scholars have both made great efforts to assist nascent entrepreneurs, such as establishing incubators, introducing supportive policies and setting up entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) Such undertakings have been based on Entrepreneurial Stories in Entrepreneurship Education the implicit premise that these efforts will inspire entrepreneurial spirit (Obschonka et al, 2018), enhance nascent entrepreneur’s self-efficacy and promote entrepreneurship motivation (Syam et al, 2018). A critical reason for this contradictory notion is that many scholars treated entrepreneurship education as an undifferentiated whole, ignoring the variety in content and pedagogy in different EEPs (Piperopoulos and Dimov, 2015) It warrants a closer look at the entrepreneurship education mechanisms, especially the popular content, such as Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurial story, which is widely taught in college curriculums. Drawing upon the extensive use of storytelling in entrepreneurship education, we provide a deeper investigation of different types of entrepreneurial stories in this paper, arguing that the effects of different role models vary extensively
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