Unpacking entrepreneurial education: learning activities, students´gender and attitude towards entrepreneurship

Abstract

To promote entrepreneurship among students, academic institutions should focus on developing a positive entrepreneurial personal attitude (EPA), since it is a strong antecedent of entrepreneurial intentions, which in turn predict actual entrepreneurship. Previous research finds that EPA is lower for women than men, which is related to the acknowledged gap between women and men in entrepreneurial activity. The present work builds on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine how nine different entrepreneurship-focused academic activities in school impact on students’ EPA, paying special attention to gender differences. We use a sample of 918 students from a French business school to analyse gender differences in the mechanisms based on ELM central and peripheral routes to promote EPA through academic activities. Post-hoc tests are also performed to explore differences by gender at different academic levels. The results have important implications for academic institutions wishing to promote entrepreneurship since we unpack entrepreneurial education into individual academic activities. In particular, results suggest that students’ gender and academic level should be considered when designing activities to promote entrepreneurship.