Burst Bubbles or Build Steam? Entrepreneurship Education, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, and Entrepreneurial Intentions

TLDR

The study examines how the orientation of entrepreneurship courses and students’ self‑efficacy beliefs jointly shape their entrepreneurial intentions. The authors surveyed 114 university students in different entrepreneurship courses, applying regulatory focus theory to assess how course orientation frames motivation. Results show that self‑efficacy predicts entrepreneurial intentions in opposite directions depending on course orientation: it lowers intentions in theory‑oriented courses but raises them in practice‑oriented courses.

Abstract

This paper contextualizes the relationship between student's self-efficacy beliefs and entrepreneurial intentions in the content and pedagogy of the entrepreneurship course. Using the logic of regulatory focus theory, we argue that the nature of the entrepreneurship course—whether theoretically or practically oriented—creates a distinct motivational frame for entrepreneurship in promotion or prevention terms. When coupled with students' self-efficacy beliefs, this frame can strengthen or weaken their intentions for future entrepreneurial efforts. We test this hypothesis through a survey of 114 students enrolled in different entrepreneurship courses at a major British university. Our results show that higher self-efficacy is associated with lower entrepreneurial intentions in the theoretically oriented courses and higher entrepreneurial intentions in the practically oriented courses. We draw a number of implications for the theory and practice of entrepreneurship education.