Gamifying online entrepreneurship education and digital entrepreneurial intentions: An empirical study

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of digital entrepreneurship has relieved employment pressure and promoted digital economic development. Gamifying online entrepreneurship education is an indispensable exploration of university students' digital entrepreneurship education. For this purpose, we study the effect of gamifying online entrepreneurship education on students' intention to be digital entrepreneurs. We introduce digital policy cognition and digital entrepreneurial self-efficacy based on the theory of planned behavior and social cognitive theory. And we establish and test a multiply mediation model by structural equation model. We found that gamification, as a new popular teaching method, is very effective in entrepreneurship education. Digital policy cognition and digital entrepreneurial self-efficacy are two key elements. They should be paid attention to in the game design. The results show that: (i) Gamifying online entrepreneurship education can influence digital entrepreneurial intention directly ( β = 0.510, p < 0.005, 95%CI = [0.325, 0.803]); (ii) Digital policy cognition and digital entrepreneurial self-efficacy play mediating roles between gamifying online entrepreneurship education and digital entrepreneurial intention ( β = 0.219, p < 0.05, 95%CI = [0.062, 0.420]). Some proposals help promote further and improve digital entrepreneurship education.