Decomposing the causal relationship between entrepreneurship education and intentions

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to decompose the causal relationship between entrepreneurship education (EE) and entrepreneurial intentions. The study segregates the “undifferentiated whole” of entrepreneurship education and finds out whether the components of entrepreneurship education (objectives of EE, content/curricula of EE, methodology of EE, and environment of the university) have a similar or different influence on entrepreneurial intentions as suggested by recent studies. Data was collected from 344 students who were enrolled in the final semester of BBA and MBA programs at 14 federally chartered public-sector universities in Islamabad, Pakistan through a closed-ended questionnaire. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data in SmartPLS software. The study results indicate that constituents of entrepreneurship education influence entrepreneurial intentions in a similar manner as an undifferentiated whole of entrepreneurship education. Hence, it clarifies the illusion that heterogeneity of the construct of entrepreneurship may contaminate the established entrepreneurship education-intention relationship. However, the magnitude of influence of each constituent varies.