Developing cross-cultural competence in entrepreneurship education: What is the role of the university

Abstract

In the last few years, entrepreneurship has gained increasing attention among researchers and policy-makers because of its role in economic and social development. Since a growing number of entrepreneurs are starting new ventures in several countries or cultures simultaneously, they deal with several cross-cultural issues. For this reason, cross-cultural competence becomes a critical driver of new venture performance. In this context, entrepreneurship education is considered an effective way to stimulate entrepreneurship-related skills and cross-cultural competence and to develop students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The European Commission has also underlined the role of entrepreneurial culture and competence as key factors for the creation of a new generation of public and private workers who are more creative, proactive, and innovative. The aim of this study is to theoretically discuss why and how cross-cultural competence could and should be integrated in entrepreneurship education programs, suggesting the Italian model of C-Labs as a viable set of contamination between university students at different levels and from different disciplines that promotes a new learning model based on interdisciplinarity. The study contributes to the advancement of the literature on cross-cultural competence and entrepreneurship education offering some practical insights for the development of entrepreneurship programs characterized by a cross-cultural approach.