The lagged effect of university-based entrepreneurship education on employees' retention at entrepreneurial startups

This study explores the lagged effect of university-based entrepreneurship education on employees' retention at entrepreneurial startups in China. Combining insights from social learning theory and the attraction-selection-attrition framework, it is argued that university-based entrepreneurship education can shape individuals' protean career attitudes and behaviors over time in their following career development. To test the hypotheses, we took a two-stage survey on-site and online, respectively, of a sample of employees working in startups in three entrepreneurial incubators in China. Taking hierarchical multiple regression and bootstrapping analyses, the empirical results of the final 274 sample show that entrepreneurship education can significantly improve an employee’s intention to remain at a startup and that this is mediated by protean career attitudes. Meanwhile, socialization tactics can strengthen the mediating effects of protean career attitudes. These findings further verify the lagging effect of entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities, which can provide useful inspiration for entrepreneurship education and the management of employees at startups.