Notwithstanding the volume of literature assessing the link between entrepreneurship education and individuals' entrepreneurial behaviour, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains misunderstood. In fact, a combination of inconclusive findings and a narrow focus on western contexts duly compel further research in this area. In the current study, we argue that individuals' emotions could be the missing link to explain contrasting findings and uncover how education affects entrepreneurial activity. To test our argument, we investigate a sample of 1,314 Nigerian students from five universities across the country.We find that entrepreneurship education enhances entrepreneurial intention by regulating students' emotions. However, not all emotions bridge this link. Our findings hold important implications for practice. Policy makers and entrepreneurship educators can draw on these findings to tailor their initiatives and programmes so that the relevant emotions are regulated and entrepreneurship activity enhanced.
The literature has been enriched by studies examining the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial or goal intention. Yet, few articles have considered how entrepreneurship education affects nascent entrepreneurship as a more sought-after outcome. Similarly, some scholars assess entrepreneurship education as an aggregate rather than a multidimensional construct comprised of alternative methods with peculiar characteristics yielding distinct student outcomes. Possibly, the present shortage of specificity in the investigation of methods in entrepreneurship education reduces empirical understanding of efficacious teaching and learning modes for optimising entrepreneurial behaviour. Hence, by way of contribution, this inquiry isolates and measures the direct effect of courses, workshops, guest speakers and simulations on new venture creation among UK students. It also measures indirect influence in the same relationships, with self-efficacy as a mediator. A structural equation analysis is performed and the findings show that discretely, in this order, simulations, workshops and courses stimulate nascent entrepreneurship. However, there is particular insignificance in the direct link between guest speakers and nascent entrepreneurship, and further dissociation in the indirect link between workshops and simulations leading to self-efficacy. Theoretical implications arise for future correlation and configurational studies, as well as practical ramifications for entrepreneurship education practitioners, simulation developers and public institutions.
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