Developing entrepreneurial competencies in higher education: a structural model approach

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this article is to propose and test a structural model of relationships between generic and specific competencies and entrepreneurial competencies in order to assess students' learning.Design/methodology/approachThe study was carried out on a sample of 337 students enrolled on the entrepreneurship specialisation of the final bachelor's degree project course on the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. A questionnaire was designed to gather information on students' perception of their level of acquisition of the different groups of competencies. The partial least squares (PLS) multivariate technique was used to analyse the model.FindingsThe results confirm that there are significant relationships between the different groups of competencies. Specifically, it shows that generic competencies influence specific competencies and that there is a strong relationship between systemic and professional competencies and entrepreneurial competencies. It also shows that the experience variable contributes positively to different competency groups, while the gender and age variables have no effect on the development of entrepreneurial competencies.Practical implicationsThe study provides relevant information to the academic world on different factors that affect competency development.Originality/valueThe analysis provides an innovative research and contributes knowledge on entrepreneurial competency acquisition, providing an answer to whether generic and specific competencies influence entrepreneurial competencies.

Entrepreneurship Education and Training Programmes: A Lifespan Development Perspective

“…When it comes to training methods, EETPs tend to use methods such as lectures, seminars, workshops and case studies (Hytti and O'Gorman, 2004). Some more specialised EETPs will use business simulations, workshops, counselling and mentoring, company visits, setting up a business, business planning and business games (Ferreras-Garcia et al, 2021;Jack and Anderson, 1999). Vincett and Farlow (2008) highlighted the effectiveness of the business plan as a teaching method and that its effectiveness depends on the motivation of the student and the amount of time available to complete it.…”

“…The growth in EETPs can be attributed to the increased inclusion of the fostering of entrepreneurship as a key component of most business and management schools, in addition to their prominence with national development agencies as a way of helping entrepreneurs grow successful businesses (Shane, 2010). Furthermore, changing global economic conditions have highlighted the realisation that entrepreneurship boosts employment and economic growth (Ferreras-Garcia et al, 2021;Ratten and Usmanij, 2021;Song and Winkler, 2014). Entrepreneurship is a key component of local and globalised market economies (Díaz-García et al, 2015), and consequently both education and training programmes specifically designed for entrepreneurs facilitate economic growth and develop the knowledge, skills and abilities of entrepreneurs (Harrington and Maysami, 2015;Lindh and Thorgren, 2016) who can create businesses now and into the future.…”

The empirical analysis of human capital competences on the example of company executives

“…Despite many studies on competences (e.g. Athey & Orth, 1999;Brundiers et al, 2021;Chung-Herrera et al, 2003;Drozdowski, 2017;Drozdowski et al, 2021;Ferreras-Garcia et al, 2021;González-López et al, 2021;Hoffmann, 1999;Kipper et al, 2021;Martin & Rubin, 1995;Rothwell & Lindholm, 1999;Shavelson, 2010;Taborsky & Oliveira, 2012;Woodruffe, 1993;Yin et al, 2019), there is still a need to deepen research on the identification of human capital competences.…”

Developing intrapreneurial self-efficacy through internships? Investigating agency and structure factors

“…However, within these E/IE, it appears to be important to be able to build experiences (Ferreras-Garcia et al , 2021), which refers to an active pedagogy and a practice-oriented program (van Ewijk et al , 2020; Hahn et al , 2017). Furthermore, learning-by-doing is found fruitful in light of entrepreneurship behavior (Chen et al , 2021).…”