Does my school teach me entrepreneurship? School entrepreneurship curriculum and students’ entrepreneurial intention: a serial mediation-moderation analysis

Abstract

PurposeIn order to achieve a sustained level of entrepreneurship in India, it is very important that the spirit and culture of entrepreneurship are ingrained in students, right at the “school” level. Specifically, in this study we examine how student entrepreneurial behavior is influenced by entrepreneurial activities at school.Design/methodology/approachWe chose schools in India to recruit the students’ samples; 520 higher secondary school students were approached in-person to understand their entrepreneurial intentions (EI). We applied PLS-SEM to test the relationships of serial mediation.FindingsOur findings imply that the students' entrepreneurial intentions are largely influenced by the school’s entrepreneurship program (e.g. labs, lectures and exercises). Further, we noted that school career guidance and students’ entrepreneurship attitude effectively mediate the relationship between school entrepreneurship curriculum and EI.Practical implicationsEntrepreneurship education beginning in schools does foster stronger entrepreneurial intent over the short-term. It also helps in fostering entrepreneurs, who create jobs and support in achieving the country’s desired SDGs.Originality/valueThe study contributes new dimensions to entrepreneurship research focusing on school children hence anchoring at early stages.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0350