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The influence of entrepreneurial education on entrepreneurial career choice
There are various studies that examine the link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial career choice. These studies have been conducted from within both quantitative and qualitative paradigms and cover a whole range of approaches, from the trait approach to the intentions-based approach.Dickson, George, Solomon and Weaver (2008) conducted a qualitative study in the USA to explore the relationship between general education, specific forms of entrepreneurial education and a range of entrepreneurial activities.
The relationships were investigated through an analysis of peer-reviewed research published in a wide range of journals and proceedings between 1995 and 2006. The findings suggested a positive link between entrepreneurship education and both the choice to become an entrepreneur and subsequent entrepreneurial success.
Matlay (2008) also conducted a qualitative study in which the impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial outcomes was explored. The main aim was to investigate the perceived influence that various entrepreneurship education courses had on a cohort of 64 graduate entrepreneurs from eight higher education institutions in the UK. Semi-structured, in-depth telephone interviews conducted annually over a 10-year period (1997–2006) were used. Matlay documented, measured and analysed respondents’ progression from graduation into entrepreneurship. Results indicated that graduate needs for entrepreneurship education did not match actual outcomes in terms of entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitudes.
This mismatch influenced an entrepreneur’s perception of actual and future educational needs. However, most of the graduate entrepreneurs seemed to be satisfied with the outcomes (in terms of skills, knowledge and attitudes) of their entrepreneurship education, both in relative and in absolute terms. However, this study did not clearly indicate whether the graduate entrepreneurs would be interested in creating businesses.
Another qualitative study was conducted by Albert, Fournier and Marion (1991) in France. They found that the proportion of higher education students, who, having completed a support program for new business development, went on to start businesses was approximately 25%.
While Fayolle, Gailly and Lassas-Clerc (2006) conducted a quantitative study in France on the impact of an entrepreneurial education program in which 20 students were involved. They found that the program had a strong measurable impact on the entrepreneurial intention of the students, whilst it had a positive, but not very significant, impact on their perceived behavioral control.
A study conducted in India by Saini and Bhatia (2007) adopted a comparative approach. The study suggested that entrepreneurs who had in fact received training in entrepreneurship presented significantly higher levels of performance in terms of sales development and job creation, as compared to entrepreneurs without training. Their entrepreneurial visions along with their ability to anticipate and plan for the future also seemed to be of higher quality.
Stokes et al. (2010) contend that early findings have shown that participation in enterprise programs can positively influence people’s enterprise potential and attitudes to entrepreneurship. A good example is the Young Enterprise Program in the UK, which aims to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise.
Bandura (1986) conducted an empirical study to test the link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The study generally concluded that entrepreneurial education positively affects individuals’ perceptions of their ability to start new businesses.
The line of research into entrepreneurial intentions began with Boyd and Vozikis (1994), who theorized that self-efficacy in performing tasks associated with venture creation was instrumental in motivating an individual to engage in entrepreneurial activities (Dickson et al., 2008).
Noel (2002) conducted a quantitative study in the USA and specifically concentrated on the impact of entrepreneurship training on the development of entrepreneurial intentions and the perceptions of self-efficacy. Different groups of students were involved in that research. The sample of 84 included final-year students in entrepreneurship, management and those in other disciplines. All the students had attended an entrepreneurship-training program (ETP). The results showed that the propensity to act as an entrepreneur, entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial ‘self-efficacy’ all scored highest among the final-year students in entrepreneurship.
Peterman and Kennedy (2003) conducted a quantitative study in Australia and examined the effect of participation in an entrepreneurship education program on perceptions of the desirability and feasibility of starting a business. They did this by analyzing changes in perceptions of a sample of 236 secondary school students enrolled in the Young Achievement Australia (YAA) enterprise program. The analysis was done using a pre-test post-test control group research design. After completing the entrepreneurship program, respondents reported significantly higher perceptions of both desirability and feasibility. The degree of change in perceptions is related to the positiveness of prior experience and to the positiveness of the experience in the ETP. Self-efficacy theory was used to explain the impact of the program.
Gird and Bagraim (2008) conducted a quantitative study in South Africa to test the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a predictor of entrepreneurial intent among 247 final-year commerce students at two higher education institutions. They examined the theoretical adequacy of the theory by considering four additional factors that are believed to influence entrepreneurial intentions: that is, personality traits, demographic factors, situational factors and prior exposure to entrepreneurship.
The results of the multivariate data analysis indicated that the TPB significantly explained 27% of the variance in students’ entrepreneurial intentions.
They also found that, of all the other purported predictors of entrepreneurial intent examined in the study, only prior exposure to entrepreneurship was found to add significantly to the predictive power of the TPB in explaining entrepreneurship intention. Personality traits, demographic factors and situational factors did not add significantly to the variance explained by the TPB. The findings therefore suggest that the TPB is a valuable tool for predicting entrepreneurial intent.
In conclusion, it was evident that studies using a variety of approaches were conducted to examine the link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial activities. The general findings were that there is a positive link between entrepreneurial education and venture creation. A huge interest seems to have come from United Kingdom and other European countries. Very few researchers in this field are from South Africa, implying that this topic is under-researched in the South African context.
The influence of role models on entrepreneurial career choice
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By identifying with an outstanding role model, individuals can become inspired to pursue similar achievements. The implication here is that by identifying with successful role models who own or run their own businesses, students studying entrepreneurship may be inspired to start and run their businesses successfully.
Fayolle et al. (2006) stated that intentions of creation of businesses are stronger when the degree of self-efficacy grows due to the presence of entrepreneurial role models and when the influences come from several close relatives. Parental role models can also play a role in influencing children in the family to become entrepreneurs. Children of entrepreneurial mothers who perceive their role models as both positive and successful are likely to imitate those role models (Brennan, Morris & Schindehutte, 2003).
According to social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), which emphasizes the importance of observing and modelling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others, individuals who perceive that an entrepreneurial parent has been successful express a greater preference for an entrepreneurial career than those who have not had this kind of role model performance effect (Brennan et al., 2003).
Van Auken, Fry and Stephens (2006) examined the impact of role model activities on potential entrepreneurs’ desire to own businesses. In their study, they asked students whose role models owned businesses to rank the influence on career intentions of twenty specific activities in which role models and potential entrepreneurs might engage.
The study looked at the relationship between those activities and the desire to own businesses. Role models’ activities related to involving the respondent in professional activities, employment in the business, and discussions about the business were found to be significantly related with interest in starting businesses.
Quimby and DeSantis (2006) conducted an online survey at Towson University in Maryland (USA) in which 368 female undergraduate students responded. The study examined self-efficacy and role models’ influence as predictors of career choice across Holland’s (1997) six RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional) types. Findings revealed that levels of self-efficacy and role model influence differed across Holland’s types. Multiple regression analyses indicated that self-efficacy and role model influence accounted for significant variance in the career choice for all six RIASEC types. Role model influence added to the prediction of career choice over and above the contribution of self-efficacy in all but one (Investigative) of the RIASEC types.
On the influence of role models, other authors on organisational emergence seemed to express different views from what has been explained above. In their quantitative study, Krueger and Carsrud (1993) applied the TPB, which posits that exogenous influences on entrepreneurial intentions and behaviour happen by influencing attitudes indirectly. Scott and Twomey (1988) found that the existence of entrepreneurial role models only weakly predicts future entrepreneurial activity, and that its impact is subjective. Krueger (1996) and Scherer, Adams, Carley and Wiebe (1989) argued that role models affect entrepreneurial intentions, but only if they affect attitudes such as self-efficacy. [End of the Quote]
Said El Mansour Cherkaoui
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AFRICA
Entrepreneurship Africa Morocco
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