Aim of the Project

International research project on interactions in the context of entrepreneurship education between students' entrepreneurial intentions, expected and experienced inspiration from the course, students' receptiveness to inspiration and motivational self-knowledge (personal goal awareness).

Researchers

Anne van Ewijk, Abu Dhabi University (Dubai, UAE) – Principal Investigator

Wiebke Weber, Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology – Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain)

Sophia Belghiti-Mahut, Abu Dhabi University (Al Ain, UAE) and Paul Valéry University (Montpellier, France)

Ghulam Nabi, Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester, UK)

Elena Ruskovaara, Lappeenranta University of Technology (Lappeenranta, Finland)

Raid Al-Aomar, Abu Dhabi University (Abu Dhabi, UAE)

Frances Chang, Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia)

Junjun Chen, Sungkyunkwan University (Seoul, South Korea)

Data collection

Data was collected with the support of many entrepreneurship instructors and their colleagues (in random order): Julie Hermans, Daniel Putz, Tamara Galkina, Anu Norrgrann, Elena Ruskovaara, Timo Pihkala, Jari Porras, Beatrice Okatch, Renson Muchiri, Joseph Kamau, Paul Katuse, Rik van Reekum, Joost Brinkman, Mariet Theune, Carla Do Rosario Costa, Leendert de Bell, Rients Galema, Bjørn Willy Åmo, Amiruddin Bin Ahamat, Salam Abdallah, Raid Al-Aomar, Rima Shaban, Ghazi Al Bakri, Srinivasa Rao, Pushkala Muralidharan, Won Kok Yaw, Munusany Muniandy, Valentina Gerlach, María Victoria Nagel, Oscar Quiroga, Scott Bryant, Marta Joh Kearns, Marty Martin, Frances Chang, Danail Ivanov, Wasif Minhas and Chris Storey.

The list of participating universities is (in random order): University of Namur (Belgium), University of Helsinki (Finland), Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland), Kenya College of Accountancy University (Kenya), United States International University (Kenya), Twente University (the Netherlands), University of Utrecht (the Netherlands), University of Nordland (Norway), Abu Dhabi University (United Arab Emirates), Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani (United Arab Emirates), Quest International University Perak (Malaysia), Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Argentina), Montana State University (United States), DePaul University College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (United States), Macquarie University (Australia), Higher Colleges of Technology (United Arab Emirates).

Ethical clearance was obtained from institutional review boards at three universities: Abu Dhabi University (UAE), Higher Colleges of Technology (UAE) and Macquarie University (Australia). Other instructors accepted these approvals as sufficient for participating with their students.

Data collection started in September 2015 and lasted until June 2016. A call for participation was distributed through various channels: the instructor forum of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB); personal connections at universities in Europe, the Middle-East, Asia, and Australia; referrals from personal connections to other entrepreneurship instructors; several research seminars; and two international academic conferences.

Search criteria specified the need for two groups of students from the same university:
1) Students who were enrolled in an entrepreneurship course with at least 45 contact hours, spread out over 6 weeks to 6 months (elective or compulsory), possibly, but not necessarily, as part of a program in entrepreneurship, at either the undergraduate or graduate level.
2) An equally sized comparison group of other students (with similar profiles in terms of gender, college, program, and study year), who were enrolled in a different course during that same semester.

A questionnaire was designed that was programmed as a web survey. For participating institutions with students who were not fluent in English, the questionnaire was translated into French and Spanish (and back-translated to ensure correct interpretations). This was pilot tested with respondents from different linguistic backgrounds, who would not be part of the sample, to enhance uniform understanding of the questions.

Instructors were requested to support students by providing class time to fill in the survey. 1,933 students were invited to respond, of which 1,103 did at the beginning of their course and 976 at the end of the course (response rates: 57,06% and 50,49%).

 

Publications:

van Ewijk, A.R., Weber, W. (2021) The Value of Knowing What You Want: Goal Hierarchy and Entrepreneurial Intentions, Journal of Business Venturing Insights (Elisever), vol. 15, e00215.  
Https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00215

Ewijk, A.R. van, Oikkonen, E. & Belghiti-Mahut, S. (2020) Linking methods to outcomes: A multi-course mixed-method study of the effects of active and passive pedagogy on entrepreneurial intentions, International Journal of Management Education, 18 (3): 100420

Ewijk, A.R. van and Belghiti-Mahut, S. (2019) Context, gender and entrepreneurial intentions: how entrepreneurship education changes the equation, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 11(1), 75-98

Ewijk, A.R. van, Chang, F. & Cheng, J. (2018) Learning Effects on Mental Readiness for Entrepreneurship in Different Cultural Contexts. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2018(1), doi: 10.5465/AMBPP.2018.13972abstract 

van Ewijk, A.R. (2018) Acuteness and persistence of research gaps in entrepreneurship education: a systematic content analysis of previous reviews (1987-2017), International Journal of Entrepreneurship, 22(2), 1-18

van Ewijk, A.R. and Al-Aomar, R. (2016). Inspiration, self-awareness and entrepreneurial intentions: a mixed-method case study of postgraduate engineering students in the UAE. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education19(1), 103-126