How Can Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention Be Increased? The Role of Psychological Capital, Perceived Learning From an Entrepreneurship Education Program, Emotions and Their Relationships

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education has become a major focus of interest for researchers and national policy makers to encourage students to pursue entrepreneurial careers. The research on entrepreneurship education–entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) has yielded mixed results, and indicates the need to focus on antecedents of EI. More precisely, the aim of this paper was to examine antecedents of students’ EI in French entrepreneurship education programs. Participants were 460 French university undergraduates. Structural equation modeling results revealed that students’ Psychological Capital (PsyCap) had a significant positive relationship with perceived learning from the program and a significant negative relationship with negative emotions related to entrepreneurial actions. They also show that PsyCap indirectly enhanced EI. More precisely, students with high PsyCap learned more from the program in terms of perceived skills and knowledge and in turn had a higher EI. Moreover, students with high PsyCap had less entrepreneurial action-related doubt, fear and aversion, which also increased EI. This decrease in negative emotions can be explained notably by what students perceived they had learned from the program. This article concludes with the implications of these findings for future research and practical applications.

Keywords

• psychological capital
• entrepreneurial intention
• entrepreneurship education