Generalist or specific studies for engineering entrepreneurs? : Comparison of French engineering students' trajectories in two different curricula

Purpose – French engineering students are traditionally reluctant to envisage entrepreneurship. Can a new engineering school aimed at fostering entrepreneurship reverse this trend? The purpose of this paper is to compare the development of engineering students' entrepreneurial intentions and perceived career orientation of the prestigious engineering training schools (Ecole Centrale de Lille) and ITEEM, whose curriculum is dual (engineering+management), new and based on active pedagogies. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on qualitative analysis of 12 in‐depth interviews and quantitative longitudinal analysis of data obtained from a questionnaire administered each year to all students from both schools. Findings – Results show that ITEEM fosters students' entrepreneurial and project management careers, whereas Centrale promotes the traditional technical model of an engineer. Family background of students is close in both schools. Level of entrepreneurial intention at enrolling is higher at ITEEM than Centrale but cannot fully explain why entrepreneurial career orientations decrease at Centrale while they increase at ITEEM. On the other hand, perception of school culture is weak at Centrale and strong at ITEEM and this difference is significantly with regard to the development of students' career orientation. Qualitative interviews indicate that both cultures highlight different elements. Research limitations/implications – The cultural element can then be proposed as a new factor to take into account when studying the impact of entrepreneurship education. However, this result is based here on a simple measure of school culture perception and qualitative interviews. It should be confirmed by a more detailed quantitative analysis of cultural and organizational characteristics of educational institutions. Practical implications – Engineering schools can foster entrepreneurial orientations if their educational culture is perceived as new and innovative by students. This can be achieved through a new curriculum based on a wider set of courses (management, entrepreneurship and engineering) and the systematic deployment of active pedagogies such as project work and internships. A new question arises: can such a perception of innovation be maintained over time? Originality/value – In the theoretical literature, culture is considered to be an essential element that can have an impact on entrepreneurial career aspirations and intentions. But as yet, no empirically based study had been carried out to prove it.