The impact of entrepreneurship education in European universities : an intention-based approach analyzed in the Spanish area

In the context of the wide-ranging social and economic changes that have been occurring in industrialized countries over recent decades, contemporary higher education institutions are seeing their missions expanded by the assignment of a further responsibility to provide a socio-economic boost, taking the form of the channelling of future generations of working population towards entrepreneurial goals in accordance with the new needs of the productive sector. In this context, the present study is aimed to analyze the impact of experiences of entrepreneurship education in the University on undergraduates’ career behaviour as explained by intention-based models. Self-report data was collected from a sample of 800 Spanish university students, and PLS analyses showed a positive effect of education on perceived entrepreneurship feasibility, which in turn affected entrepreneurial intention and behaviour. Otherwise, perceived desirability was not related with the remaining variables in the model. Implications of these results and limitations of the study are discussed. -- entrepreneurship ; entrepreneurship education ; intention models ; European universities ; Spanish universities ; Socio-economic welfare