INTEGRATING ENTREPRENEURIAL SELF-EFFICACY INTO EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Educational institutions are urged to provide more enterprising individuals who will either act as entrepreneurs, or will be able to manage their careers and lives in an entrepreneurial way.

The purpose of this study is to address the role of teaching at universities in maximizing entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and to examine the possibility to maximize the likelihood of entrepreneurial behavior by enhancing entrepreneurial self-efficacy with university students. The study investigates the impact that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has on the development of entrepreneurial motivation and behavior using a sample of 324 students of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek in Croatia.

The results of the research indicate that students demonstrate a higher propensity for entrepreneurial behavior and a higher probability of starting their own business if they feel more self-efficient. The research has also highlighted that teaching at universities does not significantly improve the perception of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in students and that firsthand experience has a more important role in that.

An important conclusion to emerge from this research is that in order to influence entrepreneurial behavior, it is necessary to make better use of experience-based learning and supplement university courses with components of informal and/or non-formal education.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, university, communities of practice