Entrepreneurship Education and the Entrepreneurial Intent of Students at a Community College in Texas
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ed.D)
Department
Higher Edu and Learning Technology
Date of Award
Spring 2020
Abstract
Despite the applicability of entrepreneurship education to various disciplines across college campuses, the offering tends to be exclusive to the business school (The George Washington University Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence, 2015). This structure excludes most nonbusiness majors from exposure to entrepreneurship, despite research suggesting entrepreneurship education may influence intention, and thus behavior (Honig & Karlsson, 2004). Therefore, the current organizational structure for the subject may deprive nonbusiness majors from vital tools for starting and building a successful business (European Commission, 2008).The purpose of this study was to identify and to validate the relationships among intention toward entrepreneurship; mediating variables that occur before intention, including entrepreneurship education, if any; and other demographic variables. Regression analysis tested the effect of entrepreneurship education on the intention toward entrepreneurship of U.S. postsecondary students at a Texas community college. A survey adapted from the Entrepreneurial Intentions Questionnaire (EIQ; Liñán & Chen, 2009) asked quantifiable questions about the entrepreneurial intent of postsecondary students at this Texas community college with prior entrepreneurship education and compared them to the responses of students who lacked entrepreneurship education. The previously validated EIQ is based on the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and uses the mediating variables of entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control to predict intention toward entrepreneurship. This study merged prior entrepreneurship education with those other mediating variables to test whether all variables correlate and whether prior entrepreneurship education increases entrepreneurial intention scores.The following research questions formed the basis for the investigation: (1) Does the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) predict entrepreneurial intentions of students at a large Texas community college? (2) Does prior entrepreneurship education increase the entrepreneurial intention of those Texas community college students?
Advisor
Katie Koo
Subject Categories
Education | Higher Education
Recommended Citation
Wortley, Kevin, "Entrepreneurship Education and the Entrepreneurial Intent of Students at a Community College in Texas" (2020). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 215.
https://digitalcommons.tamuc.edu/etd/215
