Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Entrepreneurship education (EE) aims to instill tacit knowledge to increase entrepreneurial motivation, intention and behaviour. Extant research suggests that self-identity is also related to these outcomes, raising the possibility that entrepreneurial identity is an outcome of EE interventions. Identity construction is particularly salient in education since it provides insight into the cognitive processes undertaken by students and allows educators to design interventions around them. But there is very little literature on the development of entrepreneurial identity among students and the role, if any, of educational interventions in that process. This study closes this gap by addressing the question: “How does exposure to entrepreneurship education influence entrepreneurial identity construction among undergraduate students?” Approximately 40 one-hour semi-structured interviews were conducted at three universities with significant entrepreneurship programming. Interview participants were in their first or last year of undergraduate studies, were from business, engineering and arts and science faculties, were 30% female and had differing levels of exposure to entrepreneurship education programming. These interviews reveal that students create entrepreneurial identities in response to many forces beyond the reach of educational interventions but that interventions often act as triggers to crystallize these forces. Students reported forces that “pulled” them towards entrepreneurship (e.g., parental encouragement) but they also reported many forces that “pushed” them toward entrepreneurship as a potential resolution to an internal conflict or social/occupational dissonance (e.g., a lack of “fit” with peers). Some students also reported factors that impeded these forces (e.g., peer antipathy). The negotiation of these forces led to three dominant entrepreneurial identity patterns: Students with an “instrumental” entrepreneurial identity viewed EE as a tool for enabling their nascent ventures, students with a “functional” entrepreneurial identity viewed EE as training in a specific mode of behaviour (to be exercised in a new or existing organization), and students with a “contingent” entrepreneurial identity viewed EE as a way to achieve personal agency in the form of long-term career options. Understanding these patterns, and the entrepreneurial identity construction process will enable educators to design more targeted interventions, policy makers to establish better metrics and students to gain deeper self-insights.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Christopher Holt
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3093219144