How can entrepreneurial interventions in a university context impact the entrepreneurial intention of their students?

Abstract

This paper explores the link between the entrepreneurial intention of students in higher education and the entrepreneurial interventions an institution can provide to support them. The study uses data collected from 679 undergraduate students from Chinese and UK Universities. The instrument for data collection was a paper-based questionnaire. This study uses the integrated model of entrepreneurial intentions as the theoretical underpinning for this approach. The initial findings highlight the perceived need for a range of entrepreneurship interventions, with business training programmes being the highest priority, followed by mentoring, specialist business advice, low-cost finance, business networking events and enterprise clubs. It also shows that those with different Intention Horizons do request a different portfolio of interventions. The paper provides an evidence-based approach to entrepreneurship education design and the development of interventions to support a range of students with and without entrepreneurial intention. This work suggests a previously under-articulated relationship between the nascent entrepreneur’s Intention Horizon, university interventions, and entrepreneurial action. There are numerous calls for further contextualisation of entrepreneurship education which this paper fulfils (Baron and Shane in Psychol Entrepreneurship 19-39, 2007; Byrne et al. in Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014). It further develops the narrative around both contextualisation, the previous experience of the students and the range and importance of these interventions to support the creation of a new venture.