Gender and learning outcomes in entrepreneurship education

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze whether the competences worked in a business plan have any kind of influence on students’ learning outcomes by means of gender. In order to analyze these effects we present an empirical study to know the relationship between gender, competences and learning results in a business plan course. To do so, we use data obtained from questionnaires distributed among 425 students of the Bachelor in Business Administration at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. The questionnaires measure the students’ perception of competences achievement and their learning results. Our main aim is to analyze whether or not the competences developed using the business plan methodology influence the students’ learning results, as well as the influence of gender, comparing male and female students. The regression analyses show that acquiring competences related to “time management” have a positive influence on the assessment of the business plan as a good learning tool. By the other hand, acquiring “specific competences of the business plan” have a positive influence on students’ level of satisfaction, moreover gender affects positively over the “time management” competences. However, in both cases, women achieve lower learning results than men and older students get higher learning outcomes. The findings show a negative effect of being female on learning results, which reveals that the learning results of women were poorer than those of men using the business plan methodology. Another key finding is the great positive influence of age and competences related to business plans and time management interacted with gender on learning outcomes.