Exploring the Role of Universities in Entrepreneurship Education

Dear Colleagues,

Entrepreneurship education has recently seen extensive growth among academics and businesspeople (Ndou, 2021; Kuratko, 2005; Ndou et al., 2019; Ndou et al. 2018) due to the relevance it provides to entrepreneurship competencies as an essential factor to support ambition in young people to start their own businesses and generate their own employment opportunities (UN, 2015), in addition to its value in creating social and economic sustainability (EU, 2020).

Existing research has emphasized the many features and impacts of entrepreneurship education for individual growth, propensity for entrepreneurship and increased societal resilience (Bae et al., 2014; Fayolle and Gailly, 2008).

The literature related to human capital theory, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and self-determination theory highlights the positive correlation of entrepreneurship education with students’ confidence in engaging in entrepreneurial ventures and starting new businesses (Hysa and Foote, 2022; Boldureanu et al., 2020).

In addition, recently, in the wake of the rapid development of new technologies, an expansion of entrepreneurship education (EE) to all disciplines is being witnessed (e.g., science and technology) as crucial for developing skills, competences and mindsets required for launching and developing high-growth, technology-based businesses (Boocock et al., 2009). This has led to the flourishing in the academic community of the significant role of EE through a large number of initiatives aiming to promote a more entrepreneurial mindset (Beckman et al. 2012; Cassia et al.  2014; Mian et al., 2016).

Creating an entrepreneurial mindset is pivotal for helping students at all levels of education, young entrepreneurs and start-uppers to be creative (European Commission, 2008), and to cope with business uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity (Gibb, 2005). As Seikkula-Leino et al. (2021) argue, “The purpose of EE is to educate students to take more responsibility for themselves and their learning; to achieve their goals, to become creative, active and critical citizens; to discover existing opportunities and create new ones; and to cope and thrive in a complicated society”.

Nurturing an entrepreneurial mind-set in young people and promoting more entrepreneurial attitudes is now widely recognized as a key priority for innovation as well as social and economic sustainability (Ndou et al., 2018).

In this scenario, universities are called on to play an important role in creating the entrepreneurship mindset through the development and delivery of curricula and programs devoted to entrepreneurship at all levels and fields of education.  Entrepreneurship education has emerged as a key instrument to enhance entrepreneurial orientation.

Despite the considerable interest, there are many issues to be discussed and analyzed in relation to the role of universities in developing entrepreneurship. More specifically, the questions of how the university contributes through education, how to design and implement entrepreneurship education in practice, how to measure the impact of entrepreneurial education, which activities to promote, what approaches can better foster entrepreneurial mindsets, the differences between countries, etc.

Accordingly, this Special Issue is aimed to collect contributions that provide an improved understanding of the role of the university in developing an entrepreneurial mindset and how this mindset is understood, promoted, and developed in the context of universities.

Dr. Valentina Ndou
Dr. Otilia Manta
Dr. Vera Ndrecaj
Dr. Eglantina Hysa
Guest Editors

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• entrepreneurship education and leaning 
• entrepreneurial universities through policies 
• innovation and economic development 
• management of higher education systems 
• quality in higher education through innovation 
• knowledge economy 
• entrepreneurial ecosystem