Flatline: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Education to Increase Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurship is a fundamental driver of economic development, critical for poverty reduction and for sustainable development. However, entrepreneurship education (EE) growth has occurred without a corresponding increase in students engaging in entrepreneurship. This research contributes to the gap in the literature on understanding how to develop entrepreneurs by examining the impact of EE on students’ entrepreneurial intention. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, we evaluated changes in students’ intentions to become entrepreneurs after taking a hypothetical-based course in five universities in five countries. We found a flatline of entrepreneurial intention across all schools. EE had no positive impact on student intention to become an entrepreneur after taking an entrepreneurship course. This research provides more effective options for EE. Problem-based approaches, relying on concrete experiences, better align how entrepreneurs learn to be entrepreneurs. This is the first study that analyzes the impact of EE on entrepreneurial intention comparing different countries using similar hypothetical-based assignments, identifying the misalignment of how entrepreneurs learn and how EE is commonly taught.