Putting pedagogy back in: Moving from “whether” to “when” compulsory entrepreneurship education “works”

The growing interest in entrepreneurship education has sparked a debate about how pedagogy can support an intention to innovate. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, we examine the links between experiential pedagogy, students' intention to innovate, and entrepreneurial intent. Using structural equation modeling on a survey of 361 students of compulsory entrepreneurship education across public and private universities in a developing economy, we find that compulsory entrepreneurship education alone has minimal impact on entrepreneurial intent and innovation intention. However, engaged faculty and out-of-class experiences, both elements of experiential pedagogy, positively influence attitudes and behavior towards entrepreneurship, regardless of university type. Out-of-class experiences notably boost innovation intentions, mediated by behavioral control. Our findings contribute to entrepreneurship education scholarship by highlighting the efficacy of experiential pedagogy in resource-constrained environments and informing the optimization of entrepreneurship education strategies in developing economies.