Beyond profit: The role of psychological factors in shaping entrepreneurial resilience

Despite extensive scholarship on entrepreneurship education, empirical evidence explaining how educational interventions translate into entrepreneurial resilience in higher education—particularly in the Global South—remains limited. This study examines the mediating role of psychological capital (entrepreneurial self-efficacy, innovativeness, and learning from failure) in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial resilience among Indonesian student entrepreneurs. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, this study employs a purposive multi-institutional sample of 180 student entrepreneurs in East Java and analyzes the data using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), appropriate for prediction-oriented mediation analysis. The findings indicate that psychological capital significantly mediates the education–resilience relationship, while entrepreneurship education also exerts a direct effect on resilience. These results extend resilience theory beyond trait-based views and offer practical implications for designing experiential and adaptive entrepreneurship education in higher education.