Can a transversal adaptation of teaching materials foster students’ entrepreneurial intentions? A quasi-experimental exploration in a statistics course setting

We propose that a transversal integration of entrepreneurship content within other curricula may be an effective approach to foster students' entrepreneurial intentions. We embedded entrepreneurship content in an otherwise unrelated statistics course targeting the theory of planned behavior constructs of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms in relation to entrepreneurship. 350 Swiss students (193 intervention group, 157 control group) participated in a nine-week quasi-experiment to explore the effects of this intervention. Structural equation modeling suggests that being in the intervention group affected students' attitude toward entrepreneurship, which in turn was associated with higher entrepreneurial intentions by the end of the intervention. The intervention did not affect perceived behavioral control nor subjective norms and changes in these variables were neither associated with change in entrepreneurial intentions. Unexpectedly, the intervention did not improve students' attitude ratings but appeared to prevent their decline over time. A qualitative follow-up exploration with seven participants suggested that the data collection itself may have prompted students to reassess their attitude toward entrepreneurship. We conclude that a transversal integration of entrepreneurship content into university curricula could play a key role in enhancing students’ entrepreneurial mindset and may, over time, support conditions conducive to innovation and creativity.