The influence of university entrepreneurship-oriented training in the transformation of intentions into new businesses

Abstract

Most academic studies on entrepreneurship and training primarily focus on university students’ entrepreneurial intention; therefore, research is increasingly needed on how entrepreneurship education at the institutional level may, or may not, affect actual entrepreneurial behavior. Based on data from 212 universities involved in the 2016 edition of the GUESSS, this paper examines the moderating role of training on the link between entrepreneurial intention and behavior at the meso level. For this purpose, a parsimonious theoretical model is proposed that describes these relationships and it is contrasted using PLS techniques. Our results show that the educational programs aimed at transferring knowledge and developing entrepreneurial skills make stronger the relationship between intention and behavior at the university level. Similarly, we show that education does not serve as a driver of behavior. This variable does not directly influence the dependent variable (the act of creating a firm) but, rather, strengthens the relationship between intention and behavior.