Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes

By Br Martin, Jeffrey J. McNally, Michael J. Kay. 2013

1,465 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Effective human capital formation through the medium of entrepreneurship education and training (EET) is of increasing concern for governments, as EET is growing rapidly across the world. Unfortunately, there is a lack of consistent evidence showing that EET helps to create more or better entrepreneurs. We undertake the first quantitative review of the literature and, in the context of human capital theory, find that there is indeed support for the value of EET. Based on 42 independent samples (N=16,657), we find a significant relationship between EET and entrepreneurship-related human capital assets (rw=.217) and entrepreneurship outcomes (rw=.159). The relationship between EET and entrepreneurship outcomes is stronger for academic-focused EET interventions (rw=.238) than for training-focused EET interventions (rw=.151). We find evidence of heterogeneity in many of our correlations, and recommend that future studies examine potential moderators to more clearly delineate EET effect sizes. We also find a number of methodological weaknesses among the studies analyzed and that those studies with lower methodological rigor are overstating the effect of EET. Recommendations to improve the quality of future work in the field are provided.

Subfields: Accounting, Management of Technology and Innovation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/588b74a0929a8cada5da236cc926e2cbaf792d98

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Citations in the corpus

Do entrepreneurial education and big-five personality traits predict entrepreneurial intention among universities students? (2020, background): “Hence, it sounds for more research works to emphasize the evaluation of entrepreneurial education and its impact on entrepreneurship (Martin et al., 2013; Walter et al., 2013).”
Entrepreneurial education and learning at universities: exploring multilevel contingencies (2017, background): “As specified above, the individual and his/her cognitive abilities are of primary importance in understanding the extent to which he/she is able to accumulate human capital assets from investments such as experience and education (Martin, McNally, and Kay 2013; Unger et al. 2011).”
Editorial: Enhancing quantitative theory-testing entrepreneurship research (2019, methodology): “When interpreting model results, we also need to acknowledge that most effect sizes in the social sciences, and particularly in entrepreneurship, are likely to be small (Martin et al., 2013; Rosenbusch et al., 2011).”
ENTREPRENEURIAL INCEPTION: THE ROLE OF IMPRINTING IN ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION (SUMMARY) (2013, background): “For example, many schools worldwide are expanding their entrepreneurship curriculums; however, we know little about which educational experiences are most salient to entrepreneurs (Martin et al., 2013).”
The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in High School on Long-Term Entrepreneurial Performance (2015, background): “Studying the total population of 211,754 Swedish high school students between 1994 and 1996, among which 9,731 participated in the Junior Achievement Company Program (JACP), we find that JACP participation increases the long-term probability of starting a firm, as well as entrepreneurial income for ”
An Analysis of the Determinants of Entrepreneurial Intentions among Students: A Romanian Case Study (2016, background): “This is the reason why increasingly more schools have introduced in their curriculum subjects related to entrepreneurship [71,73].”
Students' Entrepreneurial Intentions: The Role of Prior Learning Experiences and Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Competencies* (2018, background): “Recent meta-analysis reviews have shown that entrepreneurial education literature has conceived human capital, (defined in terms of entrepreneurship-related knowledge and skills) as one of the key determinants of entrepreneurial intentions (Bae et al. 2014; Martin, McNally, and Kay 2013).”
Capital is not enough: opportunity entrepreneurship and formal institutions (2018, neutral): “There have been mixed findings in the literature on the efficacy of human or financial capital on entrepreneurship (Martin et al., 2013).”
Individual entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention: The mediating role of entrepreneurial motivations (2021, background): “Education can play a key role in promoting entrepreneurship (Martin et al., 2013; Zhang et al., 2014).”
The Climate for Entrepreneurship at Higher Education Institutions (2018, background): “Similarly, the growing literature on entrepreneurship education only looks at individual-level effects without considering the potential broader impact of such courses or programs on the organizational climate (Martin et al., 2013; Pittaway and Cope, 2007).”
Entrepreneurship Education and Sustainable Development Goals: A literature Review and a Closer Look at Fragile States and Technology-Enabled Approaches (2019, methodology): “Evaluation-related challenges arise from bias in self-assessment evaluations [99], lack of measurable short-term program impacts [100] and pre-selection of students with high success potential [8].”
The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda (2017, methodology): “Hence, in general, we reconfirm the findings and repeat the calls of previous reviews for more research on entrepreneurialbehavior (e.g., Pittaway& Cope, 2007) and greater pedagogical detail (cf. Martin et al., 2013).”
The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education: A Study of Iranian Students' Entrepreneurial Intentions and Opportunity Identification (2016, background): “…can be taught and that education can be considered one of the key instruments for fostering entrepreneurial attitudes, intentions, and competences (Falkang and Alberti 2000; Harris and Gibson 2008; Henry, Hill, and Leitch 2005; KuratKo 2005; Martin, McNally, and Kay 2013; Mitra and Matlay 2004).”
Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention: Do female students benefit? (2016, positive): “EE evaluations need to meet the following standards of methodological rigor (Westhead et al., 2001; Martin et al., 2013): (1) use a representative random sample of EE students; (2) include a control group containing a random sample of students who never participated in EE; (3)”
Impact of Entrepreneurship Training on Entrepreneurial Efficacy and Alertness among Adolescent Youth (2018, background): “Meta-analytic findings indicate that entrepreneurship training is effective in promoting cognitive and motivational outcomes resulting in more start-ups (Martin et al., 2013).”