PurposeEntrepreneurship is not only seen as an important factor for economic growth and welfare but also as a vehicle of societal development and change, both at the regional, national and international level. Thus, entrepreneurship education at schools plays an increasingly important role, linking policy, businesses, education and science. However, research on entrepreneurship education programmes, especially on mini-companies which rely on an experiential learning setting, is still a young field and shared frameworks concerning entrepreneurial competences and longitudinal research designs are missing. This paper addresses to this research gap by analysing whether students who participate in a mini-company develop entrepreneurial competences.Design/methodology/approachThe study is conducted in a quasi-experimental design, building upon a validated and psychometrically sound research instrument that is based on a newly designed entrepreneurial competence framework. In total, 100 pupils from grammar schools in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, participated in the experimental and control group at both time points.FindingsThe results show that students expand their entrepreneurial competences on an economic level. In comparison, they show only limited developments on the personal and team level. The findings have important implications for the further development of entrepreneurship education programmes as well as on the interaction between schools and (regional) entrepreneurs, business partners and enterprises.Originality/valueThis study examines pupils' development of entrepreneurial competences in a quasi-experimental design. It highlights that participating pupils develop economic competences when participating in mini-companies in comparison to pupils participating in regular economics classes. This study sheds further light on the effects of mini-companies, and thus contributes to the discussion of entrepreneurship education at schools.
Entrepreneurial competencies are increasingly relevant and thus fostered in schools and universities, for instance, in the form of student companies. However, there are hardly any theoretically and empirically founded research instruments to assess students’ competence development. Accordingly, this paper aims to develop and validate a newly designed questionnaire that captures entrepreneurial competencies in three different domains: on the economic, team, and individual levels. The instrument was tested in a pilot test with 163 students and in a main study with 226 students in secondary education. Overall, reliability and the assumed factor structure could be confirmed. The questionnaire can be used in schools and universities for the purpose of quality development and competence assessment in entrepreneurship education.
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