Basic business knowledge scale for secondary education students. Development and validation with Spanish teenagers

Abstract

Introduction In the current international context, entrepreneurship education claims a privileged place within educational systems, given that it contributes decisively to innovation and to the set of competences demanded in the new knowledge-based economy. The state of the research in this line highlights the existing formative deficiencies at these basic education levels, despite the fact that numerous initiatives of fostering business culture have already been developed. Among the currently existing gaps, conspicuous by its absence is the lack of instruments capable of efficiently measure the basic business knowledge, needed to progressively constitute a consistent business identity stands out. In this sense, we set ourselves the construction and validation of a basic business knowledge scale for the Secondary Education stage. Methods This study was implemented in two phases. In the first phase, the dimensions and components of the Basic Business Knowledge Scale were identified via a systematic review of the literature following the PRISMA-P protocol and a qualitative study. In the second phase, the scale was developed and validated. On the one hand, a content validation was conducted through interviews of experts and students, studying the content validity (the Content Validity Ratio and the Content Validity Index) and the face validity (Think-aloud protocols). On the other hand, the construct validity was analyzed through an Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Then, the reliability was calculated with the Cronbach Alpha and the test stability with a test-retest. The convergent validity has been validated by the average variance extracted (AVE) and the discriminant validity between constructs was established through the AVE estimated for each construct with the squared interconstruct correlations associated with that factor. The sample was made up of 1440 students (679 girls and 761 boys) from age 11 to 17 (M = 14.6, SD = 1.597). Results The EFA and the CFA showed evidence of a first-order three-factor structure (Knowledge in Business Management (KBM), Legal Knowledge (LK) and Strategic Knowledge (SK)), and a second-order factor, Basic Business Knowledge. In the construct validity two items were eliminated due to their factor loadings being lower than .40. The results of the fit indices contributed acceptable values regarding the proposed model. The three subscales and the scale as a whole revealed a satisfactory internal consistency with Cronbach alphas over .75. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was above .90, showing an appropriate stability. The convergent validity offers values over .80 in the composite reliability (CR) and the average variance extracted (AVE) is greater than .50. Moreover, in the divergent validity, the values of the square root of the AVE are greater than the correlations with the other constructs. Finally, the Basic Business Knowledge Scale has 18 items. ...

Construction and validation of the Basic Scale of Entrepreneurial Competencies for the Secondary Education level. A study conducted in Spain

“…Among other features, its use serves to evaluate and detect the students' training needs or find out the impact of business education programs on entrepreneurial competencies. This research on competencies, along with the previous research of basic business knowledge [42], enables an unprecedented research line in entrepreneurial education in this education stage. It is not only related with the construction of measurement scales which cover the existing gaps concerning reliable and valid scales, but also, especially, with building an evaluation model concerning the entrepreneurial qualification acquired by the students through the business knowledge and skills developed in entrepreneurial education programs.…”

“…This research is part of the project "Educating in Entrepreneurship: Evaluating Programs for the Training of Entrepreneurial Identity in Compulsory Education", financed within the State Plan of Excellence of the Government of Spain (Reference: EDU2013-42936-P). Among other results stemming from this R+D+i (Research, development and innovation) project, initial research has emerged concerning the study of the validity and the reliability of the Basic Business Knowledge Scale for secondary education students [42]. In parallel to this first study about business knowledge, and following the methodological orientations proposed in it, this second study has been developed concerning the psychometric properties of the Basic Scale of Entrepreneurial Competencies (BSEC).…”

“…Specifically, in the future, it would consist of configuring, analyzing and evaluating a hypothetical model of entrepreneurial qualification with a tertiary hierarchical structure which combines knowledge and skills within the domain of entrepreneurial qualification. Ultimately, this approach would mean an original conceptual and metric framework concerning the implementation and evaluation of entrepreneurial education programs in which the BSEC and the BBKS [42]) would be additional configuration elements.…”

Measuring Entrepreneurship Intention in Secondary Education: Validation of the Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire

“…As previously stated, little attention has been paid to the early stage do Paço et al (2011) of compulsory education. However, recently, some scales have been validated in secondary samples to measure basic business knowledge (Bernal-Guerrero, et al, 2020), entrepreneurial competencies (Cárdenas-Gutiérrez et al, 2021), entrepreneurial personality (Ortuño-Sierra et al, 2021) or attitudes towards entrepreneurship (Oliver & Galiana, 2015). Sánchez (2013) was the first to attempt to explore entrepreneurial intention in the context of secondary school Spanish students, whereas do Paço et al (2011) satisfactorily tested the TPB model with secondary students.…”

Test de potencial emprendedor: adaptación al español (ATE-S)

“…El fomento del emprendimiento, particularmente en la población escolar juvenil, ha suscitado un alto interés por la creación de instrumentos que midan el impacto de los programas formativos (Athayde, 2012(Athayde, , 2009Bernal-Guerrero et al, 2020;Chang y Rieple, 2013;Draycott et al, 2011;Hodzic, 2016;Lackéus y Sävetun, 2018;Liguori et al, 2019;Man, 2006;Pepin y St-Jean, 2019). Es evidente el interés por la operatividad métrica de la personalidad y el potencial emprendedor: Santos et al (2014) idearon el Entrepreneurial Potential Assessment Inventory (EPAI), conformado por cuatro dimensiones fundamentales, divididas en once subdimensiones; Muñiz et al (2014) propusieron, asimismo, la Battery for the Assessment of the Enterprising Personality (BEPE), que evalúa los ocho rasgos de personalidad específicos identificados en la literatura como más idóneos para la descripción de la personalidad emprendedora; Boada-Grau et al (2016) adaptaron al español la Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation Scale (EAO) de Robinson et al (1991).…”