The question of where: entrepreneurship education beyond curricular practices

Abstract

PurposeThis article aims at the understanding of specific spaces where entrepreneurship education (EE) happens – inside and outside the classroom.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on frameworks such as formal versus non-formal entrepreneurial education and institutional versus non-institutional actors, this research applies structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore which spaces entrepreneurs attended as undergraduate students. Going beyond intentionality, the authors collected data from 175 respondents in Brazil, all of the respondents are entrepreneurs whose companies are at least one year old.FindingsResults demonstrate that student-led activities are as important as institutional ones when training future entrepreneurs, while specific in-classroom activities feature the lowest impact among the institutional ones.Research limitations/implicationsSample size and characteristics could impact the generalization power, but, since the results fit within research criteria, researchers can benefit by reflecting over new research horizons, going beyond classroom studies and understanding the university as an ecosystem of learning interventions.Practical implicationsResults can be useful to university managers when designing institutional policies, fostering a diverse set of undergraduate experiences towards entrepreneurship training.Originality/valueAlthough current literature has focused on classroom education, researchers have been pointing out the need of stepping out of the classroom, analyzing other spaces such as student-led movements, co-curricular programs and more.