DOES MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AFFECT THE ENTREPRENEURIAL TENDENCY OF STUDENTS?

摘要

Entrepreneurship is an important contributor to the economic growth of a country. Entrepreneurship is a relatively young, but fast growing field of management research. Various attempts are made to enhance entrepreneurial activities through educational programmes and courses. Entrepreneurship education should give students the ability and vision to identify and act on different opportunities they encounter, and develop them to establish a new venture or rejuvenate an existing business. However, little research is conducted into the value of entrepreneurial education. This research report details an investigation into the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education. A standardised test for entrepreneurship was applied to students who were subdivided into three groups, one group that have completed an entrepreneurship module, a group that is actively busy studying entrepreneurship and a third group that is still to complete the module. The test used was the General Entrepreneurial Tendency test, which evaluates the strength of personality traits that is strongly linked with entrepreneurs. The test was thus used as a tool to assess the effect of an entrepreneurship education programme on students. The results of the study showed that there were no statistically significant differences in the test results for the students who have completed an entrepreneurship module versus those that still need to complete it. Students that are currently active with their entrepreneurship studies scored statistical significantly higher in their entrepreneurial trait measures. The study further showed that the General Entrepreneurial Tendency test is an accurate tool at identifying entrepreneurs and measuring entrepreneurial traits.