Toward an Experiential Approach to Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

There has been dramatic decline in entrepreneurial activity in the US, which has renewed public and private interest in entrepreneurial education as a means to increase new venture creation. To date, these programs have proven ineffective in increasing entrepreneurial activity within the millennial generation. We argue that changes to pedagogy are required to address this problem. Using the theory of planned behavior as an organizing framework, we investigated the effectiveness of an experiential approach to entrepreneurship education using both within-group and between-group research designs. Results converge to support our hypothesis, revealing a dramatic increase in perceived behavioral control in the experiential class. Implications for the design of entrepreneurship curricula are highlighted and discussed.