The relationship between exposure to entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial self-effi cacy

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate whether students with different levels of exposure to entrepreneurship education would perceive their own entrepreneurial self-efficacy differently from those without such exposure, and whether there is a relationship between perceived  entrepreneurial self-effi cacy and entrepreneurial intent. The study was carried out by means of a survey. The sample consisted of 355 fi nal-year commerce students from two South African universities based in rural provinces, namely the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. SPSS was used to analyse the data. The results revealed that students who had had exposure to entrepreneurship education were statistically signifi cantly different from those who had not in terms of the way in which they perceived their own entrepreneurial self-effi cacy. Entrepreneurial self-effi cacy had a statistically signifi cant relationship with entrepreneurial intent.

Key words: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial self-effi cacy, self-efficacy, social learning theory, South Africa, entrepreneurial intention, rural provinces