Seeing around corners: How creativity skills in entrepreneurship education influence innovation in business

• Creativity taught in entrepreneurship education influenced students' self-perceptions.
• Students transferred their creativity skills to their work teams and organizations.
• Students' creativity skills contributed to team support for innovation.
• Creativity skills had a positive impact on team and firm innovation.

Entrepreneurship programs and courses provide the context and content to help students learn and apply skills and behaviors intended to create value in entrepreneurial firms. Creativity skills enable students to discover new ideas and opportunities that contribute to innovation. The present study investigates the impact of perceptions of creativity skills acquired by 137 students enrolled in a part-time MBA program, and who were full-time employed. The students completed an entrepreneurship course on creativity and innovation and utilized creativity tools and methods within a team context in the entrepreneurship classroom. Results showed that creativity skills acquired by students influenced their self-perceptions of creativity, that they transferred their creativity skills to their work teams, leading to a positive impact on perceptions of team support for innovation, and their team's and firm's actual innovative outcomes. Pedagogical approaches play an important role in students' creative thinking and behavior, and can effectively stimulate and strengthen students' ability to fully participate in their work teams, as well as their ability to generate new value for their organizations.