Improving perceived entrepreneurial abilities through education: Exploratory testing of an entrepreneurial self efficacy scale in a pre-post setting

This study evaluates the impact of an entrepreneurship program. Two pre-test/post-test surveys were performed among students attending the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 classes. A third pre-post survey was sent to students enrolled in an innovation management course, who served as the control group. We evaluated the influence of the program/course on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), attitudes to entrepreneurship and whether or not the students had started a company during their education. The result indicates that the entrepreneurship program was effective in enhancing ESE, attitudes to entrepreneurship and start up behavior, which was not observed in the control group. The paper concludes by pointing out some limitations of the study and discussing the possible influence of entrepreneurial education on ESE, attitudes to entrepreneurship and start up.