ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION. A PATHWAY TO IMPROVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP ORIENTATION OF THE STUDENTS

In last few decades, entrepreneurial orientation emerged as a sustained medium for economic development and employment opportunities across the globe. Extant literature support that entrepreneurship education trigger a stimulus among students toward venture creation. The results of the investigations indicate a relationship among education, entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial performance.

Therefore it is necessary to research in entrepreneurship education that allows to improve the entrepreneurship orientation of the students. Despite intensified research activities on entrepreneurship education, a comprehensive review of this research theme is still lacking. The review allows to detect the gaps of the research. Thus, this study conducts an objective review of research on entrepreneurship education. An overview of the present intellectual and social structure of this research field is provided, offering pathways for future research, Specifically, that which allows to improve entrepreneurship orientation of the students. Bibliometric methods, such as performance analysis, co-authorship network analysis, and science mapping analysis are used.

The SciMAT software is used to detect and visualize the evolution of entrepreneurship education research over the last 30 years (1988-2017). BibExcel software, as well as Ucinet 6.85 and Netdraw 1.48 software to perform a social network analysis of its main scholars. SciMAT is also used to elaborate on thematic networks, allowing for the synthesis and organization of existing knowledge on this field and to identify potential avenues. The dataset is formed from documents indexed in the SSCI and ESCI of Thomson/Reuters’ Web of Science.

Thus, this study seeks to contribute to our overall understanding of this field by offering a complete picture of the body of literature of entrepreneurship education topic over the last 30 years, contributing to the literature in several ways. First, we use bibliometrics methods to offer a new review that provides us with an up-to-date and realistic approach to track the development and growth of the entrepreneurship education field. Bibliometric studies are of particular interest to the researchers because it provides an overview of the scientific field by decreasing the degree of subjectivity that accompanies traditional literature reviews. Second, strategic diagrams and the thematic evolution of the research on entrepreneurship education, were obtained. The results reveal that, although significant advancements have occurred in the development of the field, many research streams still need to be further developed.