Abstract:

Higher education institutes are seeking ways to support entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills of students by developing entrepreneurial education. The development of the entrepreneurial capacity in Europe is one of the key policy objectives for the EU. For reaching this goal, the EntreComp framework was developed in order to raise consensus between different stakeholders by proposing a shared definition of entrepreneurship as a competence. The objectives of this paper is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial competence and perceived behavioral control. In addition, the objective is to investigate the effect of gender on this relationship. Perceived behavioural control is one of the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions (Ajzen, 1991).

The data was gathered from Finnish higher education students in fall 2019 by a web-based survey. Altogether 501 answers were received of which 49 percent were from women and 51 percent were from men. Students represented various study fields. The measurement instrument has been developed in Finland and piloted in several higher education institutes. The measurement of entrepreneurial competence was based on European Commission’s Entre Comp Framework. The other parts measured the concepts related to Theory of Planned Behaviour in the context of entrepreneurship. In this study, the concept of perceived behavioural control was used. The scales of entrepreneurial competence (scales for interconnected competence areas ‘Ideas and opportunities’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Into action’) and perceived behavioural control had acceptable reliability ratios (Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.76 – 0.81). Linear regression analysis was used to test a model in which different competence areas explained perceived behavioural control. This model was tested separately for male and female students.

Results show that for women, the model explains 25 percent of the variance in perceived behavioural control. The most important factor in the model is the competence area “resources” (β=0.33**). However, other competence areas are not statistically significant in the model. For men, the results differ. The whole model explains 22 percent of the variance in perceived behavioural control. The most important factor in the model is the competence area “into action” (β=0.23*). Other areas do not explain perceived behavioral control significantly. This study shows that entrepreneurial competence has an effect on perceived behavioural control. Earlier research has demonstrated the importance of perceived behavioural control explaining both entrepreneurial intention and behaviour. Thus, it is important to develop students’ entrepreneurial competence in different areas if we want to boost entrepreneurship. The competence area “resources” is more important for women, while the competence area “into action” is more important for men. In entrepreneurship education this means that women should be especially supported in developing their competence in believing themselves, gathering needed resources and understanding financial issues. For men, the most important factors are the competences related to prioritizing, making decisions in uncertain situation, collaborating and reflecting.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurial competence, perceived behavioural control, gender, higher education.