Abstract:

Entrepreneurship education currently includes not only training dedicated to the creation of new businesses, but also training courses aimed at developing initiative in young people (Kirby, 2004). Indeed, the European Commission identified the following ‘transversal skills’ that are relevant across the eight key competences: critical thinking, creativity, initiative, problem solving, risk assessment, decision taking, communication and constructive management of feelings. Finally, the EntreComp Framework emphasises the idea that entrepreneurial competences and skills are resources for growing innovation, creativity and self-determination that apply to all spheres of life (EC – Bacigalupo et al. 2016). In parallel, Carol Dweck (2006) conducted several researches on forma mentis and highlights that exist two kind of mindset: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset; the beliefs regarding the fixedness of personal qualities such as intelligence are related to a fixed mindset, while people with growth mindset are those who tend to see ability as something that can be incrementally developed over time.
This work aims to investigate the impact of an entrepreneurial training on the students’ forma mentis; in particular, because the growth mindset occurs when people believe that their faculties can grow and be developed through effort, we aim to explore if self-efficacy plays a distinctive within the entrepreneurial skills in order to influence the mindset development. Since research has shown that self-efficacy predicts the propensity to make efforts (Bandura, 2011), we hypothesized a mediational role by self-efficacy in the relationship between creativity (HP1), building networks (HP2) and persuasion (HP3) on the one hand and mindset, on the other.
Within an informal school of entrepreneurship addressed to students of the 3rd and 4th year of upper secondary school (N = 48) in Florence (Italy), we conducted an exploratory study to investigate our hypothesis. The questionnaire was paper-based, designed using validated measurement scales and distributed during the beginning (T1) and the end (T2) of the training course.
The results confirmed the hypothesis of the mediational role of self-efficacy in the relationship between creativity and mindset (HP1 confirmed). Furthermore, a partial mediational effect by self-efficacy has emerged between the competence related with building networks and mindset (HP2 confirmed). Finally, the third hypothesis is not confirmed: indeed, no mediational effect by self-efficacy is detected between persuasion and mindset.
In conclusion, several interesting aspects have been highlighted. First of all, working on students’ entrepreneurial skills (EntreComp Framework) is useful to impact on the mindset and therefore on emancipatory processes. On the other side, it has been clearly showed that self-efficacy is a mediating variable, therefore a training focus dedicated to this skill is fundamental to promote the development of a growth mindset.

References:
[1] Bacigalupo, M., Kampylis, P., Punie, Y., & Van den Brande, G. (2016). EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework. Luxembourg.
[2] Bandura, A. (2011). On the functional properties of perceived self-efficacy revisited. Journal of Management, 38, 9–44.
[3] Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
[4] Kirby, D. A. (2004). Entrepreneurship education: can business schools meet the challenge? Education + Training, 46(8–9), 510–519.

Keywords:

Transversal Competences, Entrepreneurship, Growth Mindset, Educational research, Self-Efficacy.