THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION IN CARRYING OUT ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES. EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES

Mihaela Brindusa TUDOSE, Elena Lidia ALEXA, Silvia AVASILCAI

Abstract


Entrepreneurs play a crucial role in driving the economic growth of a nation, and research on entrepreneurial education and students’ entrepreneurial initiatives has gained momentum in the past years. However, few of these studies have considered the specificities of the curriculum associated with the study programs they pursue. The research evaluates the impact of entrepreneurial education within technical universities on students' entrepreneurial intentions in terms of business start-ups. The empirical research was conducted in five development regions in Romania, where five of the most important technical universities operate. The obtained results reveal that, although there is no statistically significant link between entrepreneurial education and the growth rate of new business registrations, there is solid evidence regarding the interdependence between the proportion of disciplines contributing to the formation of entrepreneurial skills and the selected dependent variables. This evidence confirms the contribution of young entrepreneurial engineers to the consolidation of the local/regional economic environment.


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