Enhancing Students’ Entrepreneurial Competencies through Extracurricular Activities—A Pragmatic Approach to Sustainability-Oriented Higher Education

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Title: "Enhancing Students' Entrepreneurial Competencies Through Extracurricular Activities - A Pragmatic Approach to Sustainability-Oriented Higher Education"

This article aims to offer an analysis on how universities can influence the development of students' entrepreneurial competence through extracurricular activities. The main conclusion of the manuscript is that entrepreneurship education is a true facilitator of the transition towards sustainable entrepreneurship.

Below are some comments that I think should be addressed for the benefit of your article:

**The strongest weakness I find in the manuscript is that it is not clear whether the questions asked and the selected indicators were validated theoretically (validated by expert judgment) and statistically. Content validity by expert judgment consists of verifying that different dimensions are covered with the appropriate questions and the reliability of the instrument is tested with a pilot test through the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. This raises doubts about the results and discussion of the study.

Below are some specific observations throughout the text:

i) Abstract:

The lines on methodology do not include the RPROP/neural networks algorithm.

ii) Introduction and Literature Review:

This section is well explained, however, only 27 of the 81 references are from 2020 onwards (the ideal would be 50%). So, it could be considered that the study is not based on the latest findings.

A small section is missing that clearly specifies how this type of study has been approached. For example, structural equations or compositional data analysis. And highlight the methodological element that differentiates the approach you have taken.

Compositional data analysis:

Cruz-Sandoval, M., Vázquez-Parra, J. C., & Carlos-Arroyo, M. (2023). Complex thinking and social entrepreneurship. An approach from the methodology of compositional data analysis. Heliyon, 9(2), e13415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13415

iii) Materials and Methods:

Honestly, this section is a bit difficult to follow. 

Figure 1. I believe this figure does not properly reflect a flowchart regarding a research design.

Figure 2. The labels of the observations in the dendrogram can be removed.

Figure 2. The part where the cut is made to form the groups could be marked with a line of a different color.

Lines 460 to 510. Not really appealing to the reader. 

iv) Results and Discussion:

It highly depends on the theoretical and statistical validation that has been done on the indicators and questions.

v) Conclusion:

Remove citations from this section.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for submitting your helpful review report. We would like to express our gratitude for the time and effort you spent on providing valuable suggestions on how to improve our paper.

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

The primary objective of the article was to analyze the impact of extra-curricular activities in universities on the development of entrepreneurial competences in students. The article is highly engaging and effectively addresses the topic of entrepreneurial education in universities, drawing upon pertinent literature. The research methodology employed in the study was carefully designed, and the chosen framework was both suitable and skillfully implemented. The presentation of the results was done in a clear and appropriate manner, facilitating easy comprehension and interpretation. In my opinion the article successfully contributes to the understanding of how universities can influence the cultivation of entrepreneurial competences in students through extra-curricular activities.

The article should provide an explanation for the following points:

1. Absence of Research Hypotheses. The article should clarify the reasons for not developing any research hypotheses.

2. Questionnaire development. The article should specify whether the questionnaire used in the study, which is divided into seven thematic blocks, was derived from existing literature or developed by the researchers themselves. If the questionnaire was adapted from previous studies, it is important to mention the sources and provide relevant citations.

3. Cluster Analysis. The article should provide a detailed rationale for why the researchers decided to form only three distinct groups.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for submitting your helpful review report. We would like to express our gratitude for the time and effort you spent on providing valuable suggestions on how to improve our paper.

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 3 Report

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read your manuscript entitled: “Enhancing Students' Entrepreuneurial Competencies through Extracurricular Activities - A Pragmatic Approach to Sustainability-Oriented Higher Education" submitted for the Sustainability Journal. This paper studies and provide an analysis about the way universities can have an impact in developing entrepreneurial competence in students, through extracurricular activities.
The following are my comments, all intended to improve the final result of this research work.

The focus of the paper

Overall, this is an interesting research topic, closely related to Entrepreneurial Competencies.

 

Title and key words

Please, add keywords different from the title. This role will increase the probability of finding the paper in a search data base.

 

Abstract

The abstract presents the main research objectives and methodology; however, authors could explain who is the target readers for this paper.

Theoretical part

- The authors should add findings in terms of topics, methods,... related to Entrepreneurial Competencies and  business sustainability that the authors can summarized from previous research works, as systematic literature review or bibliometric works.

The aim, Methodology, and Data

- Research aims and research questions were presented in the Introduction section but specific statements on the research novelties related with Entrepreneurial Competencies must be added.

 

 Martín-Navarro, A., Velicia-Martin, F., Medina-Garrido, J.A. and Palos-Sanchez, P.R. (2023). Impact of effectual propensity on entrepreneurial intention. Journal of Business Research, 157, 113604. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113604

 

Saura, J.R.; Palos-Sanchez, P.; Grilo, A. (2019) Detecting Indicators for Startup Business Success: Sentiment Analysis Using Text Data Mining. Sustainability, 11, 917

- The author should also mention which method is used to answer which specific research question (among 4 questions).

- Authors must explain how drive the survey (type of sampling, how selected the items, questionnaire pretest?, bias?...).

 

Results

- Figure 2 have problems for to be correctly presented.

 

Discussion

There is no link between the result part (mainly based on the method) with the discussion part (mainly based on the literature review). Therefore, it seems that the results obtained from the survey study do not provide interesting discussions or implications.

Conclusion

- The conclusion is too general, failing to summarize the highlights of the results and discussion, especially the survey results.
- The authors should add the limitation of the research/results and directions for future research

Formal requirements

This paper is in need of proofreading.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for submitting your helpful review report. We would like to express our gratitude for the time and effort you spent on providing valuable suggestions on how to improve our paper.

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I thank the authors for responding to my comments. I hope that this has contributed substantially to the improvement of your article so that it will be more cited and contribute to the good reputation of the journal.