Search Results (262)

Engineering education must prepare graduates to transform technological knowledge into sustainable innovation. Technopreneurship represents a combination of technology and entrepreneurship that focuses on creating and growing businesses based on technological innovation. It involves identifying opportunities from technological advances, developing innovative tech-based products or services, and establishing viable business models to commercialize them. However, technopreneurship education in engineering programs often remains fragmented and poorly connected to real innovation ecosystems. This review synthesizes recent research on four pedagogical approaches that can strengthen sustainable technopreneurial competencies: Project-Based Learning, Technology-Enhanced Learning, Jigsaw collaborative learning, and international or interdisciplinary teamwork. A structured narrative synthesis examined how each approach supports four core competency domains: innovation and creativity, sustainability and impact orientation, entrepreneurial and strategic skills, and collaboration and global awareness. Findings indicate that while each pedagogy develops valuable capabilities, none alone provides comprehensive preparation for sustainable venture creation. Persistent gaps include limited integration of sustainability, weak pedagogical synergy, and insufficient ecosystem alignment. The paper therefore establishes the conceptual foundation for a future integrated approach, the Innovation and Technopreneurship Education Model, which will be developed and evaluated in subsequent research stages. Full article

In post-pandemic Peru, delivery platforms have become key market-access infrastructures for microenterprises, yet regional evidence remains limited. This study examines the extent to which—and under what conditions—the adoption of delivery services is associated with innovative business growth in La Libertad (2021–2025). A cross-sectional survey of 200 microentrepreneurs assessed delivery adoption, business model innovation (BMI), digital capabilities, and the institutional environment. Statistical analyses indicate that the use of delivery platforms is positively associated with business growth and that an indirect association operates through BMI. Likewise, higher levels of digital capabilities are associated with a steeper adoption–growth association, while more favorable institutional conditions are associated with higher odds of business formalization. These findings suggest that delivery platforms may function as catalysts for growth and formalization when adoption co-occurs with strategic redesign and digital skill development within supportive local ecosystems. The study contributes to sustainable entrepreneurship scholarship by providing regional-level evidence from a developing economy and underscoring that technological adoption alone is insufficient without complementary innovation and capability building. Although environmental metrics were not included, future research should incorporate verified indicators to assess the environmental dimension of delivery-based entrepreneurship comprehensively. Full article

This study examines the relationship between digital skills and entrepreneurial intention in Mexico, emphasizing demographic, educational, and technological determinants. Despite the recognized importance of digitalization, most Mexican entrepreneurs possess only basic competencies, which constrains productivity and growth. Using data from the Digital Skills Profiler (50,582 individuals), binary probit models were estimated to assess the effect of digital skills on both current and prospective entrepreneurs. Results reveal a paradox: individuals with advanced digital skills are less frequently engaged in entrepreneurship, often opting instead for better paid and more stable employment in the formal labor market. When engaging in entrepreneurship, individuals with advanced digital skills tend to concentrate in service sector or non-conventional activities, exhibiting weaker connections to trade in goods. Women and older generations face greater barriers to acquiring digital competencies, whereas younger cohorts show stronger skills that do not necessarily translate into opportunity-driven ventures. Necessity-driven entrepreneurship predominates, with only a small fraction of ventures evolving into opportunity-based projects. The findings highlight the need for differentiated policy approaches: fostering innovative, competitive entrepreneurship requires distinct instruments from those designed to support subsistence ventures. Aligning digital inclusion and entrepreneurship strategies with Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 9 will be crucial to narrowing digital divides and promoting sustainable, inclusive growth. Full article

This article explores experts’ perspectives on the most important soft skills for entrepreneurial success in the Western Balkans (WB) and identifies effective educational and workplace practices to foster these skills. Using a qualitative Delphi study supported by a literature review, the research gathered and synthesized opinions from 20 experts representing Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Findings show that communication, adaptability, flexibility, teamwork, and critical thinking are essential for business success, while leadership, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, and teamwork are considered most vital for future entrepreneurs. Experts emphasized that group projects, specialized courses, and blended learning approaches are effective in educational settings, while workplace skill development benefits from training programs, mentoring, active communication, and openness to feedback. This study provides region-specific insights into skill-building strategies for young entrepreneurs, addressing a key research gap. By integrating expert consensus with evidence-based practices, the article offers a framework for educators, policymakers, institutions, and businesses to strengthen entrepreneurship education and workforce readiness across the WB region. Full article

Informal entrepreneurship is a pervasive feature of developing economies, yet the psychological drivers of the transition to formal entrepreneurship remain poorly understood. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this research investigates the mediating role of behavioural control in the relationship between economic motivation and future intentions’ transition to formalisation among informal entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Using a cross-sectional survey design, primary data were collected from 544 informal electronics entrepreneurs across six major marketplaces in South-West Nigeria. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling in the PLS 4 software. The findings showed that behavioural control significantly and substantially mediates the positive direct effect of economic motivation on formalisation intention. This indicates that informal entrepreneurs are more likely to translate financial aspirations into concrete plans for formalisation when they possess a strong belief in their own capabilities to navigate the process successfully. Consequently, we conclude that effective policy must move beyond purely financial incentives to embrace strategies that build entrepreneurial skills, simplify regulatory procedures, and enhance the self-efficacy of informal entrepreneurs, thereby empowering them to confidently transition into the formal economy. Full article

In order to address environmental challenges, higher education is required to promote competencies that support sustainable entrepreneurship. This study analyzes the relationship between green skills and sustainable entrepreneurial intentions among business students in Mexico. A quantitative, cross-sectional, and explanatory design was applied with a sample of 766 students from two higher education institutions in Hidalgo. Data were examined through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results confirm positive and significant relationships between green skills and sustainable entrepreneurial intentions, progressing through four stages: green knowledge, mastery of green skills, use of green skills, and green skill development. The model reveals that 44.50% of green entrepreneurial intention is associated with green skills, indicating that students with stronger green competencies are more likely to pursue sustainable ventures. This study contributes to the literature by addressing a gap in the Latin American context and provides implications for educational institutions and policymakers to strengthen sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship. Full article

This study examines how policy incentives enhance students’ entrepreneurial mindset and agility through industry–academia collaboration. Unlike prior research that often adopts institutional or industry perspectives, this paper foregrounds the experiences of students as the primary beneficiaries of entrepreneurship education policies. Drawing on survey data from 528 students across Taiwan and Malaysia, the study tests a comprehensive conceptual framework incorporating professional engagement, curriculum design, and skill development as mediating mechanisms. Using structural equation modeling, the findings show that policy incentives exert strong direct and indirect effects on entrepreneurial outcomes, although some mediating pathways are contingent on the quality of engagement. By positioning student perspectives at the center of analysis, this study contributes to understanding how policy support translates into experiential learning and entrepreneurial agility. Implications are drawn for educators, policymakers, and students, with suggestions for refining collaboration structures and fostering student-centered entrepreneurship ecosystems. Full article

Raising rural household income is central to narrowing the rural–urban gap and advancing common prosperity. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study examines the impact of digital skills, a key for human capital, on rural Chinese households’ income and uses a fixed-effects model and the instrumental variable method to address endogeneity. The study finds that digital skills raise total household income, and each additional skill is associated with an increase of CNY 1678. By skill type, online business skills have the largest effect, followed by work–study skills, while entertainment–social skills are negatively associated with income. Heterogeneity analyses indicate larger gains for households with lower educational attainment and lower income, showing that a stronger regional digital environment amplifies these effects. Mechanism tests point to factor reallocation toward the nonfarm sector, via higher probabilities of off-farm employment and entrepreneurship and improved access to formal credit, as the primary pathway. Consistent with these channels, digital skills increase wages and operating income and reduce inequality in these components, as well as benefitting total income, but they have no detectable effect on property or transfer income or their dispersion. These findings point to key implications for boosting rural income growth and reducing inequality, namely strengthening digital skill development and optimizing the digital environment to enhance rural households’ endogenous income-generating capacity. Full article

The integration of emerging technologies is reshaping the teaching skills required in the 21st century, yet little evidence exists on how contextualized training supports rural teachers in adopting active methodologies and critically incorporating AI into entrepreneurship education. This study evaluated the impact of a 40-h professional development program implemented in Educational District 15D01 in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Thirty-nine secondary school teachers participated (mean age = 43.1 years); 36% lacked prior entrepreneurship training, and 44% had not recently mentored student projects. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed. The quantitative phase employed a 22-item questionnaire that addressed four dimensions: entrepreneurial knowledge, competencies, methodological strategies, and AI integration. Significant pre–post improvements were found (p < 0.001), with large effects for knowledge (d = 1.43), methodologies (d = 1.39), and AI integration (d = 1.30), and a moderate effect for competences (d = 0.66). The qualitative phase analyzed 312 open-ended responses, highlighting greater openness to innovation, enhanced teacher agency, and favorable perceptions of AI as a resource for ideation, prototyping, and evaluation. Overall, the findings suggest that situated, contextually aligned training can strengthen digital equity policies, foster pedagogical innovation, and empower educators in underserved rural communities, contributing to sustainable pathways for teacher professional development. Full article

Digital Entrepreneurial Capability (DEC) is the integrated and learnable capacity that equips individuals, or founding teams, to sense, evaluate, and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities within digitally intermediated, platform-centric markets. The construct synthesises four interlocking elements. First, it requires technical dexterity: mastery of data engineering, AI-driven analytics, low-code development, cloud orchestration, and cybersecurity safeguards. Second, it draws on accumulated human capital—formal education, sector experience, and tacit managerial know-how that ground vision in operational reality. Third, DEC hinges on an opportunity-seeking mindset characterised by cognitive alertness, creative problem framing, a high need for achievement, and autonomous motivation. Finally, it depends on calculated risk tolerance, encompassing the ability to price and mitigate economic, technical, algorithmic, and competitive uncertainties endemic to platform economies. When these pillars operate synergistically, entrepreneurs translate digital affordances into scalable, resilient business models; when one pillar is weak, capability bottlenecks arise and ventures falter. Because each pillar can be intentionally developed through education, deliberate practice, and ecosystem support, DEC serves as a practical roadmap for stakeholders. It now informs scholarship across entrepreneurship, information systems, innovation management, and public-policy disciplines, and guides interventions ranging from curriculum design and accelerator programming to due-diligence heuristics and national digital literacy initiatives. Full article

Digitalization is reshaping entrepreneurship, yet the mechanisms that translate new technological possibilities into entrepreneurial intention remain poorly understood, especially for resource-constrained small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking Theory and Affordance Theory, this study proposes and tests an integrated model that captures how individual cognition, digital capability and platform-related risk interact to shape digital entrepreneurial intention (DEI). Survey data from 428 Greek SME owner-managers were analyzed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Results show that entrepreneurial self-efficacy, financial risk tolerance, digital literacy and perceived platform affordances each exert significant positive effects on DEI, whereas perceived platform risk exerts a significant negative effect. Importantly, platform risk also dampens the positive impact of self-efficacy, revealing a boundary condition often overlooked in intention research. The findings position digital transformation as a double-edged phenomenon amplifying opportunity through affordances while simultaneously magnifying risk. The study advances theory by integrating risk perceptions and affordance recognition into a TPB framework, and it offers actionable guidance: policy makers should stabilize digital-regulatory regimes, platform providers should increase transparency and reliability, and SME support programs should blend digital-skills training with calibrated risk-management tools. Together, such measures can convert latent entrepreneurial confidence into resilient digital venture creation. This study contributes to theory by extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour with risk-sensitive boundary conditions, broadening Risk-Taking Theory to account for platform-specific uncertainties, and validating Affordance Theory in a digital SME context. Practically, it provides actionable guidance for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and platform operators on balancing digital capability development with systemic risk governance. Full article

This systematic review based on PRISMA presents an analysis of 74 studies, conducted between 1889 and 2024, on the issue of digital technologies for the development of entrepreneurial skills of young people, with a focus on Latin America. The original review combines 44 regional and 30 international studies, examining mobile platforms, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and immersive technologies. The results present a paradigm of innovation through constraint, with all successful adaptations driven by infrastructural limitations. As case studies, Latin American contexts have demonstrated the effectiveness of mobile technology and microlearning comparable to costly immersive technologies, completely contradicting deficit narratives. Seventy-eight percent of regional studies adhere systematically to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 4, 8, 10), illustrating an inclusive approach to technological development that values social impact over technical sophistication. Triangulation bibliometrics confirm the institutionalization of three research traditions—techno-deterministic, constructivist, and critical—with a focus on innovation–digital transformation–technological entrepreneurship. Studies show that contexts traditionally considered “limited” generate innovations with potential for reverse transfer to developed economies. The implementation gap between research and practice reflects systemic tensions between academic frameworks and contextual complexities. This will motivate fundamental justifications for implementing educational policies in ways that support contextual diversity as a strategic strength, fostering the sustainable development of youth entrepreneurial skills in the digital age. Full article

This study investigates the mediating role of self-awareness within the broader framework of business acumen, emphasizing its connection to entrepreneurial accounting proficiency and financial performance in community enterprises across Thailand. The purpose is to advance theoretical understanding by integrating metacognition theory and the resource-based view (RBV), and to provide practical insights for strengthening grassroots entrepreneurship. Using survey data from 210 enterprises, a hybrid Structural Equation Modeling–Artificial Neural Network (SEM–ANN) approach is applied to capture both linear and nonlinear relationships among cognitive, technical, and financial variables. The results confirm that accounting proficiency has a significant and positive effect on self-awareness with value of 0.125. However, self-awareness does not exert a direct influence on financial performance. These findings suggest that self-awareness may function as a cognitive enabler, facilitating the translation of entrepreneurial skills into effective decision-making, rather than serving as an independent predictor of financial outcomes. Empirical patterns further reveal that commercial enterprises report higher self-awareness than service firms, unregistered enterprises show greater awareness than registered ones, and financially stable firms display lower awareness, suggesting complacency or overconfidence. In contrast, regular participation in training significantly enhances awareness, underscoring the role of continuous learning. Full article

The purpose of the current research study was to identify appropriate educators for teaching entrepreneurship at the university level and to explore the best teaching methods for developing entrepreneurial knowledge and skills among students. The study aims to address two key questions in entrepreneurship education: (1) Who should teach entrepreneurship in universities? and (2) What methods are effective in teaching entrepreneurship in universities? The study was conducted using an interpretative phenomenological qualitative research approach. Data were collected from a purposive sample of eight (8) entrepreneurship educators from a South African university. Data collection spanned three months, from November 2024 to January 2025. The key findings of the study suggest that entrepreneurship should be taught by academics with practical experience, academics with at least a Master’s degree, entrepreneurs invited as guest lecturers, incubator professionals, and technology professionals. Additionally, the research revealed teaching methods that can be used to effectively teach entrepreneurship in universities: Universities need to prioritise hiring and training entrepreneurship educators with both academic and real-world experience and facilitate collaborations with incubators and real-world entrepreneurs. Teaching methods need to incorporate experiential learning methods such as startup simulations, case studies, and partnerships with innovation hubs. The study offers valuable insights into who should teach entrepreneurship and how it should be taught, emphasising the need for a multidisciplinary approach and practical orientation to develop entrepreneurial capabilities and mindsets among students. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally disrupted assumptions about entrepreneurship, career planning, and professional development. This study explored how the pandemic influenced the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate business students in the United States. Using a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews with 31 students at a public Midwestern university, the research interpreted student narratives through the lenses of effectuation theory, resilience theory, and the theory of planned behavior. Findings revealed that many participants reframed entrepreneurship as a strategy for navigating economic uncertainty and enhancing personal agency. Students reported valuing adaptability, resourcefulness, and opportunity recognition, often experimenting with side hustles during the pandemic as a means of resilience. Their entrepreneurial thinking shifted from purely economic motivations toward aspirations for flexibility, self-fulfillment, and purposeful work. The study highlights the formative role of crisis contexts in shaping entrepreneurial identity among emerging professionals. It suggests that entrepreneurship education should move beyond traditional models, fostering skills for navigating complexity and building resilience. In doing so, the findings contribute to broader conversations about youth entrepreneurship, post-pandemic career development, and the evolving demands of the labor market in times of disruption. Full article