The impact of entrepreneurial experiential learning on entrepreneurial competencies and business performance

Abstract

Economic growth and job creation are driven by entrepreneurship and small business development. The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of entrepreneurship education and competency development in developing entrepreneurial talent. Additionally, the study is designed to test whether experiential learning is more effective than traditional classroom instruction in teaching entrepreneurship. Researchers have identified entrepreneurial competencies as essential to business success. Experiential learning has been linked to business performance, but the entrepreneurial competencies that mediate that relationship have not been tested. Four hypotheses based on previous literature are presented. Hierarchical regression is used to test these hypotheses using data collected from 123 participants in an entrepreneurship development program. Based on the findings, experiential learning does lead to the development of entrepreneurial competencies that benefit business performance. There was a significant mediation effect between experiential learning and business performance through entrepreneurial competencies such as opportunity, network, return on investment and insights into the market.