How does Entrepreneurial Education Influence the Entrepreneurial Intention of College Students: The Moderating and Mediating Effects of Entrepreneurial Alertness

Abstract

The relation between college students' entrepreneurial intention and college entrepreneurial education has long been concerned. Entrepreneurial alertness is the psychological basis for entrepreneur to identify entrepreneurial opportunities. Entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial alertness are two key focuses in entrepreneurship research. It is of great significance to explore and investigate the role of entrepreneurial alertness in arousal process of entrepreneurial intention by entrepreneurial education.However, there are very few researches reported on the relation among entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial education was measured by theBenefits from EntrepreneurialEducation Programes(BEEP). By collecting data (N=672) from colleges and universities in Zhejiang and Fujian where entrepreneurship is relatively active in China, empirical study was carried out to investigate the relation among the three variables.. The results showed that:entrepreneurial alertness plays a significant mediating and regulating role between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intention. The cultivation of entrepreneurial alertness should be a key purpose of entrepreneurial education. Finally, this paper presents discussion on how to conduct targeted entrepreneurial education in order to guide college students' entrepreneurship more efficiently.