Paper Title
Questioning The Relationship Between Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Intention: Evidence From Post-Socialist Albania
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate whether a study programme in entrepreneurship and students’ entrepreneurial intention have a relationship or not in the context of post-socialist Albania. A quasi-experimental research design using propensity score matching method is used to create two similar groups: people who attended a study program in entrepreneurship (treated group) and others who did not (control group). 392 out of 528 participants are matched based on a set of covariates (gender, age, income and employment status). Data are collected in urban areas of eight main regions in Albania and the sample distribution is designed based on the probability proportion to size algorithm. Wilcoxon signed ranks test is conducted to check the direction of the difference in the scores on entrepreneurial intention from before introducing a study program in entrepreneurship to after finishing it, and chi-square test of independence is used to test the relationship between our factors. Wilcoxon test reveals a statistically significant difference in entrepreneurial intention before introducing the study program and after finishing it, with a medium effect size. In case of before introducing the study program, the chi-square test showed that people who have attended the program and those who did not are not significantly different on entrepreneurial intention. However, this difference between the two groups results significant in case of after finishing the study program. In conclusion, our analysis supports the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention.
Keywords- entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intention, propensity score matching, Albania