Developing entrepreneurial competencies in higher education: a structural model approach

Purpose: The aim of this article is to propose and test a structural model of relationships between generic and specific competencies and entrepreneurial competencies in order to assess students' learning. Design/methodology/approach: The study was carried out on a sample of 337 students enrolled on the entrepreneurship specialisation of the final bachelor's degree project course on the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. A questionnaire was designed to gather information on students' perception of their level of acquisition of the different groups of competencies. The partial least squares (PLS) multivariate technique was used to analyse the model. Findings: The results confirm that there are significant relationships between the different groups of competencies. Specifically, it shows that generic competencies influence specific competencies and that there is a strong relationship between systemic and professional competencies and entrepreneurial competencies. It also shows that the experience variable contributes positively to different competency groups, while the gender and age variables have no effect on the development of entrepreneurial competencies. Practical implications: The study provides relevant information to the academic world on different factors that affect competency development. Originality/value: The analysis provides an innovative research and contributes knowledge on entrepreneurial competency acquisition, providing an answer to whether generic and specific competencies influence entrepreneurial competencies.