Beyond entrepreneurship education: the long-term impact of higher education teaching models on new venture creation

Purpose
Teaching models in higher education entrepreneurship programs affect students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Yet evidence related to their effects on long-term venture creation remains limited. Past research on the effects of teaching models on entrepreneurship has focused narrowly on entrepreneurship education programs. The present study moves beyond this past narrow focus to study teaching model effects on new venture creation across a broad array of higher education programs.

Design/methodology/approach
We assess the effects of teaching models on new venture creation across 35 educational programs (entrepreneurship and other business programs) at a large Danish business school, tracing venture creation data for 5 years after graduation (N = 4,717).

Findings
Competence-based teaching models positively impact graduates’ long-term new venture creation across all programs, with no differences between entrepreneurship vs other types of programs.

Research limitations/implications
These findings carry implications for both education and entrepreneurship research, as well as policymakers and educators, by pointing toward ways of impacting postgraduate business venturing through teaching model reforms extending beyond entrepreneurship education.

Originality/value
For the first time, we find effects of competence teaching models on postgraduation new venture creation across a broad array of business administration programs. The results are novel in documenting that teaching models generally impact venture creation in the long term, and that this occurs regardless of whether the program content centers on entrepreneurship or on other business administration content.