Hospitality and tourism students’ perceptions of effectiveness of entrepreneurship education and its effect on entrepreneurial intentions: a cross-lagged two-wave mediation study involving entrepreneurial self-efficacy

ABSTRACT Relative to the research interest in the role of hospitality & tourism (H&T) entrepreneurship education (EE) in students’ entrepreneurial intentions (EI), less focus has been on the underlying mechanisms that explain the relationship between the two. Accordingly, based on the data collected from a sample of 113 H&T students in two waves of this research (15 months apart), this study examined the cross-lagged relations between students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of EE, their entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), and their EI. In particular, we tested if ESE mediated the link between EE and EI. Cross-lagged analyses pointed to significant directional effects from students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of EE to ESE and EI, ESE to EI, but not vice versa. Also, results supported that the link between students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of EE to EI was mediated by ESE. Based on the results from this study, we draw several implications for the theory, practice, and research of entrepreneurship education.