The Effect of Business Plan Competitions on Entrepreneurial Intention and Behavior

Abstract

Paper one tests the self-efficacy part of the theory of planned behavior, for which the paper finds empirical support. Further, it is found that self-efficacy is increased through participation in business plan competitions, and that this affects the self-efficacy of women more than that of men. Learning institutions and governments should, as a result, focus more on self-efficacy by introducing more and better business plan competitions. Further, adapting these to better fit the needs of women will contribute to fully utilizing the entrepreneurial potential, spurring more economic growth. Paper two explores the relation between learning obtained during Venture Cup and the increase in entrepreneurial intention and involvement. The findings suggest a difference in the effect the various learning modules have on entrepreneurial intention, providing implications for both practitioners and future studies. The implications for the former are an open-ended contingency model for organizing business plan courses in a more dynamic manner. Our contribution to this model is a differentiation of the learning modules. In addition, this study contributes to expand the theory of planned behavior by adding an additional predictor, the learning effect obtained during a business course.