SSES Research Article
The Actual Skills You Need for Sustainable Entrepreneurship
The Actual Skills You Need for Sustainable Entrepreneurship
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Entrepreneurship Education Research

Explore peer-reviewed studies and summaries that shape how entrepreneurship is taught, learned, and practiced.

Read more about our entrepreneurship education initiatives at SSES.

Stop by here for a rundown of the latest peer-reviewed research (and sometimes more) on all things entrepreneurship education. Each article is selected based on its relevance to the field, methodological rigour, originality, and potential value for educators, researchers, and students.

All|Academic & Career Development|AI & Digital Transformation|Collaboration & Interdisciplinarity|Decision-making & Problem Solving|Diversity & Inclusion|Entrepreneurship & Innovation|Funding & Opportunities|Mental Health & Wellbeing|Meta|Methods & Frameworks|Mindset & Resilience|Sustainability
Learning Between the Lines

Learning Between the Lines

2026-09-03
Entrepreneurship education doesn’t only teach students what to know. Its language may also implicitly teach them to see themselves as people who can use that knowledge to make things happen.
Teaching AI<br> Without Losing the Plot

Teaching AI
Without Losing the Plot

2026-06-09
As AI is changing how entrepreneurship fundamentally works, this paper offers a framework for bringing AI into entrepreneurship education through a familiar structure: learning about, for, and through entrepreneurship.
The Role Model Effect Is Real

The Role Model Effect Is Real

2026-05-22
Female role models can raise entrepreneurial confidence and make startup careers feel more attainable for women students in higher education.
Resilience Is Not <br>What We Think It Is

Resilience Is Not
What We Think It Is

2026-04-30
Resilience is not a direct outcome of entrepreneurship education. It emerges when education builds the psychological resources that shape how students respond to challenges.
It’s not risky if you know what you’re doing

It’s not risky if you know what you’re doing

2026-04-10
Students who feel more financially capable also feel more entrepreneurial, suggesting that the issue may not be a lack of willingness to take risks, but a lack of understanding of what those risks actually are.
The Problem with the Entrepreneurial Mindset

The Problem with the Entrepreneurial Mindset

2026-03-06
We ask entrepreneurs to master everything at once. This study proposes that instead of one all-encompassing entrepreneurial mindset, there are four distinct ways of thinking about entrepreneurial action.
The Many Lives of an Entrepreneur

The Many Lives of an Entrepreneur

2026-02-12
The Many Lives of an Entrepreneur maps four life-course paths into entrepreneurship and shows which trajectories lead to lasting outcomes.
Why Entrepreneurship Just Won the Nobel Prize

Why Entrepreneurship Just Won the Nobel Prize

2025-12-23
This year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded for explaining how innovation-driven entrepreneurship turns stagnation into long-term economic growth. By placing creative destruction at the centre of the story, the laureates show why new firms and new ideas replacing old ones is not a side effect of growth, but the mechanism behind it.
Why Students Who Want To <br>Start Businesses Still Don’t

Why Students Who Want To
Start Businesses Still Don’t

2025-11-20
This study of German students shows that while many say they’d like to start a business, far fewer take any concrete steps. The main brakes are surprisingly simple: not spotting viable opportunities and feeling they don’t have enough time or capacity to take on anything extra.
Stop Asking Entrepreneurs <br>What They Think

Stop Asking Entrepreneurs
What They Think

2025-11-13
When we ask entrepreneurs how they think, we usually get stories – not evidence. This study replaces self-reports with real-world decision tests that reveal what entrepreneurs actually do when faced with uncertainty.
Measuring What Matters

Measuring What Matters

2025-10-30
Entrepreneurship education has long measured success by counting new ventures or business plans. This study shows how assessment can instead reveal how students actually develop the skills and mindsets that make entrepreneurship possible in the first place.
Teaching the Future <br>Before It Arrives

Teaching the Future
Before It Arrives

2025-10-23
Blending science fiction with entrepreneurship education helps students imagine and prepare for radically different futures – not just extrapolate from the present. This study shows how speculative storytelling can train the entrepreneurial mindset to anticipate and shape change.
When Students Design <br>Their Own Learning

When Students Design
Their Own Learning

2025-10-15
A six-year experiment in a rural U.S. college shows how entrepreneurship education can be reimagined when students help design their own learning.
An Activist Turn in Entrepreneurship Education

An Activist Turn in Entrepreneurship Education

2025-10-01
Entrepreneurship education must stop treating sustainability and justice as electives. This paper argues for activist pedagogies that bake in purpose at the core, equipping students to transform systems rather than merely succeed within them.
Relevance Isn’t a Bonus <br>– It’s the Point

Relevance Isn’t a Bonus
– It’s the Point

2025-09-23
Most entrepreneurship research is designed to impress reviewers, not to help entrepreneurs. This paper argues that studies should be built with real-world relevance in mind from the start, using three criteria: importance, insight, and impact.
From Secondary School to Startups

From Secondary School to Startups

2025-09-05
Turns out entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily just a university thing. A Danish school reform shows that early exposure to entrepreneurship boosts startup rates and nudges students into entrepreneurial trajectories later on.
The Bumpy Reality <br>of Becoming an Entrepreneur

The Bumpy Reality
of Becoming an Entrepreneur

2025-08-20
Students’ entrepreneurial identity and intent don’t develop in neat upward curves. Even with the support of enterprise education, the process is messy, emotional, and riddled with dips, doubts, and rethinks.
Why Rebels Build Startups<br>— and Rule-Followers Don’t

Why Rebels Build Startups
— and Rule-Followers Don’t

2025-06-24
Some people break the rules to make things better — and those people are more likely to become entrepreneurs. But if they believe too strongly in always doing things by the book, they might never take the leap.
What The Nordics Are<br> Doing Right in Entrepreneurship Education

What The Nordics Are
Doing Right in Entrepreneurship Education

2025-06-03
Nordic countries take entrepreneurship education seriously — and it starts with how they train teachers. By embedding entrepreneurial pedagogy in teacher education, they cultivate classrooms that value creativity, risk-taking, and autonomy.
How Educators Apply Design Thinking to Entrepreneurship Education

How Educators Apply Design Thinking to Entrepreneurship Education

2025-05-12
Design thinking may be everywhere in entrepreneurship education, but it’s not always used the same way. This study explores how educators across Europe are interpreting and applying it in practice — often informally, creatively, and on their own terms.
Why Ecosystems Aren’t Enough

Why Ecosystems Aren’t Enough

2025-05-12
In one of entrepreneurship education’s most influential studies, Liñán, Urbano, and Guerrero showed that it’s not flashy start-up hubs or government policies that drive entrepreneurial ambition — it’s personal attitude and belief in one’s own ability that truly make the difference.
Making Entrepreneurship Feel Doable

Making Entrepreneurship Feel Doable

2025-04-10
This seminal study helped move entrepreneurship education from assumption to evidence, showing that well-designed enterprise programmes can shift how high school students perceive the feasibility and desirability of starting a business.
Employability and Entrepreneurship Education

Employability and Entrepreneurship Education

2025-04-07
Entrepreneurship education doesn’t just prepare students to start businesses — it also makes them more employable by teaching adaptability, problem-solving, and resilience.
Who is Qualified to Teach Entrepreneurship?

Who is Qualified to Teach Entrepreneurship?

2025-03-12
Many educators don’t feel qualified to teach entrepreneurship, seeing it as too vague, too corporate, or just “not for them.” But the real challenge isn’t who can teach it — it’s how we help more educators feel like they can.
The Skill of Seeing What Others Miss

The Skill of Seeing What Others Miss

2025-03-10
Being able to spot entrepreneurial opportunities isn’t just luck or instinct — it’s a skill that can (and should) be taught, with the right mix of knowledge, alertness, and creativity, reinforced through hands-on learning.
When does Entrepreneurship Education Actually Work?

When does Entrepreneurship Education Actually Work?

2025-03-04
Making entrepreneurship education compulsory doesn’t guarantee it will stick. Too early, and students tune out. Too late, and they’ve moved on. Taught poorly, and it’s wasted. The key isn’t whether we teach it — it’s when and how.
Gender Bias in Entrepreneurial Funding

Gender Bias in Entrepreneurial Funding

2025-02-03
Women entrepreneurs face stricter investor scrutiny and receive less funding than men, but new research shows these biases can shift, offering hope for change in the startup ecosystem.
Do Entrepreneurs Burn Out too?

Do Entrepreneurs Burn Out too?

2025-01-29
Entrepreneurship is seen by many as a dream job – freedom, innovation, and self-fulfilment are all part of the allure, but there’s a flip side to that dream: burnout.
When Funding Comes with Strings Attached

When Funding Comes with Strings Attached

2025-01-21
Angel investments can supercharge your startup with funding, mentorship, and networks – but often at the cost of some autonomy. Striking the right balance between support and control is key to thriving under an angel’s wings.
Researchers by Day, Entrepreneurs by Night

Researchers by Day, Entrepreneurs by Night

2024-12-17
Balancing academic rigour with entrepreneurial impact isn’t easy, but the right mix of university support and real-world connections can make it possible for researchers to thrive in both roles.
The Actual Skills You Need for Sustainable Entrepreneurship

The Actual Skills You Need for Sustainable Entrepreneurship

2024-11-29
Introductory entrepreneurship courses can unintentionally increase overconfidence, particularly in male students, while female students tend to show more realistic self-assessments. This gap suggests a need for entrepreneurship programmes that build balanced self-efficacy across genders.
Overconfidence in Entrepreneurship Students

Overconfidence in Entrepreneurship Students

2024-11-06
Introductory entrepreneurship courses can unintentionally increase overconfidence, particularly in male students, while female students tend to show more realistic self-assessments. This gap suggests a need for entrepreneurship programmes that build balanced self-efficacy across genders.
Introducing the Entrepreneurial Method

Introducing the Entrepreneurial Method

2024-10-01
Teaching entrepreneurship is evolving from simply just tools and techniques to an entire method – one that teaches students to master uncertainty and create opportunities rather than to predict the unpredictable.
Turning Engineers into Entrepreneurs

Turning Engineers into Entrepreneurs

2023-11-22
A Spanish university course used challenge-based learning to boost engineering students' entrepreneurial skills, improving their problem-solving, creative thinking, and resource management.
A Choice for Clarity

A Choice for Clarity

2023-11-22
The "Research Recap" by SSES aims to identify and distill high-quality social science research on entrepreneurship education into engaging, accessible narratives, bridging the gap between dense academic discourse and a broader, curious audience.