Evaluating a University Entrepreneurial Programme in a Developing Country: Applying Rasch Measurement Theory to Attitude to Enterprise

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of an educational programme developed in Senegal with university students and designed to encourage entrepreneurship by influencing personal attitudes toward enterprise. The instrument to measure the entrepreneurial potential of young people has been applied in different socio-demographic contexts in some previous empirical research. Improvements in students’ perception of attitudinal factors associated with leadership, creativity, achievement and intuition can be inferred from the results of the longitudinal analysis conducted. Moreover, a positive and significant relationship between students’ perceived behavioural control and their attitudes toward starting a business at the end of the entrepreneurial programme is confirmed. Rasch Measurement Theory is applied to analyse the validity of the measurements and findings suggest that the scale used seems to be a reliable and valid tool for measuring entrepreneurial attitude in a university setting. Results confirm that entrepreneurship programmes have the potential to improve the entrepreneurial attitudes of students in a developing country.