Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and the SHAPE Ideation Model for University Students

Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE) relates to the confidence levels and introspective journey of individuals en route to entrepreneurial action. Learning and fostering ESE are essential aspects in an attempt to bridge unemployment gaps. Creating entrepreneurship education approaches to boost both ESE of students and meet the demands of the future world of work is a key focus area of South African higher education institutions. Tailoring pedagogy for students to learn elements of entrepreneurship affects graduates' total entrepreneurial activities, and in return, national socio-economic development. This study gives account on the case of shifting hope, activating potential entrepreneurship (SHAPE) as a social technology and how it can be applied to boost ESE propensities of university students. A close-ended ESE survey was deployed three times to a sample of university students over a period of nine months, Pre-, During-, and Post-SHAPE. It was found through a repeated measures analysis of variance that there was a statistically significant mean difference between the different stages, confirming that ESE propensity development of the sample occurred over time. This finding lead to creating the novel SHAPE-Ideation model in retrospect to illustrate the different entrepreneurship education approaches applied in this case to effectively boost ESE. The SHAPE-Ideation model can be applied as an entrepreneurship learning enhancement tool by educators, trainers, facilitators and mentors when designing an ESE learning experience for students.