Research into entrepreneurship education is on the rise, yet the assessment of causality resulting from various teaching methods and their impacts on students and society at large remains limited. Consequently, incorporating experimental designs into entrepreneurship education research becomes imperative to move the field forward. Establishing cause-and-effect relationships, discerning which approaches yield desired outcomes (and which do not), contributes to a clearer understanding of the connections between educational activities and their results. This special issue underscores the importance of experiments as a methodological tool for showcasing causality. In this editorial, we expand on the reasons for the need for more experiments within the field. Additionally, we feature an interview with Dr. Thomas D. Cook, a pioneer in education research experiments, and offer an overview of the articles included in this special issue. We finish with a shortlist of tips for anyone interested in conducting experiments.
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2.
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3.
BanderaC.SantosS. C.LiguoriE. W. (2020). The dark side of entrepreneurship education: A Delphi study on Dangers and unintended consequences. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 4(4), 609–636. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127420944592
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BolingerM. T.JosefyM. A.StevensonR.HittM. A. (2022). Experiments in strategy research: A critical review and future research opportunities. Journal of Management, 48(1), 77-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063211044416
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ColquittJ. A. (2008). Publishing laboratory research in AMJ: A question of when, not if. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 616–620. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2008.33664717
8.
CookT. D. (2002). Randomized experiments in educational policy research: A critical examination of the reasons the educational evaluation community has offered for not doing them. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(3), 175–199. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737024003175
9.
CookT. D. (2003). Why have educational evaluators chosen not to do randomized experiments?Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 589(September), 114–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716203254764
10.
CookT. D.CampbellD. T. (1979). Quasi-Experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings. Houghton Mifflin.
11.
CostaS. F.SantosS. C.WachD.CaetanoA. (2018). Recognizing opportunities across campus: The effects of cognitive training and entrepreneurial passion on the business opportunity prototype. Journal of Small Business Management, 56(1), 51–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12348
12.
EjelövE.LukeT. J. (2020). Rarely safe to assume”: Evaluating the use and interpretation of manipulation checks in experimental social psychology. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 87, 103937. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JESP.2019.103937
13.
FayolleA.GaillyB. (2015). The Impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial attitudes and intention: Hysteresis and persistence. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12065
14.
FayolleA.GaillyB.Lassas-ClercN. (2006). Assessing the impact of entrepreneurship education programmes: A new methodology. Journal of European Industrial Training, 30(9), 701–720. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590610715022
15.
FoxJ.PittawayL.UzuegbunamI. (2018). Simulations in entrepreneurship education: Serious games and learning through play. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 1(1), 61–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127417737285
16.
GrégoireD. A.BinderJ. K.RauchA. (2019). Navigating the validity tradeoffs of entrepreneurship research experiments: A systematic review and best-practice suggestions. Journal of Business Venturing, 34(2), 284–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.10.002
17.
HäggG.KurczewskaA. (2020). Towards a learning philosophy based on experience in entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 3(2), 129–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/25151274209106
18.
KaneJ. V.BarabasJ. (2019). No harm in checking: Using factual manipulation checks to assess attentiveness in experiments. American Journal of Political Science, 63(1), 234–249. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GSQG1K
19.
KleineK.GionesF.TegtmeierS. (2019). The learning process in technology entrepreneurship education—insights from an Engineering Degree. Journal of Small Business Management, 57(S1), 94–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12514
20.
LazarM.Miron-SpektorE.AgarwalR.ErezM.GoldfarbE.ChenG. (2020). Entrepreneurial team formation. Academy of Management Annals, 14, 29–59. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2017.0131
21.
LichtensteinB. B.CarterN. M.DooleyK. J.GartnerW. B. (2007). Complexity dynamics of nascent entrepreneurship. Journal of business venturing, 22(2), 236–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2006.06.001
22.
NeckH. M.CorbettA. C. (2018). The scholarship of teaching and learning entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 1(1), 8–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127417737286
23.
SchenkelM. T.D’SouzaR. R.HornsbyJ. S. (2023). Entrepreneurship competency development: Where are we and where do we need to go? In MatthewC. H.SantosS. C. (Eds.), Annals of entrepreneurship education and pedagogy (vol. V, pp. 64-76). Edward Elgar.
24.
ShadishW. R.CookT. D.CampbellD. T. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
25.
ShneorR.SmithJ. B.SmithC. G.Michael GoedeckeJ. F. (2020). The differential impact of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intentions of segments of students. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127420936240
26.
StevensonR.JosefyM.McMullenJ.Shepherdundefined. (2020). Organizational and management theorizing using experiment-based entrepreneurship research: Covered terrain and new frontiers. Academy of Management Annals.
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TrochimW. M. K. (2001). The research methods knowledge base (2nd ed.). Atomic Dog/Thomson.
28.
von GraevenitzG.HarhoffD.WeberR. (2010). The effects of entrepreneurship education. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 76(1), 90–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2010.02.015
29.
WilliamsD. W.WoodM. S.MitchellJ. R.UrbigD. (2019). Applying experimental methods to advance entrepreneurship research: On the need for and publication of experiments. Journal of Business Venturing, 34(2), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.12.003
