How Does Institutional Context Influence Entrepreneurship Education Outcomes? Evidence from Two African Countries

Abstract In this paper, we proposed an analytical framework based on the institutional theory to analyze the effect of institutional context on the impact of entrepreneurship education (EE). The influence of institutional environment was captured through three variables, namely perceived government support, perceived cultural norms, and social legitimacy of entrepreneurship. Based on a sample of 788 respondents from two African countries, our results show that beyond EE, institutional context is equally a determining factor of students’ entrepreneurial intention. Thus, a favorable institutional environment increases the students’ entrepreneurial intention. Our results also reveal that the positive effect of EE is higher when government policies are conducive to entrepreneurship development while it is lower when socio-cultural context (cultural norms, social legitimacy) is conducive to entrepreneurship. Thus, this study shows that informal institutions have a contingency effect while formal institutions play a complementary role in the impact of EE on students’ entrepreneurial intention.