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Abstract

This study builds on the assumption that the common experiential design of entrepreneurship education stimulates entrepreneurial learning via social interaction with peers. We present data from a field experiment in higher entrepreneurship education with 498 valid observations, including 314 female and 184 male students across 174 randomly assigned teams. We investigate peer effects in two ways. First and to the best of our knowledge, we present the first attempt to explore gendered peer effects at the pre-nascent stage of the entrepreneurial process. We theorize that having same-gender entrepreneurial peers in the team positively influences the development of entrepreneurial intentions, attitudes, as well as entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Second, we explore the role of team emotional intelligence in the context of entrepreneurship education. Our analysis provides some indications for positive same-gender peer effects, especially when it comes to the development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy among female students. Further, we find support that team emotional intelligence is not only an antecedent of entrepreneurial propensity, but also being assigned to a team with emotionally intelligent peers positively influences entrepreneurial learning and may even mitigate same-gender effects."