Defining entrepreneurial engineers’ self-efficacy: Social Cognitive Career
Theory in play
In engineering and entrepreneurship literature, there are various definitions coined for the
term “entrepreneurial engineer”. More often than not, these definitions contain certain
characteristics associated with “entrepreneurial engineer”. Amongst all, Byers et al. (2013) define
an entrepreneurial engineer as someone having competences as creativity and risk tolerance at an
individual level, opportunity recognition, value creation, and market awareness at the market level,
and product development at the technology level. Here, an interesting question arises: are these
characteristics prerequisite for starting an entrepreneurial journey or just helpful for leading a
successful entrepreneurial journey? Considering the fact that entrepreneurship education plays a key
role in inculcating these characteristics in students, this question should be addressed in
entrepreneurship research.
Studying the issue from the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent, Brown &
Hackett, 1994) perspective will give us a clearer picture. According to SCCT, along with outcome
expectations and goals, self-efficacy (SE) plays an indispensable role in career development. SE
refers to people's perceptions of their ability to plan and execute behaviours in order to achieve
specific goals or succeed in various activities. SE is postulated to play an indispensable role in
approaching or avoiding a certain course of action. To illustrate, the choice to pursue an
entrepreneurial career in the domain of engineering is enabled by confidence in an engineer’s skills
and expertise (self-efficacy) as well as by optimistic beliefs about the outcomes that will derive
from his efforts (outcome expectations). Suffice to say, SE is a determinant for starting an
entrepreneurial journey and leading it successfully. It is believed that entrepreneurship education
(EE) can enhance students' self-efficacy since EE has the potential to expose students to the
environment where they will discover, evaluate, and exploit opportunities. Accordingly, the
following hypotheses can be deduced:
H1: SE is a main precondition for being involved in entrepreneurship.
H2: EE education positively affects SE.
Questions we care about
1. What do entrepreneurial engineers think are the components of engineering
self-efficacy for starting entrepreneurship?
2. How relevant do entrepreneurial engineers find Byer’s “entrepreneurial engineer”
competences framework and general entrepreneurship competences to their SE?
3. How do entrepreneurial engineers interpret the role of their tertiary education in
shaping their SE?
Approach
The study will adopt the two-stage Delphi technique since it seeks to dig out expert
(entrepreneurial engineers) opinions on self-efficacy in entrepreneurial engineering. About 15-20
entrepreneurs (in the field of engineering and technology) will be involved in both stages of the
study. Along with the “entrepreneurial engineers” competences framework of Byers et al. (2013),
general entrepreneurial competences will be incorporated into a questionnaire based on an extensive
literature review. Participants will be asked to evaluate relevance of these competences to their SE
on a five-point Likert scale (1-not relevant at all to 5-very relevant). In addition, to explore the
research theme better and answer the third research question, some open-ended questions will be
posed to participants. For example:
1. In your understanding, what would be key competences required for becoming an
entrepreneurial engineer?
2. How do you interpret the role of your university education in shaping your
entrepreneurial skills and competences?
Potential findings
At the end of research, the study is expected to have unearthed entrepreneurial engineers’
self-efficacy (competences) needed to start an entrepreneurial journey and lead it successfully.
Based on these findings, the study will build a framework of entrepreneurial engineers’ SE
components. In addition, through taking an insight into their understanding, the study will also have
explored the role of tertiary education in shaping SE.
Implications for society
Engineers are the backbone of society and economy and their role is becoming pivotal at
the dawn of Industry 4.0. The feasibility of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) is more often than not attributed to successful
engineering as well. It goes without saying that they will also be at the centre of the revitalisation
process in all domains during the post-pandemic era. It becomes apparent that engineering
education and capacity-building have to be reshaped in a way that will equip future engineers with
skills and competences to tackle challenges facing humankind and steer sustainable development.
This in turn entails a radical shift from a traditional focus on mere academic technical knowledge in
engineering education towards an interdisciplinary system that aims at preparing T-shaped
engineers with indomitable complex problem identification and problem solving skills, sustainable
development, entrepreneurial, and societal impact mindset beside technical skills. In this respect, by
formulating an entrepreneurial engineer’s SE framework and incorporating it into the engineering
curriculum, the study will contribute a lot to entrepreneurship education that is prerequisite for
tackling the aforementioned challenges.
Value/Originality
In entrepreneurship literature, there is quite rich research about students' entrepreneurial
intentions (EI) and entrepreneurial mindset (EM). More often than not, Theory of Planned
Behaviour and Social Cognitive Career Theory are used to explain the nature of EI & EM.
However, although SE is strongly correlated to EI, little research has been done to study its nature.
When it comes to entrepreneurship research in engineering, research about entrepreneurial
engineers’ SE is little to none. Thus, this study is inevitable to be a strong added value by filling the
existing gap in literature.
References
Byers, T., Seelig, T., Sheppard, S., & Weilerstein, P. (2013). Entrepreneurship: Its role in
engineering education. The Bridge on Undergraduate Engineering Education, 43(2), 35–40.
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of
career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 45,
79–122.