In higher education institutions, entrepreneurship learning based on successful
entrepreneurial role models may promote education for sustainable development. Several theoretical
perspectives, such as the human capital theory, the entrepreneurial self-efficacy and self-determination
theory, argue that entrepreneurship education is positively correlated with entrepreneurial intentions
of students, as it provides adequate know-how and skills and motivates them to develop
their entrepreneurial careers. In entrepreneurship education programmes, exposure to successful
entrepreneurial models could be a significant factor for stimulating students’ confidence in their ability
to start a business and for improving their attitudes towards entrepreneurship. This study aims (i)
to identify characteristics viewed by students as being specific to a successful entrepreneur, (ii) to
establish the influence of exposure to successful entrepreneurial role models (chosen by students)
during entrepreneurship education classes on student entrepreneurial intentions, and (iii) to assess
howsuch exposure influences the attitudes of students towards entrepreneurship. For this purpose, the
authors ran a pilot experiment with 30 graduate students enrolled in a Business Creation course using
a research methodology that combined qualitative techniques with quantitative measures. Content
and statistical analyses were utilised to examine differences in student entrepreneurial intentions
and attitudes towards entrepreneurship after being exposed to successful entrepreneurial models.
Our study provides evidence that entrepreneurship education based on successful entrepreneurial
role models may positively influence the entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions of students and
could lead to higher orientation of student perception towards social benefits of entrepreneurship
(new jobs) compared to financial ones (high income). However, our findings stress that if educators
want to improve the efficiency of education focused on developing entrepreneurial skills, graduate
programmes should be designed differently for business and non-business students, since studying
successful entrepreneurial stories impacts these two groups differently.
Keywords: entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurial role model; entrepreneurial intention;
successful entrepreneurs