The International Journal of Management Education xxx (xxxx) xxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

The International Journal of

Management Education
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijme

The teacher of entrepreneurship as a role model: Students' and

teachers’ perceptions
Paula San-Martín∗, Ana Fernández-Laviada, Andrea Pérez, Estefanía Palazuelos
Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005, Santander,
Cantabria, Spain

A R T IC LE I N F O ABS TRA CT

Keywords: Promoting entrepreneurship to stimulate economic development and employment generation is

Entrepreneurship education increasingly important. In this sense, entrepreneurship education is considered a key instrument
Role model to increase entrepreneurial intentions. Several studies have focused on the ‘what’ and ‘why’
Teachers questions, but ‘who’ should teach is still an under-researched topic. This research explores the
Students
teacher of entrepreneurship as a role model. In particular, from two focus groups with students
Effects
Attributes
and teachers, we investigate the perceptions about the effects they have on students and the
attributes they should have to achieve those effects. On the one hand, both groups agree that
teachers considered role models increase entrepreneurial intentions and improve several atti-
tudes and competences of students. However, the attributes teachers need to gather to become a
role model differ from one group to another. Furthermore, while students defend that a teacher of
entrepreneurship should have previously started a business, teachers believe that having the
characteristics of an entrepreneur is enough to be considered a role model and increase en-
trepreneurial intentions.

1. Introduction

Policy makers in Europe and the United States believe that more entrepreneurship is required to reach higher levels of economic
growth and innovation (Oosterbeek, Van Praag, & Ijsselstein, 2010). Several studies confirm that a person's intention to become an
entrepreneur is the best predictor of commitment to entrepreneurship in the future (Delmar & Davidsson, 2000; Kautonen, Gelderen,
& Fink, 2015; Kolvereid, 1996; Krueger, 2005; Liñán & Chen, 2009). And this rise of entrepreneurial intention is influenced by a
number of personal and environmental factors, among which the factors linked to education and training in entrepreneurship stand
out (Fayolle & Gailly, 2015).
That is why entrepreneurship education, in general, and students' entrepreneurial intentions, in particular, have become a key
research topic (Badri & Hachicha, 2019). Specifically, empirical research has shown that the presence of entrepreneurship education
has a positive effect on students’ entrepreneurial intentions and improves the probability of intention-making (Nabi, Liñán, Fayolle,
Krueger, & Walmsley, 2017; Wu & Wu, 2008; Zhang, Duysters, & Cloodt, 2014).
The discussion surrounding the impact of entrepreneurship education programs has been of great interest (Bae, Qian, Miao, &
Fiet, 2014; Martin, McNally, & Kay, 2013; Parris & McInnis-Bowers, 2017; Rideout & Gray, 2013). In this sense, many studies have
been focused on the content of this education (‘what’ should be taught) and its objectives at the learning and socio-economic levels

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: paula.sanmartin@unican.es (P. San-Martín), ana.fernandez@unican.es (A. Fernández-Laviada), perezran@unican.es (A. Pérez),
estefania.palazuelos@unican.es (E. Palazuelos).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100358
Received 19 March 2019; Received in revised form 27 August 2019; Accepted 31 October 2019
1472-8117/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Paula San-Martín, et al., The International Journal of Management Education,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100358
P. San-Martín, et al. The International Journal of Management Education xxx (xxxx) xxxx

(‘why’ should be taught). However, entrepreneurship teachers (‘who’ should teach) remain an under-researched group (Bae et al.,
2014). This could be a problem, since in general, all studies on educational excellence agree in pointing out that the key factor for
achieving success in education is the quality of teachers (Açıkgöz, 2005; Darling-Hammond, 2000), and more specifically, a study on
the preparation of teachers for entrepreneurship education has confirmed that the successful implementation of this education
depends to a large extent on the interventions of teachers in the classroom (Gibb, 2005). This highlights the importance of addressing
these key players in the educational process, since they can become role models (Van Auken, Stephens, Fry, & Silva, 2006) and,
therefore, motivate and develop students' entrepreneurial intentions.
This paper focuses on the ‘who’ should teach entrepreneurship education question (Fayolle, 2008; Greene & Rice, 2007; Hindle,
2007). Although there are researches that study role models in entrepreneurship (Bosma, Hessels, Schutjens, Van Praag, & Verheul,
2012; Díaz-García & Byrne, 2017), there are few works that focus on the teacher of entrepreneurship as a role model (Bueckmann,
San Martín, & García-De los Salmones, 2018; Fejes, Nylund, & Wallin, 2018) and there are none that study their characteristics. For
that reason, the main contribution of this work is double. Firstly, we determine the effects that a teacher of entrepreneurship has on
students when he/she is considered a role model. Secondly, we define the main attributes that a teacher of entrepreneurship should
have to be considered a role model. In addition, we compare the perceptions of the two principal groups involved in the educational
process, students and teachers.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In the second section, a theoretical revision of the literature on role models,
their effects and the entrepreneurship teachers’ distinctive attributes is addressed. We also present our research questions. Next, we
describe the methodology of the qualitative research. Finally, we discuss our findings, provide implications for practitioners and
explain limitations and possible future lines of research.

2. Theoretical background

2.1. Teachers as role models

As established by Bandura (1977), people learn in a social context through observation of others (Bosma et al., 2012). It is from
this theory that the concept of role model emerges, understood as persons with whom someone can identify, who have qualities he/
she would like to have and who are in a position he/she would like to achieve (Paice, Heard, & Moss, 2002).
People's role models usually change over time (Bolaños, 2006), being teachers one of the most influential references (Bashir,
Bajwa, Rana, & Student, 2014). Specifically, Rahman and Day (2014) found that the figure of parents, entrepreneurs and teachers are
the most likely persons who can influence students' entrepreneurial motivation and a future career in entrepreneurship. This
statement is shared by Van Auken et al. (2006), who indicate that, after the figure of the father, there are other important role models
such as other relatives, the mother or the teachers. There are several studies in other areas of research that consider the teacher as a
role model, such as medicine (Yazigi, Nasr, Sleilaty, & Nemr, 2006), nursing (Baldwin, Mills, Birks, & Budden, 2014), education
(Lunenberg, Korthagen, & Swennen, 2007) or music (Hamann & Walker, 1993). However, research about teachers of en-
trepreneurship as role models is still very limited.
In the entrepreneurship education field, teachers seek to convey to their students the interest in the creation of companies and the
necessary skills to develop such activity in the most efficient and effective possible way. Frenzel, Goetz, Lüdtke, Pekrun, and Sutton
(2009) found that students' emotions are significantly affected by teachers' emotions. This way, the values and aspirations transmitted
by the teacher will be taken by students as their own. Likewise, individuals tend to be fascinated by role models that encourage their
development (Gibson, 2004), being the teacher one of the greatest source of variance over student learning (Hattie, 2015). That is
why it is logical to anticipate that students who are identified with their teachers will have a positive attitude towards en-
trepreneurship.
Furthermore, role models represent possible examples of the professional skills people need to achieve the objectives they want
(Gibson & Barron, 2003). Thus, those teachers who possess the characteristics associated with an entrepreneur and the necessary
knowledge of entrepreneurship, regardless of whether they have created a company or not, can become role models of en-
trepreneurial behaviour and give credibility to what they teach. In addition, according to the European Commission (2014), teachers
who access to their profession aware of entrepreneurial principles are able to ignite the “entrepreneurial spark” and inspire their
students from the beginning of their professional career.
Finally, the ability of the teacher of entrepreneurship to influence students and their future intentions about the option of self-
employment, along with the idea that he/she can have an entrepreneurial behaviour, become him/her a possible role model.
Therefore, it is important to study the teacher of entrepreneurship as a role model, since he/she can play a vital role in en-
trepreneurship education (Seikkula-Leino, Ruskovaara, Ikavalko, Mattila, & Rytkola, 2010).

2.2. Role model effects

Role models provide living evidence that certain goals are achievable. The identification of, and comparison with, role models
may help individuals define and develop their self-concept, increase their motivation, enhance their self-efficacy to engage in a
certain occupation and learn new job skills (De Clercq & Arenius, 2006; Gibson, 2004; Gibson & Barron, 2003). Although the
dominant function of a role model is learning by example, learning by support, increasing entrepreneurial self-efficacy and in-
spiration/motivation are also important perceived functions of role models (Bosma et al., 2012).
Focusing on students, previous research defend the importance role models have on influencing their future career intentions

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(Elzubeir & Rizk, 2001; Scherer, Adams, Carley, & Wiebe, 1989; Van Auken et al., 2006) and their professional learning (Yazigi et al.,
2006).
Specifically, in the entrepreneurship field, individuals also perceive that role models influence their business decisions and de-
velopment (Bolaños, 2006; Bosma et al., 2012; Scherer et al., 1989; Van Auken et al., 2006). Moreover, they can help students
achieve certain learning outcomes related to entrepreneurship, such as knowledge, skills and aptitudes (European Commission,
2014). Therefore, the involvement of teachers as role models in entrepreneurship education could be effective, especially because
various conceptual studies have proposed links between role models and entrepreneurial intentions (Bosma et al., 2012).
Although the more noticeable effects of role models occur between the ages of 18 and 21 (Mungai & Velamuri, 2011) and is
widely accepted that role models influence entrepreneurial activity (Chlosta, Patzelt, Klein, & Dormann, 2012; Radu & Loué, 2008;
Scherer et al., 1989) research on university teachers as role models is rather limited (Bueckmann et al., 2018). Apart from conceptual
studies establishing a link between role models and entrepreneurial intentions, empirical research on the importance of role models
for (nascent) entrepreneurs has been scarce and there is still little knowledge of what determines the use of specific entrepreneurial
role models, as well as the precise function of such role models (Bosma et al., 2012).
According to this literature, we propose the first research question:
RQ1: “What effects on students does a teacher of entrepreneurship who is considered a role model have?”

2.3. Teachers of entrepreneurship and their distinctive attributes

Some authors highlight the importance of the teachers’ attitudes and aptitudes, whose influence is not only reflected in the
academic journey of the students but also, more globally, in their lives (Tabera Galván et al., 2015). From the academic perspective,
students link the satisfaction and the preference to a particular course to a teacher and the way the course is taught (Stronge, 2018;
Sutherland, Warwick, Anderson, & Learmonth, 2018). In that sense, several studies confirm that students learn more from teachers
with certain attributes. According to Pérez (1997), the communicative skills of the teacher, the relationships he/she establishes and
the expectations he/she has for his/her students greatly condition the academic performance of the student body. In the same line,
Stronge (2018) postulates that a teacher who exudes enthusiasm and competence for a content area may transfer those feelings to the
students.
Elzubeir and Rizk (2001) indicate that many teachers exhibit the behavior and skills that students perceive as attributes of
excellent role models. Therefore, knowing which characteristics students look for in their role models should help identifying the
teachers who may be most influential in students' and young graduates' career choices. According to this, there are many studies in
other areas of research that investigate the attributes that a teacher must have to become a role model (Buchel & Edwards, 2005;
Jochemsen-van der Leeuw, van Dijk, & Wieringa-de Waard, 2014; Mogan & Knox, 1987; Yazigi et al., 2006). However, the char-
acteristics of the teacher of entrepreneurship as a role model have never been studied.
The study of these attributes is of real importance, as teachers of entrepreneurship require specific characteristics and compe-
tencies for the effective development of the teaching process (Peralta, Caicedo, Rodríguez, & Díaz, 2016). Successful implementation
of entrepreneurship education depends largely on teachers’ interventions in classrooms (Gibb, 2005) being their level of commitment,
knowledge, skills and attitudes vitally important (Birdthistle, Hynes, & Fleming, 2007). This is also supported by Fayolle (2013), who
defend that teaching people in entrepreneurship requires a larger set of skills.
To fill in the existing gap regarding this topic, we formulate the second research question:
RQ2. “What attributes a teacher of entrepreneurship should have to become a role model?

3. Methodology

3.1. Research design

To understand the perceptions about the teacher of entrepreneurship as a role model we implemented a qualitative methodology,
the focus group (one among students and one among teachers).
The focus group is a research technique that collects data from the interaction of a group on a subject determined by the
researcher (Morgan, 1996). The purpose is to better understand how people feel or think about an issue, idea, product or service
(Krueger & Casey, 2014). This is achieved, largely, by the social approach of the technique. The sense of belonging to a group can
increase the sense of cohesion among the participants and help them feel safe to share information (Vaughn, Schumm, & Sinagub,
1996). The interactions that occur between them can enable more spontaneous responses and generate new ideas based on comments
(Morgan & Krueger, 1998). In this sense, this technique can reach results that cannot be achieved with other methods, revealing
dimensions that often remain unexploited with more conventional data collection techniques (Cleary, Horsfall, & Hayter, 2014;
Kitzinger, 1995).
Focus groups have been widely used to generate hypotheses, explore opinions, attitudes and attributes, and identify and pre-
analyse questionnaire items (Barker, Pistrang, & Elliott, 2015; Fern, 1982). While often considered to be the domain of market
research, focus groups are also a useful way for promoting an empowering, action-oriented form of research in education (Williams &
Katz, 2001). Specifically, focus groups can be of tremendous value to study the relevance of particular concepts from the perspective
of various groups within a school community (parents, teachers, administrators, and students) (Williams & Katz, 2001). There are

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several works in the field of education that use this methodology to delve into little researched topics and even compare the different
perspectives of those involved in the subject (Abildsnes, Stea, Berntsen, Omfjord, & Rohde, 2015; Starr, Martini, & Kuo, 2016;
Thurgur, Bandiera, Lee, & Tiberius, 2005).

3.2. Focus group development

For the development of this qualitative research technique, two different focus groups were carried out, one consisting of students
and the other one of teachers. These collectives were selected as they are those involved in the entrepreneurship education process.
On the one hand, students are responsible for receiving this type of education. On the other hand, teachers are responsible for
teaching it.
To perform the dynamics, a series of steps were carried out to correctly structure the focus group. First, a more formal beginning
of the session was made, with a personal introduction, the points to be discussed about the topic of research and general information
of the study's purpose. Before starting, the moderator explained the purpose of the dynamics and addressed some important issues,
such as the definition of what a role model was considered in the study. For this, the definition proposed by Paice et al. (2002) was
taken as a reference, in which role models are understood as “people we can identify with, who have qualities we would like to have,
and are in positions we would like to reach”. At this same time, it was also established that the session would be in the form of a
discussion, that the participants of the group should not wait to be invited to take part and that there were no right or wrong answers.
Once the rules of the dynamics had been established, simple questions were posed so that respondents would be confident and
comfortable in the group. Subsequently, a series of questions were raised, including the two previously formulated (RQ1 and RQ2). In
addition to these two questions, others were posed such as “Do you remember any teacher who has stood out throughout your
academic training with respect to the rest of the teachers?” What importance do you think the teacher has in your entrepreneurial
training?”, “What characteristics differentiate a teacher of entrepreneurship from a teacher of another subject?” or “What previous
training do you think the teacher should receive to obtain the knowledge and skills necessary for a proper delivery of entrepreneurial
education?”. Although an order of interventions was established for each question, discussions and interactions were allowed to run
their way, controlling only that the same person did not take up too much time and that conversation topics were not diverted.

3.3. Participants

Well-designed focus groups last approximately one to 2 h (Vaughn et al., 1996) and have between 5 and 10 participants (Krueger
& Casey, 2014). The reason for delimiting this range of size responds to the desire to include enough participants so that the resulting
information is sufficiently diverse, but not so many to generate environments where participants do not feel comfortable sharing their
thoughts, opinions, beliefs and experiences, and in which the interventions may end up being repetitive (Sandelowski, 2008). In our
case, we implemented two focus groups with 9 students and 7 teachers, the principal groups involved in the educational process. The
average duration of both dynamics was about 1 h and a half. The study was developed in Spain.
Table 1 shows the technical data of the sample of students. When the dynamic was carried out, students were at different
academic levels, some being undergraduate and others with a degree or even a master. The number of women and men was balanced,
being 4 and 5 participants, respectively. The average age was 24. Finally, only three of them had backgrounds in the family with an
entrepreneurial profile.
Table 2 shows the technical data of the sample of teachers. 4 participants were women and 3 were men, with an average age of 43
years old. All of them worked in teaching centers where they taught different subjects related to entrepreneurship.

4. Results

In this section, a synopsis of the dynamics is presented. The focus group is a qualitative research technique and, as such, does not
allow the extraction of statistics. Numerical data are meaningless when working with small, self-selected and non-random samples, as
in this research modality happens. The objective of the focus groups is to identify beliefs, opinions, problems, and perceptions related
to a topic. Therefore, terms such as “in general” or “most” are used when more than 50% of the participants agree on a specific point.

Table 1
Profile of the sample (students).
Student Gender Age Studies Work experience Entrepreneurial family

1 Male 28 Master Yes Yes

2 Female 28 Graduate Yes No
3 Male 20 Undergraduate No No
4 Male 19 Undergraduate Yes No
5 Female 22 Graduate No No
6 Male 34 Master Yes No
7 Female 20 Undergraduate No No
8 Male 21 Undergraduate No Yes
9 Female 24 Graduate Yes Yes

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Table 2
Profile of the sample (teachers).
Teacher Gender Age Studies Subjects taught

1 Female 57 Graduate Business Simulation

Business Project
2 Female 43 Graduate Entrepreneurial Culture
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
3 Female 41 Graduate Business Simulation
4 Female 29 Master Entrepreneurial Culture
Entrepreneurial and Business Initiative
5 Male 47 Graduate Economy
Economics and Business Organization
Administration and Management Basis
Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Business
6 Male 52 Graduate Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
7 Male 32 Graduate Business Communication and Care
Logistics and Business Management

The word “all” is reserved for those cases in which it is clear that all participants have the same opinion regarding a topic. According
to the commitment of anonymity, the literal extracts that are included as part of the analysis are associated with a specific person, but
both students and teachers are identified by numbers.

4.1. Effects of the teacher of entrepreneurship on students

4.1.1. Effect on entrepreneurial intentions

Intentional models have shown significant robustness and a relevant predictive power, with intention remaining as the most
important individual variable prior to entrepreneurial conduct (Bueckmann, 2014).
Regarding this question, most of the participants in both dynamics believe that one of the biggest effects that a teacher of
entrepreneurship has on students when he/she is considered a role model is the increase of their entrepreneurial intentions.
Specifically, all students believe that these teachers influence their intention to create a business.
Student 3: “The effects of having a teacher of entrepreneurship as a role model are positive and that makes your entrepreneurial intention
increase”.
Student 6: “A teacher of entrepreneurship as role model makes you have more intentions to create a business”.
On the other hand, most of the teachers believe that they increase the entrepreneurial students’ intentions:
Teacher 4: “I believe we improve that intention. Not the resolution. But at least, they are able to see that they can do it”.
Teacher 3: “I also believe that entrepreneurial intentions increase. I think that, in general, students do not have entrepreneurial spirit, and
teachers of entrepreneurship can transmit it”.
These answers are in line with previous literature, since the intention to create a business and the propensity to act (Krueger,
1993) are considered the main forces that make the creation of a company possible. That way, if entrepreneurship is a planned
behavior, it is possible to conclude that entrepreneurial intentions underlie entrepreneurial action (Hallam, Zanella, Dorantes
Dosamantes, & Cardenas, 2016; Krueger, 2007; Thompson, 2009).

4.1.2. Effect on attitudes and competences

A teacher of entrepreneurship does not only improve entrepreneurial intentions. Both groups, students and teachers, believe that
the teachers of entrepreneurship that are considered role models can improve the self-perception of students in different attitudes and
competences. In addition, they think that teachers allow students self-discovery and help them to determine their future career.
More specifically, as discussed in the dynamic, teachers consider that those ones considered role models also increase self-esteem
and self-confidence, and improve creativity.
Teacher 1: “If the teacher is good enough to be considered role model, students finally know better themselves and they start to know
where to focus their future”.
Teacher 7: “I think that the teacher of entrepreneurship can increase self-esteem, self-confidence, improve self-perception and stimulate
work creativity”.
Otherwise, students defend that this kind of teacher helps eliminate students' existing barriers. The most important one is that
they eliminate students’ fear of being an entrepreneur. But not only that. They show them the usefulness and the positive part of being
an entrepreneur. Moreover, students consider that they increase their motivation.
Student 5: “What he/she can teach me is how to lose that fear to create a business and show me that there are different chances”.

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Student 9: “The teacher of entrepreneurship motivates you to achieve yours goals”.

Finally, it is important to highlight that two of the students explained that teachers’ influence is largely dependent on the personal
situation of the student. Thereby, sometimes when they look at this teacher role model, students perceive that they do not have the
necessary skills to become an entrepreneur, and therefore, their intention decreases. Hence, they consider that the teacher can inform
them and allow them to discover their specific skills. In such a way, even a decrease in entrepreneurial intentions can be socially
valuable.
Student 3: “It depends on the personal moment of each one. The effects can be positive or negative. It can help you to move forward with
an idea or an attitude, or you can realize that attitude or idea is difficult for you”.

4.2. Key attributes of the teacher of entrepreneurship to become a role model

4.2.1. General attributes

In this section, we present the characteristics that students and teachers believe a teacher of entrepreneurship should have in
order to be able to generate the effects indicated in the previous sections and thus, to become a role model for students.
On the one hand, from the point of view of the students, the main characteristics that a teacher of entrepreneurship should have to
become a role model are: to be a good communicator, to encourage student participation, to be motivating and flexible, and to use
different methodologies. Students give real importance to these characteristics because they allow them to increase their engagement
and interest to the subject taught by the teacher throughout their all academic training.
Student 5: “Specially, he/she should be a good communicator”.
Student 2: “He/she should teach dynamic classes, encourage participation and awake the interest in the subject”.
In addition, some students consider that teachers should not limit to transmit knowledge. They should also be realistic with the
expectations they generate, so that the students can have a real vision of the situation.
We observe that most of the attributes mentioned by students are related to the way of teaching (e.g. communicate well, en-
courage participation, motivate the student or use different methodologies). However, students also value different personal char-
acteristics of a teacher in order to consider them role models (e.g. be humble, flexible or realistic).
On the other hand, from the point of view of the teachers, the knowledge, using different methodologies and being dynamic and
motivating are the most relevant attributes a teacher of entrepreneurship should gather to become a role model. It should be
highlighted that every teacher believe that having the knowledge that will be taught and the pedagogical skills is one of the most
important characteristics to be considered a role model. This is due to the fact that teachers consider that students must finish the
course fully prepared to face in the future the adversities they will find when deciding to create a company. Moreover, they point out
that the use of different methodologies is really important due to the change experienced in the new generations and their more
dynamic way of learning. That leads teachers having to perform different teaching methods to keep the attention of students.
Teacher 4: “A teacher should link as much as possible theory and practice, with activities, teamwork, problem solving, etc.“.
Teacher 5: “It is important to have some knowledge of economics. It is also necessary, and it is equally or even more important, having
pedagogical skills”.
Although some personal attributes were also mentioned during the session (flexible, patient, positive, tolerant), the most em-
phasized are again related to the way of teaching. However, unlike students, teachers give much more importance to the mastery of
the subject and pedagogical knowledge, while students do not consider this feature so important. Thus, teachers believe that they
must focus on being an expert in the field, while students highlight attributes that are more related to the contents transmission.

4.2.2. Previous experience: academics vs professionals

Often students arrive at courses convinced that they can only learn about entrepreneurship from successful entrepreneurs (Greene
& Rice, 2007). It would be reasonable to believe that students may develop greater entrepreneurial intentions when hearing about the
difficulties, lifestyle and challenges faced by an entrepreneur. However, the academic and professional field of entrepreneurship has
been confronted for years, with numerous studies investigating the need or not for teachers to have previous entrepreneurial ex-
perience (Bueckmann et al., 2018).
This has not been different in the dynamics, since in both groups the need that the teacher has started or not a business to be
considered a role model was discussed. In general students defend that the teacher of entrepreneurship should have created a
company. However, this condition is not supported by all of them, since several consider that, although a teacher has not started a
business, he/she may have worked, collaborated or known a sector enough to be able to teach in entrepreneurship courses and be
considered a role model (Student 4). In addition, another participant explains that the teacher of entrepreneurship should be an
entrepreneur, but in the broad sense of the word, not valued as the mere fact of creating a business.
Student 6: “If you see that they have been able to be entrepreneurs, at the end you think that it is not as difficult as you previously though.
It becomes easier for you to do certain things related to entrepreneurship”.
Student 8: “I think that to talk about the fire you must have ever get burned”.

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However, none of the teachers considers that the teacher should have created a business to be considered a role model and to
influence the students’ decisions and competences. In this case, the teaching group defends that it is important that the teacher of
entrepreneurship has the characteristics associated with an entrepreneur, such as risk taking or self-confident, but it is not essential
that he/she has set up a business.
Teacher 4: “Having the characteristics of an entrepreneur is necessary; what is probably not essential is to be a businessman”.
Teacher 6: “He/she does not need to have set up a business. He/she just needs to be creative, look for solutions, be enthusiastic”.
In view of these comments, we can see how, as indicated in the previous literature, most students support that the teacher must be
a person who has been immersed in the process of creating a business. Nevertheless, teachers have a very different idea, supporting
that the important thing is related to the possession of the attributes that characterize an entrepreneur.

5. Discussion

To achieve adequate commitment to entrepreneurial education and thus raise the entrepreneurial intentions of students, it is
important to improve the offer of such education and provide a more complete professional guidance.
Since the role of teachers in this entrepreneurial educational process has not been studied in depth yet, our contribution relates to
the understanding of the perceptions that involved groups have about the teachers of entrepreneurship as role models. The focus
groups we have implemented have revealed the effects they generate on students and the attributes they should have to become role
models.
Our results raise some interesting and challenging questions. Regarding our first research question, focused on the effects that a
role model teacher has on students, both groups believe that a main result is the increase of entrepreneurial intentions. This fits with
the theoretical background that states that role models influence entrepreneurial intentions and business decisions (Bolaños, 2006;
Bosma et al., 2012; Scherer et al., 1989; Van Auken et al., 2006). Likewise, students and teachers agree that they improve the self-
perception of students in different attitudes and competences, allow students self-discovery and help them to determine their future
career (De Clercq & Arenius, 2006; Gibson, 2004; Gibson & Barron, 2003). Nevertheless, the most important effect according to
students is the elimination of existing barriers and fears to start a business, while teachers highlight the impact on students’ self-
esteem, self-confidence, and creativity.
The second research question reveals that there is an expectation gap regarding the attributes that a teacher of entrepreneurship
should have to be a role model for students. Although both groups mainly focus on attributes related to the way of teaching, students
emphasize as the most important characteristics to be a good communicator and to encourage students' participation. However, the
knowledge and the use of different methodologies are the most valued items by teachers. But the greatest divergence lies in the
thought that the teacher needs to have previously created a business or not. In this sense, students consider that the compliance with
this condition is of vital importance. However, teachers believe that gathering the set of characteristics that define an entrepreneur,
such us self-confidence, risk-taking, independence or need for achievement (Alemany, Álvarez, Planellas Arán, & Urbano, 2011), is
enough to become an effective role model. According to Soriano and Aquino (2017), the relationship between the student and the
teacher is an important component of teaching effectiveness, as a strong student-teacher relationship enhances enjoyment of the
educational experience for both parties and student learning. This effectiveness will be improved if students perceive the teacher as a
role model, as it has been shown that the sense of identification with role models mediates the influence they exert (Lockwood &
Kunda, 1997; Stout, Dasgupta, Hunsinger, & McManus, 2011). Since the students are the ones who choose a teacher as a role model,
their perceptions about the characteristics they should have prevail over those of the teachers. Thus, teachers seem to have a
misperception of their possibility to represent role models for potential entrepreneurs, giving greater importance to characteristics
that are not valued so positively by students. Thus, if teachers continue to focus on these characteristics, students will not perceive
them as role models and its effect on students will be reduced. Given that those discrepancies in student's and teacher's beliefs can be
detrimental to learning (Schulz, 2001), it is important that teachers explore their students' perceptions and make an effort to deal
with those differences about those attributes that are believed to become the teacher a role model, striving and giving greater
importance to those valued by students.
Our findings may be of interest to different groups. Firstly, for teachers of entrepreneurship in practice. It would allow them to
focus on teaching in a better way and improve efficiency when increasing the students’ entrepreneurial intentions and competences.
Secondly, for teaching institutions. This study reveals a series of attributes with which they could establish an adequate faculty profile
for selection processes. For example, the fact of having previously created a business or not could be taken into account when
incorporating new teachers in the centers. Finally, for regulatory bodies. Our findings could be helpful for the design and offer of
training courses that allow teachers for acquiring and/or improving the outstanding attributes needed to be a role model.
These results should be interpreted cautiously, as there are some limitations. Most of them are associated with the use of a
qualitative research technique such as the focus group. On the one hand, participants are volunteers and their number is small to
constitute a statistically significant sample. On the other hand, there is not a total control of the dynamics, so there may be a certain
degree of ‘contamination’ on individual opinions according to the general opinion of the group. In addition, it should be noted that
the geographical scope of the study only refers to Spain. Those limitations lead to suggesting several lines of research in which
progress could be made. In general terms, the study carried out could be replicated in other geographical areas. In this way, the
results could be generalized. In addition, the focus group could be complemented by other qualitative methodologies such as in-depth
interviews.

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Furthermore, the opinions of the entrepreneurs were not taken into account, despite being a group that can provide information
on this specific issue by knowing what is necessary to become an entrepreneur. Thus, it would also be interesting to look at the
perceptions of entrepreneurs, in such a way that their experience and opinions about the attributes they valued on their teachers
before deciding to start a business could be compared.
Moreover, it should also be pointed out that in this paper we have not differentiated between teachers who are considered role
models and teachers who are simply considered good teachers. We did not compare both types of teachers based on several studies
that establish that being or not being a good role model is the most important characteristic that differentiates the good teacher from
the bad one (Mogan & Knox, 1987; Soriano & Aquino, 2017). However, although these terms are highly related, it would be in-
teresting to discuss which are the potentialities of good teachers who are not role models and which is the distinctive impact of
entrepreneurship teachers who are also role models.
Finally, the obtained findings will allow us to design future conceptual and causal models that show the relationship that exists
between teachers’ characteristics and key variables of entrepreneurial intention models.

Acknowledgements

The authors aknowledge the collaboration of the Cátedra Pyme of the University of Cantabria (www.catedrapyme.es).

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