2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial competencies are two essential components in the entrepreneurial process. Intention is the initial driving force that propels an individual to embark on entrepreneurship, while competencies provide the necessary tools to execute entrepreneurial endeavors successfully. Entrepreneurial intention is a key concept in the entrepreneurial world and plays a fundamental role in initiating and developing new businesses. Entrepreneurial intention is essential for economic growth, innovation, job creation, and individual empowerment. Nurturing and supporting entrepreneurial intention is crucial for developing a thriving and dynamic society. On the other hand, entrepreneurial competencies refer to developing personal qualities such as creativity, a willingness to innovate, self-confidence, achievement motivation, leadership, and tolerance for failure, among others. They correspond to a specific mindset that needs to be effectively channeled into attitudes that promote entrepreneurship and innovation. Both aspects are interdependent and mutually complement each other on the path to achieving entrepreneurial goals, and they have gained significant prominence in recent years, leading educational institutions to focus on understanding various aspects of this relationship. Given the aforementioned, this research aims to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and self-perceived development of entrepreneurial competencies in engineering students. The sample comprises 175 students aged 18 to 28, representing various engineering disciplines at a private Chilean university. A validated questionnaire was administered, incorporating a series of entrepreneurial competencies outlined by the European Union within three areas: (a) ideas and opportunities, (b) resources, and (c) taking action. Additionally, this questionnaire includes a section addressing various aspects of entrepreneurial projects: self-efficacy, intention, career choice, and motivation. Statistical methods were employed to analyze the questionnaire responses. The results allow us to highlight strong statistically significant correlations between areas associated with entrepreneurial competencies and the dimension of entrepreneurial intention related to the effective creation of an entrepreneurial project. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that the entrepreneurial competency within the Resources Area, associated with financial and economic education, exhibits statistically significant and strong correlations with the "intention" dimension linked to entrepreneurial intention. The findings suggest the importance of fostering entrepreneurial intention and competencies in engineering students. These conclusions significantly impact entrepreneurship education and training in academic and business environments.