2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Background:
Entrepreneurial mindset has been identified as an essential outcome of engineering education, equipping students with the capacity to recognize opportunities, take informed risks, and create value in uncertain contexts. While efforts to embed entrepreneurial thinking into engineering curricula are increasing, less is known about how such dispositions can be assessed through students’ academic journeys. In particular, first-year engineering students present both a challenge and opportunity for measurement: they are in the formative stages of identity development and may not yet self-identify as entrepreneurs.
Purpose/Hypothesis:
This pilot exploratory study seeks to investigate whether it is possible to meaningfully measure entrepreneurial habits of mind in first-year engineering students. We hypothesize that a reflection-based instrument, grounded in transformative learning theory, can capture both dispositional and reflective aspects of entrepreneurial mindset.
Design/Method:
The study will pilot the Entrepreneurial Habits of Mind Reflection Survey (E-HOM), developed from Mezirow’s categories of habits of mind (epistemic, sociolinguistic, moral–ethical, philosophical/psychological, aesthetic, instrumental) and entrepreneurship education frameworks (Neck & Corbett, 2018; Morris et al., 2013). To establish content validity, items will undergo expert review to confirm alignment between constructs and prompts. The instrument integrates Likert-scale items across eight entrepreneurial mindset dimensions (e.g., risk-taking, adaptability, creativity and innovation, ethical responsibility, collaboration and networking, self-efficacy and initiative, value creation, and impact orientation) paired with open-ended reflection prompts that will be coded for content, process, and premise reflection. Quantitative analyses will report item- and subscale-level descriptive statistics, estimate internal consistency (e.g., Cronbach’s α/McDonald’s ω), and examine construct validity via exploratory factor analysis; confirmatory factor analysis will be considered if sample size permits. Qualitative responses will be deductively coded with a Mezirow-aligned codebook by two researchers, with interrater reliability (e.g., Cohen’s κ) calculated and discrepancies resolved through consensus. Findings will be integrated using a convergent mixed-methods design to compare subscale scores with reflection depth. Data will be collected from a cohort of first-year engineering students enrolled in a project-based design course. Consistent with ASEE FPD expectations for studies involving human subjects, Institutional Review Board approval will be secured and informed consent obtained prior to data collection.
Anticipated Results:
We anticipate the pilot will reveal variation in entrepreneurial dispositions even among first-year students, with higher scores expected in creativity and proactivity, and lower depth of reflection in ethical and resilience-oriented dimensions.
Conclusions:
This work will provide initial insights into the feasibility of assessing entrepreneurial mindset early in engineering formation, and inform future instrument refinement and curricular interventions.