Conceptualizing the entrepreneurial mindset: Definitions and usage in engineering education research

In undergraduate engineering education, students are being increasingly exposed to entrepreneurship education through formal and informal programs. These contemporary programs have shifted from the traditional business-focused goal of venture creation to developing entrepreneurially minded engineers for a 21st century technology-driven global economy. To better design and implement these programs, it is critical to identify and assess their intended student learning outcomes. However, there is a lack of common ground among the engineering entrepreneurship community of researchers and practitioners on the intended outcomes of these programs, particularly with respect to entrepreneurial mindset. Our work attempts to better conceptualize how entrepreneurial mindset has been operationalized in current engineering assessment literature. We compare and contrast the current usage of 'entrepreneurial mindset' to identify similarities and inconsistencies in the conceptualization of the entrepreneurial mindset in recent engineering education literature and present implications of these findings for the engineering entrepreneurship community.