Validating an Instrument to Measure Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy among Engineering Students

The presented study validates an engineering-entrepreneurial self-efficacy (E-ESE) instrument among engineering students. Although several survey instruments have been developed to measure entrepreneurship outcomes, they have been developed for and validated with business school students and nascent entrepreneurs, leading to a lack of validated instruments to measure entrepreneurship outcomes in engineering education. The study aims to answer two research questions: First, what is the latent factor structure of an Engineering Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (E-ESE) instrument for engineering students? And second, what are the psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of the E-ESE instrument? The analysis was conducted in three phases, with data collected from two institutes in the United States. The first phase involved a review of existing survey instruments and revising the items based on pilot exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results and stakeholder feedback. The second phase includes data collection at Institute 1 (85 responses) and conducting an EFA to identify the latent factor structure. The third phase includes performing a confirmatory factor analysis using data from two institutes (212 responses) to verify the underlying structure of the five latent variables (searching, planning, marshaling, implementing people, and implementing finance), and evaluating reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. The findings reveal a five-factor solution for the E-ESE instrument that is refined for engineering education with psychometric properties (validity and reliability) meeting requisite standards. The study discusses the implications of the results for engineering entrepreneurship education and provides guidance for future work.