The impact of entrepreneurship education through the lens of its evaluation: for a multidimensional approach to the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education.

Summary In view of the resources committed and the high expectations of its various stakeholders, entrepreneurship education (EE) is evaluated on its ability to produce the expected impacts on students. However, these impacts remain difficult to grasp because they are multidimensional, diffuse and delayed in time. This doctoral work is part of a research project that focuses on understanding the impacts of EE to improve its effectiveness in higher education. In addition to previous research on the objectives ('why', 'for what results'), the contents ('what'), the methods ('how') and the privileged targets of EE ('for whom'), our study adds three other dimensions to be taken into account in order to evaluate the impact of an EE device and its effectiveness as perceived by the different stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem: 'where', 'by whom' and 'in which temporal dynamics'. Our article-based thesis has theoretical and managerial applications for Management Sciences concerning i/ teamwork, ii/ the links between educational and business environments and entrepreneurial learning, iii/ the professional development of entrepreneurship teachers and iv/ the design of frameworks for evaluating the impact of EE schemes and their effectiveness. Indeed, the results of our five articles related to the eight constituent dimensions of EE identified contribute to the development of an integrative model for evaluating the impact of EE. This model allows us to support the systematic and effective design, management and evaluation of existing or new EA systems in all the dimensions considered relevant by all stakeholders.