The Role of Higher Education Entrepreneurship Ecosystems on Students? Entrepreneurial Identity Formation.

There is a recognition of the neglect of contextual influences in entrepreneurship research in general and of the process from student to entrepreneur as an under-researched area. Broadly understood to be an individual’s sense of self in a given setting, it is acknowledged that people can hold multiple identities and experiment and transition between identities. Students’ entrepreneurial identity is therefore rooted in the context of being a student and being (or desiring to be) entrepreneurial.

The focus of this research is to explore the influence of a higher education entrepreneurship ecosystem on the development of students’ entrepreneurial identity. The study aligns with constructivist views, which see identity as emerging from both internal individual interactions and external interactions with their context, thus providing multi-level insights into student entrepreneurial identity formation. A longitudinal, interpretive method will research students who engage with entrepreneurship supports provided by their higher education ecosystem under the auspices of a cross-discipline student entrepreneurship support hub. This single-site case study will contribute to the growing entrepreneurial identity and student to entrepreneur literature and will inform higher education policy and practice for developing undergraduate entrepreneurial identity through effective entrepreneurship ecosystem development.