Entrepreneurial Education in the United States of America and Belgium: A Comparative Analysis of University Course Content and Regional Innovation Output

Details

Supervisors

Van den Bosch, Jeroen

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enNowadays, governments promote entrepreneurship for its structural, economic, and innovative functions. Different public policies have been implemented in an attempt to encourage entrepreneurship, among them being entrepreneurial education which has emerged as a key instrument to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems and mindsets. This thesis explores the importance of such education in shaping innovation outcomes. The goal is twofold: to measure the presence of entrepreneurial education in university course descriptions, and to compare its potential effects on innovation between Belgium and the United States. Innovation is proxied by patent output, measured at the regional and technological field level. A custom dataset was built by scraping course descriptions from university websites. Several empirical approaches were used, including linear regression, cluster analysis, and principal components analysis. The results suggest no significant link between entrepreneurial vocabulary and patent output. However, contextual variables like R&D intensity and SME density show robust and consistent effects. Notably, the United States exhibits significantly higher innovation output, and cluster patterns indicate that national context plays a role in shaping educational profiles. While entrepreneurial education alone does not predict innovation as measured here, the approach offers a scalable method to quantify curriculum content. Future research could link course content more directly to entrepreneurship outcomes, such as SME creation.