Entrepreneurship education as a catalyst for entrepreneurial interest among school students: A conceptual framework grounded in social cognitive theory

Abstract

: School-level entrepreneurship education remains underdeveloped despite evidence that entrepreneurial dispositions form during formative years rather than at higher education entry. Existing scholarship concentrates on university populations, leaving the cognitive mechanisms linking educational exposure to motivational engagement insufficiently theorised among younger learners. This paper develops a conceptual framework grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, positioning entrepreneurship education as an environmental stimulus that strengthens entrepreneurial knowledge through observational learning, environmental influence, and self-efficacy development, which in turn cultivates entrepreneurial interest among school students. Three propositions link entrepreneurship education to entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial knowledge to entrepreneurial interest, and entrepreneurship education directly to entrepreneurial interest. The framework extends Social Cognitive Theory to the school level, introduces entrepreneurial knowledge as an explicit mediating construct, and provides a theoretically grounded foundation for future empirical inquiry within the Malaysian context.