Entrepreneurship Education in Shaping Students’ Social Responsibility Attitudes: Empirical Evidence from the University of Tehran

Background: Scholars increasingly recognise entrepreneurship education not only for developing entrepreneurial competencies but also for fostering ethical awareness and social responsibility among students. However, empirical evidence on its impact on students’ attitudes toward social responsibility remains limited. Research objectives: The study examined the impact of entrepreneurship education on students’ attitudes toward social responsibility at the Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran. Research design and methods: I employed a quasi-experimental design, comparing two groups of students: first-year students as the control group and final-year students as the experimental group. I collected data with a researcher-designed questionnaire adapted from validated instruments, including the Michigan Student Social Responsibility Survey and Martínez et al. (2015). The questionnaire measured five dimensions of social responsibility: striving for excellence, integrity and honesty, community participation, respect for others’ perspectives, and ethical reasoning. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including independent samples t-tests, served the data analysis. Results: The findings revealed that students who completed entrepreneurship education scored significantly higher on all dimensions of social responsibility than those not yet trained. Conclusions: The results suggest that entrepreneurship education not only develops entrepreneurial competencies but also meaningfully fosters ethical awareness and social responsibility among students.