Training Female Entrepreneurs: A Self-Governed or Tutor-Driven Learning Process?

The key features of female entrepreneurs' learning and its outcomes within the four dimensions of Kirkpatrick model are well documented.At the same time, each training program provides a unique instructional and social framework to be empirically explored.The current paper contributes to the evaluation of the Women Entrepreneurs: The Education and Training for Success Programme, which is a four-year project within the Horizon 2020 European Union initiative.We apply GLS Fixed-Effects and Logistic Regression models for a merged student-tutor log dataset to examine the interaction between participants' learning and instructors' direct facilitation levels.Our analysis shows that despite a low share of student-tutor interactions within the course activity, they are the only significant predictor of learners' engagement with the course content (p<0.001) and dropout probability (p<0.05).This implies that the exclusive application of the constructivist perspective for business education should be revisited, in particular with regard to the female firm owners.