Gender aspects by using start-up simulations for entrepreneurship education: results of theory-based evaluation studies

Since 2005 we have been carrying out several studies in the area of entrepreneurship education with business games that simulate start- up business processes. One part of the studies is to research the learning effects of university students in Germany, enrolled in regular courses involving start-up simulations. In these simulation courses the entire process of starting a new venture is simulated. Another important part of our studies is the evaluation of entrepreneurship education in the nationwide German competition 'exist-priMEcup'. Both activities (regular courses and voluntary competition cup) share the common goals of fostering entrepreneurial competencies and influencing the intention of participants to start up their own company. The same start-up business simulations are used and the same research methodology is applied in both programs. We put into practice the theory based evaluation approach. The evaluation of the business simulations should have a logic model as its starting point. That logic model provides a framework for the interpretation of what takes place during the entrepreneurship business simulations. Apart from other results, significant differences due to gender aspects have been identified. These aspects and two new studies (one of them currently still carrying out) to examine these gender differences are the issue of this paper.