Objective: Entrepreneurship development and entrepreneurial behavior are among the major challenges of the post-industrial era. This issue poses a global challenge, as it involves the disruption of integrative paradigms over the past century. The significance of entrepreneurship programs lies in their role as tools for equipping young people with self-confidence, problem-solving abilities, and contributing to economic growth and national development. Entrepreneurship education is a fundamental necessity for all countries, and neglecting its development can have adverse consequences. This issue is particularly important in the context of unemployment among educated youth. In fact, entrepreneurship education is considered a genuine remedy for youth unemployment, which is a central concern of the education system. Developing entrepreneurship education greatly contributes to job creation, providing young people with the opportunity to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills—an objective highlighted in higher education entrepreneurship programs. Through such education, students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to increase income and wealth. Entrepreneurship development serves as a means to enhance the skills and knowledge of entrepreneurs through coaching, classroom programs, and training; in other words, entrepreneurial activities can be effectively implemented through educational initiatives. This underscores the necessity of addressing entrepreneurship education as a critical issue. The aim of this study is to design a localized model for developing entrepreneurship education within the higher education system.
Method: The following study is an exploratory Research conducted with an applied approach. The data collection approach is of mixed quantitative and qualitative type. The grounded theory has been used in order to analyze the data and present the parametric model. Two methods of grounded theory (in the qualitative part) and structural equation modeling (in the quantitative part) have been used to examine and present the model. The research structure is designed in such a way that the output of the grounded theory is used as the input of the second part, i.e. structural equations. In the qualitative part of the research, purposive and snowball sampling was done and the sampling was continued until reaching the theoretical saturation, so that totally 9 specialized semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts. In the quantitative part of the research, the partial least squares approach of structural modeling was carried out using the training software, the purpose of which was to check the proposed model fit. At this stage, 113 people were selected as a statistical sample, and the researcher-made questionnaire was distributed among them and the data was collected. Considering that Cronbach's alpha and the mixed reliability of all variables in the indicators’ validation part are greater than 0.7, their reliability is confirmed. The average variance extracted greater than 0.5 also shows convergent validity.
Results: The research output based on the grounded theory method includes 101 conceptual recognition codes, 19 core categories and six main dimensions. Finally, because the χ2 index values are less than 2.074. Based on the values of the goodness of fit indices above 0.927 and the square root of the mean square of the estimation error close to zero, it can be said that the model's fit indices are greater than the standard values and the proposed model has a good fit based on structural equation modeling.
Conclusion: The theory of development model of entrepreneurship education obtained based on the process of open and central coding, states that the development of entrepreneurship education is a function of causal conditions (improving the ability of professors and improving the quality of entrepreneurship education), background conditions (institutionalization of entrepreneurial culture, development relationship with industry and market, facilities and infrastructure, government support, dynamics of higher education ecosystem) and intervening conditions (political factors and development of practical entrepreneurship education infrastructure). These factors provide conditions including actions, interactions and strategies (such as the development of education, the development of relationships and interactions, the development of facilities, equipment and infrastructures, the development of socio-cultural factors and the use of entrepreneurs in synergy with professors) and the consequences (cultural- social, psychological, educational and economic) are also followed. Subsequently, structural equation modeling was used in the quantitative section in order to validate and fit the model presented in the qualitative section. The fit indices larger than the standard values indicate the appropriate fit of the proposed model and confirm the relationships between the research variables.