Classroom Effects of Ultra-brief Mindfulness on Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy and Empathy

Purpose: Mindfulness is being incorporated into various arenas within education, resulting in improved learning, less stress, and more creativity. Revolving around mindfulness in entrepreneurship-themed education, the current project aimed to assess whether and how mindfulness improves the self-efficacy and empathy of college students. Design/methodology/approach: The research offered an intervention of mindfulness to six sections of college students who were studying entrepreneurship or marketing. The project used assessments before and after the research to measure entrepreneurial self-efficacy, mindfulness, and empathy. For entrepreneurial self-efficacy, the assessment measured abilities to search, plan the business, gather resources, create as a team, and design finance models, and gauged attitude toward new ventures. Mindfulness was assessed to confirm intervention effectiveness by pre and post surveys to assess mindful traits. Empathy was assessed through five dimensions: perspective taking, online simulation, emotion contagion, peripheral responsivity, proximal responsivity, cognitive empathy, and affective empathy. Findings: There was a significant improvement in entrepreneurial self-efficacy and empathy compared to the nontreatment group. Mindfulness did not improve in the treatment group and declined in the control group. Originality/value: The current project contributes to mindfulness research within education and provides implications for entrepreneurial self-efficacy and empathy. The research contributes to shaping a new perspective on mindfulness in the context of teaching entrepreneurial course materials. Keywords: entrepreneurship education, mindfulness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, empath