When students of entrepreneurship focus on creating value, rather than only building ventures, they gain skills that are useful throughout their careers. Those who develop a growth mindset in entrepreneurship come to believe that they can continually enhance their entrepreneurial skills over time, using these abilities to make a positive impact on society.

Since only a few students have the resources or readiness to start businesses right away, schools shouldn’t measure the success of entrepreneurial programs by the number of companies students create. Instead, schools should emphasize helping students recognize opportunities for value creation and clarify the purpose behind their entrepreneurial actions.

Achieving this mindset is a key goal for business schools with entrepreneurship programs: teaching students to think like entrepreneurs and focus on creating value for society. One effective approach is to help students develop growth mindsets toward entrepreneurship, encouraging them to believe that with effort, time, and the right strategies, they can improve their entrepreneurial skills and make a lasting societal impact.

To understand the importance of this belief, it’s helpful to look at how mindsets work. American psychologist Carol Dweck’s research shows that everyone forms views on human abilities and whether or not they can change. For instance, some people believe intelligence is fixed and unchangeable, regardless of effort. According to Dweck, this is a fixed mindset about intelligence. Others believe that intelligence can improve with effort, which is known as a growth mindset.

People hold mindsets across many areas. For example, someone might have a growth mindset in sports but a fixed mindset in art. Another person may feel that computer skills can’t be improved, while believing creativity can grow.

The good news is that mindsets can change through short exercises, hands-on activities, and strategies that help individuals strengthen their entrepreneurial skills. Various tools enable teachers to nurture growth mindsets in the classroom, and these tools are both scalable and cost-effective.

Our main focus here is on how business schools can help students adopt growth mindsets toward entrepreneurship. Studies suggest that developing this mindset triggers a sequence of thoughts and behaviors that increase students’ confidence and willingness to engage in entrepreneurship, both in school and beyond.

A New Set of Success Metrics

Too often, business schools judge the success of their entrepreneurship programs by tracking how many students pitch to investors, compete in business plan contests, or launch startups. However, few of these activities result in lasting businesses.

In particular, counting launches as a measure of success can be misleading. While some student-led startups do succeed, most students are not ready to start businesses while in school, or even soon after graduation. Among those startups that begin in academic programs, only a few progress beyond campus.

This is largely because even students interested in entrepreneurship often lack the experience and resources needed to create successful companies. The average age of startup founders is between 30 and 40 years old, whereas most students are younger and may not yet understand industries, markets, and customer needs. This lack of readiness often makes it unrealistic for students to start firms right away.

Another success measure for schools with sustainability goals is the societal impact of businesses created by students. But making a broad societal impact usually requires large-scale business efforts that can’t be completed within a single class or semester.

Given these realities, it’s understandable why business schools find it challenging to teach entrepreneurial thinking, foster societal impact, and meet program goals.

Emphasizing Growth and Purpose

Schools are likely to find more success by taking a different approach. Instead of focusing on “artificial” startups that often end when students graduate, schools could embrace a growth mindset in entrepreneurship. This means teaching students to see entrepreneurial skills as something they can improve over time and apply in different markets, roles, and stages of their careers. We suggest three strategies for academic leaders:

1. Take a Broader Perspective

   Encourage students and faculty to understand that entrepreneurship isn’t only about starting companies. Avoid judging programs by the number of student startups. Instead, help students articulate the purpose behind their entrepreneurial activities. Share resources from authors like Simon Sinek and Guy Kawasaki, who emphasize the importance of “starting with why” and creating meaningful value.

   When schools broaden their approach to entrepreneurship, both students and programs are more likely to achieve positive societal impact by focusing on value creation, not just business creation.

2. Encourage Deeper Exploration  

   Motivate students to identify opportunities that could lead to societal impact and sustainability. Show them that value creation can go beyond just launching businesses.

   For example, when students brainstorm ideas, instructors can clarify that these ideas don’t have to involve business startups. Students could be asked to come up with ideas for filling market gaps, solving everyday problems, or creating new innovations. These ideas could be relevant to jobs they currently hold or aim to pursue.

   When schools host pitch competitions, they could encourage students to focus on value creation instead of business creation. For instance, students might develop ideas tied to one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many students are already interested in issues like poverty reduction and climate change, and aligning ideas with SDGs can help students think about making a broader impact.

3. Inspire Lifelong Purpose Beyond Careers  

   While career centers typically help students find jobs, schools could also encourage students to consider other meaningful activities, such as volunteering, service trips, or community engagement. These pursuits allow students to contribute to society beyond their professional lives.

Shifting the Focus in Education

To promote growth mindsets in entrepreneurship, schools could assess students’ starting attitudes and revisit these after students have had hands-on experiences. This approach often reveals how students grow in entrepreneurial skills and confidence.

Over time, students with growth mindsets will apply entrepreneurial skills beyond what they learned in school. They’ll use these skills in diverse ways, whether in small businesses, large organizations, or volunteer roles in their communities. By focusing on value creation in their programs, schools help students develop mindsets that encourage lifelong positive societal impact.

However, to fully adopt this focus, schools need to shift how they define success and failure in their entrepreneurship programs. By doing so, they will stop viewing students as “products” and employers as “customers,” and instead see them as “value creators.” This mindset shift allows schools to adopt broader views on how societal impact can be achieved through entrepreneurship.

When schools embrace this new perspective on value creation, they can develop more meaningful success metrics that relate to the wider world. Ideally, more schools will make this shift, encouraging students and faculty to adopt growth mindsets and ultimately creating a positive impact that extends well beyond the classroom.