The impact of design thinking on entrepreneurial competencies among university students in Peru
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Author(s)Luis Miguel Olortegui-AlcaldeLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1072-4497
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Franklin Cordova-BuizaLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7623-7472
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DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.24(2).2026.12
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Article InfoVolume 24 2026, Issue #2, pp. 162-175
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Type of the article: Research Article
Abstract
In emerging economies, youth unemployment and limited entrepreneurial education remain persistent challenges for higher education institutions. This study aims to examine how the dimensions of design thinking (empathy, creativity, and problem-solving) influence the development of entrepreneurial competencies among university students in Peru. A structured questionnaire was administered to 385 undergraduates enrolled in business programs at two private universities in Metropolitan Lima between August and November 2024. Business undergraduates were selected because they represent the segment most actively involved in university-based entrepreneurial initiatives in Peru. Data were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) to assess the structural relationships between design thinking dimensions and entrepreneurial competencies. The results reveal strong and statistically significant associations across all constructs. Problem-solving exerted the strongest effect on willingness to innovate (β = 0.42), followed by entrepreneurial motivation (β = 0.37) and creativity (β = 0.33). Empathy demonstrated positive effects on motivation (β = 0.35) and resilience (β = 0.28), with all coefficients significant at p < .001. Model fit indicators confirmed robust adequacy (CFI = 0.94; GFI = 0.92; NFI = 0.91; RMSEA = 0.06). These findings indicate that design thinking strengthens the cognitive and behavioral foundations of entrepreneurial performance, particularly adaptability, creative ideation, and user-centered problem-solving. Integrating this human-centered iterative methodology into higher education represents an effective strategy for enhancing students’ innovation capacity and resilience. The study advances theory by empirically validating design thinking as a pedagogical mechanism for entrepreneurship education, and advances practice by offering evidence-based guidance for universities operating in emerging economies.
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JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)I23, I21, L26, O32
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References54
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Tables7
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Figures0
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- Table 1. Participant characteristics
- Table 2. Descriptive statistics and inter-construct correlations
- Table 3. Reliability and convergent validity
- Table 4. Discriminant validity
- Table 5. Model fit indices
- Table 6. Structural coefficients
- Table A1. Measurement instrument
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Academic resilience, emotional intelligence, and academic performance among undergraduate students
Uzoma Ononye ,
Mercy Ogbeta ,
Francis Ndudi ,
Dudutari Bereprebofa ,
Ikechuckwu Maduemezia
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/kpm.06(1).2022.01
Knowledge and Performance Management Volume 6, 2022 Issue #1 pp. 1-10 Views: 6556 Downloads: 1715 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯAcademic resilience and emotional intelligence are considered important personal resources for furthering students’ academic performance. However, many educational organizations seem to trivialize the performance implications of these constructs in teachings and curriculum. Consequently, it can decrease not just their academic performance but also their employability, as they lack the generic competencies to adapt and survive in a stressful context. Even so, empirical evidence on integrating academic resilience, emotional intelligence, and academic performance remains unexplored in the Nigerian university context. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the linkages between academic resilience, emotional intelligence, and academic performance in Nigeria. The partial least square (PLS) modeling method was utilized for testing the stated hypotheses with data collected from 179 final year undergraduate students in the regular B.Sc. Business Administration and B.Sc. Marketing program at Delta State University, Nigeria. From the PLS results, the study reported that academic resilience was positively related to emotional intelligence (β = 0.125, p = 0.007), academic resilience (β = 0.231, p = 0.000) and emotional intelligence (β = 0.260, p = 0.000) were positively related to academic performance, and emotional resilience mediated the positive relationship between academic resilience and academic performance (β = 0.057, p = 0.005). While academic resilience predicted academic performance, it also predicted emotional intelligence, which affected academic performance significantly and positively.
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Anna Vorontsova ,
Svitlana Tarasenko ,
Wojciech Duranowski ,
Arkadiusz Durasiewicz ,
John Soss ,
Artem Bilovol
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.23(1).2025.08
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The present study aims to identify the key trends, knowledge gaps, and opportunities for further research into the economic effects of using artificial intelligence and ChatGPT tools in higher education. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted to identify and screen the scientific articles related to the topic of this study indexed in Web of Science and Scopus from 1986 to 2024. A total of 234 articles were selected, all demonstrating positive growth both in scholarly output and citation count. The study identified the key contributors to scientific research on this topic by region (the United States, China, and India). It concluded that the relevant research centers are still at an early stage of their development. Based on bibliometric clusters formed by co-occurrence relations, three main areas of research were defined: 1) artificial intelligence in education for decision-making; 2) process automation and digital transformation in educational institutions; 3) artificial intelligence technologies and their application in education.
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The publication is part of the research topic “Economic Basics of Technology Diffusion into the National Economy of Ukraine Considering Best International Practices” (№0124U003482). -
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Saheer Al-Jaghoub ,
Ahmad Samed Al-Adwan ,
Hussein Al-Yaseen ,
Anas Al-Soud ,
Ahmad Areiqat
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.17(1).2019.03
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