ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
The Influence of Entrepreneurial Failure Education (EFE) on Intention to Reengage in Entrepreneurship (IRE) among University Students: Mediation of Entrepreneurial Resilience and Moderating Model of Regulatory Focus
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hebei Engineering University, Handan, China
- 2Anyang Institute of Technology, Anyang, Henan, China
- 3University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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Entrepreneurial Failure Education (EFE) is a key approach for college students to acquire capabilities for addressing entrepreneurial challenges. While prior studies have explored the impact of entrepreneurship education on initial entrepreneurial intention, the influence of EFE on Intention to Reengage in Entrepreneurship (IRE) remains underexplored, with gaps in research on its mechanism and boundary conditions. This study focuses on three core questions: (1) the direct impact of EFE on college students' IRE; (2) the mediating role of Entrepreneurial Resilience (ER) in the EFE-IRE relationship; (3) the moderating role of regulatory focus (promotion focus vs. prevention focus) in the EFE-IRE relationship. A two-wave questionnaire survey was conducted among Chinese college students with prior entrepreneurial failure experience. Mature validated scales were used to measure EFE, ER, regulatory focus, and IRE. A total of 700 questionnaires were initially distributed, with 583 valid responses finally collected. Data were analyzed via stepwise regression, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), reliability and validity tests, and the Bootstrap method to verify mediating and moderating effects. Results show that: (1) EFE exerts a significant positive impact on college students' IRE; (2) ER plays a partial mediating role between EFE and IRE—EFE significantly enhances ER, which in turn positively promotes IRE; after controlling for ER, the direct effect of EFE on IRE remains significant but weakens; (3) regulatory focus moderates the EFE-IRE relationship: promotion focus positively strengthens this association, while prevention focus negatively weakens it.Practically, this study provides actionable insights for university entrepreneurship education reform—urging universities to shift from the traditional "success-oriented" model to a comprehensive EFE system to foster students' ER—and evidence-based support for enhancing students' post-failure IRE and promoting their sustainable entrepreneurship. Theoretically, it integrates entrepreneurship, pedagogy, and psychology perspectives to clarify the formation mechanism and practical pathways of college students' IRE.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial failure education (EFE), Entrepreneurial resilience, promotion focus, prevention focus, Intention to reengage in entrepreneurship
Received: 20 Nov 2024; Accepted: 30 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Wang, Wang, Chen and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
jichao Wang, sdwjc@126.com
Huizhe Yan, yanhuizheyhz@163.com
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