Do university entrepreneurship programs promote entrepreneurship?

Recently, many universities have developed programs to promote entrepreneurship. However, relatively little is known about the impacts of such university initiatives. In this article, we examine the two major initiatives that were established in the mid-1990s—the Stanford Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Business School and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program at the Engineering School. We find that the Business School program had a negative to zero impact on entrepreneurship rates and participation in the Engineering School program had no impact on entrepreneurship rates. However, the Business School initiative decreased startup failure and increased firm revenue. University entrepreneurship programs may not increase entrepreneurship rates, but help students better identify their potential as entrepreneurs and improve the startup performance.