Development of complex thinking in entrepreneurship training: A gender approach

Abstract

This article aims to approach students’ perception of mastery of the reasoning-for-complexity competency and its sub-competencies (scientific, systemic, and critical thinking) in a sample group at aLatin American university. The intention was to identify whether there are statistically significant differences in a population of men and women in a training program in entrepreneurship, assessing whether gender could be a factor to consider by educational institutions offering these specialties. The present exploratory study applies the validated E-Complexity instrument to measure the perception of a convenience sample of 116 students from a private university in Mexico. Statistically, the overall mean and the means for each item were calculated for the students’ perception of their mastery of the reasoning-for-complexity competency. From the results, we can confirm that no statistically significant evidence demonstrates differences between men and women in their perceived mastery of the reasoning-for-complexity competency in general. However, analyzing the results by sub-competencies shows that women tend to have a higher perception than their male counterparts. Thus, this article shows the need to develop environments beyond academia and theory, guaranteeing an actual follow-through to equality promoted within educational institutions.