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Service levels between public organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) differ and fluctuate. Service levels were found to increase with the level of employee creative behavior (ECB), which is currently a focal point in organizational policies by the federal UAE government. While the literature presents an ample array of determinants of ECB, local context typically influences which determinants provide more leverage than others. Therefore, this research aims to present a customized ranking of determinants that enables managers in the UAE public sector to successfully stimulate ECB.

Through a systematic literature review, this study identified 21 determinants at four different levels and subsequently utilized the analytic hierarchical process (AHP) to map their relative importance. Data were attained from 33 experts: managers and senior employees from different organizations.

Findings indicate that, overall, the individual level is seen as the most important leverage point to stimulate ECB, followed by the team level. Comparing the determinants under each level, management support (organizational level) is perceived as the most impactful, followed by coworker support (team level), and enhancing creative self-efficacy (individual level).

This study compares obtained levels from other studies with new levels in building the AHP model. These insights guide managers in the UAE public sector who aim to enhance ECB, which will contribute to increased service quality. The study introduced a comprehensive ECB framework of 21 determinants. Even though many ECB studies applied in different countries and industries, but to researchers' knowledge, this is the first ECB study that applied at the UAE's public sector using the AHP model.

This paper aims to explore how gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions (EI) change when entrepreneurship education (EE) is added to the force field of macro-social stimulants and inhibitors of female EI in the particular context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The study is based on a pre-post survey with entrepreneurship students and students with a similar profile enrolled in other courses (N = 246) at three universities. The three main hypotheses are evaluated through independent-samples t-tests and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The findings indicate a negative effect of gender stereotypes on female students’ EI in the UAE, regardless of the course type. Furthermore, entrepreneurship courses appear to be more successful than other courses in raising the EI of students in general and female students in particular. Finally, adding EE to the equation of macro-social inhibitors and stimulants of female EI in the UAE seems to tip the balance in favor of the influence of economic affluence, rapid modernization and proactive governmental policies to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit among female residents. That is, at the end of the entrepreneurship courses, there was no significant gender difference in EI anymore and female students are significantly more likely to experience a positive change in EI than male students.

The literature review identifies the need for future studies to evaluate the impact of variability in sampling and methods among previous studies on gender effects in EE. Building on the findings, future studies could identify which aspects of EE are pivotal for customizing female students’ specific local interests and needs. The study is limited in the sense that the data set did not enable tests of moderators at the course level (which mostly requires more qualitative data) and individual level. In addition, the sample is not representative for all female residents in the UAE at large.

This study might stimulate (UAE) policymakers to increase the scope and quality of EE. In turn, university administrators are recommended to find ways to compensate the self-selection effect (overcome likely opt-out by female students) when entrepreneurship courses are elective.

This exploration was inspired by the strong emphasis that Julie Weeks put on the gendered impact of macro-level factors in business enabling environments (Weeks, 2011). The empirical analysis builds on a conceptual framework that integrates Krueger’s model of EI, theory on gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship and previous literature on the role of EE (reinforcing or mitigating stereotypes). The study is executed in the relatively unexplored context of the UAE, which offers strong macro-social inhibitors for ánd stimulants of female entrepreneurship.

Building on authoritative studies on inspiration in the field of psychology (e.g. Thrash and Elliot, 2013, 2014), this study aims to clarify how entrepreneurial inspiration – an emotional state of personal attraction toward entrepreneurship – is created and how it affects entrepreneurial intentions. First, receptiveness to inspiration is introduced as a potential entrepreneurial feeling trait that constitutes a universal enabler of entrepreneurial inspiration alongside typically idiosyncratic inspirational triggers. Second, this study proposes to reinforce the theoretical base of the relation between entrepreneurial inspiration and entrepreneurial intentions by applying the affect infusion model (AIM) and empirically testing its explanatory power.

Hypotheses are tested through independent and dependent sample t-tests and hierarchical regression analyses with an interaction effect. Data originate from a pre-post course survey among 342 entrepreneurship students from various countries and institutions.

The results confirm a positive relation between receptiveness to inspiration and entrepreneurial inspiration. Receptiveness to inspiration precedes and increases with entrepreneurial experience, suggesting that it can be both inborn and cultivated. In line with the AIM, entrepreneurial inspiration stimulates only the entrepreneurial aspirations of participants without entrepreneurial experience. Experienced individuals, on the other hand, derived more entrepreneurial inspiration from their courses, but this was not translated to higher entrepreneurial intentions. Instead, they could benefit from this inspiration in other ways proposed in the literature, such as enhanced opportunity recognition.

This study provides much needed, theory-informed, insight into the formation of entrepreneurial inspiration. Furthermore, it is the first research to propose and test a specific theoretical underpinning of the relation between entrepreneurial inspiration and entrepreneurial intentions, which also accounts for the moderating role of entrepreneurial experience. Finally, the rare multi-country, multi-institution nature of the sample reinforces the external validity of the findings.

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) has a dark side largely ignored in the field of entrepreneurship education. Research in educational psychology indicates that self-efficacy is prone to misjudgment, with novice learners often displaying overconfidence. Furthermore, this misjudgment is gendered; studies suggest that men are more likely to display overconfidence and less likely to correct erroneous self-assessments. However, realistic self-assessments are essential for effective learning strategies, pivotal for performance in the ambiguous entrepreneurial context. Therefore, this study explores whether entrepreneurship education helps mitigate overconfidence, and if this impact varies by gender.

Common in educational psychology, but new in the field of entrepreneurship education, a calibration design captures discrepancies between perceived and actual performance. Data from before and after an introductory undergraduate entrepreneurship course (N = 103) inform descriptive analyses, statistical comparison tests and calibration plots.

As expected, nearly all novice students showed significant overconfidence. Curiously, gender difference was only significant at the end of the course, as overconfidence had decreased among female students and increased among male students.

The paper advocates a more nuanced stance toward ESE, and introduces ESE accuracy as a more fitting measure of entrepreneurial overconfidence. The findings flag the common use of self-perception as a proxy for actual competence, and evoke new research avenues on (gender differences in) learning motivations of aspiring entrepreneurs. Finally, the study shares guidance for entrepreneurship educators on fostering a “healthier” level of self-efficacy for better entrepreneurial learning.