FEATURE ARTICLE The role of entrepreneurship education in developing a passion for business Muhammad Arshad | Omer Farooq | Sadia Afzal What effect does education have on entrepreneurial passion? A study conducted among business school students in Pakistan's largest private university, the Univer- sity of Lahore, investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial passion, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The findings show a strong positive relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial passion. They also show that entrepreneurship education affects entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which in turn stimulates an individual's entrepreneurial passion. Besides contributing to the theoretical literature on the relationship between entre- preneurial education and entrepreneurial passion, these results provide educators and public policy-makers with guidance on how to develop entrepreneurial passion in the business leaders of the future. 1 | INTRODUCTION Studies of entrepreneurial passion tend to be classified in one of three ways: the development of the construct itself, its antecedents, and its outcomes. Focused on the antecedents, this study examines the effect of entrepreneurial education on the development of entrepreneurial passion. Entrepreneurial passion is a characteristic that helps entrepreneurs reach their targets. It is fundamental to entre- preneurship because it generates innovative ideas and drives the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities (Baron, 2007). In addition, passion plays an important part in con- vincing investors to invest in business projects (Mitteness, Sudek, & Cardon, 2012). Entrepreneurial passion has become a key topic for both academics and policy-makers. As many business schools around the world offer courses in entrepreneurship, it has become increasingly important to understand the determi- nants of the entrepreneurial passion that is essential to busi- ness success. Existing research has demonstrated the impact that entre- preneurial passion can have on several dimensions of entre- preneurship: entrepreneurial intention (Biraglia & Kadile, 2017), investment behavior (Cardon, Sudek, & Mitteness, 2009), entrepreneurial persistence (Cardon & Kirk, 2013), and employee commitment (Breugst, Domurath, Patzelt, & Klaukien, 2012). These studies have played an important role in contributing to an understanding of the outcomes of entrepreneurial passion, but they say little about its antecedents. Some studies indicate that entrepreneurship education can have positive effects on various forms of entrepreneurial behavior (Albornoz & Amorós, 2017). For the purposes of this study, social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) has been used to develop a model that proposes that entrepreneurship education positively influences entrepreneurial passion through the mediation of entrepreneurial self-efficacy—that is, through one's belief in their ability to accomplish a task. Data collected through a survey of 100 business students studying entrepreneurship in the University of Lahore was used to test the model. Social learning theory proposes that people develop the confidence to do something when they observe or are directly involved in an activity. For the development of entrepreneurial passion, education provides a context within which business students can observe, understand, and get involved in the entrepreneurial process. In this way, entre- preneurship education can be helpful in building students' self-confidence and a belief in their ability to succeed. Therefore, self-efficacy may play a mediating role in the DOI: 10.1002/joe.21896 GBOE. 2018;38(1):15–21. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joe © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 15