Research Article Complex Problems in Entrepreneurship Education: Examining Complex Problem-Solving in the Application of Opportunity Identification Yvette Baggen, 1 Jakob Mainert, 2 André Kretzschmar, 3 Thomas Lans, 4 Harm J. A. Biemans, 4 Christoph Niepel, 2 and Samuel Greiff 2 1 Department of Education, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands 2 Education, Culture, Cognition and Society (ECCS), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 3 Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of T¨ ubingen, T¨ ubingen, Germany 4 Education and Competence Studies, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands Correspondence should be addressed to Yvette Baggen; y.baggen@uu.nl Yvette Baggen and Jakob Mainert contributed equally to this work. Received 29 March 2017; Accepted 27 August 2017; Published 15 October 2017 Academic Editor: Jose C. Nunez Copyright © 2017 Yvette Baggen et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In opening up the black box of what entrepreneurship education (EE) should be about, this study focuses on the exploration of relationships between two constructs: opportunity identifcation (OI) and complex problem-solving (CPS). OI, as a domain- specifc capability, is at the core of entrepreneurship research, whereas CPS is a more domain-general skill. On a conceptual level, there are reasons to believe that CPS skills can help individuals to identify potential opportunities in dynamic and nontransparent environments. Terefore, we empirically investigated whether CPS relates to OI among 113 masters students. Data is analyzed using multiple regressions. Te results show that CPS predicts the number of concrete ideas that students generate, suggesting that having CPS skills supports the generation of detailed, potential business ideas of good quality. Te results of the current study suggest that training CPS, as a more domain-general skill, could be a valuable part of what should be taught in EE. 1. Introduction Acquiring entrepreneurial skills can help in preparing stu- dents for a working life characterized by uncertainty and complexity [1]. Accordingly, entrepreneurship education (EE) receives attention as a means to close the gap between the type of young talent required by the market and the talent that is actually being provided by higher education. EE is in this study broadly defned as the “[c]ontent, methods, and activities that support the development of motivation, skill and experience, which make it possible to be entrepreneurial, to manage and participate in value-creating processes” ([2], p. 14). In this defnition, EE is not only about new start-up creation; it also includes other value-creation processes which are more and more present in daily (working) life. However, many empirical studies do not apply the broad defnition of EE but solely focus on teaching skills that are required in independent entrepreneurship [3]. Rideout and Gray [4] in their review on EE conclude that research on EE is still in an early stage and that it is unclear whether and how EE works. Te wide debate about EE results in a black box of what EE should be about. In this manuscript, we aim to contribute to opening up this black box by explaining an important entrepreneurial capability of which the role in entrepreneurship is widely agreed upon, namely, opportunity identifcation (OI; [5]). OI is at the conceptual heart of the entrepreneurship literature, as opportunities and their identifcation are part of the defning start of the entrepreneurial process. Explaining variables behind OI are widely discussed. For instance, Gielnik et al. [6] found that divergent thinking explained the number and originality of generated business ideas. Wang et al. [7] found that self-efcacy, prior knowledge, social networks, and per- ceptions about opportunities in the industrial environment signifcantly explained OI of research and development man- agers. Although these and other studies have signifcantly Hindawi Education Research International Volume 2017, Article ID 1768690, 13 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1768690