Entrepreneurship Education, Entrepreneurial Intention and Digital Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: A Bibliometric Analysis and Future Research Agenda
TL;DR
Keyword co-occurrence and thematic mapping revealed three dominant research streams: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intention and digital entrepreneurship, which strengthens the case for future TAM-based studies that explain how higher education students accept and use digital technologies for entrepreneurial behavior.
Abstract
This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of research on entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intention and digital entrepreneurship in higher education, identifying publication trends, intellectual structures and emerging research opportunities. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship and technology adoption literature by mapping the intellectual structure of research on entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intention and digital entrepreneurship in higher education, while identifying opportunities for future TAM-based investigations. Bibliometric analysis is appropriate for mapping large-scale scientific output because it enables the systematic examination of publication trends, influential journals, productive authors, citation impact, keyword relationships and thematic structures. Data were retrieved from Scopus and analysed using the Bibliometrix R package through the Biblioshiny interface. final dataset consisted of 3,576 Scopus-indexed documents published between 2021 and 2026, including 4,497 journal articles and 146 review papers. Results show that publication output increased from 530 documents in 2021 to 765 documents in 2025, while 2026 recorded 382 documents because the year was still incomplete at the time of data extraction. The most relevant sources were the International Journal of Management Education, Sustainability (Switzerland) and Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy. The most productive author was Duong CD, and the most globally cited document was Neneh (2022). Keyword co-occurrence and thematic mapping revealed three dominant research streams: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intention and digital entrepreneurship. Importantly, digital entrepreneurship and digital transformation appeared as emerging or declining themes rather than dominant motor themes. TAM-related constructs such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were not highly visible in the bibliometric structure. This finding strengthens the case for future TAM-based studies that explain how higher education students accept and use digital technologies for entrepreneurial behavior.