MAPPING THE SIX-DIMENSIONAL ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS:A SINO-MONGOLIAN COMPARATIVE STUDY ON OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION, INNOVATION, LEADERSHIP, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Abstract

Entrepreneurial competence among undergraduate students has attracted sustained scholarly attention, yet cross-cultural comparisons between East Asian and Central/North Asian higher education contexts remain sparse. Drawing on a validated Six-Dimensional Entrepreneurial Competence Scale (SECS) and a cross-sectional survey design, this study examines and contrasts the entrepreneurial competence profiles of 312 Chinese and 287 Mongolian undergraduate students across six theoretically grounded dimensions: opportunity identification, innovation capacity, leadership, business management, digital entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship. Independent-samples t-tests reveal statistically significant cross-national differences on all six dimensions. Chinese students exhibit higher scores on opportunity identification, innovation capacity, business management, and particularly digital entrepreneurship, whereas Mongolian students demonstrate comparative strengths in leadership and social entrepreneurship. Multiple regression analysis identifies academic-year progression, prior business exposure, enrollment in entrepreneurship education courses, and parental entrepreneurial background as significant positive predictors of composite entrepreneurial competence across both cohorts. The findings contribute an empirically grounded, multi-dimensional portrait of entrepreneurial competence in two culturally and institutionally distinct settings, and carry implications for curriculum design, cross-border entrepreneurship education partnerships, and higher education policy in the Eurasian region.