Entrepreneurship is a broad and diverse concept, encompassing a wide range of activities and skills related to how a person creates and manages a new venture. The entrepreneurial process involves key stages such as designing, launching and managing a new business, which is generally realised in the form of a small business (Calderón 2018). Entrepreneurs also need risk management skills, namely the ability to manage various significant risks that arise when starting and running a business, such as financial risks and market uncertainty (Schneider 2013). Another equally important aspect is value creation, where entrepreneurs are required to be able to manage resources and opportunities innovatively to generate added value (Bucur & Bucur 2011).

To fulfil their roles, entrepreneurs require a variety of entrepreneurial skills and attributes. Utilising psychological, human and social capital is a crucial factor in developing new products, services and management processes (Fayolle & Gailly 2015). Competencies such as adaptability to change, mental resilience, innovation and self-efficacy are also key foundations for an entrepreneur’s success (Narmaditya et al. 2025). However, the entrepreneurial journey is not without challenges and risks. Many startups face high failure rates because of various factors, such as limited funding, poor business decisions, economic crises and low market demand (Huong, Dung & Hoai 2020).

Entrepreneurship in the international literature is classified into several main types to explain differences in motivation, orientation and economic impact (Huang et al. 2023). Specifically, the motivation-based classification distinguishes between necessity-driven entrepreneurship and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship (Batz Liñeiro, Romero Ochoa & Montes de la Barrera 2024). Necessity-driven entrepreneurship typically arises from economic needs and is generally inversely related to the level of innovation. Meanwhile, opportunity-driven entrepreneurship tends to have a positive impact on technological progress and economic growth through more strategic utilisation of market opportunities (Mrożewski & Kratzer 2017). Thus, entrepreneurship is not only about creating new businesses but also about how individuals can innovate, manage risks and create value that benefits society and economic sustainability.

At the micro level, research on entrepreneurial education and motivation explains why some individuals are able to become strong, sustainable entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship education in higher education has been shown to increase entrepreneurial intention by strengthening entrepreneurial competencies and perceptions of university support (Lv et al. 2021; Su et al. 2021b). Other findings emphasise the importance of psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy) as a mediator between motivation (opportunity vs. necessity) and business success, thus explaining why not all opportunity-motivated entrepreneurs are necessarily more successful without strong psychological resources (Ephrem et al. 2021).

Nevertheless, several important research gaps remain. Firstly, the relationship between innovation policies, city ecosystems and the transition from necessity entrepreneurship to opportunity-driven, growth-oriented entrepreneurship has been relatively rarely examined longitudinally and at multiple levels (Audretsch, Belitski & Cherkas 2021; Bradley et al. 2021). Secondly, the specific role of digital finance, platforms and digital innovation in strengthening the psychological capacity and competencies of entrepreneurs (not just firm innovation output) remains underexplored (Kreiterling 2023). Thirdly, many entrepreneurship education studies focus on intentions, rather than on long-term venture performance or resilience during crises, such as the pandemic (Lv et al. 2021; Su et al. 2021a).

Entrepreneurial literacy is a multidimensional concept encompassing several essential aspects, including financial literacy, leadership skills and digital capabilities related to business activities (Bakare, Husain & Abdaljawwad 2025). Developing entrepreneurial skills through structured education and training programmes can contribute significantly to economic development, both at the individual and societal levels (Olutuase, Brijlal & Yan 2023).

From a skills perspective, entrepreneurial skills include financial management, business planning, marketing skills and an understanding of the legal and regulatory aspects governing business activities. These skills enable entrepreneurs to manage resources effectively, develop strategies that respond to market changes and minimise business risks. Meanwhile, from a knowledge perspective, entrepreneurial skills include an understanding of fundamental business principles, financial literacy and market dynamics. This knowledge provides an essential foundation for entrepreneurs to navigate economic uncertainty and identify sustainable growth opportunities (Hasan et al. 2024).

The importance of entrepreneurial literacy is reflected in its contribution to business success and economic development. At the micro level, entrepreneurial skills are an intangible asset that plays a crucial role in enhancing creativity and innovation in micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), thus directly impacting business performance and sustainability (Jones & English 2004). At the macro level, entrepreneurial skills serve as a strategic tool to strengthen a community’s economic base, create new jobs and reduce unemployment, particularly in areas with limited economic opportunities (Hasan et al. 2024).

In the context of higher education, entrepreneurial literacy is a key tool for fostering entrepreneurial intentions and competencies among young people. Entrepreneurial literacy activities on campus, whether in the form of courses, programmes or training, have been shown to increase understanding, build positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship and encourage entrepreneurial intentions among students (Wang & Mangmeechai 2022). Research shows that the higher a student’s entrepreneurial literacy level, the greater their likelihood of starting a business and developing entrepreneurial skills relevant to the demands of today’s workplace and business world (Liao, Nguyen & Caputo 2022).

Furthermore, entrepreneurial literacy also plays a role in strengthening other skills that are crucial in the digital age. This literacy interacts with digital, information and financial literacy to shape the profile of an adaptive entrepreneur: Able to utilise technology, manage cash flow, market products through digital platforms and respond creatively to changes in the business environment (Hasan et al. 2024; Kang, Park & Jang 2024). This combination not only improves business performance but also prepares them for crises and uncertainty. Therefore, strengthening entrepreneurial literacy is considered essential in education policies, business incubation programmes and SME development interventions in various countries.

Entrepreneurship education plays a strategic role in fostering entrepreneurial intentions and skills among students. From a methodological perspective, this education not only emphasises mastery of theoretical knowledge but also focuses on developing entrepreneurial attitudes and skills through practical activities that encourage students to act, experience and apply the knowledge and experience gained (Fayolle & Gailly 2015). In this context, entrepreneurship education programmes serve as catalysts that accelerate individuals’ entrepreneurial readiness, thereby creating a generation that is adaptive, innovative and competitive in a dynamic economic environment (Staniewski & Szopiński 2015).

Entrepreneurship education not only provides cognitive and practical skills but also creates and enhances entrepreneurial awareness, which encourages business ideas among individuals (Chang, Yu & Huang 2025). Hence, the primary function of entrepreneurship education lies in raising students’ awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship, presenting it as a viable career option, and strengthening positive attitudes, knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, entrepreneurship education contributes significantly to improving their entrepreneurial skills, especially when the curriculum design and learning methods align with the needs and dynamics of the labour market (Chang et al. 2025).

Fayolle and Gailly (2008) have greatly developed the principles of business education as a constructivist education, and their pioneering framework distinguishes between two related levels: The ontological level, based on basic ideas about business and who can be business, and those related to the educational level context, thus moving the field from training intuition to program design based on evidence-based educational science. In essence, this approach suggests that general education is not sufficient to address the various professional skills required in higher education settings. Building on this foundation, Fayolle and Gailly (2015) further show through long-term evidence that vocational training has a continuous and hysteretic effect on the participants’ thoughts and feelings after the end of the programme, showing that its effect is more than a short-term one to bring about permanent changes in attitudes and methods.

Crucially, entrepreneurship education does not operate in isolation from the dimensions of entrepreneurial literacy identified earlier. Well-designed entrepreneurship curricula explicitly cultivate financial literacy through business planning exercises and financial decision-making simulations; digital literacy through project-based learning that integrates digital platforms, e-commerce and social media entrepreneurship; and leadership skills through team-based ventures, mentoring interactions and reflective practice. In this way, entrepreneurship education functions as the primary pedagogical vehicle through which the multidimensional competencies of entrepreneurial literacy are developed and consolidated.

It is important to emphasise that entrepreneurship education is not exclusively the domain of business and management students. Students in engineering, health sciences, social sciences and the humanities benefit equally from developing entrepreneurial literacy, as the competencies involved are universally applicable across professional contexts. This cross-disciplinary relevance is consistent with the keyword clusters identified in this study, where entrepreneurial literacy research spans health, technology and social development domains. Broadening the reach of entrepreneurship education across disciplines, therefore, represents one of the most significant pathways for expanding the impact of entrepreneurial literacy in higher education.

The co-occurrence map reveals four distinct clusters: Firstly, entrepreneurship, youth and higher education; secondly, entrepreneurship education, digital literacy and digital transformation; thirdly, financial literacy and entrepreneurial intention; and fourthly, student innovation and education. The connecting lines between clusters indicate a shift in research focus from entrepreneurship as business creation to entrepreneurship as a digital, financial and social capability fostered within the higher education ecosystem. Meta-analytic evidence suggests that entrepreneurship education programmes effectively increase entrepreneurial intention when designed with a robust quasi-experimental design (pre-post with a control group), indicating that explicit learning about entrepreneurship does indeed influence student intention. However, the effects vary by context and curriculum design (Martínez-Gregorio, Badenes-Ribera & Oliver 2021).

The strengths of the green cluster are entrepreneurship education and digital literacy, which align with the digital transformation of higher education, where learning is transforming into a digital learning space and students’ digital competencies are becoming prerequisites for academic performance and job readiness. A study in the Computers & Education journal confirms that this transformation is not simply the adoption of technology, but the creation of new learning spaces that change the role of institutions, pedagogy and student interactions, which in turn influences how entrepreneurship education is implemented (Bygstad et al. 2022). Consistent with this, recent research shows that digital entrepreneurship education can foster digital entrepreneurial intention while expanding the use of social media for entrepreneurial activities; curricula need to integrate digital projects, platformisation and online ecosystems to have an impact (Wibowo et al. 2023).

The yellow cluster highlights financial literacy as the foundation of entrepreneurial competence. In a multicontext empirical study, financial literacy was related to entrepreneurial intention both directly and through savings behaviour; the mediation of savings behaviour explains why, in some populations, the direct relationship is weak but the indirect path is strong. These findings are crucial for the design of entrepreneurship education, as financial record-keeping modules, cash flow planning bootcamps and startup funding simulations strengthen behavioural pathways relevant to entrepreneurial intentions (Alshebami & Al Marri 2022). Another study confirmed that enriching students’ digital capabilities amplifies the influence of financial literacy on entrepreneurial intentions, indicating a combined effect between financial literacy and digital literacy as core graduate capabilities. More broadly, recent conceptual mapping shows that the key factors influencing students’ entrepreneurial intentions remain consistent (attitudes, subjective norms, efficacy, campus support), but the weight of digital and financial literacy increases in the digital economy ecosystem (Xanthopoulou & Sahinidis 2024).

On the blue side, social entrepreneurship emerged strongly and was linked to students and innovation. In 2024, it was evident that digital literacy not only increased social entrepreneurial intentions but also initial behaviour, bridging the gap between intentions and actions. It means that a curriculum that integrates data-based social problem-solving, digital marketing and impact measurement practices is more likely to result in real action rather than just intentions (Ip 2024).

Based on the output results in Figure 3, the map shows four interconnected clusters: Firstly, entrepreneurship, students and higher education; secondly, entrepreneurship education, digital literacy and digital transformation; thirdly, financial literacy and entrepreneur intention; and fourthly, innovation, education and social entrepreneurship.

The colour gradation shows that the keywords digital literacy, digital entrepreneurship, digital economy and entrepreneurial mindset tend to be yellow or light green (more recent), while education, innovation and entrepreneurship are on the blue to purple spectrum (earlier). It indicates a shift in the agenda from starting a business to digital capabilities, with financial and social aspects formed within the campus ecosystem. Meta-evidence findings remain consistent, indicating that entrepreneurship education increases students’ entrepreneurial intentions when designed robustly in pre-post and control group studies, although the magnitude of the effect depends on the design and context (Deng & Wang 2023).

The entrepreneurship education and digital literacy clusters are strengthening alongside the digital transformation of higher education. Journals such as Computers & Education show the emergence of digital learning spaces, which go beyond platform adoption to reengineering institutional roles, pedagogy and student interactions (Bygstad et al. 2022). The knock-on effect: The way we design entrepreneurship education is also changing, with examples including digital projects, platform simulations and cross-disciplinary collaborative work. Research at Heliyon shows that digital entrepreneurship education significantly increases digital entrepreneurial intention and the use of social media for entrepreneurial activities, emphasising the need for curricula to integrate project-based learning, platformisation and online ecosystems (Wibowo et al. 2023). Bibliometric studies from 2010 to 2023 confirm the surge in the theme of digital entrepreneurial intention and its relationship to digitalisation (Ismail & Wan Hussain 2024).

The financial literacy and intention clusters serve as the foundation linking students’ economic preparedness to entrepreneurial behaviour. Multicontext evidence suggests that financial literacy influences intention and saving behaviour can mediate this relationship and guide more applicable curricula such as cash flow modules, budgeting and funding simulations (Alshebami & Al Marri 2022). Hence, financial literacy is also correlated with students’ risk-taking propensity, which suggests the importance of risk literacy and data-driven decision-making in entrepreneurship education (García-González & Ramírez-Montoya 2021). Furthermore, findings in behavioural sciences confirm that digital capabilities strengthen the pathway from financial literacy to intention and entrepreneurship mediates both capabilities towards intention.

In the innovation and social entrepreneurship cluster, digital literacy not only increases intentions but also nascent behaviours (initial actions), thus helping to close the intention-action gap. Consequently, entrepreneurship education that integrates data-driven social problem-solving, digital marketing and impact measurement is more likely to generate action (Ip 2024). At the same time, a systematic review maps show that digital technology and innovation strengthen students’ entrepreneurial motivation and intentions, despite persistent barriers to infrastructure, faculty readiness and campus governance, which are reflected in the students’ innovation pathway map (Somià, Lechner & Pittaway 2024).

Finally, a 2025 study in the Journal of Innovation & Knowledge showed that when entrepreneurship education explicitly targets digital entrepreneurship, the impact on digital entrepreneurial intention is more substantial, including among non-business students, opening up cross-disciplinary opportunities that are also reflected in student innovation (Liang et al. 2025). Overall, the overlay map and current literature imply three design priorities for strengthening entrepreneurial literacy in higher education: First, embedding digital and financial literacy as core dimensions of entrepreneurial literacy; second, tying intention to behaviour through authentic projects (including the social/digital realm) to translate entrepreneurial literacy into action; and third, building the curriculum on the campus’ digital learning space architecture to sustain the development of entrepreneurial literacy across disciplines.

Figure 4 shows the global research keyword density map, which displays areas coloured yellow to light green. These areas represent the most common or frequently discussed topics. These could be considered study zones with the highest activity.

The terms entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and college students have the highest number of points. This visual pattern is slowly spreading to include digital literacy and financial literacy. It is evident that over the past 5 years, researchers have not only observed people wanting to start their own businesses but also the importance of having basic skills such as digital literacy and financial literacy. This study also views higher education as a way to develop these skills (Wibowo et al. 2023). The right side clearly shows that digital literacy is related to the idea of digital business and the digital economy. Ismail and Wan Hussain (2024) and Pham et al. (2024) state that project-based digital entrepreneurship learning and the use of online tools have become essential factors in students’ plans to become digital entrepreneurs.

On the other hand, financial knowledge is shown as a dense cluster in the bottom left corner of the map. This cluster is directly related to plans to become entrepreneurs. Several studies (Alshebami & Al Marri 2022) show that teaching students about money has a positive impact on their money management behaviour, such as making them more likely to save and be prepared to manage business capital. At the top of the map, the theme of social entrepreneurship relates to education and new ideas. It indicates that researchers are now more interested in making a difference in the world. Currently, digital literacy in the early stages of a business acts as a bridge between initial plans and concrete actions. In conclusion, the overall heatmap reflects the current perspective of studies, where entrepreneurship in higher education should improve students’ overall digital, financial and social skills, rather than simply teaching business theory.

The results of this study have practical implications for the curriculum, namely, redesigning learning to be experiential and project-based, based on digital platforms, to be relevant to the hot zone of digital entrepreneurship (Pham et al. 2024; Wibowo et al. 2023). Mainstream financial literacy as a mandatory and applicable module, such as budgeting, cash flow and microfinance, to activate the behavioural pathway to intention (Alshebami & Al Marri 2022). Integrate social and sustainability orientation into digital projects to help the transition from intention to measurable action (Asad et al. 2025; Ip 2024). Develop campus digital learning space architecture to support student digital literacy and its impact on academic performance (Zakir et al. 2025).

This research has several methodological limitations that require consideration. Firstly, the bibliometric analysis in this study used only the Scopus database, thus potentially overlooking relevant publications indexed in other databases such as Web of Science or Google Scholar. Secondly, the quality of the metadata used is highly dependent on the completeness and accuracy of the data available in Scopus, so potential inconsistencies or misrepresentations could impact the analysis results. Thirdly, the language restriction to English-language publications has the potential to overlook important contributions from research in other languages, potentially biasing the global representation of research. Fourthly, the identification of research themes depends on author-selected keywords and metadata quality, which may result in conceptual overlap between entrepreneurial literacy and closely related constructs such as entrepreneurship education, financial literacy and digital literacy. Finally, although the dataset is global, this study does not conduct a fully comparative regional analysis, limiting deeper insights into geographical differences in the conceptualisation of entrepreneurial literacy.

For future research, it is recommended to integrate multiple database sources to increase data coverage and representativeness. Furthermore, the use of data cleaning techniques and more in-depth metadata validation is necessary to enhance the accuracy of the analysis. Future research could also consider including multilingual publications to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the development of the topic under study. Furthermore, a mixed-methods approach that combines bibliometric analysis with qualitative or systematic studies could also provide a deeper understanding of the dynamics of research in this field.