Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2017, 65(6), 1935-1944 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201765061935

Understanding Student Entrepreneurs: Doers, Procrastinators, Dreamers, and Abstainers

Marian Holienka1, Peter Gál1, Zuzana Kovačičová2
1 Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia
2 Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia

Entrepreneurship as one of the potential career paths is an actual phenomenon among university students all around the world. However, as shown by recent GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey) findings, the action-intention patterns are rather varied. While a bunch of students already start their businesses (= "doers"), few of them declare their intention to start-up after completing their studies (= "procrastinators"), and even greater share of student population indicate a postponed intention to start a business in the mid-range future (= "dreamers"). Of course, a considerable proportion of students exhibit no inclination towards entrepreneurial career path (= "abstainers"). The aim of this exploratory study is to analyse differences between actual, would-be and "perhaps sometimes later" entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurial abstainers, among European university students. To do so, we utilize the 2016 GUESSS project individual-level data from 25 European countries (n = 68,828), search for similarities and differences between the above-mentioned groups of university students, and analyse robustness of our findings by investigating for drivers of individual involvement in entrepreneurial activity. Our study contributes to the body of knowledge on this under-researched perspective on youth and student entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, students, activity, intention, postponement, realization
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This paper is based on data from Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey - GUESSS. Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Management is the national GUESSS coordinator in Slovakia. This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-14-0647.

Published: December 7, 2017  Show citation

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Holienka, M., Gál, P., & Kovačičová, Z. (2017). Understanding Student Entrepreneurs: Doers, Procrastinators, Dreamers, and Abstainers. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 65(6), 1935-1944. doi: 10.11118/actaun201765061935
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