Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2018, 66(6), 1485-1496 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201866061485

Sports as a Stepping-Stone for Entrepreneurship: Examining Sports University Students

Marian Holienka1, Jana Holienková2, Miroslav Holienka3
1 Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Nám. J. Herdu 2, 917 01 Trnava, Slovak Republic
3 Department of Sports Games, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Comenius University in Bratislava, Nábr. arm. gen. L. Svobodu 9, 814 69 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Sports and entrepreneurship have several common attributes. Therefore, when focusing on entrepreneurship among university students, sports students deserve special attention. The main aim of our exploratory study was to examine personality traits, enterprising tendencies and entrepreneurial propensity of sports students. Our study was based on data gathered through own data collection using a survey instrument comprising of established measures of enterprising tendencies and interpersonal aspect of personality, and items capturing individual's entrepreneurial propensity and other personal and environmental attributes. We have collected 254 responses from 130 sports and 124 pedagogy students, who served as a comparison group. Our findings show that sports students exhibit higher enterprising tendency, significant differences in four out of eight examined general personality traits, and higher entrepreneurial propensity compared to their pedagogy counterparts. In search of potential origins of these differences and high embeddedness of entrepreneurship among sports students, we explored selected individual attributes as well as environmental factors related to respondents' personal and university settings. Based on our findings, we develop implications for entrepreneurship encouragement and utilization of enterprising potential in sports student population.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, students, sports, enterprising tendency, personality traits, education
Grants and funding:

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-14-0647.

Published: December 19, 2018  Show citation

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Holienka, M., Holienková, J., & Holienka, M. (2018). Sports as a Stepping-Stone for Entrepreneurship: Examining Sports University Students. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 66(6), 1485-1496. doi: 10.11118/actaun201866061485
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