PurposeThe central research questions which the paper aims to answer are: What are the entrepreneurial intentions of university students in different European regions? What are the factors that most contribute to entrepreneurial intentions and the potential differences between the regions?Design/methodology/approachThis cross‐sectional study explores the prospective career paths of 988 university students from eastern and western Germany as well as from central Portugal. In exploring the “regional dimension” it uses a wide range of variables such as demographic profile, social background, motives for occupational choice and participation in entrepreneurship education.FindingsJust a small fraction of students is disposed to step into self‐employment, and the vast majority has not yet made the decision. When characterizing the potential “founders”, the findings reveal a non or weak influence of demographic profile, social background and participation in entrepreneurship education, but the underlying motives for occupational choice as well as the “regional dimension” are highly relevant.Research limitations/implicationsSince only data from three universities have been analyzed, a simple generalization should be made cautiously. For this reason, it is suggested that further research be conducted to detect regional differences. In addition, students were asked about their entrepreneurial intentions in some cases years before their occupational choices were made. As their perception may alter in the future, longitudinal studies could compensate for this restriction.Originality/valueThe paper finds several motives predominantly related to the intention to enter an entrepreneurial career, all of them of a non‐economic nature. Furthermore, it uncovered the existence of a “regional dimension”, which is the incising element for molding entrepreneurial individuals. When universities intend to fulfill their mission in fostering entrepreneurship, the importance of entrepreneurship education should not be overestimated.

The objective of this study is to identify factors for poor performance and failure faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and to investigate a potential bias between real causes and attribution for stranding. In order to achieve this objective, we have adopted entrepreneurial personal story explorations in eight Portuguese SME. Our research reveals that the most important factors are limited access to finance, poor market conditions, inadequate staff, and lack of institutional support, as well as co-operation and networking. Hereby, at a first glance, external factors were more often cited, but qualitative analysis revealed that internal factors are imminent and not satisfactorily recognized. Even though some owner-managers showed a certain awareness regarding their internal weaknesses, many problems such as lacking strategy and vision, low educational levels, and inadequate social capital are not sufficiently recognized. Therewith, we found a strong attribution error when SME owner-managers judge the causes of their ventures' unsuccessful performance and failure. Finally, we draw conclusions and suggestions for policymakers, small business owners, consultants, and researchers.

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Important factors that determine the emergence of new start-ups are the existence of the individuals' entrepreneurial motivation, knowledge and skills. Entrepreneurship education (EE) seems to play an important role in developing these attributes. However, a fundamental question still remains: is entrepreneurship really teachable? The article, conceptual in nature, offers a survey about the scientific discussion on the teachability of entrepreneurship and comes out with a phenomenon, which we call 'Teachability Dilemma'. The insights lead us to claim that future EE should desist from simply teaching knowledge on business creation and rather focus on experiencing entrepreneurship.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate what factors drive collaborative entrepreneurship. To do so, the authors examine the joint influence of both firm resources and entrepreneurial orientation on the decision to establish interfirm alliances. The paper considers new variables which are likely to determine the phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach -Based on a random sample, the authors performed a cross-sectional study among 84 Portuguese firms. Data collection was made by an online questionnaire with a personalised link and answer control codes. For data analyses, the authors used descriptive statistics and logistic regression (logit model). Findings -The results indicate that several resources and some dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation are linked with collaborative entrepreneurship, but the effects are rather mixed. In particular, financial, commercial and administrative resources, as well as innovative potential and collective capability, seem to be most relevant for the alliance engagement. Originality/value -This study contributes to a better understanding of collaborative entrepreneurship. Knowing the driving forces behind this phenomenon helps firms to engage more actively in interfirm cooperation.