Entrepreneurial competencies of university students

Abstract

Entrepreneurial competencies have become a tool that can be learned. Education encourages the entrepreneurial way of thinking at the individual level, and thus develops the societal outlook. Various EU funds and non-profit organizations support initiatives for the development of entrepreneurial competencies and educating young people as this has been recognized as an important element of building a global society. This research was conducted through an online survey at two private universities, Singidunum in Serbia and Libertas International University in Croatia, on a sample of 864 students. The aim of the research was to examine the differences and similarities in entrepreneurial competencies, as well as to consider the attitudes and factors that affect the genesis and degree of entrepreneurial competencies. The age of the students, gender, field of study and career choice after studying were chosen as the variables and examined in relation to the entrepreneurial competencies of young people. Based on our results, the age of students does not correlate with entrepreneurial competencies. There is a significant difference in entrepreneurial competencies in relation to gender and career choice after graduation, but no substantial difference in terms of the field of study. The obtained research results indicate the need for further development of entrepreneurial competencies at universities.

The association of socio-demographic characteristics of university students and the levels of their digital entrepreneurial competences

“…The results presented in this paper represent the first empirical evidence on the level of university students DEC for the specified competence area, using the EmDigital framework. In line with findings on the relationship between DEC and DEI [ 26 , 27 ] and studies that assessed EC of university students [ 35 ] and examined the relationship between levels of EC and various socio-demographic characteristics of university students [ 36 ] to examine the success of university-level entrepreneurship education in creating EC as a critical determinant in building students' EI, this study contributes to the assessment of DEC and associating their levels with various socio-demographic characteristics of university students (as suggested by Alferaih [ 26 ]) to investigate the success of university-level digital entrepreneurship education in creating DEC. Moreover, this study responds to a call for future research aimed at creating entrepreneurial competences in the Digital “University based” Entrepreneurial ecosystems proposed by Secundo et al [ 40 ].…”

“…These findings are consistent with a large number of studies that have shown that “traditional” entrepreneurship education programmes aimed at developing the entrepreneurial competences (EC) of university students have an impact on their entrepreneurial intention (EI) [ [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] ]. Given the positive relationship between EC and EI, empirical studies have been conducted to assess the level of EC of university students [ 35 ] and to relate the level of EC with various socio-demographic characteristics of university students [ 36 ]. The main purpose of these studies was to investigate the success of university entrepreneurship education in creating EC as a crucial determinant for the development of students' EI.…”

“…[ 35 ]) and relates the level of DEC to various socio-demographic characteristics of university students (similar to Ref. [ 36 ]). This research is necessary to show that digital entrepreneurship education at the university level is successful in creating DEC as a crucial determinant for building students DEI.…”