Entrepreneurial intentions, motivations and barriers: Differences among American, Asian and European students

Abstract

Should entrepreneurship education be the same in every country or should it be adapted to each context? In addition to answering this question, it appears to be important to identify the concerns students have regarding their entrepreneurship education programs, so as to strengthen their perceptions of feasibility and desirability of an entrepreneurial career. In this article we examine whether differences exist among American, Asian and European students in terms of entrepreneurial intentions and dispositions, as well as motivations and perceived barriers for business startup. Results indicate that entrepreneurial disposition and intentions differ by country but that students across countries are motivated and/or discouraged by similar variables. However, our results indicate that the levels of sensitivity to each motivator and barrier differ by country. Our results support the argument made by past researches that cultural differences should be taken into consideration when developing entrepreneurship education programs.

Students’ perceptions of barriers to entrepreneurship

“…Personality traits like motivation (Iakovleva et al, 2014), courage and volition (Birdthistle, 2008), self-efficacy (Boyd & Vozikis, 1994;Zhao, 2005), confidence and fear, either in financial terms (Finnerty & Krzystofik, 1985) or in terms of risk avoidance (Giacomin et al, 2011;Singh Sandhu et al, 2011), are examined by many authors and are found to act either as drivers or as impediments to entrepreneurial intentions. For example, lack of motivation, lack of courage, lack of self-efficacy or confidence can act as personality constraints to one's engagement to self-employment.…”

“…(Birdthistle, 2008;Franke & Lüthje, 2004;Ledyaeva et al, 2008;Shinnar et al, 2009;Shinnar et al, 2012;Smith & Beasley, 2011). The perception of financial barriers is slightly differentiated between genders (Ribeiro et al, 2014) and between different levels of development (Giacomin et al ,2011). Informal support, includes the lack of entrepreneurial role models, i.e.…”

“…Formal support, includes institutional support, like funding, subsidies, consulting and service support, mostly referred by actual entrepreneurs (Akehurst et al, 2012). Young successful entrepreneurs declare their frustration according to the role of official support structures (Hulsink & Koek, 2014), while also the majority of students asked, argue that, lack of institutional support is a major drawback to their entrepreneurial plans (Giacomin et al, 2011;Pruett et al, 2009;Smith & Beasley, 2011;Sesen & Pruett, 2014). Resource constraints, including human resources (Ledyaeva et al, 2008) and infrastructures are vital to business startup and their lack is considered a barrier to entrepreneurship referred sometimes by students (Stamboulis & Barlas, 2014), although they normally pertain actual entrepreneurs (Singh Sandhu et al, 2011).…”

Motivações no empreendedorismo social

“…Intenção da pessoa de atingir algo novo; desenvolver um novo produto/serviço; continuar a Carter et al, 2003;Giacomin et al, 2011;Edelman et al, 2010;Miller et al, 2012; aprender; desenvolvimento pessoal Independência (pull)…”

“…Desejo de liberdade, controlo e flexibilidade na gestão do tempo e do trabalho; Carter et al, 2003;Giacomin et al, 2011;Hessels et al, 2008;Edelman et al, 2010;Shane et al, 2003;Kolvereid, 1996 …”