IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/por/fepwps/256.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Entrepreneurial potential in Business and Engineering courses … why worry now?

Author

Listed:
  • Aurora A.C. Teixeira

    (INESC Porto; CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto)

Abstract

Research on entrepreneurship potential targeting university students is emerging. However, it is in general focused on one school-one course. Few studies analyze the differences in entrepreneurial propensity between students of different subjects. In this paper we analyze the magnitude of this propensity in engineering and economics/business courses. The reason for such focus is that traditionally these courses are viewed as the ones concentrating individuals that are more likely to create new ventures. The empirical results, based on a large-scale survey of 2430 final-year students, reveal that no statistical difference exists in entrepreneurial potential of economics/business and engineering students, and that these two latter groups have lower entrepreneurial potential than students from other courses. This result proves to be quite unfortunate given the focus that previous studies have placed on these two majors, and the fact that a substantial part of entrepreneurial education is undertaken in business and engineering schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Aurora A.C. Teixeira, 2007. "Entrepreneurial potential in Business and Engineering courses … why worry now?," FEP Working Papers 256, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    • Handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:256
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.fep.up.pt/investigacao/workingpapers/07.12.07_wp256.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Norris Krueger, 1993. "The Impact of Prior Entrepreneurial Exposure on Perceptions of New Venture Feasibility and Desirability," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 18(1), pages 5-21, October.
    2. KruegerJR, Norris F. & Reilly, Michael D. & Carsrud, Alan L., 2000. "Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(5-6), pages 411-432.
    3. Frederic Delmar & Per Davidsson, 2000. "Where do they come from? Prevalence and characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, January.
    4. Brandstatter, Hermann, 1997. "Becoming an entrepreneur -- A question of personality structure?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 157-177, April.
    5. Candida G. Brush, 1992. "Research on Women Business Owners: Past Trends, a New Perspective and Future Directions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 16(4), pages 5-30, July.
    6. Carroll, Glenn R. & Mosakowski, Elaine M., 1987. "The Career Dynamics of Self-Employment," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt13p1n10b, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    7. Kourilsky, Marilyn L. & Walstad, William B., 1998. "Entrepreneurship and female youth: knowledge, attitudes, gender differences, and educational practices," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 77-88, January.
    8. David A. Baucus & Sherrie E. Human, 1995. "Second-Career Entrepreneurs: A Multiple Case Study Analysis of Entrepreneurial Processes and Antecedent Variables," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 19(2), pages 41-71, January.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/2218 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aurora A.C. Teixeira & Todd Davey, 2008. "Attitudes of Higher Education students to new venture creation: a preliminary approach to the Portuguese case," FEP Working Papers 298, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aurora A.C. Teixeira & Todd Davey, 2008. "Attitudes of Higher Education students to new venture creation: a preliminary approach to the Portuguese case," FEP Working Papers 298, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    2. Sascha G. Walter & Achim Walter, 2009. "Personenbezogene Determinanten von Unternehmensgründungen: Stand der Forschung und Perspektiven des Fortschritts," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 57-89, February.
    3. Verheul, Ingrid & Thurik, Roy & Grilo, Isabel & van der Zwan, Peter, 2012. "Explaining preferences and actual involvement in self-employment: Gender and the entrepreneurial personality," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 325-341.
    4. Verheul, Ingrid & Uhlaner, Lorraine & Thurik, Roy, 2005. "Business accomplishments, gender and entrepreneurial self-image," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 483-518, July.
    5. Claudia Alvarez & David Urbano, 2008. "Entorno e Iniciativa Emprendedora: una Perspectiva Institucional," Working Papers 0807, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised Dec 2008.
    6. Verheul, I. & Thurik, A.R. & Grilo, I., 2008. "Explaining Preferences and Actual Involvement in Self-Employment: New Insights into the Role of Gender," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-003-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    7. Giuseppe Criaco & Philipp Sieger & Karl Wennberg & Francesco Chirico & Tommaso Minola, 2017. "Parents’ performance in entrepreneurship as a “double-edged sword” for the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 841-864, December.
    8. Márton Gosztonyi & Csákné Filep Judit, 2022. "Profiling (Non-)Nascent Entrepreneurs in Hungary Based on Machine Learning Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Cuong Nguyen, 2018. "Demographic factors, family background and prior self-employment on entrepreneurial intention - Vietnamese business students are different: why?," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Carter, Nancy M. & Gartner, William B. & Shaver, Kelly G. & Gatewood, Elizabeth J., 2003. "The career reasons of nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 13-39, January.
    11. Peter van der Zwan & Ingrid Verheul & Roy Thurik & Isabel Grilo, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Progress: Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder in Europe and the US," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-070/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 17 Mar 2010.
    12. André van Stel & Roy Thurik & Ingrid Verheul, 2004. "Explaining female and male entrepreneurship across 29 countries," Scales Research Reports N200403, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    13. Ljiljana Najev Cacija & Marina Lovrincevic & Ivana Bilic, 2023. "The Role of Demographic Factors and Prior Entrepreneurial Exposure in Shaping the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Young Adults: The Case of Croatia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    14. Chris Dawson & Andrew Henley, 2015. "Gender, Risk, and Venture Creation Intentions," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 501-515, April.
    15. Ivano Dileo & Thaís García Pereiro, 2019. "Assessing the impact of individual and context factors on the entrepreneurial process. A cross-country multilevel approach," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1393-1441, December.
    16. repec:hrs:journl::y:2012:v:4:i:3:p:155-172 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Charalampos A. Botsaris & Vasiliki Vamvaka, 2012. "Models Of The Determinants Of Entrepreneurial Behaviour: A Literature Review," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(3), pages 155-172, December.
    18. Francisco Liñán & Yi–Wen Chen, 2009. "Development and Cross–Cultural Application of a Specific Instrument to Measure Entrepreneurial Intentions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 593-617, May.
    19. Norris F. Krueger Jr., 2007. "What Lies Beneath? The Experiential Essence of Entrepreneurial Thinking," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(1), pages 123-138, January.
    20. Shirokova, Galina & Osiyevskyy, Oleksiy & Bogatyreva, Karina, 2016. "Exploring the intention–behavior link in student entrepreneurship: Moderating effects of individual and environmental characteristics," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 386-399.
    21. Francesc Miralles & Ferran Giones & Carla Riverola, 2016. "Evaluating the impact of prior experience in entrepreneurial intention," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 791-813, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurship; Students; Business; Engineering;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:256. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fepuppt.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.