The importance of developing the entrepreneurial capacities in sport sciences university students

ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurship in the sports sector plays a key role in the increasing demand for sports professionals that possess entrepreneurial skills. Universities may help build the skills of sports science graduates by adopting educational policies to promote entrepreneurship. However, the capabilities that must be achieved to this end, and other factors, are unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand what perceived capabilities, internal factors (entrepreneurial courses), and external factors (environment) influence entrepreneurial intentions of students of physical activity and sport sciences. To achieve these goals, we analysed a sample of undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Valencia (n = 578). The results indicated that the perceived entrepreneurial capacity to create an enterprise and the perceived entrepreneurial capacity to become an entrepreneur are two explanatory variables of intentions for these students. In addition, statistically significant differences were noted between the entrepreneurship training groups. Entrepreneurial capacities to create enterprises and become entrepreneurs should be promoted to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit among students of physical activity and sport sciences. Therefore, university education as a component of policies to promote entrepreneurship will increase the number of entrepreneurs in the sports industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports
• entrepreneurship
• university policy
• students
• entrepreneurial intentions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.