National culture and higher education as pre-determining factors of student entrepreneurship

Abstract

Our purpose is to assess the influence of national culture and higher education on entrepreneurship among students and fresh graduates. The aim was to determine whether the grouping of students based on certain personality traits (most of which are connected to culture) is effective at predicting entrepreneurial intention and whether entrepreneurial training over the course of their studies significantly influences their entrepreneurial intention and capability. A hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis generated four student typologies: mediocre, goal-oriented, withdrawn and opportunistic. Both the personality and academic profile-based groupings showed a weak, but significant effect on entrepreneurial intention; however, the second method had a slightly higher statistical relevance. The results also showed that receiving entrepreneurial training over the course of university enrolment is a determining factor when choosing an entrepreneurial career and that national culture likely has a moderating influence over the relationship between feasibility and intention to become an entrepreneur.

Keywords:

• entrepreneurial intention
• national culture
• academic profile
• cluster analysis
• entrepreneurship education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.