Opportunities to Improve Entrepreneurship Education: Contributions Considering Brazilian Challenges*^*

* We are grateful for the support of the Pró‐Administração project in execution at Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE) and of the UNINOVE Research Fund. Many thanks also to Philipp Sieger for the international coordination of the GUESSS project and to the JSBM evaluators and 2012 ICSB World Conference evaluators and participants who gave us a valuable feedback for improving the previous version of this paper.

Abstract

This paper identifies challenges and opportunities for enhancing higher education in entrepreneurship considering student perceptions concerning both their demand for entrepreneurship education and their entrepreneurial intention as well as previous studies that present the points of view of experts. The main focus is Brazilian higher education, but the results address challenges that cross borders, such as the need for a practical approach. The study analyzed the data from the Brazilian version of the 2011 lobal niversity ntrepreneurial pirit tudents' urvey () obtained with an online questionnaire answered by 25,751 razilian students from 37 colleges and universities. To give a reference for a better understanding of razilian statistics, data were compared to those of the 2011 international involving also 25 other countries and 64,079 responses from them. Three hypotheses were tested. The results show that entrepreneurship education has a significant negative effect on student entrepreneurial intention and also on self‐efficacy. The same occurs between entrepreneurial intention and students' demand for entrepreneurship education. razilian students present higher levels of entrepreneurial intention and are significantly more motivated to take courses and activities in entrepreneurship than those students in the international sample. Approximately 50 percent of razilian students are potential entrepreneurs. One of the opportunities identified is to take advantage of students' positive attitudes and their high demand. The opportunities could play an important role in overcoming the challenges recognized, among which are the need for a more practical approach and the need for larger and diversified educational offerings beyond business planning. The challenges make eck and reene's recommendations, presented in a 2011 issue of , particularly important for razil. The last three sections propose different explanations, suggestions for more research, and practical recommendations.

* We are grateful for the support of the Pró‐Administração project in execution at Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE) and of the UNINOVE Research Fund. Many thanks also to Philipp Sieger for the international coordination of the GUESSS project and to the JSBM evaluators and 2012 ICSB World Conference evaluators and participants who gave us a valuable feedback for improving the previous version of this paper.

* We are grateful for the support of the Pró‐Administração project in execution at Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE) and of the UNINOVE Research Fund. Many thanks also to Philipp Sieger for the international coordination of the GUESSS project and to the JSBM evaluators and 2012 ICSB World Conference evaluators and participants who gave us a valuable feedback for improving the previous version of this paper.

Notes

* We are grateful for the support of the Pró‐Administração project in execution at Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE) and of the UNINOVE Research Fund. Many thanks also to Philipp Sieger for the international coordination of the GUESSS project and to the JSBM evaluators and 2012 ICSB World Conference evaluators and participants who gave us a valuable feedback for improving the previous version of this paper.

1 The percentages in this paragraph are averages of the percentages of students who answered “yes” to the question about whether their college or university offers each one of the courses and activities listed in Table 1 of this paper.

2 To better understand the results of this survey (CFA 2006), it is important to remember that the typical Brazilian administration major offers the courses established as minimal curriculum by the Brazilian law and Education Ministry: general theory of administration, human resources, finance, marketing, accounting, costs management, production management, material management, mathematics in administration, statistics in administration, data processing, managerial information system, introduction to philosophy, economy, psychology in administration, and sociology in administration. The minimal curriculum establishes also some optional courses. Entrepreneurship is not a course of the minimal curriculum in Brazil, but it is normally offered by universities as an optional choice.

3 Different works were already prepared based on GUESSS, like national and international reports (see http://www.guesssurvey.org) and more academic texts (e.g., Bergmann 2012; Zellweger, Sieger, and Halter 2011).

4 Colleges and universities that participated in the Brazilian GUESSS 2011, contributing with five or more questionnaires answered: CEUT—Centro de Ensino Unificado de Teresina, ESADE—Laureate International Universities, ESPM—Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing, Faculdade Dom Pedro II, FACCAMP—Faculdade Campo Limpo Paulista, Facesm—Fac. de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas do Sul de Minas, FAE—Centro Universitário, Fatec—Faculdade de Tecnologia de Pindamonhangaba, Fatec—Faculdade de Tecnologia de São Sebastião, FGV‐SP—Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Faculdade R Sá, FURB—Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Grupo Uniasselvi, IFPI‐Picos—Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Piauí, IFSP—Inst. Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia em Caraguatatuba, Insper—Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa, UDESC—Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, UEL—Universidade Estadual de Londrina, UFBA—Universidade Federal da Bahia, UFGD—Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, Unifei—Universidade Federal de Itajubá, UFMA—Universidade Federal do Maranhão, UFMS—Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, UFMT—Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso, UFPR—Universidade Federal do Paraná, UFS—Universidade Federal de Sergipe, UFSC—Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, UFSJ—Universidade Federal de São João del‐Rei, UFV—Universidade Federal de Viçosa, UNIFACS—Universidade Salvador, UNIME—União Metropolitana de Educação e Cultura, Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE), Univás—Universidade do Vale do Sapucaí, Univates, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Universidade São Francisco, USP—Universidade de São Paulo.

5 Differences can be observed between international frequencies presented in this paper compared with those presented in the Brazilian GUESSS report and in the international GUESSS report because the international sample considered in both reports (available on http://www.guesssurvey.org) is n = 93,265, including all the Brazilian data.

6 Statistical tests (U test, t‐test, and/or Cramér's V test) were not performed for this point until the end of the section because the presentation of frequencies here is only descriptive, not comparative.

Additional information

Funding

Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE)

Funding

UNINOVE Research Fund

Notes on contributors

Edmilson Lima

Edmilson Lima is associate professor in the Master's and Doctoral Program in Administration and professor in the Professional Master's Program in Sports Management at Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE).

Rose M. Lopes

Rose Mary Almeida Lopes is associate professor in Entrepreneurship at Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing—College of Advertising and Marketing.

Vânia Nassif

Vânia Maria Jorge Nassif is associate professor in the Professional Master's Program in Sports Management and professor in the Master's and Doctoral Program in Administration at Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE).

Dirceu Silva

Dirceu da Silva is associate professor in the Master's and Doctoral Program in Administration at Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE).