How culture and education influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions : -A qualitative study between students from Babes-Bolyai University, Romania and Umeå University, Sweden, enrolled in Business programs-

Abstract:

Entrepreneurship has become a much discussed subject in the past years when the business world together with universities discovered that one of the factors that will help the national economy, level of innovation are the entrepreneurs. And even though there are different attitudes towards whether entrepreneurs are born or made, everyone agreed that the role of academic education is important in the creation of new entrepreneurs and developing them. Now the question is whether the universities in the way that they are conducting studies are able to offer the appropriate environment for an entrepreneur to develop or national culture has a more powerful impact on the young graduates’ entrepreneurial initiatives.

The study attempts to understand how culture and education influence students to go towards an entrepreneurial career rather than preferring the security of a job. A qualitative research was conducted with groups of students from two different countries in order to better see the effects culture has, as it is an abstract concept.

First, a literature review was conducted in order to clarify different concepts and to create the basis for the analysis and interpretation. Next, gathering the data- focus groups and interviews conducted with students- was an important step in being able to understand how culture and entrepreneurial education interact to each other. Afterwards, the analysis was made and the data gathered was examined through the theory previously chosen. The results lead to a framework, developed by the author, which explains the relationships between entrepreneurial education, culture and new venture creation- entrepreneurial intentions. Further research and recommendations were added at the end of the study to guide the future studies.