Entrepreneurial intention: the impact of higher education and in particular entrepreneurship courses

• Author(s): Andrade, António ; Lamas, Marco ; Remondes, Jorge ; Quaresma, Rui ; Soares, Vasco Salazar
• Date: 2023
• Origin: European Journal of Applied Business and Management
• Document Type: Journal article
• Language: English

Description

Purpose: The Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Student’s Survey (GUESSS), a study on the entrepreneurial spirit of higher education students, which is applied globally, and which in 2018 involved the participation of 4178 Portuguese students, meets the concerns that the States have in deepening the approach to entrepreneurship in the teaching/learning process. The aim of the study is, among others, to assess the impact of entrepreneurship courses on the entrepreneurial intention of students. In this article, we analyze the data from the answers given by Portuguese undergraduate, postgraduate, Master in Business Administration (MBA), Masters, and Ph.D. students.Methodology: For this purpose, descriptive statistics methods, association measures such as correlation coefficients, and a Structural Equation Model tested with SPSS AMOS v.26 software were used.Findings: Based on the study carried out and the analysis of the data obtained, it was possible to extract that there are positive relationships between Attitude towards behavior on Entrepreneurial Intention, on Perceived behavioral control on Entrepreneurial Intention, on Entrepreneurial Courses on Attitude towards behavior, on Entrepreneurial Courses on the subjective norm, from Entrepreneurial Courses on Perceived behavioral control, from Perceived University Environment on Attitude towards behavior, from Perceived University Environment on the subjective norm, and from Perceived University Environment on Perceived behavioral control. The relationships of Entrepreneurial Courses and Perceived University Environment on Entrepreneurial Intention were also analyzed and mainly indirect effects were verified, and there is a positive relationship between Entrepreneurial Courses and Perceived University Environment on Entrepreneurial Intention.Originality/value: To answer the question “Do Entrepreneurial courses and the university environment influence entrepreneurial intention in Portugal?” and to offer a new contribution to the scientific community and Portuguese higher education institutions, the data collected through the GUESSS 2018 questionnaire was analyzed. This study then made it possible to test the impact of entrepreneurship courses and of the academic environment on the entrepreneurial intention in Portugal.Keywords: Guesss, Entrepreneurship, Education, Entrepreneurial Intention DOI: https://doi.org/10.58869/EJABM9(3)/01