Entrepreneurial Beliefs and Intentions: A Cross-Cultural Study of University Students in Seven Countries

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION Entrepreneurship has become a priority for several societies. The capacity of new firms to contribute to economic growth (Achs and Armington, 2003), jobs (Birch, 1987) and innovation (Reynolds, Storey and Westhead, 1994) fully justifies the interest they generate. Given this prioritization, universities are increasingly being called upon to play a more active role, in particular by providing their students with education and support that make an entrepreneurial career easier to undertake. The involvement of universities is all the more important given that this career avenue is becoming a more common and necessary choice for students. Certain studies have focused on the entrepreneurial intentions of university students (Audet, 2004; Boissin and Emin, 2006; Kolvereid, 1996; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999). Filion, L'Heureux, Kadji-Youlaeu and Bellavance (2002) showed that 58% of Quebec university students intended to start up a business. Similarly, even though Audet (2004) found that only 8% of English-speaking Quebec university students intended to start up a business in the short term, 45% of them estimated that there was a 75% chance that they would one day run their own enterprise. These results are consistent with those collected in Russia and Norway (Kolvereid, 1996; Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999). However, few studies have attempted to understand how the students' values, attitudes and behaviour, that is their entrepreneurial potential, can predispose them to founding an enterprise, creating their own job or having the intention to do so. Several studies have clearly demonstrated that entrepreneurial behaviour is strongly influenced by people's values, attitudes and beliefs (Krueger, 1993; Krueger and Brazeal, 1994; Krueger and Carsrud, 1993). More importantly, beliefs are influenced by the national culture and social context. Nonetheless, even though it might be reasonable to believe that the microeconomic and cultural environments of some countries favour entrepreneurial behaviour whereas others discourage it, further investigation is needed (Arenius and Minniti, 2005). Accordingly, this paper presents the results of a study undertaken to better understand and compare the intentions, interests and prevalence of university students from Canada, Tunisia, France, Romania, United-Kingdom, Columbia, and Germany. The study also compares these different groups with regard to their beliefs and perceptions about entrepreneurship. Not only does this study allow us to draw up a profile of university students in the seven countries, it also allows us to study the cultural dimension and its possible impact on the students' entrepreneurial activity. We will begin by examining the theoretical context and our conceptual model, which is partially based on the principles of planned behaviour. We will then explain the research design and presenting the results. Finally, we will discuss the conclusions that can be drawn from these results and the limits of the research. II. THE THEORETICAL CONTEXT There are several models and theories that explain the complex phenomenon of entrepreneurship. This study draws its inspiration from models described in the scientific literature on the theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991); these models attempt to predict and explain individual behaviour, which in the present case is business start-up. Accordingly, we will review the main principles of the models stemming from this area. We will also take a look at the various studies that have examined student entrepreneurship, then a brief discussion on the impact of the cultural dimension on entrepreneurial predispositions. A. Entrepreneurship as A Decision-making Process Shapero and Sokol (1982) were among the first authors to use planned behaviour theory in an entrepreneurial context. Their work gave rise to numerous studies whose results have pointed to the usefulness of this theory in understanding business creation (Davidsson, 1995; Krueger, 1993; Krueger and Brazeal, 1994; Krueger and Carsrud, 1993; Krueger and Dickson, 1994; Krueger, Reilly and Carsrud, 2000; Reitan, 1996). …