Perceptions to Start up Business as a Career Choice among Saudi Female Higher Education Students

Md. Mazharul Islam, Abla Abdul Hameed Bokhari and Turki Shjaan Abalala
Additional contact information
Md. Mazharul Islam: Department of Finance, College of Business, King Abdulaziz University, Rabigh, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Abla Abdul Hameed Bokhari: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Turki Shjaan Abalala: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia

Societies, 2018, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-22

Abstract: This study explored factors inspiring female university students in Saudi Arabia to choose entrepreneurship as their career choice. This explorative empirical study sought to explore this phenomenon in the context of a culture of socialization strongly attached to religion and steeped in tradition. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire survey administered to female university students. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used to identify influencing factors. The results mostly support previous study findings on perceptions about the drivers of females’ aspirations in venture creation. Entrepreneurship and business-related courses and media roles are recognized as the most influential factors explaining reasons for the choice of occupation and career. However, this study found only mixed support for these variables. Interestingly, this study found that social learning theory was negatively and significantly related to the decision of female university students to start up a business as a career choice, opposite to previous findings. The findings will assist relevant authorities in facilitating an increase in female entrepreneurship to contribute to the national Vision 2030.

Keywords: female entrepreneurship; students; career choice; new business startups; entrepreneurial perceptions; Saudi Arabia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/2/31/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/2/31/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:31-:d:146585

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().