Entrepreneurial Interest and Entrepreneurial Competence Among Spanish Youth: An Analysis with Artificial Neural Networks

Isabel Luis-Rico, María-Camino Escolar-Llamazares, Tamara De la Torre-Cruz, Alfredo Jiménez, Álvaro Herrero, Carmen Palmero-Cámara and Alfredo Jiménez-Eguizábal
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Isabel Luis-Rico: Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain
María-Camino Escolar-Llamazares: Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain
Tamara De la Torre-Cruz: Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain
Alfredo Jiménez: Department of Management, KEDGE Business School, 33400 Talence, France
Álvaro Herrero: Grupo de Inteligencia Computacional Aplicada (GICAP), Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Burgos, 09006 Burgos, Spain
Carmen Palmero-Cámara: Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain
Alfredo Jiménez-Eguizábal: Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Studies of the socio-economic function of entrepreneurship have emphasized the critical role that entrepreneurial competence and its implementation play at different stages of the education system. In this paper, as a research objective, we seek to determine the entrepreneurial interest of Spanish youth aged between 15 and 18 years of age enrolled in formal secondary education programs, an initial stage in the development of entrepreneurship. A previously validated ad hoc questionnaire is applied through simple random sampling to 1764 students at secondary school in Spain. A descriptive cross-sectional study is carried out. The analysis is done with Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), a technique that reduces the high dimensionality of data through Cooperative Maximum Likelihood Hebbian Learning (CMLHL), applying neurocomputational methods to the educational sciences. We find as key results that Spanish youth express a medium level of interest in entrepreneurship. Analysis with ANNs shows that education in entrepreneurial competence is an influential aspect of interest in entrepreneurship. As a conclusion, our results suggest that educational and curricular reforms must be undertaken to promote the development of entrepreneurial competence at various stages of education in order to increase interest in entrepreneurship.

Keywords: youth; secondary education; entrepreneurial intention; entrepreneurial interest; psychological variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1351-:d:319721

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