Prior education and entrepreneurial intentions: the differential impact of a wide range of fields of study

Aurora Teixeira () and Rosa Forte

Review of Managerial Science, 2017, vol. 11, issue 2, No 3, 353-394

Abstract: Abstract Studies on entrepreneurial intentions often neglect the heterogeneity of individuals’ education background. This paper develops an integrated intention-based framework and analyzes the impact of fields of study on entrepreneurial intentions. Based on a sample of 2423 final-year students, enrolled in 32 fields of study, and resorting to logistic estimations, we find that, beside the attitude towards starting a business, fields of study, considered at a highly detailed level, are relevant (direct and indirect) predictors of entrepreneurial intention. We unambiguously show that there is a huge hidden potential for new venture creation in fields of study related to creative and leisure activities (e.g., Arts and humanities, or, more specifically, Literature and linguistics, History and archaeology, Audio-visual techniques and media production, Sports, and Architecture and town planning), Law, and Health (most notably, Pharmacy and Veterinary). Significant differences in the level of intention between students of different fields of study indicate that universities should more extensively focus entrepreneurship education on students in other subject area than business or engineering/technology sciences.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial intentions; Entrepreneurial motivation; Prior educational background of entrepreneurs; Antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 J24 M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11846-015-0188-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:rvmgts:v:11:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s11846-015-0188-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/11846

DOI: 10.1007/s11846-015-0188-2

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Managerial Science is currently edited by R. Ewert and W. Kürsten

More articles in Review of Managerial Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().