Target Group-Specific Design of Student Entrepreneurship Support - A German Example Focusing on Start-Up Motives and Barriers

The reserach project "Foundation and Entrepreneurship of Students" (GESt- study) analyzes entrepreneurial criteria and existing cause-effect relationships within the pre-start-up process of students, in order to generate recommended actions for advcancing and improving the design of student entrepreneurship support and entrepreneurship education. This benefits the entrepreneurial activity of the most innovative target group of students and academics and, thus, employment and the competetiveness of the economy. The research paper recommends a target group-specific approach within the scope of student entrepreneurship support. For this purpose, the foundation-ambition types are illustrated, whereupon their start-up motives, barriers and desiderata are compared based on a data set of approximately 1,500 students from four German universities (of applied sciences). Due to the conducted factor and cluster analyses, indeed, different requirements of the diverse foundation-ambition types are identified. Moreover, starting points at the universities and colleges in the context of student entrepreneurship support and education are suggested, followed by a demand for further research.

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