Entrepreneurial intention acknowledgment in sustainable entrepreneurship: An exploratory study

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Teresa Dieguez
Thiago Sobral
Oscarina Conceição

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is more than ever a key factor to successfully surviving and building a sustainable future, as it is linked to certain positive and proactive personality traits and innovation and creativity. Higher education plays an important role in this ongoing process, as students of today need to be guided into becoming tomorrow's leaders. The 21st century demands new skills and education. Regarding entrepreneurship, it will be more effective the better the associated profile with the student is understood in terms of entrepreneurial intention. This research involves 101 respondents from a population of 300 students. Taking as dimensions attitude, norms, and behaviour, hierarchical and k-means clustering methods were applied to the responses, yielding five entrepreneurial intention profiles (clusters). This is the main contribution of this study to the literature, which may help entrepreneurship program administrators and students alike to improve on their entrepreneurial skillset. This study also presents a new approach to better motivate and work with students on what concerns entrepreneurship. It can also be applied in all contexts and areas of knowledge.

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Author Biographies

Thiago Sobral, INESC TEC, Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal

Thiago Sobral is a researcher at INESC TEC and Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). He holds a Ph.D. in Transport Systems (MIT Portugal Program - FEUP/FCTUC/IST), a M.Sc. in Services Engineering and Management from FEUP, and a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics (major in Scientific Computing) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). His main research interestes are Ontology Engineering, Data Visualisation, and Intelligent Transport Systems

Oscarina Conceição, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e Ave, Portugal

Oscarina Conceição é doutorada em Economia pela Universidade do Minho, com a tese de "spin-offs baseados em pesquisa: determinantes de estratégias e desempenho", mestre em Economia Industrial e da Empresa pela Universidade do Minho e licenciada em Economia pela Universidade do Minho . É Assistente na Escola Superior de Gestão do Instituto Politécnico de Cávado e Ave desde 2009. Foi Assistente Convidada na Universidade do Minho entre 2004 e 2010. Os seus interesses de investigação incluem empreendedorismo, inovação e os seus efeitos socioeconómicos; Redes de transferência de conhecimento e inovação .