Project

Unraveling the impact of student entrepreneurship: an analysis of students’ identity, career development and venture performance.

Code
3E014120
Duration
01 October 2020 → 11 April 2021
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Social sciences
    • Cognitive and perceptual development
    • Statistics and data analysis
    • Innovation and technology management
    • Organisation and management theory
    • Micro-based behavioural economics
Keywords
Entrepreneurship student entrepreneurship entrepreneurship support
 
Project description

Despite the growing popularity of student entrepreneurship and the increased engagement of universities in supporting students to develop startups, the current understanding of the phenomenon is still in its infancy and theoretical frameworks for studying it are embryonic. In response, this project provides new insights into the impact of student entrepreneurship, and by doing so, will contribute to the broader fields of entrepreneurship and management. Particularly, while engaging in entrepreneurial activities may represent far-reaching events in the life of students, the impact of student entrepreneurship on the individual student is still underexplored. Not only does it allow students to acquire distinct entrepreneurial competencies, it might also trigger the development of an entrepreneurial identity and may largely shapes a person’s future aspirations and behavior. As such, our first and second research objective aim to explore how students shape an entrepreneurial identity during the venture creation process, and how engaging in student entrepreneurship affects students’ vocational decisions after graduation. Further, while universities and policy makers globally have shown increased interest in promoting student entrepreneurship, we know surprisingly little on how well student startups perform. In response, our third research objective is to examine how university support can drive student startup performance.