Entrepreneurial motivation in young adults : a study on university of Malta students

Abstract

The Entrepreneurial sector is important in today’s economy because entrepreneurship creates jobs. In order to gauge entrepreneurial motivation in Maltese youth, three hundred and sixtyfive University of Malta students aged eighteen to thirty-four years participated in this study between February and March 2014. Fieldwork consisted of a questionnaire and a focus group to gauge the relevance (if at all) of motivations for and indicators of entrepreneurship within this cohort that are suggested in the literature. Thus, the cohort’s perceptions on motivations such as rewards, need for achievement, goal setting and internal locus of control (Segal, Borgia, & Schoenfeld, 2005; Shane, Locke, & Collins, 2012) and on indicators of entrepreneurship such as risk, independence and external environment (Shane et al., 2012) were investigated. In addition, part of the research was dedicated to finding out (if at all) that the University of Malta supports this cohort in developing an adequate approach to entrepreneurship and relevant entrepreneurial skills. Results show that University of Malta students aged eighteen to thirty four express entrepreneurial motivation of rewards, need for achievement, goal setting and an internal locus of control. Nevertheless, the evidence shows that the University of Malta does not help this cohort in acquiring skills which can help them if they decide to become entrepreneurs. Recommendations/implications that emerged from this research may be a study comparing and contrasting entrepreneurs that graduated from the University of Malta and entrepreneurs who are not University of Malta graduates, in order to understand whether University helps in fostering entrepreneurial qualities in a student. Research about entrepreneurial characteristic in students can also be carried out across tertiary institutions and analysing the level of entrepreneurial knowledge (if any) that students learn in their studies.