Entrepreneurial Intention in the Visegrad Countries

Abstract

In order to boost students' entrepreneurial activities, it is essential to identify the factors that form entrepreneurial intentions and to investigate how the development of these factors can be influenced. This paper attempts to explore the main drivers of entrepreneurial intentions and to examine national differences in students' entrepreneurship by using the database of the GUESSS research project related to the Visegrad countries, namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. This paper adopts Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour, according to which attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control influence entrepreneurial intentions. The results of this research confirm the significant role that attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioural control play in shaping students' entrepreneurial intentions. Differences can be experienced not only in the level of intentions, but also in the strength of each factor across Visegrad countries, which suggests that there is a need for solutions tailored the students' needs in different Visegrad countries. Neither the age nor the gender that are frequently investigated in the literature can significantly increase the explanatory power of the Ajzen's model. Their effect may be perceived in different attitudes and different behavioural control.