Entrepreneurial Intentions: A Comparative Study of African and European University Economics Students

Abstract

Businesses started by well-educated people are considered a driving force for a country’s development. Many studies have examined the entrepreneurial intentions of university students in different countries. However, only a few studies have investigated the differences in such intentions between students in developed and developing countries, especially African countries. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine whether African university economics students are interested in becoming entrepreneurs compared to their counterparts from developed countries in the EU. We compared students’ intentions to become entrepreneurs using a large quantitative dataset obtained from university students from the 2018 GUESSS international survey. Testing four hypotheses, we found a statistically significant difference in entrepreneurial intentions between EU and African students. In general, we can say that African students have a more positive attitude toward their own entrepreneurship than their fellow EU students.