Assessing the impact of entrepreneurial skills development on self-employment practices amongst Egyptian and Bahraini accounting students in public and private universities
Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research
ISSN: 1759-0817
Article publication date: 20 January 2020
Issue publication date: 17 April 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper examines the development of entrepreneurial skills amongst accounting students in public and private universities and its impact on career pathways, including self-employment. Also, the paper explores what skills have an effect on self-employment intentions.
Design/Methodology/approach
This study uses a quantitative approach to measure the entrepreneurial skills developed by accounting students in business schools and whether these skills direct them to choose to start their own business. A questionnaire was developed and a sample of 583 Egyptian and Bahraini accounting students was used.
Findings
The study concludes that in private universities, there is no difference in the development of entrepreneurial skills and subsequent self-employment practices between students in Egypt and Bahrain. When it comes to public universities, students in Bahrain develop better entrepreneurial skills and subsequent self-employment practices than students in Egypt. In addition, private universities are better than public universities in representing the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and self-employment practices.
Originality/value
This study and its conclusions fill a gap in the literature in comparing public and private universities to highlight the relationship between developing accounting students’ entrepreneurial skills and their self-employment practices. This study is the first to compare universities in Egypt and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to dedicate this work to Professor Abdulla Al Hawaj the Founding President of Ahlia University and the President Professor Mansoor Alaali for the unconditioned and continuous support of academic research.
Citation
Reyad, S., Badawi, S. and Hamdan, A. (2020), "Assessing the impact of entrepreneurial skills development on self-employment practices amongst Egyptian and Bahraini accounting students in public and private universities", Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 11 No. 5, pp. 1101-1120. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIABR-07-2017-0102
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited