Individual entrepreneurial orientation: comparison of business and STEM students
ISSN: 0040-0912
Article publication date: 8 April 2022
Issue publication date: 9 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The present study has been designed with the aim to determine whether there are differences in individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) between students, doing their major in business studies and the ones whose areas of study are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical research methods comprise the review of secondary sources to build a sound theoretical framework for the research activities. The empirical research method is a survey in Latvia and Poland applying non-parametric inferential statistical methods as well as linear regression analysis to investigate which factors and components contribute to EO orientation development among different groups of students, and, thus, verify the research hypotheses.
Findings
The yielded research results demonstrate that there are significant differences between business and STEM students when they analyze their IEO. It turned out that STEM students obtain significantly lower scores for risk-taking and innovation but higher for proactiveness. Additionally, it was detected that the chosen field of study affects students’ perception of educational support, thus, influencing their innovation, proactiveness, and risk propensity characteristics.
Research limitations/implications
In this research, the authors focused on exploring IEO among business and STEM students in Latvia and Poland, hence the findings cannot be one-to-one applied to other countries.
Practical implications
The topicality of the theme is determined by the fact that changes in external environment require higher educational institutions (HEIs) in Latvia and Poland to foster their entrepreneurial ecosystems and re-master study programs both for business and STEM students as well as conduct projects that include students, academic staff, and business representatives – the transformation is necessary to create positive attitude towards entrepreneurship among the students and help them to consider entrepreneurial career path later.
Originality/value
Factors and components which contribute to IEO development among different groups of students are under-researched in the Baltic countries, experiencing systemic transformation. The authors believe that universities can use the analysis of their students’ IEO to allocate their resources in a better way, adjust curricula to the real needs of students and facilitate entrepreneurship.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The paper has been elaborated within the European Social Fund project “Strengthening of the Academic Staff Members of Riga Technical University in Strategic Specialisation Areas” No. 8.2.2.0/18/A/017 (SAM 8.2.2.).
The data was collected in 2019 within the scope of a “Survey on Entrepreneurship Attitudes of Students (SEAS)” research project conducted in accordance with a partnership agreement between the Faculty of Management and Economics, Gdansk University of Technology (Poland) and the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management, Riga Technical University (Latvia).
Citation
Nikitina, T., Licznerska, M., Ozoliņa-Ozola, I. and Lapina, I. (2023), "Individual entrepreneurial orientation: comparison of business and STEM students", Education + Training, Vol. 65 No. 4, pp. 565-586. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-07-2021-0256
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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