AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
ATTITUDE OF YOUNG PEOPLE TOWARDS ENTREPRENEURSHIP
a
ALICE REISSOVÁ,
b
JANA ŠIMSOVÁ
Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Faculty
of Social and Economic studies, Moskevská 54, 400 96 Ústí nad
Labem
Email
a
alice.reissova@ujep.cz,
b
jana.simsova@ujep.cz,
Abstract: Entrepreneurship has a very important role in every economy. Small
businesses are flexible, they can react to demands on the market much faster, and they
are a source of innovation. Supporting young people’s businesses is therefore very
important. The objective of this study was to find out what the attitudes of secondary
school students are to entrepreneurship. 373 students of secondary schools were
selected. It was found that only a small number of respondents (4 %) has an interest in
entrepreneurship and that there is a statistically important gender difference. Men have
the intention to do business statistically significantly more than women. It was
simultaneously found that the respondents that stated that they want to do business
also expect a higher wage than students who don’t want to do business. It was also
found that the amount of the expected gross wage isn’t related to the type of high
school (technical versus economic field of study and grammar schools.)
Keywords: entrepreneurship of young people, attitudes towards business, gender
differences, expected wages
1 Introduction
Entrepreneurship and its development has a very important role
in every economy. It is not only a tool to develop innovations
but it also helps economic growth and to create new job
vacancies. It has an irreplaceable place not only in developed but
also in developing and transitional economies (Ateljevic, 2013).
If small and medium-sized businesses are compared in less
developed areas and in developed economies, it can be seen that
small and medium-sized businesses have a lower business
quality in economies with lower incomes (Fernández-Serrano &
Romero, 2013). It also plays an important role in the
development of regions and rural areas (Paresishvili,
Kvaratskhelia & Mirzaeva, 2017). The institutional environment
also has a significant impact on the level of business, as it can
create barriers to the development of business. These barriers
can be political, regulatory or economic (Yukhanaev et al.,
2015). An explanation as to how public policy levers influence
small businesses is brought by (Dennis, 2011). He creates four
typologies that involve institutions and culture, competition and
expected immediate income, barriers and support for economic
competition, and the aims of politics and direct/indirect actions.
One of the problems in developing businesses is financing small
companies. Zarezankova-Potevska points out that a shortage of
financial funds is exactly what prevents the realization of
business intentions and innovations (Zarezankova-Potevska,
2017). At the same time, she points to the fact that banks are not
very willing to provide adequate loans to entrepreneurs and
small and medium-sized businesses, which also have the biggest
potential in the field of innovations.
Majková, Ključnikov and
Solík (2017) had similar findings. According to their
conclusions, small businesses have trouble acquiring capital
which they can use for further development and activities across
borders. The lack of financial resources is a very limiting factor.
In the Czech Republic, a survey was made that involved more
than 1 000 respondents – entrepreneurs. The results of the
survey showed that 45 % of the respondents think that small and
medium-sized businesses have limited access to external sources
(Klučikov et al., 2016).
As a consequence of the difficulty in accessing financial
resources, entrepreneurs choose the conservative financial
strategy of maximum liquidity, which is not an ideal situation for
further development of the business.
Svatošová carried out a
research survey in the field of agriculture where she identified an
absence of company strategy focused on further development of
entrepreneurship (Svatošová, 2017). Empirical data are not
available in other fields of entrepreneurship but it can be
assumed that the situation is similar.
Balla, Carpenter a Robinson (2017) researched the motivation of
banks in being involved in a special program (Small Business
Lending Fund) that is focused on a change in attitude of bans on
a segment of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. It seems
that this program brings positive results as in the banks that
joined the program, greater growth of credit provided to small
companies was registered compared to the banks that were not
involved.
Another barrier to business can be circumstances of a social
character like, for example, a shortage of social capital or high
rate of crime (Sleutjes & Schutjens, 2013). The state can also
help in the development of businesses. In some countries,
support from the state is non-existent or very limited (Jaafar,
Rasoolimanesh, & Lonik, 2015). Smékalová et al. (2014) state
that most government policies mostly focus on the question of
financial support but support for entrepreneurs should be broader
and should also include an effort to create positive attitudes to
entrepreneurship and business. These attitudes are negative
nowadays. As far as financial support from the state is
concerned, this field is also very weak in the Czech Republic.
Only 10 % of entrepreneurs evaluated the usable state financial
support as positive
(Klučikov et al., 2016).
There is no doubt about the contribution of small and medium-
sized businesses. Unlike big companies, they are more flexible
and able to react to fulfilling local or specialized demands on the
market. (Burch et al., 2016). They are also the main source of
innovations (Booyens, I. 2011). For an increase in the output of
small and medium-sized businesses, Campbell and Park (2017)
suggest the combination of an approach based on resources
(social capital and business orientation, intellectual capital and
strategic control).
However, not every person has the precondition for business.
Coda, Krakauer and Berne (2017) looked into characteristics that
entrepreneurs show. They found that they are, besides other
things, significantly more competitive, they focus on resources
and concentrate on innovations, and on improving the planning
and organizing of a small business. Personal initiative, time
management, goal setting and the ability to overcome barriers
are said to be further important features for an entrepreneur
(Frese, Hass, & Friedrich (2016). Another necessary condition is
also the ability of business decision-making and identification of
business opportunities (Xueyan & Hisrich, 2016). A very
interesting discovery was made by Dai and Cole (2017), who
looked into the role of business optimism. They came to the
conclusion that optimistic entrepreneurs often have better loans
and lower costs. Many more authors are concerned with the
specific characteristics of entrepreneurs, for example, Lofstrom,
Bates & Parker, S. C. (2014). Other researchers focus on gender
differences in business (Webster & Haandrikman, 2017).
Although there is no doubt about the benefits of
entrepreneurship and the business activity is welcome, this
activity can be lower in many countries than many would expect
(Urban, 2011). In this article, we focus on business from the
point of view of young people and their willingness to do
business.
2 Materials and Methods
The aim of the research was to find out what sort of attitude
towards business students of secondary schools have. 373
students were selected (166 men and 207 women) from
secondary schools in Ústecký region. The respondents were
students from the 3rd and 4th Years, who we can assume are
thinking about their future professional careers. The research
questions were focused on finding out if the students have the
intention to do business after they finish secondary school and if
there are differences between men and women. Another
intention was to find out if the students that have the intention to
do business also expect a higher wage than those students who
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