Title: What do students think of the entrepreneurial support given by their universities?

Authors: Jeroen Kraaijenbrink, Ger Bos, Aard Groen

Addresses: Dutch Institute for Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship (NIKOS), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, NL-7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. ' Dutch Institute for Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship (NIKOS), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, NL-7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. ' Dutch Institute for Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship (NIKOS), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, NL-7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract: Universities can go beyond entrepreneurship education in supporting student entrepreneurship. This study examines to what extent one Australian and four European universities do this and should do this, according to their students. A new scale for entrepreneurial support is developed and validated. Data from 2417 students show that the five universities provide much educational support, some concept development support and little business development support, that students particularly expect more concept development support and that entrepreneurial students differ from nonentrepreneurial students. The implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.

Keywords: student entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial support; entrepreneurship education; educational support; concept development; business development; European Consortium of Innovative Universities; ECIU; United Kingdom; UK; Sweden; Denmark; Netherlands; Australia; higher education; universities; student support; business students; non-business students; student expectations; small businesses.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2010.029512

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2010 Vol.9 No.1, pp.110 - 125

Published online: 30 Nov 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article