Student Entrepreneurship – The Impact of University Environment on Students’ Starting Conditions

Abstract

Purpose: The research aim is to identify how the university campus influences students’ entrepreneurial starting conditions. Approach: The underlying paper is conceptual. The focus is to propose new relationships among constructs and bridge existing theories. In this paper, the entrepreneurial constructs regarding the venture foundation process are linked to extant literature on Higher Educational Institutions and bordering topics. We develop research propositions by connecting these two topic streams through causalities. Findings: We developed eight research propositions, arranged into two categories: university setting and student setting encompasses. The university setting comprises factors accentuating the specific, fertile university environment, whereas the student setting the specific status and related peculiarities. Research limitations/implications: Limitations arise, as the conceptual paper does not refer to data. Thus, there is a risk of being incomplete and biased based on the theoretical lens. The study adds to the contextual view of student entrepreneurship. It offers a sound set of causalities as a base for future empirical research. Practical implications: Through the insights, universities can adapt their offers in terms of support space and services and start tackling the students’ needs, as well as their weak points in terms of entrepreneurial starting conditions. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the current literature by presenting relations between the university environment and student entrepreneurship – the two areas that have not been connected before. This allows a deeper understanding of how students deal with entrepreneurial issues and what reasons lie behind their related behavior.

Keywords

• student entrepreneurship
• university entrepreneurial ecosystem