Entrepreneurship decision of business students in vietnam: The role of entrepreneurship education
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DECISION OF BUSINESS STUDENTS IN VIETNAM:
THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
1
Tran Thi Ngoc Diep*
Abstract: Under the new wave of entrepreneurial spirit around the country, business universities have
taken actions to integrate entrepreneurship education in their courses. However, the students perceived
benefitsof these actions and their effects on theirdecision to entrepreneur are still ambiguous. This research
work aims to identify the motivations of business students’ entrepreneurship and to analyze the impact of
entrepreneurshipeducation on their entrepreneurial intentions. The results indicate that the perception of
market opportunity and a role model are the key factors in the entrepreneurial intent of business students
and confirm the positive contribution that entrepreneurship education has on their entrepreneurship attitude
and intention. Finally, recommendations are offered which could help the government and higher education
institutions increase the effectiveness of actions aimed at promoting firm creation among business students.
Keywords: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship motivation, business student.
1. INTRODUCTION
In the last few years, entrepreneurship has slowly emerged as a key driver for Vietnam economic
prosperity and growth. To encourage entrepreneurship, the year 2016 was chosen as “The year of
entrepreneurship”. Entrepreneurship among students and young people is expected to be the focus of all
supporting policies. In 2017, the Prime Minister approved Decision no. 1665/QĐ-TTg about the “Supporting
students’ entrepreneurship to 2025” project. It focuses on entrepreneurship education and supporting
measures in all higher education institutions around the country.
In the world, increasing number of universities have implemented measures to improve their
entrepreneurial climate with the aim of fostering the entrepreneurial propensity of students (Eickelpasch
and Fritsch, 2005; Rasmussen and Borch, 2010). Some of leading business universities in Vietnam have
recently developed entrepreneurship-oriented courses and programs for the same reason.
In this context, various questions arise: What are the main motivational factors which attract or drive
them to undertake a venture? Are they prepared to do so? Do entrepreneurial activities in their universities
boost their intention to entrepreneur? From this point of view, one of the main aims of this work is to
analyze the motivations of entrepreneurship decision among business students.The second main aim of the
paper is to identify the role that entrepreneurship education plays in such decision.
For this purpose, a qualitative study was carried out among 11 business students in 3 universities in
Hanoi. The outcomes of this research could be useful to policy makers to understand not only the pattern of
student entrepreneurship decision, but also its implications for education policies.
* Business Administration Faculty of Business Finance, Academy of Finance, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Email: [email protected] , Tel: 0984956174.
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The remainder of the paper contains five sections: a literature review section presenting previous
research related to student decision to entrepreneur; subsequently, a methodology section to explain the data
and measures used. The results are then presented and discussed, followed by conclusions and implications.
The final section is limitations and future research.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Entrepreneurship education
(Rippa and Secundo, 2018)
Entrepreneurship education is defined by Fayolle and Gailly (2009) as the activities aiming to foster
entrepreneurial mindsets, attitudes and skills and covering a range of aspects such as idea generation, startup,
growth and innovation. Entrepreneurship education is not only important to develop entrepreneurship and
self-employment but also to enrich young people with the attitudes and characteristics necessary to manage
the uncertain environment of self-employment. Perspectives of entrepreneurship education: startup activity,
startup companies, university spinoffs,
The interest of university graduates in entrepreneurship has traditionally been low (Tonttila, 2001).
The challenge of how to encourage young people to launch new firms that exploit their acquired skills as
well as academic research results, spinoffs, confronts academics and policy makers.
For the general student population, including entrepreneurship content in their normal studies seems to
be required to initiate the sense-making process of the entrepreneurship climate in a university (Bergmann,
2018). However, the important question is whether entrepreneurship education can actually encourage
student entrepreneurship. The results of prior studies are inconsistent. Some of these studies concluded
a positive impact from entrepreneurship education (Block et al., 2013, Souitaris et al., 2007, Walter and
Dohse, 2012), while others found evidence that the effects are statistically insignificant or even negative
(Oosterbeek et al., 2010, von Graevenitz et al., 2010).Different researchers emphasize the difficulties of
evaluating the benefits or importance of teaching entrepreneurship. Colette et al. (2005) point out that much
of the entrepreneurial research to date has provided no empirical support for the affirmation that completion
of formal entrepreneurial initiative and SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) management courses
increases an individual’s probability of starting a business. In accordance with this line of thought, Matlay
(2005) adds that the real contribution that these courses have on entrepreneurial activity remains
ambiguous. Various authors such as Barringer, Jones, and Neubaum (2005), Fayolle, Gailly, and Lassas-
Clerc (2006), Mueller (2011) or Packham, Jones, Miller, Pickernell, and Thomas (2010) have corroborated
the positive contribution that entrepreneurship education can have on its participants in terms of skills,
knowhow and better entrepreneurial attitude. There is no agreement on what would constitute a suitable
conceptual model for assessing the effects of entrepreneurial education. According to Martin, McNally, and
Kay (2013), understanding entrepreneurial intentions will enable the definition of this conceptual model.
Student entrepreneurship decision
Entrepreneurial action can be understood as any innovative action that, through an organized system
of human relationships and the combination of resources, is directed towards the achievement of a specific
goal (Liao & Gartner, 2006).
According to Haynie, Shepherd, Mosakowski, and Earley (2010), entrepreneurial activity has its
cognitive origin in individual motivation, and is understood to be the detonating factor which sparks
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behavior and obtains energy to support and steer it towards its objective. In this regard, the decision to
create a business involves two levels (Barba-Sánchez & Atienza-Sahuquillo, 2017): the rational level and
the motivational level. The first level revolves around the objective reasons for this conduct, which are to be
found in the environmental conditions which reinforce or hinder this behavior (Ajzen, 1991, Bandura, 1977).
The second level refers to subjective reasons arising from decision-maker expectations, i.e. motivations.
In brief, the dominant models of entrepreneurial intentions are: Shapero and Sokol’s Entrepreneurial
Event model (SEE) (1982), the Psychological-Economic model (MEP), whose precursors were Bird
(1988) and Davidsson (1995), and Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior model (TPB) (1991); although this
last one is not actually a model of entrepreneurial intent it has gained a place among these models since it
is the conceptual
Although an important part of literature on entrepreneurial intention has opted for SEE (Fitzsimmons
& Douglas, 2011), for TPB (Izquierdo & Buelens, 2011) or for a combination of both models (Krueger,
Reilly, & Carsrud, 2000), the empirical results obtained have highlighted the gap between these theoretical
models and the entrepreneurship reality in many current contexts. Authors such asAutio, Keelyey, Klofsten,
and Ulfstedt (1997), Athayde (2009) or Lee, Wong, Foo, and Leung (2011) have proposed economic-
psychological methods, providing alternative explanations for the entrepreneurial phenomenon and for the
key variables which stimulate entrepreneurial intention. Our work is therefore in keeping with the sphere of
these by considering entrepreneurship education as a situational factor and in both personal factors
3. METHODOLOGY
Table 1. Description of participants
Category
Total
Subcategory
Number of students
11
University
Academy of Finance
5
Foreign Trade University
3
3
University of Finance and Business
Administration
22-23
Age
11
4
Gender
Female
Male
7
Source: The author
This paper is based on qualitative data derived from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 11
business students in 3 universities in Hanoi. The interviews were conducted via online video call in March
2018 when all interviewees had finished all taught courses and was being on the completion of dissertation.
In this period of time, they were able to assess the benefits of all entrepreneurship related courses in their
major. All participants at the time of the interview have intention to run their own company right after
graduation instead of looking for a job.
Key areas of investigation were entrepreneurship terminology, motivation for establishing a
company, the form of entrepreneurship education they experienced, the perceived benefits of such
entrepreneurship education, and the effect on their decision of whether they would create a new venture
or work for somebody else.
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Interviews were analyzed by drawing out a number of key themes and comparing the interviewee
responses.
4. RESULTS ANALYSIS
The form of entrepreneurship education
Entrepreneurship education is presented in form of a specific course, a workshop, or seminars within
different courses. A formal course on business creation and management is provided in 1 of the 3 chosen
universities. The course covers the formation process of a new company and basics of management principles
in a small and medium enterprise. Students from the other two universities supposed they only experienced
entrepreneurship education in form of a workshop or a seminar, which focus on more specific topics such
as type of legal entity, leadership skills, business model development, marketing on online social media.
Attitude towards entrepreneurship
For some students, entrepreneurship is viewed as a challenging road that they would like to overcome,
where they are independent to do something without having to report or ask for someone permission. In
this case, they consider the entrepreneurship as “a mission of the youth” and think that if they do not take
the chance when they are young, they could never do that when they are older and tied up with marriage
and family responsibilities. For the other ones, entrepreneurship should be based on innovativeideas
creating that somehow changes consumer’s life or behavior. It is noted that female students tend to perceive
entrepreneurship as the former one while male counterparts tend to have the latter view on entrepreneurship.
Interviewees also expressed a change in their attitude towards the entrepreneurial career after undertaking
entrepreneurship training. They found it more challenging and complicated than they had thought. The
obtained knowledge provided them with more realistic overview of an entrepreneur’s work and life.
Entrepreneurial motivation
Different reason for the intention of owning a company are discussed by participants. A remarkable
market opportunity is the most important driver for entrepreneurship. All students interviewed decide to
create a business because they perceive opportunities such as the lack of the same kind of companies in the
city, or a growing demand of a good/service. Such opportunity urges the students to startup despite of the
lack of experience and management skills other than waiting a few more years.
“I realize that in my hometown there is no any shop serving milk tea, which is a very popular drink for
teenagers. I think I have to do it before anybody else does”
A role model is also mentioned by most of participants. Some role models are those who used to
be student in the same university. Education institutions often use story of successful former students to
promote their images.Other role models are someone the student knows or successful entrepreneur whose
story are presented on media. These role models show students an example of , so that they believe more
in their intention.
“I have heardNguyen Khanh Trinh, founder of Cleverads and Soibien, once in a talk show and I was so
overwhelmed by his vision, energy and enthusiasm. From that moment, I wish I could do the same someday
when I have a chance.”
“The son of my father’s close friend, who is 5 years older than me,has been my role model since I was
a child. I have always compared his achievement with mine, and followed the same path as his. I went to
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the same class at the same high school, the same major at the same university with his. He is now running
a very successful coffee shop chain, and this, again, inspires me to do something like that.”
Other motivations are the need of achievement, passion of something, and independence.
“I dreamed about being ateacher since I was in primary school. As I grow older, I became more
attached to the dream of being an inspiring English teacher. During
Perceived benefits of entrepreneurship education
All students confirmed the benefits of entrepreneurship education in any form. However, the intense
of perceived benefits are different. It appears that entrepreneurship education in more formal way receive
higher expectation from learner than more informal one. Hence, students who undertook a formal training
course on entrepreneurship seemed to be less satisfied with the entrepreneurship education they received
than those with informal one.
“The course is very interesting and full of fun, which is very rare in other classes. However,I think the
content could also be learnt from somewhere else. It is not something that is unique.”
“MyStrategic Managementlecturer did provide some lectures with useful information for establishing
a business and the strategies of a startup company. I found all of them are valuable for my future self-
employment career.”
Effects of entrepreneurship education on decision to create a business
Most of students interviewed already have intention of create a business at some point of their life
before undertaking any kind of entrepreneurship education in university. However, the experience of these
education did have a positive effect in encouraging them to move from intentions to actions. “… learning
about startup a business reminds me how great it would be to be an entrepreneur…” “… all entrepreneurship
classes provide me an imagination of what it would be when starting a company. I find more enthusiastic
anddeterminant to decide on self-employment career…”
6. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
This study provides more insights about the entrepreneurship decision of business students and
entrepreneurship educationin Vietnam. Some implications could be drawn for the policy makers and higher
education institutions in promoting the startup wave among students.
Some measure might be taken to facilitate the drivers of entrepreneurship decision and, thus, promote
students to create a business. To nurture the perception of market opportunities, institutions could organize
idea generation activities such as workgroups, brainstorming,business plan competition so that more ideas
and opportunities are realized.
Successful entrepreneurs’ image could be used to inspire potential future entrepreneur.
The encouraging impact of entrepreneurship education in any form is confirmed therefore the government
and higher institutions should develop formal entrepreneurship programs to . However, when it comes to
formal courses, in order to enhance the level of effectiveness of the entrepreneurship programs, institution
should invest more time and effort to improve the quality of the elements and content of the syllabus.
Although this study provides exploratory knowledge of entrepreneurship among business students
in Vietnam, it does contain limitations that future research should bear in mind. Firstly, the sample only
consists of11 students from 3 universities in Vietnam, so the conclusions obtained cannot be generalized
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to Vietnamese business students as a whole. Secondly, data from the qualitative methodmight not reflect
the actual effect of entrepreneurship education on students’ entrepreneurship intention. As a result, future
research should be implemented on a larger sample and integrate quantitative tools to further explore the
link between variables.
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