Assessing the impact of entrepreneurial skills development on self-employment practices amongst Egyptian and Bahraini accounting students in public and private universities

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper examines the development of entrepreneurial skills amongst accounting students in public and private universities and its impact on career pathways, including self-employment. Also, the paper explores what skills have an effect on self-employment intentions.Design/Methodology/approachThis study uses a quantitative approach to measure the entrepreneurial skills developed by accounting students in business schools and whether these skills direct them to choose to start their own business. A questionnaire was developed and a sample of 583 Egyptian and Bahraini accounting students was used.FindingsThe study concludes that in private universities, there is no difference in the development of entrepreneurial skills and subsequent self-employment practices between students in Egypt and Bahrain. When it comes to public universities, students in Bahrain develop better entrepreneurial skills and subsequent self-employment practices than students in Egypt. In addition, private universities are better than public universities in representing the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and self-employment practices.Originality/valueThis study and its conclusions fill a gap in the literature in comparing public and private universities to highlight the relationship between developing accounting students’ entrepreneurial skills and their self-employment practices. This study is the first to compare universities in Egypt and the Kingdom of Bahrain.