Entrepreneurial Intentions of Business Students: A Benchmarking Study

Abstract

It is widely accepted that the educational system of universities has to provide an academic environment that may serve as a catalyst for high-technology start-ups. The academic tradition of entrepreneurship in India is very short. Until recently, fostering innovations and new product development through entrepreneurship has not been regarded as a primary task of universities. However, perspectives have changed in this respect, and there have been numerous attempts to enhance the role of B-school graduates as founders of innovative businesses. In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare the entrepreneurial intentions of students as two B-schools with the corresponding results for a leading instititution in this field: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I found very distinct patterns of entrepreneurial spirit in these B-Schools. The results also suggest that the lower level of founding intentions amond students may be attributed to their less distinctive entrepreneurship education. This leaves a great deal of room for improvement.