Abstract
This study analyzes the entrepreneurial characteristics of students from public universities. The objective was to evaluate the presence of the characteristics of entrepreneurship pointed out by McClelland through a comparative analysis between two countries and through an analysis using structural models. Data collection was performed with the questionnaire prepared by David McClelland that assesses entrepreneurial behavioural characteristics through 55 preliminary questions. Data were collected from 329 respondents at universities in Brazil and Portugal during 2019. A quantitative analysis was performed using AMOS 26 software, and structural equation models were tested for the three groups under analysis. The analysis resulted in the validation of three measurement models (Portuguese (PT) and Brazilian (BR), PT, and BR), and it was observed that all dimensions were relevant and statistically significant in the set of PT and BR simultaneously and in the BR group. For the PT group, only the dimension “taking calculated risks”, corresponding to H2, did not have statistical validity.
Highlights
The authors recognize the stimuli provided by three anonymous reviewers of Sustainability
Entrepreneurship and its protagonist, the entrepreneur, has been a recurring subject in academic research, as pointed out by Filion (1999) [1], who cited the growing number of researchers devoting themselves to the field of entrepreneurship, because of both the growth of new enterprises and the increasing participation in the gross domestic product (GDP) of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in different countries year by year
We recognize that the Goal definition (GOD), PER, and Search for data (SFD) dimensions proved to be the most pertinent dimensions concerning the increase of EAs
Summary
The authors recognize the stimuli provided by three anonymous reviewers of Sustainability. A number of studies published in 2019 have researched entrepreneurship in the academic environment [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] These studies have increased academic interest in in-depth research of entrepreneurial behavioural characteristics (EBCs) in college students. Comparative analyses involving samples from differentiated universities and other institutions of higher learning in various countries have been encouraged, to gauge the common characteristics of this range of entrepreneurs, and to leverage the distinctive dimensions For this purpose, Brazilian and Portuguese university students were surveyed. Researchers have often considered the university environment as a stimulating setting for the development of entrepreneurship This was corroborated by Guerra and Grazziotin (2010) [17], who wrote that higher education institutions help promote an entrepreneurial culture.
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