THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTIVATIONS AND OBSTACLES OF STUDENTS’ BELONGING TO A PRIVATE AND PUBLIC HEI: CASE ECUADOR

Abstract

The reasons that university students perceive to create an enterprise are diverse, as well as the motivations or barriers. The purpose of the research was analysis of the motivations and obstacles towards the entrepreneurial intent of university students belonging to respectively a private institution, the Catholic University of Cuenca, and a public higher education institute, the University of Cuenca, both situated in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. A quantitative method utilizing Partial Least Squares based Structural Equation Modeling (PLSSEM) was applied to assess if significant differences exist in the motivation and obstacles of the entrepreneurial intention between the students of both type of higher education institution, respectively a private and public HEI. A total of 400 male and female students participated in the survey. Results revealed that the students of both institutions show that the entrepreneurial intention is not supported by the obstacles. In addition, the motivations are significant only in the public university especially the aspect of putting the ideas into practice. Furthermore, the motivations of the students in the private university are not significantly affected by the entrepreneurial intention. Study results were used to recommend HEIs to improve the quality of the study programs with focus on strengthening the students’ intent to the creation of an enterprise, the training in tools that develop and strengthen the attitude in entrepreneurship, and the development of competences as to mitigate the difficulties of entrepreneurial initiative.