Start-up research's experience of students approaching the process of forming start-up intentions of some european countries

Nội dung text: Start-up research's experience of students approaching the process of forming start-up intentions of some european countries

1. START-UP RESEARCH'S EXPERIENCE OF STUDENTS APPROACHING THE PROCESS OF FORMING START-UP INTENTIONS OF SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES Ph.D Le Anh Duc1 – Ph.D Ha Dieu Linh2 Ph.D Trinh Dinh Uyen3 – Master Nguyen Thanh Phong4 Abstract: Start-up and innovation play a very important role in the development of each country including Vietnam. This study provides start-up research's experience of students approaching the process of forming start-up intentions of some European countries including: Germany, Spain, and Turkey. Lessons learned from start-up research in these countries will make an important contribution to building a model to evaluate the intention of students to start-up in Vietnam. Thereby promoting the formation and development of a new generation of Vietnamese startups, making an important contribution to changing the face of the economy in the near future. Keywords: Start-up, Innovation, Intention to Star-up. 1. INTRODUCTION In Vietnam, start-up is a topic of national concern, many startup programs and contests of organizations have been implemented to encourage start-up of student and start-up spirit to set up a career. On July 30th, 2017, the Prime Minister issued Decision No.1665/QD-TTg approving the project “Support students to start a business until 2025” with the aim of promoting start-up of students, and equip students with knowledge and skills on start-up for students while studying at schools; create a favorable environment to support students to formulate and realize startup ideas and projects, contributing to creating jobs for students after graduation. Innovation plays a very important role in improving business efficiency, sustainable business development and is an important premise for creating competitiveness (Do Anh Duc, 2020). Start-up is often associated with the creation of new businesses, new products/services, or a company's new business process, which in part helps to improve capacity for innovation, competitiveness and contribute to economic growth in many countries (Thurik and Wennekers, 2004). Lee et al. (2006) also argued that start-up intentions are attacted special importance in many countries and are seen as ways to promote economic growth and create jobs. Sobel and King (2008) continued to affirm that start-up is the key to economic growth. Ajzen (1991) demonstrated that one of the most important factors influencing behavior is individual intentions. This has also been demonstrated in a number of studies in the field of start-up (Krueger and Brazeal, 1994; Krueger et al., 2000). Not only that, according to Ajzen (1991), in essence, starting up or choosing a career is the result of awareness. The act of start-up takes place if an individual has a positive attitude, has a thought, or intention about that action. A strong intention will always lead to the effort to start-up, although start-up can be fast or slow due to the 1 Ph.D Candidate, National Economics University, Vietnam, Email: ducla@neu.edu.vn. 2 Ph.D Candidate, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam, Email:dieulinhha83@gmail.com. 3 Ph.D Candidate, Nguyen Trai University, Email: trinhuyen2707@gmail.com. 4 Master, National Economics University, Vietnam, Email: phongnt@neu.edu.vn. 403
2. surrounding conditions. Therefore, the intention to start-up has the ability to accurately predict the behavior of start-up in the future. Research on start-up intentions that can reflect start-up behavior. This study provides start-up research's experience of students approaching the process of forming start-up intentions of some European countries including: Germany, Spain, and Turkey to create a model for assessing start-up intentions suitable for Vietnam. 2. EXPERIENCE IN RESEARCH OF START-UP INTENTIONS IN GERMANY In Germany, there are a number of start-up professionals as well as government-funded support programs, which have been implemented in recent years. However, the students' start-up intentions have yet developed. Nearly one third of all universities (applied sciences and sciences) in Germany have structure involved in start-up education. “International survey of start-up intentions” shows that start-up intentions of students in Germany ranked the lowest among 14 other countries. Start-up studies in Germany focus on discovering the personal factors that influence students' start- up intentions. Such an approach allows an in-depth assessment of the start-up intentions of people who might become entrepreneurs called "high potential". With a deliberate approach, Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) represents a systematic theoretical framework (Ajzen, 1985, 1991). The TPB model, which uses few variables and shows how different factors influence human behavior, has been used to explain different behaviors and has been experimented with (Ajzen, 2009). Discussions regarding to approaches driving start-up intentions are of great importance. Start-up curricula must have the attention and promotion from the Government. The government should define the target of ttart-up curricula, increase student participation, and commercialize intellectual property rights in universities and research institutions for the purpose of exploitation, maximizing the economic benefits of knowledge creation. Thereby, the curriculum will focus on promoting start-up. This approach is based on beliefs based on information and experience, which is a decisive factor in creating intention. According to TPB, changes at different points are not enough. For example, start-up intentions cannot be motivated only by facilitating access to capital if the target audience does not have any entrepreneurial knowledge. All central beliefs that lead to the development of attitudes, social norms and cognitive behavioral control should be considered and should be focused on beliefs that contribute to low business intention. A permanent change of mind can only be achieved if the information provided is valid. The arguments refer directly to the performance of the target behavior. Based on current empirical research regarding the consequences of behavior, it starts with the risk of failure, flexibility, and workload. As for referral groups, it should be noted that all referrals or referrals, considered relevant in this study, are assumed to dislike start-up through the target person. Since students adhere to not only their partners but also their parents and friends, these groups are also decisive. As for the control factors, students are questioned often overestimate themselves. In their opinion, they have the ability to gather sufficient entrepreneurial knowledge and work experience so that they can start a business within 5 years after completing their studies. 3. EXPERIENCE IN RESEARCH OF START-UP INTENTIONS IN SPAIN In Spain, it was only in the early 1990s when the Government and universities began to become interested in technology transfer activities and later the creation of academic institutions (Guerrero & Urbano, 2014). On the basis of Theory of planned behavioral, Miranda et al. (2017) measured the start- up intentions of 1178 students in Spain through the effects of the three main TPB prefixes to analyze 404
3. the Academic determinant in Spanish universities Research results show that attitudes towards start-up have the most obvious impact on start-up intentions, the other two prefixes have lower impact. The results show that the start-up intentions of students in Spain are greatly influenced by the attitudes, psychology of individuals - creativity and sense of utility. There is not enough empirical evidence to establish any meaningful relationship of subjective norms with start-up intentions. Although this finding is in contrast to previous studies in the academic business sector (Bercovitz & Feldman, 2008; Obschonka et al., 2012, 2015), it is consistent with findings reported in the study of TPB is more general based on start-up intentions (Krueger et al., 2000). Students' start-up intentions in Spain are influenced by this country's business culture. Spain is a country with a low rate of business activities in history. This can be confirmed by looking at the GEM 2015/2016 report (Kelley et al., 2016) that ranks Spain with a business rate of 5.6% much lower than the national average. Europe (12.8%) or America (12.4%). Finally, unlike previous studies (Fernỏndez- Pộrez et al., 2014; Goethner et al., 2009, 2012; Obschonka et al., 2012, 2015; Prodan & Drnovsek, 2010), cognitive control factors did not show any significant relationship with start-up intentions. This effect, in contrast to the TPB model, was discovered by Piperopoulos and Dimov (2015) and demonstrated by the fact that in certain contexts, even when individuals show the degree of control, this does not translate into greater start-up intentions, although the factor of cognitive control suggests that students need to be self-aware and well equipped to fulfill their business aspirations, shaping business behavior of what can be done versus what must be done affects the degree to which cognitive control can influence start-up intention. Start-up research's experience of students approaching the process of forming start-up intentions in Spain that helps policy makers who, in addition to research and teaching in their many processes to evaluate University activities should also include knowledge transfer activities, and emphasis should be placed on identifying the key determinants of start-up intentions in the Spanish university context. In addition, the intervention of schools to improve students' attitudes will have a direct impact on their start-up intentions, and thus on the amount of sub-products created. Furthermore, start-up promotion programs run by universities must focus on developing the attitudes of potential entrepreneurs, conveying the message that, in spite of all the obstacles that exist when implement a sub program, start- up pathway can be an interesting alternative to academics and one that complements their teaching and research work, which can also be bolstered through experience get from starting a business initiative. 4. EXPERIENCE IN RESEARCH OF START-UP INTENTIONS IN TURKEY Start-up research approaches start-up intention formation in Turkey using a modified planned behavior model to explain business intention by removing subjective rules that directly affect to business intentions. Yurtkoru et al. (2014) studying e start-up intentions of students in Turkey found: personal attitudes and cognitive behavior control predicted start-up intentions; However, attitude has a much stronger impact. Lỹthje and Franke (2003) found similar results in their study of MIT students' start-up intentions, the attitude that constitutes the most powerful explanation in their model among other factors. Research of start-up intentions in Turkey focuses on contextual factors that are thought to influence start-up intentions through personal attitudes and cognitive behavioral control. Therefore, according to the current model, individual attitudes and cognitive behavioral control mediate the relationship between contextual support factors and start-up intentions. Among other supporting factors (structural and educational), relational support is found to be significant in explaining both individual 405
4. attitudes and cognitive behavioral control. This result is in conflict with previous research by Tỹrker and Selcuk (2009), in which the relationship support was found to be insignificant. Their findings are surprising because the support of family and friends is expected to be so important in a collectivist country like Turkey, the authors have recommended other researchers to check this relationship. Support for education was found only significantly in relation to cognitive behavioral control. Educational support is considered important in recent literature, as empirical data show its importance to business growth. In research in Turkey, a direct relationship between educational support and start- up intentions was not found. Educational support indicates the generally supportive start-up environment in universities. Therefore, it can be argued that students do not consider universities as supportive places like their family or friends. However, the current university environment contributes to their awareness of having to control their start-up intentions. Start-up courses offered by universities can be helpful in that sense. Tỹrker and Selỗuk (2009) have found a direct relationship between educational support and start-up intentions. Therefore, more in-depth studies are needed to analyze the relationship between education and start-up intentions. In recent years, Turkey has built incentive and educational programs to improve entrepreneurship in society. However, these programs mostly end up with small businesses with no innovative side. Tỹrker and Selỗuk (2009) found a positive relationship between structural support and start-up intentions in contrast to our research. There is also a need for further research in that area. Research of start-up intentions in Turkey has implications for policy makers and educators. Although universities offer start-up courses, they may not be enough to promote student to start-up. Therefore, educators can focus on creating a more supportive environment for start-up. Educational content in universities can be modified to promote creativity besides imposing theoretical and operational information. For policy-makers, research of start-up intentions can recommend developing business programs specifically aimed at dynamic, creative students or graduated students to encourage them to execute their own creative business ideas. In addition, fundraising is one of the main obstacles to becoming entrepreneurs of university students, Romero and Petrescu (2011) suggest that universities should inform students to financial possibilities or develop intermediate functions. 5. CONCLUSION From the results of research’s experiences from Germany, Spain, and Turkey, the authors found that the impact of factors in the Theory of Planned Behavior on start-up intentions is still a argumentative problem. The results of applying the Theory of Planned Behavior in other countries show that the stability of the factor "attitude towards start-up" and "cognitive behavioral control" positively impact "start-up intention". In contrast, the relationship between "subjective norms" and "start-up intention" does not produce consistent results. Research’s experience in start-up in other countries shows the suitability of The Theory of Planned Behavioral to be applied to build a model to evaluate start-up intentions in Vietnam. In the context of researches in Vietnam on start-up forms of general nature, not yet focusing on start-ups form, the research results if continued to develop, will inspire the students generations and equip them with the knowledge and skills needed for start-up to create successful business owners in the future (Le Anh Duc, 2020). Start-up business deserve to be the group that receives the attention and development support from the State as well as the society, thereby promoting the formation and development of a new generation of Vietnamese start-up, making an important contribution to the change of economic appearance in the near future. 406
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