Exploring the Entrepreneurial Mindset Among Students in Higher Education

Abstract

The entrepreneurial mind set can be developed by various initiatives by the higher education institutes. The entrepreneurial mind set is not limited to any specific stream but it is a generalized term that can be applied to various academic disciplines like Pure Science, Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, Engineering, and Technology. An entrepreneurial mind set plays a significant role in all these disciplines. Such a mindset is also required in order to generate more and more job opportunities for the society thereby achieving the goal of the national development. More exposure to the students to entrepreneurship development initiatives will ensure inspiring them for the same.
The present paper attempts to explore the factors building entrepreneurial mindset among the college students by assessing their responses on risk bearing willingness, abilities to bring innovations, and basic inclination towards entrepreneurship. The authors have studied responses of 151 students in higher education institutes in Pune and have analysed these responses by applying one-way Anova tests to test the hypotheses.
The paper reveals how the entrepreneurial mindset is developed, the factors influencing such a mindset, and the role of higher education institutes towards the same. The higher education institutes should provide the ecosystem including more activities focusing on entrepreneurship development, incorporation of entrepreneurship literature in the curricula, creating more awareness among the students to take up entrepreneurial activities. The institutes can provide hand holding to those students who start a business activity while studying. The role of higher education institutes is crucial in order to develop and flourish entrepreneurial mind set.