The Social Dimension of the Entrepreneurial Motivation in the Central and Eastern European Countries

Abstract

Objective: Discovering and categorising the entrepreneurial motivations of university student entrepreneurs in the CEE region, and uncovering the influencing factors behind the different motivation factors. The study focuses on the social dimension of entrepreneurial motivations, so special attention is given to the Social mission factor.
Research Design & Methods: The study is based on the 2016 GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey) database that contains 19,338 answers for the eight selected CEE countries. Factor analysis was used to detect the motivation factors; descriptive statistics and stochastic relationship tests were used to describe them; a General Linear Model (GLM) was set up to identify the influencing factors of the Social mission, one of the motivation factors of the university student entrepreneurs.
Findings: Five factors of entrepreneurial motivations were identified: Social mission, Customer focus, Competition/market focus, Individual goals, and Collective/community goals. Most of the factors are intrinsic in nature. According to the GLM model the Social mission factor is influenced by education, the entrepreneurship-related courses and programmes, a cultural dimension called uncertainty avoidance, and country-level characteristics that are not cultural in nature.
Implications & Recommendations: According to our findings entrepreneurship courses and programmes influence attitudes and motivations as well, and so higher education institutions should focus on such programmes. The standard entrepreneurial courses do not enhance the importance of intrinsic motivations, such as the social mission, so more emphasis should be put on the social dimensions.
Contribution & Value Added: Our study contributes to the entrepreneurial motivations literature, and calls for further comparative research, as the social mission GLM showed that country-level differences exist in the CEE region. The study also contributes to the literature of social enterprises and social innovation.