Entrepreneurial intention in the time of crisis: a field study

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a prolonged economic recession on the entrepreneurial intentions of young people (university students) distinguishing between propensity to start a new business (i.e. degree of interest in entrepreneurship) and perceived likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur (i.e. probability to start a business in the future). Furthermore this study verifies if the recession strengthens the orientation to exploit new market opportunities, or simply supports self-employment objectives.

Entrepreneurial intention was measured in terms of propensity to start a new business and perceived likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. Psychosocial and economic variables were measured as well. Information was gathered through questionnaires distributed in both electronic and paper-and-pencil form to a sample of 3,684 Italian University students enrolled in 12 different faculties.

First, this study found that while the perception of the economic crisis as an obstacle to new business creation does not impact on the propensity toward entrepreneurship, it has a negative and highly significant impact on the likelihood to start a business. Second, when a distinction is made between opportunity- and necessity-based types, results show that while for the latter the crisis impacts only on the perceived likelihood to become an entrepreneur, for the former it affects both dimensions of entrepreneurship, i.e., both propensity and perceived likelihood. Moreover, neither family support nor economic institutions are perceived as relevant in sustaining entrepreneurial intentions. On the contrary, the university is considered as a key support entity.

Reliance on cross-sectional questionnaires instead of an experimental design imposes caution about the causal relationships between predictors and entrepreneurial intent.

The present paper is one of the few studies concerning the influence of rapid worsening of external economic context (severe recession) on the entrepreneurial intent.