Factors that affect the experience of entrepreneurship in university students. A study in a private institution in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico

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Introduction: It is important to educate young university students for adapting to social, economic and environmental changes in the world. It is not to prepare them just to be employees, but entrepreneurs who could be leaders in their fields, creating jobs and improving people’s quality of life. For this, there are entrepreneurship programs based on high impact project incubation, but there is still the risk of dropping out. For this, the objective of this study was to identify the factors which positively and negatively affect the entrepreneurship experience in university students, from the perception of young students who have already had an incubated project. Method: The study approach was qualitative, with an exploratory and descriptive type and a non-experimental and transverse design. The participants were twenty students who have already had an incubated project, registered at the Tax Agency and legally constituted as an enterprise, besides of their involvement in entrepreneurship activities along their education process at the institution. All of them were from a private university situated near Mérida city, Yucatán, in the Southeast of México, acknowledged for its entrepreneurship education as well as for its incubation and acceleration processes. A semi-structured interview guide was used, conducted by the researchers. Results: The factors that positively affect students to become entrepreneurs are personal ones, such as intrinsic motivation and the opportunity to be creative and dedicate to an interesting activity, accepting the risks. This is reinforced by the help of the coach, attendance to events, lectures and workshops, as well as constant feedback from expert panels. The ones which negatively affect the entrepreneurial experience are mainly external, such as the lack of monetary funds for living while the project is incubated, because when there are monetary resources, they are just for the project. There are also other internal factors such as the fear for making mistakes and the lack of experience for starting a business. Conclusions: The factors which prevent the entrepreneurship development depend on each participant more than in the method. The student must have time for the project and to continue his courses without the need to search for a job for making a living along the incubation. Then, there must be strategies to guarantee time and monetary resources so students don’t have distractors which could become entrepreneurship barriers. Besides, university study plans must be improved for enhancing creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship from initial stages. Incubators must be places for enhancing insertion of new enterprises in nets and create university clusters.