What drives solo and team startups at European universities?

The interactive role of entrepreneurial climate, gender, and entrepreneurship course participation

authored by

Heiko Bergmann, Christian Hundt, Martin Obschonka, Rolf Sternberg

Abstract

Student entrepreneurship can take the form of solo or team efforts. While a positive and supportive university context is likely to increase entrepreneurial activities in general, it is unclear whether this effect is equally strong on both forms of entrepreneurship and for all types of students. Focusing on students embedded in universities, we study the entrepreneurial climate of universities and its combined effects with gender and entrepreneurship education on solo and team entrepreneurship. Drawing from organizational theory and team formation literature, we hypothesize that a positive entrepreneurial climate stimulates both, solo and team entrepreneurship. Yet, we argue that this effect is contingent on individuals’ intrinsic preferences for independence or growth which may differ by gender and entrepreneurship course participation. We test our hypotheses by means of a multilevel and longitudinal research design, using a large international dataset on student entrepreneurs (GUESSS). We find that a positive entrepreneurial climate indeed fosters solo and team startups of students, with gender and entrepreneurship education having an interactive effect. Our results suggest that a positive climate leads to more solo startups of women and more team startups of men. We contribute to a better understanding of student entrepreneurship and, specifically, the formation of solo and team startups. Our results elucidate the hitherto overlooked person-context dynamics and help explain why a supportive university context can unintentionally widen the gender gap in team startups.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Economic and Human Geography

External Organisation(s)

University of St. Gallen (HSG)
Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries
University of Amsterdam

Type

Article

Journal

Studies in higher education

Volume

49

Pages

1269-1289

No. of pages

21

ISSN

0307-5079

Publication date

2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 5 - Gender Equality

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2023.2263477 (Access: Open)