Influences on students attitudes toward ... - Semantic Scholar

Entrepreneurship Mgt. (2006) 2: 351–366 DOI 10.1007/s11365-006-0003-2

Influences on students attitudes toward entrepreneurship: A multi-country study Sang M. Lee & Seong-bae Lim & Raghuvar D. Pathak & Daesung Chang & Weixing Li

Published online: 7 September 2006 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006

Abstract Entrepreneurship has been emphasized in many countries as a way of boosting economic growth and job creation. As entrepreneurship is becoming popular around the world, its education should be customized according to each country’s unique cultural context. The purpose of this paper is to identify differences among the selected nations in terms of factors that are important to enhance the pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship education. This is an empirical study based on the data collected from university students in the US, Korea, China and Fiji representing nations with significantly different cultural contexts. The results imply that customized approaches based on unique cultural context are needed for effective entrepreneurship education in each country. Keywords Entrepreneurship . Pedagogical effect . Culture . Venture creation

S. M. Lee (*) : W. Li Department of Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 209 CBA, Lincoln, NE 68588-0491, USA e-mail: [email protected] W. Li e-mail: [email protected] S.-b. Lim Jones School of Business, SUNY-Geneseo, Geneseo, USA e-mail: [email protected] R. D. Pathak Department of Management & Public Administration, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji e-mail: [email protected] D. Chang School of Business Administration, Kyonggi University, Suwon, South Korea e-mail: [email protected]

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Entrepreneurship Mgt. (2006) 2: 351–366

Introduction Entrepreneurship has long been considered a significant factor for socioeconomic growth and development because it provides millions of job opportunities, offers a variety of consumer goods and services, and generally increases national prosperity and competitiveness (Zahra, 1999). In recent years, a wave of interest in entrepreneurship has touched almost every country in the world because of increasing global competition based on agility, creativity and innovation. The increased interest in entrepreneurship can also be attributed to the changing structure of the western economy, the trend to downsize large companies, changing business patterns, and developing market economies in China, India, and Eastern Europe (Hynes, 1996). Entrepreneurship is now widely accepted as a field of study as it provides students with motivation, knowledge and skills, which are essential for launching a successful venture company (Cho, 1998). Indeed, such is the spread in popularity of entrepreneurship that some commentators believe it will be the business discipline of the twenty-first century in Central and Eastern European countries (Todorov, 1999). However, the extent of entrepreneurship education and training in each country is different depending on its unique cultural context and it has been noted that the prevailing culture within a country can impact upon the level of acceptance of entrepreneurship (Lasonen, 1999; Lee & Peterson, 2000; Saee, 1996; Van Barneveld, 2002). Therefore, while entrepreneurship programmes across different countries may have a common focus in terms of new business creation and the development of a business plan (Hisrich & Peters, 1998) or entrepreneurship as a discovery process (Fiet, 1997); there may be differences in emphasis depending upon the particular needs of the participants, the country or the resources available (Aman, 1996). Dana (2001), for example, suggests that transitional economies have different fundamental problems than do countries with long history of capitalism and entrepreneurship: “A key prerequisite to training people is to understand them, their cultural values, historical experiences and mindset” (p. 410). Therefore, one must not assume that entrepreneurs can be trained in the same way in Vietnam as in Singapore (p. 411). Thus, Dana recommends that alternate methodologies are required for teaching entrepreneurship in transitional economies. This view is supported by recent multi-country studies on the pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship education by Lee, Chang, Lim, and Li (2002), Lee, Chang, and Lim (2005) who pointed out that while entrepreneurship education is becoming popular around the world, its education in each country is different based on its cultural context. Matlay and Mitra (2002) also points out that little is known about the education and training needs of entrepreneurs and their work force in countries, such as those of Central and Eastern Europe, which are undergoing radical socio-economic and political transformation (p. 395). Similarly, Lee and Peterson (2000) offer a culture-based model of entrepreneurship. Using Hofstede’s (1980) and Trompenaars (1994) cultural dimensions, it is suggested that a culture that is low on power distance, weak in uncertainty avoidance, masculine in nature, individualistic, achievement oriented and universalistic will engender a stronger entrepreneurial orientation, that is characterized by autonomy, proactiveness, innovativeness and risk taking. Similarly, the results of a study by Lean (1998) suggest the need to avoid a dogmatic approach when it comes to


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designing support programmes for micro firms, and recommend that support packages should take account of the distinct needs of such firms so that the support gaps can be appropriately identified. A wide variation in terms of the extent and content of entrepreneurship education among different countries has been observed (Lee et al., 2002). Therefore, how a country can customize entrepreneurship education according to its unique cultural context is clearly a very important issue. A wide range of critical success factors for entrepreneurship identified by previous empirical studies in different countries support the importance of the customization of entrepreneurship education (Ensley, J. Carland, & J. Carland, 2000; Glancey, 1997; Glancey & Pettigrew, 1998; Lee et al., 2005; Lee et al., 2002; Mazzarol, Volery, Doss, & Thein, 1999; Smallbone, Leigh, & North, 1995; Storey, 1994; Watson & Hogarth-Scott, 1998; Yusuf, 1995). The purpose of this study is, therefore, to examine the relative strength of each country’s students in terms of factors related to pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship education. More specifically, this study is conducted to accomplish the following: (1) To determine how each country can better customize entrepreneurship education; and (2) To improve the pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship education by helping each country focus on specific factors which need greater improvement than others. An empirical study was conducted in the US, where exists a strong entrepreneurship tradition, in Korea where entrepreneurship is just beginning to emerge as an important business discipline, China which is in transition from the planned system to the market economy, and in Fiji where it’s culture has been influenced by a mixture of Western and Asian countries.

Theoretical context Critical success factors for entrepreneurs To identify the factors influencing the success of venture companies have been one of the most important issues in entrepreneurship studies. However, no unified idealtype personalities of entrepreneurs and managerial skills have been developed yet. One of the main reasons is the fact that heterogeneity exists among various types of firms and range of factors that could influence growth may interact each other in different ways in different situations (Smallbone et al., 1995). Most previous studies have focused on the effect of various demographic variables such as personal characteristics, marital status, gender, previous job career, age, socioeconomic status, religion, ethnicity, and so on. Storey (1994) identified three key components for the growth of small firms such as (1) the characteristics of entrepreneurs; (2) the characteristics of organization; and (3) the types of strategy associated with growth. Becherer and Maurer (1999) defined “proactivity as tendency of scanning for opportunities, showing initiative, taking action, and persevering until reaching closure by bring about change” and showed its significant relationships with sales increase and new business start-ups. Based on the recognition that entrepreneurship has a critical role in economic development, Yusuf (1995) identified good management, access to finance an initial

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investment, personal qualities, and satisfactory government support as critical success factors for small businesses in the South Pacific region. Ensley et al. (2000) identified the existence of lead-entrepreneurs who have stronger entrepreneurial vision and self-efficacy than other entrepreneurs and tested hypothesis that leadentrepreneurs would show higher performance than others. However, the result showed that team skills have stronger effect on the performance of venture companies than superior skills of lead entrepreneurs. Mazzarol et al. (1999) explored the influence of entrepreneurs’ demographic characteristics on small business start-ups, and identified gender (female), previous government experience, and recent redundancy as barriers negatively influencing small business start-ups. Glancey and Pettigrew (1998) studied the effect of entrepreneurial dynamics on small business service firms’ performance. They focused on the model suggesting that entrepreneurs’ personal attributes determine motivation and objectives, which in turn result in firms’ performance. The model considered markets in which a firm operates and managerial practices as mediating variables influencing firms’ performance. Their study found that most entrepreneurs were pulled into business by positive motivations such as self-actualization and financial reward, and entrepreneurs changed their characteristics with those related to highgrowth firms. Some studies tried to identify factors, which differentiate successful entrepreneurs from non-successful entrepreneurs. Watson and Hogarth-Scott (1998) classified entrepreneurs into two groups including survivors and failures and compared to two groups in many aspects. According to the result of this study, survivors are more likely to have apprenticeships experience, a shorter period of unemployment history, and greater intention for being their own boss, being independent, using creative skills, having management skills, and keeping up with changes in marketplaces. Interestingly, according to the result of data analysis, size has a significant positive relationship with growth but has a negative relationship with profit. And location also has a significant relationship since firms located in urban areas showed higher growth rates. Glancey maintained that these results implicate the possibility that larger firms have more talented entrepreneurs than small firms. Some studies tried to identify factors, which differentiate successful entrepreneurs from non-successful entrepreneurs. Watson and Hogarth-Scott (1998) classified entrepreneurs into two groups including survivors and failures and compared the two groups in many aspects. According to the result of this study, survivors are more likely to have apprenticeships experience, a shorter period of unemployment history, and greater intention for being their own boss, being independent, using creative skills, having management skills, and keeping up with changes in marketplaces. Interestingly, those who obtained advice/training in computers were more likely to survive than those who received advice in writing/using business plans, market research, and communication/promotions. Smallbone et al. (1995) performed a comparative study between high growth firms and low growth firms by focusing on strategy and management actions for growth which are related to (1) products and markets; (2) production processes; (3) employment and the use of labor; (4) changes in ownership; and (5) organization and management changes. According to the results of their study, leaders’ commitment to achieving growth, active strategy for


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managing products and markets, focusing on markets rather than products, leaders’ focusing on planning and higher level strategic functions rather operational tasks, and understanding the context of the firms are factors which have strong influence on the growth of small and medium sized firms. On the other hand, Autio, Sapienza, and Almeida (2000) tested the effect of age of a firm when it first initiates international sales growth, knowledge intensity, and immitigability of core competency. They found earlier initiation of internationalization and strong knowledge intensity are related to international growth of hightechnology firms. These results imply 1) pursuing international growth could motivate entrepreneurial behaviors which are required for the growth of the firms, 2) knowledge intensity gives firms ability to see the window of opportunities and assimilate new knowledge. Sales growth was used as the dependent variable. As summarized in Table 1, entrepreneurs’ characters and management skills have been commonly identified as success factors. In other words, not only entrepreneurship but also managerial skills are required for successful venture creation. One interesting fact is that countries other than developed countries are more likely to be Table 1 Critical success factors for venture creation Study

CSFs

Storey (1994)

The characteristics of entrepreneurs The characteristics of organization; and The types of strategy associated with growth Proactivity Good management Access to finance and initial investment Personal qualities Satisfactory government supporta The existence of leadership The characteristics of entrepreneurs Gender (female)a Previous government experiencea Recent redundancya Positive motivation from entrepreneurs’ personal attributes Firm size, Location of firm Apprenticeships experience Shorter period of unemployment history Greater intention for being their own boss Being independent Using creative skills Having management skills Keeping up with changes in marketplaces Computer skills Leaders’ commitment to achieving growth Active strategy for managing products and markets Focus on markets rather than products Leaders’ focus on planning and higher level strategic functions rather than operational tasks Understanding the context of the firms

Becherer and Maurer (1999) Yusuf (1995)

Ensley et al. (2000) Mazzarol et al. (1999)

Glancey and Pettigrew (1998) Glancey (1997) Watson and Hogarth-Scott (1998)

Smallbone et al. (1995)

a

Factors having negative effect on firms’ growth

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affected by factors, which are not related to entrepreneurs’ character and their managerial skills. Entrepreneurship education and the entrepreneur According to previous studies, education is one of the critical factors that distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs (Lee et al., 2005). The school and the education system play a pivotal role in predicting and developing entrepreneurial traits. The school’s curricula should focus on encouraging autonomy and independence, innovation and creativity as well as risk-taking. The pedagogical approach should encourage children to make decisions and accept mistakes as part of the learning process (Ibrahim & Ellis, 2002). The ability to predict entrepreneurial traits draws our attention to the significant role of entrepreneurship training and development including the mentorship and the grooming process in pre and early adulthood (Ibrahim & Ellis, 2002). Based on the point that home-education from parents has significant impact on the individual’s life, entrepreneurial parents can also be included in the educational category. In addition, many organisations allocate a great deal of resources to educating their members through external as well as internal education opportunities. Therefore, previous work experience can be included in the category of education in a broad sense. Consequently, we can conclude that the relative importance of education is very high (Lee et al., 2005). Studies have also shown that experiential type learning can play a critical role in developing entrepreneurial traits. Experience-based education was found to enhance entrepreneurial traits in pre and post adulthood. Further case studies allow nascent entrepreneurs to develop their risk-taking, innovation and autonomy traits (Clark, Davis, & Harnish, 1984). However, it has been suggested that many entrepreneurship training initiatives do not actually address the real needs of entrepreneurs, with a significant gap between the perceptions of training providers and those of the participating entrepreneurs in terms of training needs (Jennings & Hawley, 1996; Lean, 1998). This gap could be, as pointed out by Jackson and Anderson (1998), due to the reason that actual entrepreneurial process involves both “art” and “science”. Researchers, such as Miller (1987), Shephard and Douglas (1996), and Rae and Carswell (2001) also maintain that there are relatively easily teachable (e.g., business and management functional skills) and not easily teachable (e.g. creative and innovative aspects of entrepreneurship) elements of the discipline. If the actual content of entrepreneurship training is examined, it can be seen that some programmes are more “task” than “behaviour” oriented, focusing on specific skills for small business management, e.g., finance and marketing, rather than creativity, innovation and problem solving abilities (Deakins & Freel, 1998). Cho’s (1998) study has revealed that entrepreneurship education promotes the intention of venture creation because entrepreneurship related knowledge and skills simulate an individual’s motivation to create a new venture. Timmons (1994) stated that team-based venture creation is more common than individual ones. As it is difficult for entrepreneurs with technological backgrounds to have all the required managerial knowledge, individuals with backgrounds complementary for each other


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make up an effective team for creating a new venture company. He also emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship education by maintaining that skills required for successful venture creation are gained through postnatal learning experience like teamwork experiences. A growing body of academic research, therefore, has examined the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training and support initiatives, with recent studies focusing on the provision of training and other skills development opportunities. An important theme that has emerged from this work is the failure of many programmes and initiatives to take on board the cultural, social and educational background of the “entrepreneurs,” in developing training and support systems (De Faoite, Henry, Johnston, & van der Sijde, 2003). Entrepreneurship education in four countries In a previous study, Lee et al. (2005) examined the impact of entrepreneurship education in the US and Korea. In this study, we expand the scope to include China and Fiji and also focus on the relative strength of each country’s students in terms of factors related to pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship. China is fast becoming the world’s factory and entrepreneurship is playing extremely important role in its “market economy”. Fiji, on the other hand, provides a very unique cultural setting where different cultures are integrated to create a new venture. The US In the US, the number of universities and colleges with entrepreneurship curricula has increased dramatically since the late 1960s. Many schools developed entrepreneurship-related courses such as “Entrepreneurship & Venture Creation,” “Small Business Management,” “Enterprise Development,” etc. as an important part of their curricula. In 1971, there were only 16 colleges and universities teaching entrepreneurship. Today, there are over 800 colleges and universities with entrepreneurship classes, programmes and initiatives (Fiet, 1997). A national gallap poll showed that 70% of high school students want to start their own companies in the future. At the same time, it indicated that colleges and universities throughout the US have reported tremendous growth in their students’ interest in learning about entrepreneurship and ultimately becoming entrepreneurs. Recently, the Association for Advancing Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has indicated that entrepreneurship will play a future role in the accreditation of academic programmes. AACSB has also concluded a gathering for member institutions titled “AACSB Workshop on Business Schools and Entrepreneurship” and its stated purpose was to provide programmatic guidance on how to better integrate entrepreneurship issues into missions and programmes of member institutions (Fiet, 1997). Korea The entrepreneurship education history of Korea is very short compared to that of the US An increasing number of colleges and graduate schools are developing

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entrepreneurship-related courses to meet students’ growing interests (Joong Ang, Daily Newspaper, March 2, 1999). The job market for students majoring in “Entrepreneurship” is expected to grow due to the increasing demand for entrepreneurial talents (Han & Lee, 1998). Concurrently, Korean government has strongly supported venture creation by enacting a special law called the “Special Law for Venture Companies”. Although many colleges started basic education for venture creation after the Asian financial crisis of 1997, only two universities (SungSil and Hoseo Universities) established the venture creation management major in 1999. China Chinese universities have given attention to entrepreneurship education, particularly for upper level students. Since Chinese economy is still largely based on the stateowned enterprises (SOEs), entrepreneurial programs focus on enterprise management or industrial operation management. Recently, the Chinese Central Education Committee decided to require universities to provide quite a few entrepreneurship courses such as Small Business Management, New Venture Creation, Service Industry Management, Corporation Management, etc. simply because Chinese SOEs are faced with a serious unemployment problem (Li & Sebora, 2001). Finding jobs for new graduates becomes increasingly challenging. This may explain the phenomena that business schools are mushrooming in most universities and many of these schools provide the entrepreneurship track for M.B.A. and doctoral students. For example, one major university in Shanghai has more than 300 doctoral students enrolled in its management school. Entrepreneurship is a major study track for these doctoral students. Fiji Entrepreneurship education in Fiji has been an important focus of the undergraduate and postgraduate management programs at the University of the South Pacific serving Fiji and eleven other small Pacific Island countries. At the final year of the undergraduate level, the course New Venture Creation has been offered for the last several years. At the M.A. postgraduate level, the course Management Development in the Small Business is offered. In the M.B.A. program, a course called New Venture Creation is offered as an elective course in the program.

Research methodology Sample groups The main purpose of this study is to identify the relative strength of each country’s students in terms of factors related to pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship among the US, Korea, China and Fiji. To conduct this study, we collected data from students who took entrepreneurship related courses in the US (56 students) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Korea (98 students) at Kyonggi University, China


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(71 students) at the North China University of Technology in Beijing, and Fiji (82 students) at the University of South Pacific in Fiji. Distribution of questionnaires Four questionnaires with common content and differing only in language were distributed in the four countries sampled. The questionnaires used in each country were in the official language of the country, i.e., English for US and Fiji, Korean, and Chinese. To ensure that questions written in Korean and Chinese measure the same construct, the questionnaire in Korean or Chinese was translated back into English and compared with the original one written in English. There was no significant difference. Because questionnaires were administered during the regular class time, all of them were collected. Data analysis methodology All of the questionnaires collected were properly answered, and thus all were used for data analysis. First, factor analysis was conducted to check construct validity of each question and to identify meaningful factors. Then, using factors identified in the previous step, ANOVA was performed to identify whether any significant differences exit among the three country groups. Variables reflecting the effects of entrepreneurship education According to Watson and Hogarth-Scott (1998), motivation for venture creation is one of the critical factors for successful entrepreneurship Clark et al. (1984) and Cho (1998) stated entrepreneurship education could provide motivation for venture creation. Effective entrepreneurship education and a good concept of venture creation will enhance the success of entrepreneurship, and strengthened entrepreneurship will result in increased intention and desire for venture creation. Finally, students with increased intention of venture creation will pursue more knowledge of entrepreneurship and realize the importance of teamwork (Timmons, 1994). Concurrently, confidence and ability in venture creation will also increase (Han & Lee, 1998). Based on previous studies, this study developed the questionnaire with ten questions on: 1) intention of venture creation, 2) confidence in venture creation, and 3) intention of overseas venture creation. A 5-point Likert type scale was used (1. strongly disagree, 2. disagree, 3. neither agree nor disagree, 4. agree, and 5. strongly agree) for each question. As a result of factor analysis, three factors were extracted and used to measure the effects of entrepreneurship education. Items were loaded together as expected (see Table 2). Results and discussion This study used Levene’s statistics to test the homogeneity of variances among three factors. As seen in Table 3, the result was not significant except for “Intention of

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Table 2 Result of factor analysis Factor Eigen value Variable name

Factor loading Operational definition

1

3.403

2

1.564

0.614 0.605 0.611 0.797 0.756 0.884 0.832

3

1.142

-Venture creation (VC) before graduation -Preference of VC over getting a job -Intention to overcome failure -Lifelong commitment to VC -Intention to overcome opposition of VC -Confidence in successful VC -Ability for choosing business with opportunity -Confidence in getting funding for VC -Overseas VC -Targeting overseas markets

0.556 0.863 0.830

Intention of VC

Confidence about VC

Intention of overseas VC

Oversea Venture Creation,” and the number of samples in three factor groups is similar. Thus, we can conclude homogeneity of variance. Table 4 shows the result of ANOVA. The table indicates P values for all three factors are significant. Therefore, we can conclude that there is significant difference between any two countries for all three factors. This means that the unique context of each country has significant effect on all three factors. We also performed post hoc multiple comparison on three factors as seen in Table 6. Intentions of venture creation The Korea and Fiji groups show higher mean scores on this factor in comparison to the groups from the US and China as seen in descriptive statistics of Table 5. Table 6 further showed that the Korea and Fiji groups have higher significance levels than the China group at the α level of 0.01 and 0.1 respectively. The Korea group also showed significantly higher level of intention of VC than the US group at the α level of 0.05. These statistics show a growing interest in venture creation in Korea to overcome the economic crisis which greatly impacted the country’s economy since 1997. This social environment and limited job opportunities in Korea might have provided a strong impact on the intention of Korean students’ venture creation. Fiji remaining a British colony as late as 1970 and dominated by its Pacific neighbors—New Zealand and Australia—also has been strongly influenced by entrepreneurship-oriented culture of western countries. Further, the success of IndoFijian businesses in Fiji also made the people knowledgeable about the importance Table 3 Test of homogeneity of variances

Intention of venture creation (VC) Confidence about VC Intention of oversea VC

Levene statistic

df1

df2

Sig.

1.454 1.098 5.327

3 3 3

388 397 391

0.227 0.350 0.001*


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Table 4 Result of ANOVA test

Intention of venture creation (VC) Confidence about VC

Intention of oversea VC

Between groups Within groups Total Between groups Within groups Total Between groups Within groups Total

Sum of squares

df

Mean square

F

Sig.

12.952 203.323 216.276 4.807 184.284 189.092 26.625 210.183 236.808

3 388 391 3 397 400 3 391 394

4.317 0.524

8.239

0.000

1.602 0.464

3.452

0.017

8.875 0.538

116.510

0.000

of entrepreneurship education. The repeated messages to the people in Fiji that their future lies in starting new businesses might have partly contributed. While they had been influenced by the mature entrepreneurship culture, American students showed relatively weak intention for venture creation as a result of the more prosperous economy with wide ranging job opportunities than the other three countries when this survey was conducted. The low mean score of the Chinese group could be explained by the challenging environment for becoming entrepreneurs for the general Chinese young people like college students. Chinese business environments such as the legal protection system, financial support for small businesses, and personal discretion (Li & Sebora, 2001) are still under construction. Such an environmental barricade blocks the hope of the young people becoming entrepreneurs. Hodgetts and Luthans (1997) argued that corruption may be another reason for the young Chinese students to lose their interest in turning into an entrepreneur. Although previous studies (Johnson & Loveman, Table 5 Descriptive statistics Factor

Intention of VC

Confidence about VC

Intention of oversea VC

Group

US Korea China Fiji Total U.S. Korea China Fiji Total U.S. Korea China Fiji Total

Number

56 98 158 80 392 56 98 165 82 401 55 98 160 82 395

Mean

2.9679 3.3449 2.8975 3.1275 3.0663 3.5476 3.5000 3.2949 3.5122 3.4248 3.4818 3.9490 3.9813 3.3902 3.7810

Std. deviation

0.83712 0.68068 0.67748 0.77769 0.74373 0.80511 0.66019 0.65167 0.67321 0.68755 0.94263 0.67155 0.67266 0.75778 0.77526

Std. error

0.11186 0.06876 0.05390 0.08695 0.03756 0.10759 0.06669 0.05073 0.07434 0.03433 0.12710 0.06784 0.05318 0.08368 0.03901

95% Confidence interval for mean Lower bound

Upper bound

2.7437 3.2084 2.7910 2.9544 2.9925 3.3320 3.3676 3.1948 3.3643 3.3573 3.2270 3.8143 3.8762 3.2237 3.7043

3.1920 3.4814 3.0039 3.3006 3.1402 3.7632 3.6324 3.3951 3.6601 3.4923 3.7366 4.0836 4.0863 3.5567 3.8577

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Table 6 Result of post hoc multiple comparisons Dependent variable

Group

Comparison

(J) Group 2

Mean difference (I−J)

Sig.

Intention of venture creation (VC)

US

China US

Korea

>

China U.S.

< <
>

1997; Li & Sebora, 2001) show that entrepreneurship development becomes the principal renewal force and critical to the successful transition from the planned model to the market economies, the Chinese government still gives less than enough attention to the entrepreneurship education particularly to the young college students.

Confidence about VC The US, Korea, and Fiji groups show higher mean scores on this factor in comparison to the group from China as seen in Table 5. Table 6 further shows that the difference between the three groups and China group is significant (p < 0.1). The significantly higher score of the US group on this factor in comparison to the Chinese group is an interesting finding which reflect entrepreneurship-oriented culture and a deeper foundation of entrepreneurship education in the US may have helped American students gain knowledge, ability, and confidence in venture creation. The relatively higher score of the Korean group in comparison to the Chinese group may reflect the Korean social and economic environment, which encourages venture creations. A dramatically growing number of successful start-up ventures, especially in their world’s leading information technology (IT) related industries (Lee, 2003), has helped Korean students engender a strong motivation and confidence in venture creation. The lower score of the Chinese group could be explained by generally low practical abilities of Chinese students because Chinese education largely focuses on book knowledge with very little attention given to real-world applications. Behavioral scientists emphasize that successful experience and social recognition are the major sources of people’s confidence. Chinese students particularly lack in


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successful experience and social recognition simply because very few people are able to create their own ventures at a relatively young age. Strong influence of entrepreneurship-oriented culture of western countries contributed to a relatively high score of Fiji. Furthermore, a couple of development assistance schemes, including Fiji Development Bank loan assistance scheme of 1987 and the recent affirmative action program of the government of Fiji, are also targeted towards promoting small business by generating optimism and confidence about starting new businesses in Fiji. Intention of oversea VC The group from Korea and China show significantly higher mean scores on this factor in comparison to the other two groups from the US and Fiji as seen in descriptive statistics of Table 5. Table 6 further shows that both the Korea and China group show significantly higher intention of oversea VC than the other two groups (p < 0.000). The significantly higher score of the Korean group on this factor show a strong cultural effect. Although their strong feelings for family-ties and obligation, Korean students who have grown up in a unique environment where export has been strongly emphasized for economic development. Thus, they show a higher level of “the intention of overseas venture creation ‘than both American and Fijian students.’” The result in Table 6 also shows that Chinese group has a significantly higher mean score on oversea venture creation than the US and Fiji. After China initiated open-door policy in 1979, Chinese people in general, and Chinese young college students in particular, have been strongly pursuing a western type of life and career (Li & Chen, 2002). Studying in countries like the US or UK becomes a reachable dream for an increasing number of young students. Creating a venture later on and working across cultures drive these young people to work especially hard for TOEFL, GMAT, and/or GRE. Cross cultural work experience receives a high value because those with such an experience are perceived to have better opportunities for working overseas and possibly seeking chances to build their own ventures. American students show relatively weaker intention of overseas venture creation than Koreans and Chinese as a result of the strong economy with huge domestic market and a wide range of job opportunities. The significantly lower scores of the Fijian group on this factor, in comparison to Koreans and Chinese is understandable because of large extended family orientation and obligations on part of both of the dominant communities in Fiji, e.g., Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Because of this feeling of family ties and obligations, they have a low preference for an overseas VC.

Conclusion Previous studies maintain that entrepreneurs are cultivated during their lifetime, and especially social and cultural background, personal experience, and education are very important to build entrepreneurship in people’s mind. This study identified the differences among the students in US, Korea, China and Fiji in term of strength of three factors, which are related to pedagogical effects of entrepreneurship education.

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The results of this study imply that unique cultural context of each country has differentiated students from the four countries in terms of “Intention about VC,” “Confidence of VC” and “Intention of oversea venture creation”. According to the result of this study, each country can provides customized “entrepreneurship curriculum” and improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education by focusing on factors identified as relatively weak factors for each country to foster entrepreneurship among the future leaders of each country. Appendix 10 Questions Used to Extract Three Factors 1) I want to launch a new venture company of my own before graduation. 2) I am confident that I can successfully launch a new venture company on my own. 3) I am confident that I can select a business with good potential if I launch a new venture company of my own. 4) If I launch a new venture company, I can provide my own funds and human resources 5) I am more interested in establishing my own venture company than getting a job. 6) Even if I launch new ventures and fail many times, I will keep on trying until I succeed. 7) I think that founding a new venture company is the only way to succeed in life. 8) I would dedicate my life to establishing a new venture company even if my parents were strongly against it. 9) If I launch a new venture company, I will limit its area of operation to my own country. 10) If I launch a new venture company, I will expand its business to all over the world.

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