2021 GUESSS Global Report - Global Student Entrepreneurship 2021: Insights From 58 Countries

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2021 GUESSS Global Report - Global Student Entrepreneurship 2021: Insights From 58 Countries
Global Student Entrepreneurship 2021:
Insights From 58 Countries
2021 GUESSS Global Report
Philipp Sieger / Lea Raemy / Thomas Zellweger / Urs Fueglistaller / Isabella Hatak
2021 GUESSS Global Report - Global Student Entrepreneurship 2021: Insights From 58 Countries
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                 Preface

Preface
Since decades, new ventures created by students have a crucial economic and social impact.
The financial and non-financial value that is created as a result is crucially important,
particularly in times of global crisis such as in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

As such, it is more important than ever to gain new insights into student entrepreneurship on
a global level.

The GUESSS Project (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey) is dedicated
to this mission since 2003. The 2021 Global Report presents the related findings of the 9th data
collection wave in the history of GUESSS. It was conducted in early 2021 in 58 countries, with
more than 267’000 students providing complete responses, which are all-time records for
GUESSS.

Specifically, the report provides insights into students’ (entrepreneurial) career choice
intentions, their entrepreneurial activities, and the underlying drivers. Moreover, it highlights
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hopefully, the findings will advance and inspire
research and practice on student entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in general.

The 2021 edition of GUESSS would not have been possible without the invaluable effort and
support of all country teams, national university partners, EY as the international project
partner, and of course the students who responded to the survey invitation. Thank you!

We are already looking forward to the next GUESSS edition in 2023!

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Philipp Sieger
University of Bern / GUESSS CEO
Lea Raemy
University of Bern / GUESSS Project Assistant
Prof. Thomas Zellweger
Prof. Urs Fueglistaller
Prof. Isabella Hatak
University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG)
Members of the GUESSS Supervisory Board

   Citation
   Sieger, P., Raemy, L., Zellweger, T., Fueglistaller, U. & Hatak, I. (2021). Global Student
   Entrepreneurship 2021: Insights From 58 Countries. St.Gallen/Bern: KMU-HSG/IMU-U.

                                                                                                1
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                                                 Table of Content

Table of Content
Preface ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Table of Content ....................................................................................................................... 2
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 3
1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions ...................................................... 4
2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time ........................................................................... 8
3. Entrepreneurial Activities ................................................................................................ 10
  3.1     Nascent Entrepreneurs ........................................................................................... 10
  3.2     Active Entrepreneurs .............................................................................................. 11
  3.3     The Global View ..................................................................................................... 12
4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors .............................................................. 15
  4.1     The University Context ........................................................................................... 15
  4.2     Field of Study .......................................................................................................... 17
  4.3     Gender .................................................................................................................... 18
5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic ......................................................................... 21
6. Selected Recommendations .......................................................................................... 24
7. Further Information ......................................................................................................... 25
  7.1     The Sample ............................................................................................................ 25
  7.2     The 2021 GUESSS Country Team Leaders ........................................................... 26
  7.3  The GUESSS Project ............................................................................................. 27
8. References ..................................................................................................................... 28

                                                                                                                                             2
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                      Executive Summary

Executive Summary
One project, 58 countries, more than 267’000 students, and one global report with the following
key insights:

Regarding students’ entrepreneurial intentions and activities

      17,8 percent of all students intend to be an entrepreneur directly after studies.
      32,3 percent plan to be an entrepreneur 5 years after completion of studies.
      A central and stable pattern is “first employee, then entrepreneur”.
      The career plans of “direct intentional entrepreneurs” are very stable: 82,8 percent of
       them still intend to be an entrepreneur 5 years later.
      Entrepreneurial intentions have been in a similar range across the last GUESSS
       editions.
      28,4 percent of all students are in the process of founding a new venture (nascent
       entrepreneurs). 10,8 percent already own and run their own business (active
       entrepreneurs).
      Founding teams are of crucial relevance for both nascent and active founders. 46,5
       percent of all nascent entrepreneurs plan to create their business with co-founders;
       even 62,7 percent of all active entrepreneurs have at least one co-owner.
      The shares of intentional, nascent, and active entrepreneurs differ considerably across
       countries. The overall pattern is that developing countries exhibit higher numbers than
       developed countries.
      The new ventures are mostly very young and very small, whereby the entrepreneurs
       are relatively happy with their performance.

Regarding influencing factors

      Entrepreneurship education and the entrepreneurial climate at the university are key
       determinants of entrepreneurial intentions and activities.
      Field of study is crucial, with “business and management” students as well as “science
       of art” students exhibiting the strongest entrepreneurial spirit.
      A gender gap with regard to entrepreneurship can again be observed. The share of
       intentional, nascent, and active entrepreneurs is consistently smaller among females
       than among males.
      That the strength of entrepreneurial intentions has been more or less stable across the
       last GUESSS editions signals that the COVID-19 pandemic does not seem to have
       affected entrepreneurial intentions substantially.
      Still, 22,1 percent of all nascent entrepreneurs and 33,7 percent of all active
       entrepreneurs indicate that they plan to create / have created their new venture largely
       because of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

                                                                                              3
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                               1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions

1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions
Almost 18 percent of all students intend to be an entrepreneur directly after studies, compared
to more than 32 percent 5 years after completion of studies. Thus, entrepreneurial intentions
(meaning the intention to create a new business)1 almost double between these two points in
time.

     Figure 1. Detailed career choice intentions (N=267’366)

                                                                              7,1
       an employee in a small business (1-49 employees)
                                                                        3,4

        an employee in a medium-sized business (50-249                                     12,0
                          employees)                                          6,9

            an employee in a large business (250 or more                                                        20,6
                            employees)                                                                   17,7

                                                                    2,4
                 an employee in a non-profit organization
                                                                    2,3

                                                                                     9,5
        an employee in academia (academic career path)
                                                                                    8,8

                                                                                             13,3
                            an employee in public service
                                                                                             13,5

                                                                                                         17,8
     a founder (entrepreneur) working in my own business
                                                                                                                            32,3

                                                                  1,4
            a successor in my parents’ / family’s business
                                                                  1,4

                                                                 0,6
                         a successor in another business
                                                                  1,1

                                                                                                  15,3
                                  Other / do not know yet
                                                                                           12,5

                                                             0                  10                       20            30          40
                                                                                              Percentage (%)

                                   Directly after studies        5 years after completion of studies

When forming three career groups (i.e., employee, founder, and successor, see Figure 2), we
see a clear pattern that is very stable across GUESSS editions (see, for instance, Sieger,
Fueglistaller, Zellweger & Braun, 2019): students prefer organizational employment directly
after studies (whereby almost 20 percent intend to work in an SME with up to 249 full-time
equivalent employees), and many then plan to swing to an entrepreneurial career path within
the next 5 years.

1   We use the terms “entrepreneurial intentions” and “founding intentions” synonymously. Strictly speaking, also
    becoming a successor in the parents’ firm or in another firm represents a type of entrepreneurial career; we do
    not refer to these options unless noted otherwise.

                                                                                                                                        4
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions

   Figure 2. Career choice intentions in groups (N=267'366)

                    100

                     80
                                 64,9
   Percentage (%)

                     60                   52,7

                     40                                                    32,3

                                                                 17,8                                                             15,3
                     20                                                                                                                  12,5

                                                                                                     1,9     2,5
                      0
                                  Employee                         Founder                           Successor              Other / do not know yet

                                                  Directly after studies          5 years after completion of studies

For more in-depth insights into the specific career plans of intentional entrepreneurs, Figure 3
shows which career path those students who intend to be entrepreneurs right after studies
plan to pursue 5 years later. What is encouraging is that 82,8 percent of these “direct intentional
entrepreneurs” still intend to be entrepreneurs; therefore, their entrepreneurial intentions seem
to be quite stable.

  Figure 3. The career plans of direct intentional entrepreneurs 5 years later (N=47'604)

            an employee in a small business (1-49 employees)                      1,8

                    an employee in a medium-sized business (50-249
                                                                                   2,4
                                      employees)

                       an employee in a large business (250 or more
                                                                                      4,8
                                       employees)

                            an employee in a non-profit organization            0,5

                    an employee in academia (academic career path)                1,4

                                        an employee in public service             1,9

  a founder (entrepreneur) working in my own business                                                                                           82,8

                       a successor in my parents’ / family’s business             1,1

                                    a successor in another business             0,8

                                                 Other / do not know yet           2,5

                                                                            0           10    20      30     40     50       60     70     80     90
                                                                                                           Percentage (%)
                                            Employee              Founder                Successor         Other

                                                                                                                                                       5
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                               1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions

The other way round, Figure 4 shows what those students who intend to be an entrepreneur
5 years after completion of studies plan to do directly after studies.

45,6 percent want to be an entrepreneur directly after studies; almost exactly the same number
(45,7 percent) intend to be employees in the private or public sector. This further supports the
“first employment, then entrepreneur” pattern we observed above.

     Figure 4. The career plans directly after studies of the 5 years intentional entrepreneurs
                                            (N=86'479)
       an employee in a small business (1-49 employees)                      7,0

        an employee in a medium-sized business (50-249
                                                                                    9,9
                          employees)

            an employee in a large business (250 or more
                                                                                              19,5
                            employees)

                 an employee in a non-profit organization         1,2

        an employee in academia (academic career path)                 3,1

                            an employee in public service                5,0

     a founder (entrepreneur) working in my own business                                                               45,6

            a successor in my parents’ / family’s business        1,3

                         a successor in another business         0,4

                                  Other / do not know yet                    7,0

                                                             0                 10           20         30     40         50
                                                                                            Percentage (%)
                             Employee          Founder            Successor               Other

Turning to country comparisons, we look at the share of intentional founders in the 58 countries
of GUESSS 2021 in Table 5.2

We note that these numbers have to be interpreted with caution. The 58 country samples differ
considerably in terms of size, number and types of participating universities, student
demographics, and so forth. Still, we see that intentional founders are particularly prominent in
developing countries (and in particular, in Latin American countries).

Developed industrial countries rather tend to appear at the bottom of the list, which is a
phenomenon already revealed in previous GUESSS editions (Sieger, Fueglistaller &
Zellweger, 2014; Sieger, Fueglistaller & Zellweger, 2016; Sieger et al., 2019).

2   Unless noted otherwise, we only consider countries with at least 20 complete responses in all our country-level
    comparisons.

                                                                                                                              6
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                              1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions

   Figure 5. Share of intentional founders across countries (N=267’366)

                   Nigeria                                                                                                            53,7               65,2
                Indonesia                                                                                 38,9                                    60,2
                                                                                                         38,1
                  Ecuador                                                                                                                     58,0
     Dominican Republic                                                                    31,5
                                                                                                                                             57,4
                   Mexico                                                                   32,1
                                                                                                                                             57,2
                                                                                                     37,0
                Colombia                                                                                                                   57,0
                                                                                          30,4
                 Morocco                                                                                                              53,8
                      Nepal                                                                      34,3
                                                                                                                                    51,8
                    Bolivia                                                                                           44,4
                                                                                                                                    51,8
                                                                               25,6
                   Ukraine                                                                                                       51,2
        North Macedonia                                                       24,6
                                                                                                                               50,3
              El Salvador                                                                           36,1
                                                                                                                             47,9
                  Panama                                                             27,8
                                                                                                                          47,6
                                                                                        30,2
                       Peru                                                                                             46,3
                                                                                   26,7
                   Albania                                                                                            44,9
                                                                            24,0
                      Qatar                                                                                           44,6
                                                                                    27,5
                  Bulgaria                                                                                         44,1
                                                                           22,7
                 Lebanon                                                                                         42,6
                                                                                   26,9
                  Uruguay                                                                                        42,3
                                                                           22,6
                    Russia                                                                                       42,2
                                                                                           31,3
                   Tunisia                                                                                     41,5
                                                               17,5
                   Estonia                                                                                     41,1
                                                              16,0
                 Lithuania                                                                                  40,4
                                                                              24,5
                        Iran                                                                                40,4
                                                               16,7
                       USA                                                                                 40,0
                                                        13,4
    United Arab Emirates                                                                                 38,7
                                                                           22,4
                      Brazil                                                                             38,4
                                                             15,8
                  Slovakia                                                                              37,7
                                                                       21,0
              Costa Rica                                                                             37,6
                                                9,7
                    Ireland                                                                          36,9
                                                              16,1
                 Australia                                                                          36,9
                                                                                    27,5
                 Pakistan                                                                           36,5
                                                               17,2
                      Chile                                                                         36,4
                                                               16,8
                    Poland                                                                        34,4
                                                       12,5
                  Hungary                                                                         34,4
                                                  11,1
             Netherlands                                                                     33,1
                                                       13,1
            Liechtenstein                                                                    32,7
                                                               16,8
                   Greece                                                                   32,4
                                                                17,8
               AVERAGE                                                                      32,3
                                                         14,6
                   Croatia                                                                  32,2
                                                  10,9
                  Belgium                                                                  31,1
                                                                    18,9
             Kazakhstan                                                                   30,0
                                                      12,3
                       Italy                                                          29,2
                                                9,4
         Czech Republic                                                            26,5
                                          7,0
            New Zealand                                                       24,4
                                                              16,3
                        Iraq                                                 24,3
                                    3,6
                  Sweden                                                     24,2
                                            7,7
                  Portugal                                                  23,2
                                                       13,0
                      Spain                                                23,1
                                                  10,8
                   Finland                                              22,0
                                          6,6
                    Austria                                            21,6
                                                  10,5
            Saudi Arabia                                             19,9
                                      5,3
                 Germany                                        17,6
                                    4,2
              Switzerland                                     16,1
                                            7,7
                    Jordan                                   15,2
                                          7,2
                     Korea                            11,7
                                   3,0
                     Japan                      9,0
                               0           10                   20                  30               40                   50                 60            70   80
                                                                                   Percentage (%)

                               Intentional Founders (DIRECT)                               Intentional Founders (5 YEARS)

                                                                                                                                                                     7
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                     2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time

2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time
How have entrepreneurial intentions developed over time? This is a very central and important
question, particularly when considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that had started
in early 2020, which was after the previous GUESSS edition had been completed (in 2018).

We therefore analyzed data from 13 countries who have participated in the last five GUESSS
data collection waves (2021, 2018, 2016, 2013/14, and 2011).3

The share of intentional entrepreneurs (5 years after completion of studies) has been the
highest in 2011. After a considerable decline in 2013 and another small decline in 2016, there
was a noteworthy increase in 2018, with the 2021 number being slightly below the 2018 result.

Overall, entrepreneurial intentions have therefore been quite stable across the last 10 years.
More specifically, the 2021 number is in the same rather small range as the three preceding
GUESSS editions (i.e., between 28,3 and 31,2 percent), whereby the 2011 results were not
substantially higher (34,3 percent). With all the necessary caution when drawing conclusions
across GUESSS editions, it thus seems that the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a
fundamental impact on students’ entrepreneurial intentions.

In the 13 investigated countries (see Figure 7), we see different patterns of increasing and
decreasing shares of intentional founders that call for further in-depth investigation, particularly
when considering the differences between 2018 (pre-COVID) and 2021.

            Figure 6. Share of intentional founders (5Y) across GUESSS editions

                      40

                      35    34,3
     Percentage (%)

                                                                                      31,2
                                                                                                          30,5

                      30
                                               28,8
                                                                  28,3

                      25

                      20
                            2011               2013               2016               2018                 2021

3   The number and types of participating universities within each country may vary, as does the number of responding
    students per university and country. However, the GUESSS country teams remained stable, so we do not assume
    that there is a systematic variation with regard to the data collection procedure and in particular with regard to the
    university recruitment strategy. Thus, we believe that our longitudinal findings are reliable and valid. Nevertheless,
    they have to be interpreted with great care.

                                                                                                                        8
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                        2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time

   Figure 7. Shares of intentional founders (5 years after studies) across countries and time

                                                                     28,6
                                                 18,4
                 Austria                                 22,5
                                                           24,1
                                                        21,6

                                                                                          39,1
                                                                             33,5
                  Brazil                                                            37,4
                                                                                     38,2
                                                                                     38,4

                                                                                36,1
                                                                                 36,2
                 Estonia                                                           37,5
                                                                              34,0
                                                                                            41,1

                                                                       30,3
                                                              24,7
                 Finland                                               30,8
                                                                        31,5
                                                        22,0

                                                              24,7
                                                 17,6
               Germany                          17,0
                                                 17,7
                                                 17,6

                                                                27,1
                                                                27,0
                 Greece                                                     32,7
                                                                            32,7
                                                                            32,4

                                                                                   37,5
                                                                                35,4
                Hungary                                                      33,0
                                                                                   37,5
                                                                               34,4

                                                                       30,7
                                      10,4
                  Japan                 11,7
                                        12,0
                                    9,0

                                                                                            41,4
                                                                                            41,4
           Liechtenstein                                                                            45,6
                                                                                    37,3
                                                                            32,7

                                                                                                                          60,4
                                                                                                                                  66,6
                 Mexico                                                                                                          65,9
                                                                                                       48,2
                                                                                                                     57,2

                                                                            32,1
                                                                                   35,7
                Portugal                                           29,2
                                                                26,6
                                                         23,2

                                                                                                     47,1
                                                                                                              52,6
                 Russia                                                                                     51,3
                                                                                                           50,4
                                                                                             42,2

                                                                27,2
                                                17,7
             Switzerland                               21,1
                                                      20,1
                                               16,1

                           0       10           20                30                 40               50             60           70     80

                                                         Percentage (%)

                                        2011          2013      2016          2018          2021

                                                                                                                                              9
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                                      3. Entrepreneurial Activities

3. Entrepreneurial Activities

3.1 Nascent Entrepreneurs
28,4 percent of all students (N=75’838) indicated that they are in the process of creating their
own business, meaning that they are “nascent entrepreneurs”. 15 percent of them have
already created a business before and are thus serial or portfolio entrepreneurs. Almost one
third of the nascent entrepreneurs indicates that their project emerged from the university
environment.

                 Figure 8. Emergence of the start-up project (N=50’887)

                                                                                                                     68,0
                 70

                 60

                 50
Percentage (%)

                 40

                 30
                                                                                 18,5
                 20
                                            13,5

                 10

                      0
                                  From a university course          In another form related to the       Largely independent from the
                                                                              university                           university

47,4 percent of the nascent entrepreneurs indicate that they plan that this business should
become their main occupation after graduation. 22,2 percent said that this is not planned; the
rest has not decided upon this yet.

46,5 percent of the nascent entrepreneurs plan to create their business with one or more co-
founders. This indicates the relevance of networking and support offerings in order to bring
together entrepreneurial teams.

                      Figure 9. Number of co-founders (N=51’949)

                      60
                                        53,5

                      50

                      40
     Percentage (%)

                                                                   28,3
                      30

                      20

                                                                                                 11,0
                      10                                                                                                    7,3

                          0
                              On my own (0 co-founders)      With 1 co-founder          With 2 co-founders    With 3 or more co-founders
                                                                          Number of cofounders

                                                                                                                                           10
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                                              3. Entrepreneurial Activities

3.2 Active Entrepreneurs
28’877 students indicated that they are active entrepreneurs, meaning that they already own
and run their own business (10,8 percent). As shown below, the businesses are very young;
almost 20 percent indicate that it has been created in 2021, and more than 30 percent say that
this happened in 2020.

In addition, and not surprisingly, the businesses are very small. 27,6 percent of the firms have
no employees (yet); around 48 percent have 1 or 2 employees.

          Figure 10. Founding year of active entrepreneurs’ firms (N=25’050)
                   40

                   35
                                                                                                                                 31,3
                   30
  Percentage (%)

                   25

                   20                                                                                                                       18,2
                                                                                                                         14,6
                   15
                                                                                                                9,2
                   10                 8,3
                                                                                                       5,5
                                                                                   3,2           3,9
                     5                                                      2,1
                                                1,0     1,3    1,3
                     0
                                    Earlier    2011     2012   2013         2014   2015      2016      2017    2018     2019     2020       2021

What is quite surprising is that 30,1 percent of all active entrepreneurs indicated that this
business will not be their main occupation after completion of studies; put differently, the
created firms might be continued on a part-time basis or might even be abandoned. Still, 33,9
percent of the entrepreneurs have not finally decided on this issue yet.

Referring to co-founders, 37,3 percent of the new ventures do not have a co-owner next to the
actual founder; 48,5 percent have 1 or 2 co-owners. This further illustrates the relevance of co-
founders and co-owners in student entrepreneurship.

                               Figure 11. Number of co-owners of active entrepreneurs (N=27’319)

                                     40          37,3

                                                                     29,7
                                     30
                   Percentage (%)

                                                                                          18,8
                                     20

                                     10                                                                       7,6
                                                                                                                                 6,6

                                      0
                                              0 co-owners      1 co-owner           2 co-owners          3 co-owners        > 3 co-owners

                                                                                                                                                   11
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                      3. Entrepreneurial Activities

How satisfied are the active entrepreneurs with the performance of their business? We asked
them to rate their business’ performance as compared to its competitors since its establishment
in several dimensions (i.e., sales growth, market share growth, profit growth, job creation, and
innovativeness) on a scale from 1 (much worse) to 7 (much better).

The average is 4,54, which is above the neutral point of the scale; almost 36 percent of the
active entrepreneurs rate the performance as higher than 5, which are quite encouraging
numbers.

             Figure 12. Performance ratings of active entrepreneurs (N=27’343)

                  40

                  35
 Percentage (%)

                  30
                                                                            24,3
                  25                                      22,2

                  20                                                                         18,7
                                                                                                              17,1

                  15
                                          11,2
                  10
                           6,6

                   5

                   0
                         Up to 2          2-3        Higher than 3 up Higher than 4 up Higher than 5 up Higher than 6 up
                                                           to 4             to 5             to 6             to 7

3.3 The Global View
Comparing the shares of nascent and active entrepreneurs across countries, we reveal a
picture very similar to that for entrepreneurial intentions (see Table 13): developing countries
tend to be at the top of the list, whereby developed countries rather appear at the bottom.

To assess the corresponding future trend, we also assessed the proportion of nascent versus
active entrepreneurs in each country (Table 14). On average, there are 2,6 nascent
entrepreneurs for each active entrepreneur, with numerous countries exceeding this number
considerably. This signals that the number of active entrepreneurs should increase in the
future, while one has to keep in mind that not every nascent entrepreneur will complete the
founding process (Khan, Tang & Joshi, 2014). Still, we can interpret this as a positive signal.

                                                                                                                           12
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                                               3. Entrepreneurial Activities

    Figure 13. Shares of nascent and active entrepreneurs across countries (N=267’366)

                   Nigeria                                                            32,2                                                        75,3
                        Iraq                                                          31,8                                                 69,5
             Kazakhstan                                               21,8
                                                                                                                                        67,4
                   Ukraine                                        18,6
                                                                                                                                     65,1
                        Iran                                     18,0
                                                                                                                              59,5
                   Albania                             13,1
                                                                                                                            57,6
                    Bolivia                                                  25,6
                                                                                                                        55,1
                 Morocco                      8,1
                                                                                                                       54,2
                 Pakistan                              13,5
                                                                                                                       54,1
                   Mexico                                         19,4
                                                                                                                    52,0
            Saudi Arabia                       9,1
                                                                                                                   51,0
                  Panama                                      17,4
                                                                                                                  50,6
                       Peru                                       20,4
                                                                                                                 50,2
                                                                19,0
                Colombia                                                                                         50,1
                                                             16,9
                 Lebanon                                                                                        49,2
                                                                  20,7
                      Qatar                                                                                    48,8
                                                                    22,3
              El Salvador                                                                                    48,0
                                                           15,2
                   Tunisia                                                                                45,3
                                                                                                               48,7
                Indonesia                                                                                45,0
                                                              16,5
     Dominican Republic                                                                                  44,9
                                                      12,2
                    Russia                                                                           42,3
                                                                          25,1
                  Ecuador                                                                            41,9
                                                   10,2
    United Arab Emirates                                                                      38,2
                                                     11,7
                      Nepal                                                                 37,2
                                                        14,3
        North Macedonia                                                                     37,1
                                                               17,6
                  Bulgaria                                                                  37,1
                                                   10,3
                    Jordan                                                                 36,6
                                                          14,3
                      Chile                                                               35,8
                                                              17,7
                  Uruguay                                                                35,2
                                                          14,6
              Costa Rica                                                                 34,8
                                                       12,1
            Liechtenstein                                                         30,8
                                                    10,8
               AVERAGE                                                         28,4
                                                   9,7
                 Australia                                                   26,9
                                                                 20,4
                   Estonia                                                  26,1
                                             7,3
                  Hungary                                                  25,9
                                                      12,3
                      Brazil                                               25,6
                                       4,3
                     Korea                                                25,4
                                              8,3
                       USA                                                25,0
                                                 10,4
             Netherlands                                         21,3
                                               9,0
         Czech Republic                                         21,1
                                                 10,6
                 Lithuania                                    19,5
                                             8,0
                   Greece                                    19,1
                                           6,7
                  Slovakia                                   19,0
                                           6,3
                      Spain                                  18,9
                                            7,2
                    Poland                                  17,9
                                              8,4
            New Zealand                                   16,6
                                        4,7
                  Belgium                                 16,6
                                            6,9
                       Italy                             16,1
                                             7,8
                    Ireland                             15,5
                                                 10,3
                   Finland                             14,4
                                       3,9
                  Sweden                             13,4
                                     3,3
                   Croatia                           13,3
                                       4,3
                  Portugal                         11,4
                                        4,9
                 Germany                        9,9
                                          6,1
                    Austria                     9,5
                                     3,2
              Switzerland                      9,0
                                   1,5
                     Japan               5,1
                               0             10                20              30              40           50            60            70          80
                                                                               Percentage (%)
                                                                     Actives        Nascents

                                                                                                                                                         13
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                                   3. Entrepreneurial Activities

    Figure 14. Proportion of nascent versus active entrepreneurs in each country (N=104’715)

                 Morocco                                                                                       6,7
                     Korea                                                                            5,8
            Saudi Arabia                                                                           5,6
                   Albania                                                               4,4
                 Pakistan                                                          4,0
                   Croatia                                                         4,0
    United Arab Emirates                                                        3,8
                    Jordan                                                   3,5
                  Hungary                                                    3,5
                  Belgium                                                    3,5
                  Ukraine                                                    3,5
                    Russia                                                  3,5
                  Sweden                                                    3,5
                     Japan                                                 3,4
                        Iran                                              3,3
                     Nepal                                              3,2
              Kazakhstan                                               3,1
                       USA                                            3,0
                      Spain                                           3,0
                   Tunisia                                           3,0
                 Lebanon                                            2,9
                  Panama                                            2,9
              Switzerland                                          2,8
                  Slovakia                                         2,8
                 Australia                                        2,8
     Dominican Republic                                           2,7
                   Mexico                                        2,7
                  Portugal                                       2,7
                Colombia                                        2,6
               AVERAGE                                          2,6
        North Macedonia                                         2,6
            Liechtenstein                                      2,5
                      Chile                                   2,5
                    Poland                                    2,5
                       Peru                                   2,5
                   Greece                                   2,4
              Costa Rica                                    2,4
                      Qatar                                 2,4
                   Nigeria                                  2,3
                       Italy                                2,3
         Czech Republic                                     2,3
                        Iraq                              2,2
              El Salvador                                2,2
                    Bolivia                              2,2
                  Bulgaria                               2,1
                      Brazil                            2,1
             Netherlands                                2,1
                 Germany                               2,0
                    Ireland                            2,0
                  Uruguay                              2,0
            New Zealand                                2,0
                 Lithuania                           1,8
                  Ecuador                         1,7
                    Austria                      1,6
                   Finland                    1,4
                   Estonia                   1,3
                Indonesia              0,9

                               0   1               2             3             4               5     6          7         8        9
                                                                               Nascent/Active-Ratio

                                                                                                                                       14
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                  4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

4.1 The University Context
We first examined the extent to which the students had received entrepreneurship education.
As Table 15 shows, more than half of the students in our sample had not attended any
entrepreneurship course so far. 26,1 percent have attended at least an elective course, and
19,6 percent have attended compulsory courses (multiple answers were possible).

These numbers differ when considering nascent entrepreneurs or students who intend to be
entrepreneurs directly after studies, respectively. While we cannot exclude reverse causality,
as entrepreneurial students may self-select themselves into entrepreneurship education, it
seems that entrepreneurship education indeed has the desired effect as the shares of nascent
and direct intentional entrepreneurs are consistently higher when entrepreneurship education
has been attended.

       Figure 15. Attendance of entrepreneurship offerings among different student groups (N=267’366)

                                                                        6,8
     I am studying in a specific program on entrepreneurship.                 12,3
                                                                              11,8

                                                                                          19,6
      I have attended at least one entrepreneurship course as
                                                                                                 23,7
                   compulsory part of my studies.
                                                                                            22,2

                                                                                                   26,1
      I have attended at least one entrepreneurship course as
                                                                                                            36,2
                               elective.
                                                                                                          34,6

                                                                                                                               53,3
     I have not attended a course on entrepreneurship so far.                                                    38,7
                                                                                                                   40,2

                                                                0        10          20             30      40            50          60
                                                                                           Percentage (%)
                                               All   Nascents       Direct intentionals

Very essential is also how entrepreneurial the students perceive the university environment to
be. Keeping in mind that the numbers need to be interpreted with care, as these perceptions
are affected by a multitude of (also sample-related) factors, we draw a global comparison.
Interestingly, the global average is 4.4, which is slightly above the neutral point of our 1-7
scale.4 Hence, there is considerable room for improvement on a general level. In addition, the
differences between countries are considerable.

4   Based on Franke and Lüthje (2004), we used three items: “the atmosphere at my university inspires me to
    develop ideas for new businesses”; “there is a favorable climate for becoming an entrepreneur at my university”;
    and “at my university, students are encouraged to engage in entrepreneurial activities”. Students were asked to
    indicate the extent to which they agree with these statements (1=not at all, 7=very much).

                                                                                                                                       15
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                           4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

    Figure 16. Average university entrepreneurial climate across countries (N=266’146)

                   Mexico                                                                                        5,8
                       Peru                                                                                    5,7
                Indonesia                                                                                      5,7
              El Salvador                                                                                    5,7
                Colombia                                                                                   5,5
                  Ecuador                                                                                 5,5
     Dominican Republic                                                                                  5,5
            Liechtenstein                                                                              5,4
                    Jordan                                                                            5,3
                  Panama                                                                             5,3
              Costa Rica                                                                           5,2
                      Qatar                                                                        5,2
                   Nigeria                                                                        5,1
                      Chile                                                                      5,0
                    Bolivia                                                                     5,0
                  Uruguay                                                                       5,0
                    Ireland                                                                    5,0
             Netherlands                                                                      4,9
                      Brazil                                                                 4,9
                 Australia                                                                4,8
    United Arab Emirates                                                                 4,7
                 Lebanon                                                                4,6
        North Macedonia                                                              4,5
                       USA                                                           4,5
                   Estonia                                                          4,4
                 Pakistan                                                           4,4
                   Finland                                                          4,4
                  Portugal                                                         4,4
                    Russia                                                         4,4
                  Bulgaria                                                         4,4
                   Albania                                                         4,4
               AVERAGE                                                            4,4
            Saudi Arabia                                                          4,3
                 Morocco                                                         4,3
                 Lithuania                                                       4,3
             Kazakhstan                                                         4,3
                   Greece                                                       4,3
                  Belgium                                                       4,3
            New Zealand                                                        4,2
                        Iraq                                                   4,2
                  Sweden                                                      4,2
                   Croatia                                                    4,2
                  Ukraine                                                  4,0
                     Korea                                                4,0
                  Slovakia                                               3,9
         Czech Republic                                                 3,9
                    Austria                                             3,9
                     Japan                                              3,9
                      Spain                                            3,8
              Switzerland                                              3,8
                       Italy                                          3,8
                    Poland                                           3,8
                   Tunisia                                          3,7
                  Hungary                                          3,6
                 Germany                                        3,5
                     Nepal                               3,2
                        Iran                       2,8

                               1     2             3                   4                    5                   6      7
                                                               Average climate

                                                                                                                           16
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                      4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

4.2 Field of Study
Entrepreneurial intentions and activities of students strongly differ by field of study.

    Figure 7. Entrepreneurial intentions and activities depending on field of study (N=267’244)

                                                                                                      26,8
                                Business / Management                                                                             45,1
                                                                                                                          37,7
                                                                                  15,5

                                                                                                      26,8
     Science of art (e.g., art, design, dramatics, music)                                                                         44,7
                                                                                                                                 43,9
                                                                                      16,5

                                                                                        17,9
                                                                                                                         36,8
                         Engineering (incl. architecture)                                                   29,7
                                                                          10,1

                                                                                         19,4
                                               Economics                                                                 36,1
                                                                                                       27,6
                                                                          10,6

                                                                                              21,4
                                                    Other                                                            35,2
                                                                                                                   33,5
                                                                                13,2

                                                                                  15,5
                                 Computer sciences / IT                                                            33,3
                                                                                                            29,4
                                                                      9,1

                                                                                       17,8
                                                                                                                  32,3
                                               AVERAGE                                                     28,4
                                                                           10,8

                                                                                      16,6
                                                      Law                                              27,3
                                                                                                    24,3
                                                                          10,3

                                                                                 14,2
                     Human medicine / health sciences                                                 26,8
                                                                                            20,0
                                                                    7,1

                                                                            11,8
  Social sciences (e.g., psychology, politics, education)                                      21,7
                                                                                               21,7
                                                                      8,9

                                                                               12,2
        Arts / Humanities (e.g., cultural studies, history,                                  20,5
                linguistics, philosophy, religion)                                                   25,3
                                                                          10,3

                                                                         9,4
                                        Natural sciences                                 19,3
                                                                                          20,0
                                                                   6,5

                                                                     8,1
                                             Mathematics                               17,1
                                                                                                    24,4
                                                                      9,1

                                                              0     10                 20              30                 40        50     60

                                                                                             Percentage (%)

               Intentional Founders (DIRECT)           Intentional Founders (5 YEARS)                       Nascents             Actives

                                                                                                                                                17
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                               4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

“Business and Management” and “Science of art” students have the strongest entrepreneurial
intentions directly after studies (26,8 percent). 5 years after studies, entrepreneurial intentions
are strongest among “Business and Management” students, closely followed by “Science of
art” students which, in turn, exhibit the highest share of active and nascent entrepreneurs.

The strong entrepreneurial spirit among science of art students appears more surprising than
that among business students. This might be due to the specific job profiles (e.g., working as
an independent freelancer) and is in line with previous GUESSS reports (Sieger et al., 2019).

To avoid any bias related to study field in the different country samples, we only look at
“Business and Management” students, which constitute the largest group in our sample (19,6
percent of all students), in Table 19. The share of intentional founders (5 years after studies)
across all countries confirms the above pattern of higher shares in developing countries (and
especially in Latin American countries) and lower shares in developed countries.

4.3 Gender
We clearly confirm the gender gap already found in previous editions (Sieger et al., 2019): the
shares of active, nascent, and intentional entrepreneurs (both directly and 5 years after
studies) are consistently smaller among females than among males.5

       Figure 18. Gender differences among intentional, nascent, and active entrepreneurs (N=266’943)

                                                  9,3
                         Actives
                                                          13,0

                                                                                     25,2
                       Nascents
                                                                                                        33,2

                                                                                                 30,0
        Intentional Founders (5Y)
                                                                                                               36,1

                                                                 15,6
         Intentional Founders (D)
                                                                             21,2

                                    0            10                     20                  30                        40
                                                                 Percentage (%)

                                                      Female     Male

We also examined the gender gap among active entrepreneurs in our 58 countries, meaning
the difference in absolute percent between the share of active entrepreneurs among males
and females, respectively. As shown in Table 20, the gender gap significantly varies across
countries. A few countries even exhibit a “negative gender gap”, meaning that the share of
active entrepreneurs among females is higher than among males. The specific reasons clearly
deserve future research attention.

5   We are aware that more than two types of gender might exist; still, we focused on comparing males and females.

                                                                                                                           18
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                           4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

    Figure 19. Intentional founders (B&M Students) 5 years after studies across countries (N=52’292)

                    Ecuador                                                                                                            66,4
                  Indonesia                                                                                                            65,7
                     Nigeria                                                                                                         64,5
                     Mexico                                                                                                          64,3
                  Colombia                                                                                                           64,2
       Dominican Republic                                                                                                     61,3
                    Panama                                                                                                    61,0
                   Morocco                                                                                                  60,7
                     Estonia                                                                                           58,0
                      Bolivia                                                                                          57,9
                      Russia                                                                                      55,6
                         Peru                                                                                    55,2
                          Iran                                                                                  54,5
                   Lithuania                                                                                    53,8
                El Salvador                                                                                   52,7
                        Chile                                                                            50,8
          North Macedonia                                                                                50,7
                    Slovakia                                                                           48,8
                    Bulgaria                                                                       47,9
                Kazakhstan                                                                        46,5
                        Qatar                                                                    46,4
                Costa Rica                                                                      45,5
                          Iraq                                                                  45,5
                 AVERAGE                                                                        45,1
                     Albania                                                                44,7
                   Lebanon                                                                  44,7
           Czech Republic                                                                   44,4
      United Arab Emirates                                                                  44,4
                    Uruguay                                                                 44,2
                         USA                                                               43,8
                   Pakistan                                                                43,4
                        Brazil                                                            42,8
                   Australia                                                             42,5
                      Ireland                                                            41,9
                    Hungary                                                              41,8
                      Poland                                                             41,8
                     Croatia                                                        40,3
                    Sweden                                                         39,8
                     Tunisia                                                      38,5
              New Zealand                                                     37,6
                        Spain                                              35,6
                    Belgium                                                35,2
              Liechtenstein                                                35,1
                     Greece                                            33,7
               Netherlands                                             33,6
                    Portugal                                           33,2
                         Italy                                        32,8
                       Korea                                        30,8
                     Finland                                  29,0
              Saudi Arabia                                   27,6
                      Austria                            26,5
                   Germany                               26,5
                Switzerland                           23,5
                      Jordan                  16,7
                       Japan          9,6

                                 0   10        20            30               40                   50                  60                   70
                                                               Percentage (%)

                                                                                                                                                 19
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                          4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

 Figure 20. Gender differences among active entrepreneurs across countries (N=266'943)

            Liechtenstein                                                                                                              13,3
                        Iran                                                                                                    12,2
                   Albania                                                                                                      12,0
                      Nepal                                                                                                    11,6
                   Tunisia                                                                                                    11,3
                        Iraq                                                                                            9,3
    United Arab Emirates                                                                                              8,5
                  Bulgaria                                                                                        8,1
     Dominican Republic                                                                                         7,5
                  Slovakia                                                                                 6,8
                    Russia                                                                                6,4
                   Estonia                                                                               6,1
                    Austria                                                                              6,0
                      Qatar                                                                          5,7
             Netherlands                                                                             5,7
                 Pakistan                                                                           5,6
                 Lebanon                                                                           5,0
                       Peru                                                                      4,9
             Kazakhstan                                                                          4,9
                  Belgium                                                                     4,4
                 Lithuania                                                                   4,3
                    Bolivia                                                                  4,3
         Czech Republic                                                                      4,2
                       Italy                                                                 4,1
               AVERAGE                                                                  3,7
                      Spain                                                             3,7
              Switzerland                                                               3,6
                   Finland                                                              3,5
                   Greece                                                               3,5
                    Poland                                                             3,4
                 Germany                                                               3,3
                    Jordan                                                             3,3
                  Panama                                                               3,2
                    Ireland                                                            3,2
                  Portugal                                                             3,2
                  Uruguay                                                              3,2
                      Brazil                                                       3,0
                 Morocco                                                           2,9
            Saudi Arabia                                                          2,7
                Colombia                                                          2,7
                  Hungary                                                         2,6
                   Mexico                                                        2,5
                   Croatia                                                       2,3
                  Ecuador                                                    2,1
                     Japan                                                   2,0
                  Sweden                                                   1,6
            New Zealand                                                    1,4
                Indonesia                                            0,4
              Costa Rica                                             0,4
        North Macedonia                                              0,3
                     Korea                                          0,0
                      Chile                              -0,7
                 Australia                              -1,0
              El Salvador                        -2,5
                       USA                   -3,4
                   Nigeria           -6,5

                               -10          -5                  0                            5                          10               15
                                                                     Percentage (%)

                                                                                                                                              20
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                  5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Likely the most central topic since the last GUESSS edition, both in the context of
entrepreneurship and in general, has been the COVID-19 pandemic.

How has it impacted student entrepreneurship? Above, we have seen that students’
entrepreneurial intentions in 2021 are comparable to those in previous GUESSS editions. This
signals that entrepreneurial intentions have, bottom line, not been systematically or
significantly affected by the pandemic.

In addition, we asked the nascent entrepreneurs whether they plan to create their business
largely because of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic; 22,1 percent said yes. Here,
we observe considerable differences between countries (see Table 21).

In a few countries, more than 40 percent of the nascent entrepreneurs indicate that the
pandemic has induced them to be in the founding process; except for Japan, these can all be
regarded as developing countries. In several other countries, the corresponding share is below
10 percent. Clearly, more research into this pattern would be valuable.

Among active entrepreneurs, and very interestingly, the share of “COVID entrepreneurs” is
much higher: 33,7 percent indicate that they have created their business largely because of
the pandemic. In several countries, mostly developing and often Latin American countries, the
share is between 40 and up to almost 60 percent (see Table 22). This hints to the crucial
relevance of “necessity entrepreneurship” in these countries (Wennekers, van Stel, Thurik &
Reynolds, 2005). In other countries, in turn, the share is clearly below 10 percent.

                                                                                             21
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                            5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

 Figure 21. Share of nascent “COVID entrepreneurs” (N=52’194)

                        Peru                                                                                                                52,4
                    Ecuador                                                                                                                 52,1
                       Japan                                                                                                           50,4
                   Pakistan                                                                                                          48,8
                         Iraq                                                                                                 46,0
                   Lebanon                                                                                             41,3
                     Nigeria                                                                               35,3
                      Bolivia                                                                          33,4
      United Arab Emirates                                                                             33,2
                    Panama                                                                             33,2
                   Morocco                                                                          31,0
                       Brazil                                                                   29,6
                       Korea                                                                 27,3
                       Nepal                                                             26,3
                 Costa Rica                                                            25,0
                El Salvador                                                           24,3
              Saudi Arabia                                                        23,7
                     Mexico                                                       23,5
                   Australia                                                      23,4
                 AVERAGE                                                        22,1
                      Jordan                                                    21,8
                    Bulgaria                                                   21,3
                     Tunisia                                                   21,1
                        Chile                                             19,9
                         Italy                                            19,5
                Kazakhstan                                              18,7
                     Albania                                            18,6
              New Zealand                                               18,5
                  Colombia                                              18,1
                    Portugal                                        17,9
                     Finland                                       16,8
                     Croatia                                      16,5
                  Indonesia                                       16,4
       Dominican Republic                                        15,9
                       Qatar                                     15,9
                      Poland                                     15,8
                   Lithuania                                     15,5
                    Belgium                               13,1
                   Germany                                12,9
                    Slovakia                              12,7
                    Uruguay                              12,3
          North Macedonia                                12,0
                       Spain                            11,6
                         Iran                          11,1
                      Russia                           10,9
                Switzerland                            10,6
                    Sweden                        9,5
                      Austria                    8,6
           Czech Republic                        8,6
                     Estonia                 8,3
                     Greece                6,9
                    Hungary                6,7
                    Ukraine           5,0
              Liechtenstein          4,0
               Netherlands           4,0

                                 0           10                     20                        30                  40             50                60
                                                                                       Percentage (%)

                                                                                                                                                        22
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                           5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

 Figure 22. Share of active “COVID entrepreneurs” (N=27’496)

                 Panama                                                                                                              59,1
                    Peru                                                                                                           56,9
                Pakistan                                                                                                    53,0
                  Jordan                                                                                             49,7
                  Bolivia                                                                                       48,4
                    Chile                                                                                     46,6
                  Mexico                                                                                      46,5
                 Ecuador                                                                                      46,5
                Lebanon                                                                                       46,2
            Saudi Arabia                                                                               42,4
                Colombia                                                                               41,9
              Costa Rica                                                                        38,2
     United Arab Emirates                                                                      36,8
                  Tunisia                                                                     36,7
             Kazakhstan                                                                     35,8
      Dominican Republic                                                                    35,4
                Morocco                                                                  34,9
              AVERAGE                                                                   33,7
                   Japan                                                               33,3
                 Bulgaria                                                              33,1
                  Nigeria                                                            31,8
              El Salvador                                                        31,1
                   Brazil                                                        30,4
                     Iraq                                                        30,4
                     Italy                                                      29,6
                Australia                                                     27,9
                 Belgium                                                  27,8
               Indonesia                                                26,0
             Netherlands                                               24,6
                 Uruguay                                          22,9
                   Spain                                        20,8
                     Iran                                  18,4
                  Poland                                   17,9
        North Macedonia                                17,4
                  Russia                               17,1
                   Qatar                               16,7
                 Albania                             15,7
                 Portugal                           14,3
                Lithuania                           14,3
                   Korea                        14,0
                 Slovakia                       13,9
          Czech Republic                       13,3
            New Zealand                        13,0
                 Hungary                       12,9
                Germany                        12,7
                  Croatia                    10,9
              Switzerland               9,3
                  Finland              8,3
                  Greece          6,7
                 Estonia         6,2
                  Austria        5,7

                             0     10                      20             30                   40              50                  60       70
                                                                                Percentage (%)

                                                                                                                                                 23
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                             6. Selected Recommendations

6. Selected Recommendations

Students should…

      Consider becoming an entrepreneur in whatever form (i.e., as a classic founder or
       successor in the parents’ or in a different firm) as a potential career path, for instance
       because active entrepreneurs seem rather happy with their new venture’s
       performance.
      Carefully consider when to create a new venture. Doing it right after studies has certain
       advantages, like less opportunity costs; but doing it later has advantages as well (as
       human and social capital can be built up when following the “first employee, then
       entrepreneur” logic).
      Be aware that being an entrepreneur “does not have to be forever”; changing between
       an entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial career path over one’s career is possible;
       the same is true for relocating across countries.
      Be aware that the university normally offers different forms of support, advice, and the
       opportunity to meet potential co-founders.

Universities and public institutions should…

      Further improve and expand entrepreneurship education offerings and seek to create
       an entrepreneurial atmosphere.
      See the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential trigger for entrepreneurship; even though
       entrepreneurial intentions do not seem to have been affected, an effect regarding
       entrepreneurial activities is clearly visible.
      Be aware that entrepreneurship exists since centuries and has thus to be seen also in
       a general long-term context.
      Seek to provide an objective view on what it means to become an entrepreneur, with
       all the advantages and disadvantages. Anyone can start a business, but creating a
       successful business is something different.
      Actively promote entrepreneurial ecosystems with both public and private players.
      Be aware of the gender gap in entrepreneurship and systematically promote female
       entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship scholars should…

      Further strengthen their efforts when investigating the determinants and outcomes of
       student entrepreneurship in general as well as the underlying mechanisms.
      Consider the unique implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, but still keep investigating
       non-COVID-19-related topics.
      Contextualize their research by looking at institutional, cultural, and economic boundary
       conditions.
      Go for non-traditional topics that also look at the potential downsides of becoming an
       entrepreneur.

                                                                                              24
Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                  7. Further Information

7. Further Information

7.1 The Sample
79 percent of the students in our sample are undergraduate (bachelor-level) students. 13
percent study on the graduate (master) level, 2,8 percent are PhD students, and the remaining
ones are for instance MBA students. Regarding the field of study, “Business and management”
students constitute almost one fifth of our whole sample (19,6 percent).

The majority of students (59,2 percent) are between 18 and 23 years old, and 60,3 percent are
female. The completed respondents are distributed across countries as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Countries and completed responses.
#   Country                   Responses Valid percent   #   Country                     Responses Valid percent
1   Albania (ALB)                434         0,16       30 Lebanon (LBN)                  3’224        1,21
2   Australia (AUS)              442         0,17       31 Liechtenstein (LIE)             107         0,04
3   Austria (AUT)               3’236        1,21       32 Lithuania (LTU)                2’154        0,81
4   Belgium (BEL)               2’296        0,86       33 Mexico (MEX)                   6’449        2,41
5   Bolivia (BOL)               2’133        0,80       34 Morocco (MAR)                  1’265        0,47
6   Brazil (BRA)                7’738        2,89       35 Nepal (NEP)                     137         0,05
7   Bulgaria (BUL)               717         0,27       36 Netherlands (NED)               713         0,27
8   Chile (CHI)                 10’509       3,93       37 New Zealand (NZL)              1’902        0,71
9   Colombia (COL)              12’401       4,64       38 Nigeria (NGR)                  2’093        0,78
10 Costa Rica (CRC)             5’469        2,05       39 North Macedonia (MKD)           175         0,07
11 Croatia (CRO)                1’660        0,62       40 Norway (NOR)                     8          0,00
12 Czech Republic (CZE)         1’971        0,74       41 Pakistan (PAK)                  896         0,34
13 Dominican Republic (DOM)      594         0,22       42 Panama (PAN)                   5’297        1,98
14 Ecuador (ECU)                5’085        1,90       43 Peru (PER)                     14’948       5,59
15 El Salvador (ESA)             768         0,29       44 Poland (POL)                   6’012        2,25
16 England (ENG)                  7          0,00       45 Portugal (POR)                 3’596        1,34
17 Estonia (EST)                 406         0,15       46 Qatar (QAT)                     121         0,05
18 Finland (FIN)                1’094        0,41       47 Republic of Korea (KOR)        1’220        0,46
19 Germany (GER)                8’199        3,07       48 Russia (RUS)                   5’407        2,02
20 Greece (GRE)                 1’594        0,60       49 Saudi Arabia (KSA)             2’921        1,09
21 Hungary (HUN)                10’104       3,78       50 Slovakia (SVK)                 5’754        2,15
22 Indonesia (IND)              2’545        0,95       51 Spain (ESP)                    98’226       36,74
23 Iran (IRI)                    867         0,32       52 Sweden (SWE)                    388         0,15
24 Iraq (IRQ)                    613         0,23       53 Switzerland (SUI)              6’919        2,59
25 Ireland (IRL)                 103         0,04       54 Tunisia (TUN)                   342         0,13
26 Italy (ITA)                  3’294        1,23       55 Ukraine (UKR)                   43          0,02
27 Japan (JAP)                  3’494        1,31       56 United Arab Emirates (UAE)     1’345        0,50
28 Jordan (JOR)                 3’237        1,21       57 USA                             60          0,02
29 Kazakhstan (KAZ)             2’791        1,04       58 Uruguay (URY)                  1’843        0,69
                                                            Total                        267’366      100,00

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Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                            7. Further Information

7.2 The 2021 GUESSS Country Team Leaders

Table 2. List of countries and team leaders (part 1)
#    Country                        Team Leader(s)                        University
1    Albania (ALB)                  Prof. Ermira Qosja                    European University of Tirana
2    Australia (AUS)                Dr. Louis Geneste                     Curtin University
3    Austria (AUT)                  Prof. Alfred Gutschelhofer            University of Graz
                                    Prof. Johanna Vanderstraeten / Dr.
4    Belgium (BEL)                                                        University of Antwerp / HEC Liège
                                    Frédéric Ooms
5    Bolivia (BOL)                  Prof. Rafael Velasquez Ramirez        NUR University
6    Brazil (BRA)                   Prof. Edmilson Lima                   UNINOVE - Universidade Nove de Julho
7    Bulgaria (BUL)                 Dr. Juliana Hadjitchoneva             New Bulgarian University
8    Chile (CHI)                    Prof. Gianni Romaní                   Universidad Católica del Norte
9    Colombia (COL)                 Prof. Izaias Martins / Tatiana Lopez Universidad EAFIT
10   Costa Rica (CRC)               Prof. Juan Carlos Leiva               Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica
11   Croatia (CRO)                  Gabrijela Vidic / Borna Buljan        University of Zadar
12   Czech Republic (CZE)           Prof. Klara Antlova                   Technical University of Liberec
13   Dominican Republic (DOM)       Prof. Guillermo van der Linde         Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
14   Ecuador (ECU)                  Prof. Mariella Jácome Ortega          Universidad Católica de Cuenca
15   El Salvador (ESA)              Prof. Manuel Sifontes                 Universidad Dr. José Matias Delgado
16   England (ENG)                  Prof. Audley Genus                    Kingston University London
17   Estonia (EST)                  Prof. Susanne Durst / Velli Parts     Tallinn University of Technology
                                    Dr. Katja Lahikainen / Prof. Timo
18   Finland (FIN)                                                        LUT University
                                    Pihkala
19   Germany (GER)                  Prof. Stephan Golla                   Fulda University of Applied Sciences
20   Greece (GRE)                   Prof. Katerina Sarri                  University of Macedonia
                                    Dr. Andrea S. Gubik / Dr. Szilveszter
21   Hungary (HUN)                                                        University of Mikolc / Budapest Business School
                                    Farkas
22   Indonesia (IND)                Dr. Eko Suhartanto                    Universitas Prasetiya Mulya
23   Iran (IRI)                     Ehsan Salari                          Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
                                    Dr. Shivan Ahmed Mohammad / Dr.
24   Iraq (IRQ)                                                           Nawroz University
                                    Rebean Al-Silefanee
25   Ireland (IRL)                  Dr. Roisin Lyons                      Dublin City University
                                    Prof. Tommaso Minola / Dr. Davide
26   Italy (ITA)                                                          University of Bergamo
                                    Hahn
27   Japan (JAP)                    Prof. Noriko Taji                     Hosei University
28   Jordan (JOR)                   Dr. Omar Shubailat / Dr. Aziz Madi    German Jordanian University
                                    Prof. Gulzhanat Tayauova / Prof.
29   Kazakhstan (KAZ)                                                     Turan University
                                    Saltanat Tamenova
30   Lebanon (LBN)                  Lara Al Arab                          Lebanese University
31   Liechtenstein (LIE)            Prof. Marco Furtner                   University of Liechtenstein
32   Lithuania (LTU)                Dr. Irina Liubertė                    ISM University of Management and Economics
33   Mexico (MEX)                   Prof. José Ernesto Amorós             EGADE Business School
                                    Dr. Jose M. Sanchez / José M.
34   Morocco (MAR)                                                        University of Cadiz
                                    Biedma
35   Nepal (NEP)                    Samundra Paudel                       Pokhara University
                                    Dr. Rainer Harms / Prof. Petra de
36   Netherlands (NED)                                                    University of Twente
                                    Weerd-Nederhof
37   New Zealand (NZL)              Prof. Rod McNaughton                  University of Auckland
38   Nigeria (NGR)                  Prof. Isaac Oluwajoba Abereijo        Obafemi Awolowo University
39   North Macedonia (MKD)          Dr. Ana Tomovska Misoska              University American College Skopje
40   Norway (NOR)                   Prof. Marina Solesvik                 Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
41   Pakistan (PAK)                 Dr. Altaf Hussain Samo                Sukkur IBA University
                                    Dr. María de los Ángeles Frende Vega
42   Panama (PAN)                                                         Universidad de Panama
                                    / Omaris Vergara de Henriquez
                                    Prof. Jaime Serida / Jessica Alzamora
43   Peru (PER)                                                           Universidad ESAN
                                    / Carlos Guerrero
44   Poland (POL)                   Prof. Joanna Kosmaczewska             Poznan University of Life Sciences
45   Portugal (POR)                 Prof. Rui Quaresma                    University of Évora
                                    Dr. Allan Villegas-Mateos / Dr. Pablo
46   Qatar (QAT)                                                          HEC Paris in Qatar
                                    Martin de Holan
47   Republic of Korea (KOR)        Yeong Soo Kim                         Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation
48   Russia (RUS)                   Prof. Galina Shirokova                HSE University
49   Saudi Arabia (KSA)             Dr. Ghadah Alarifi                    Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University
50   Slovakia (SVK)                 Prof. Marian Holienka                 Comenius University in Bratislava
Table continued on the next page.

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Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                                              7. Further Information

Table 2. List of countries and team leaders (part 2)
#      Country                    Team Leader(s)                          University
                                  Prof. José Ruiz Navarro / Dr. José M.
51     Spain (ESP)                                                        University of Cádiz
                                  Sanchez
                                  Prof. Massimo Baù / Dr. Johan
52     Sweden (SWE)                                                       Jönköping International Business School
                                  Karlsson
                                  Prof. Philipp Sieger / Prof. Rico
53     Switzerland (SUI)                                                  Universities of Bern & St.Gallen / HEG Fribourg
                                  Baldegger
                                                                          Corvinus University of Budapest / University of
54     Tunisia (TUN)              Siwar Youssef / Dr. Henda El Gharbi
                                                                          Sousse
                                                                          Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
55     Ukraine (UKR)              Prof. Marina Solesvik
                                                                          (NOR)
56     United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prof. Rodrigo Basco                     American University of Sharjah
       United States of America
57                                Prof. Isabel Botero                University of Louisville
       (USA)
                                  Dr. Catherine Krauss-Delorme / DEA
58     Uruguay (URY)                                                 Universidad Católica del Uruguay
                                  Adriana Bonomo-Odizzio

7.3 The GUESSS Project
GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students´ Survey) has been founded at the
Swiss Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (KMU-HSG) in 2003.
Since 2016, GUESSS is jointly organized by the University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG) and the
University of Bern (Switzerland, IMU-U). The GUESSS CEO is Prof. Dr. Philipp Sieger
(University of Bern). The supervisory board consists of Prof. Urs Fueglistaller, Prof. Thomas
Zellweger, Prof. Isabella Hatak (all University of St.Gallen), and Prof. Norris Krueger.
GUESSS is one of the largest entrepreneurship research projects in the world. With every data
collection wave, GUESSS has grown and has become more globally.
For every data collection wave, the GUESSS core team develops a comprehensive online
survey that meets the highest academic standards. The link to the survey is then sent out to
the country delegates who forward the survey invitation to their own students and to the
national university partners (who then forward it to their respective students).
GUESSS data have been used for numerous studies, reports, practitioner-oriented articles,
and academic publications (e.g., in renowned journals such as RP, JBV, ETP, and SEJ).
     For more information and regular updates about GUESSS, please visit
     http://www.guesssurvey.org or follow GUESSS on Research Gate
     (http://www.researchgate.net).

     If you are interested in participating in the next GUESSS edition in 2023, please contact
     Prof. Dr. Philipp Sieger (philipp.sieger@imu.unibe.ch).

     GUESSS 2021 was generously supported by Ernst & Young (EY) as the international
     project partner. We cordially thank EY for their support. Without it, GUESSS in the current form
     would not have been possible.

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Global GUESSS Report 2021                                                            8. References

8. References
Franke, N., & Lüthje, C. (2004). Entrepreneurial intentions of business students—A
       benchmarking study. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management,
       1(3), 269-288.
Khan, S. A., Tang, J., & Joshi, K. (2014). Disengagement of Nascent Entrepreneurs from the
       Start-Up Process. Journal of Small Business Management, 52(1), 39-58.
Sieger, P., Fueglistaller, U., & Zellweger, T. (2014). Student Entrepreneurship Across the
       Globe: A Look at Intentions and Activities. St.Gallen: KMU-HSG.
Sieger, P., Fueglistaller, U., & Zellweger, T. (2016). Student Entrepreneurship 2016: Insights
       from 50 countries. St.Gallen/Bern: KMU-HSG/IMU.
Sieger, P., Fueglistaller, U., Zellweger, T., & Braun, I. (2019). Global Student Entrepreneurship
       2018: Insights From 54 Countries. St.Gallen/Bern: KMU-HSG/IMU.
Wennekers, S., van Stel, A., Thurik, R., & Reynolds, P. (2005). Nascent entrepreneurship and
       the level of economic development. Small Business Economics, 24(3), 293-309.

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