Browsing by Author "Venter, Chanel"

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    Entrepreneurial intentions and behaviours of South African university students
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2013-12-31) Viviers, Suzette; Solomon, Goosain; Venter, Chanel
    The entrepreneurial intentions and behaviours of South African university students are important factors to consider when developing entrepreneurship offerings at local universities. This article reports on pertinent findings from a study which set out to determine South African students’ career choice intentions and entrepreneurship behaviours as well as their knowledge and utilisation of, demand for and satisfaction with entrepreneurship offerings of local universities relative to international universities. A survey, using a 15-question structured web-based instrument was used to capture the responses from university students across 26 nations in the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS) conducted in 2011. Key findings are that few South Africa university students intend to enter into an entrepreneurship career immediately after completion of their studies, whereas close to a third of respondents were interested in doing so five years after graduation. The vast majority of students were satisfied with entrepreneurship offerings at South African universities. More physical support such as network access platforms are however needed as well as awareness of and access to small business funding mechanisms. Better marketed and focussed entrepreneurship offerings are essential to foster an environment at South African universities to promote entrepreneurship as career choice.
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    South African university students' intentions to establish social enterprises
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2012-12-31) Viviers, Suzette; Venter, Chanel; Solomon, Goosain
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Stimulating social entrepreneurship in South Africa has the potential to address not only the high youth unemployment rate in the country, but also other pressing social and environmental challenges. This study was conducted as part of the 2011 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey and focused on South African university students’ intentions to start social enterprises. The findings, based on 673 responses to an online questionnaire, reveal that the majority of respondents had such an intention. However, less than half of this group mentioned the specific type of environmental or social mission that they would like to pursue. Despite more males than females being currently engaged in social entrepreneurship activities in South Africa, no statistically significant difference was found in this study between the intentions of male and female respondents in starting a social enterprise. African language speakers and students enrolled for qualifications in the social sciences were, however, statistically more likely to start social enterprises. Education is a critical factor in achieving increased levels of social entrepreneurship activity; however, fundamental interventions in the education system are required to achieve this objective.