Education in universities, an incubator for entrepreneurship? A comparison between the USA and Belgium

Entrepreneurship refers to individuals or groups that create a new business because of an opportunity that appears to them. It mostly involves some kind of innovation and creativity. It is seen as an original career path, which involves more risks, yet more personal benefits when successful, in comparison with a standard 9-to-5 job (Stanford, 2022).

In Belgium, the perception among young people is that the path of entrepreneurship is risky and uncertain. An unsuccessful business is seen as a failure that will always haunt you and holds you back for future parts of your career.

We started by interviewing 10 students who participated in the summer school about their experience with entrepreneurship. All students were studying something related to economics, which results in more economic-minded answers and cannot be fully generalized to all students in Belgium. The interviewed students were studying different aspects of economics, like management, business engineering and applied economics.

Most students chose economics because of personal interest. Specific interest for entrepreneurship was mentioned less, as their study itself is already very general and discusses many aspects of economy, including entrepreneurship. Though, when interested in entrepreneurship some chose to select courses that discussed entrepreneurship. In general, the students mentioned that the courses provide a broad range of disciplines (finance, strategy, management, etc.), useful for entrepreneurship as it gives a good basis to start any career path. Entrepreneurship is mostly seen as an option for the future, but not as a first career choice. All students wanted to start working for a corporation to get some practical experience and expertise as most courses are more theory-based and practical exercise is less present in their study program. It would give them more confidence in their capabilities, and a network to rely on that can be of use when pursuing entrepreneurship later on. Most students experienced that there is not much stimulation from the university itself for undertaking entrepreneurial activities. Specific classes are available, but not part of the regular mandatory study program. When interested in entrepreneurship, the students themselves must take the initiative.

When asks about entrepreneurship, all students described it as starting your own business, being innovative and creative, or developing an idea. Some students had already had some business experience, but this was only a minority. If they would start a business now, no student had a clear answer on what that business would be about. Nobody had an idea or passion that could work as a start. This was one of the reasons to not opt for entrepreneurship as a career path. Other reasons were the feeling of responsibility, uncertainty about the future and success of the business, the risk of wasting money, time and energy if the company failed.

The fear of failure is seen as one of the major reasons to not choose entrepreneurship. It is still the perception that failure follows you in everything you do in the future and is seen as something negative. The students were predominantly risk averse and wanted to avoid uncertainty. Yet there were also some advantages mentioned in favor of becoming an entrepreneur. Starting your own business would give you more flexibility and independence. You can be more innovative, and you can build something from scratch on which you can be proud, and which will give you more satisfaction.

Next, we interviewed 10 American students studying at Georgetown University. Their study background was quite diverse with a variety of studies like politics, economy and physics.

When asking these students what they associated with the term entrepreneurship the most common results that were repeated multiple times were small businesses and money. Not all students had courses that were related to entrepreneurship, which was not unexpected regarding the various fields of study of the Georgetown students.

The interest in entrepreneurship is remarkably high, even among the students that are not in an economics program. This came quickly to the surface as most of the students had some experience by undertaking small entrepreneurial activities as a side income. Due to necessity or interest, entrepreneurship plays a role in their lives, even when they are still in college. This interest was further proven as taking elective courses on entrepreneurship is quite popular and was in most cases able to convict the students that had some interest but were not quite sure yet. The courses themselves were theoretical with sometimes a kind of project to bring the knowledge into practice. The students indicated that they could implement this newfound knowledge into their own future businesses. To conclude, the content courses on entrepreneurship are able to inspire the students and provide useful information.

Entrepreneurship is seen as an attractive career path due to the possibility of high financial rewards and being your own boss. The mental fulfillment of growing your own idea is also a recurring answer. The barriers to beginning a business are financial hurdles and the extra stress and uncertainty it brings. The obstacle of collecting enough financial resources was expressed even stronger by students that were part of minority groups. The fear of failing was almost never mentioned at first, the general trend was that they are confident that the business would succeed or that in case of failure it was something to be proud of because they had undertaken something. This is partly attributed to the general culture but is also stimulated by the professors. They try to convey to the students that they are “the best” and that they can do whatever they want to achieve. The professors go beyond merely providing information, but they also have a role as motivators.

The idea that in the US you can easily start over again was in general agreed upon, however, some of the Georgetown students did mention that they felt that there was a shift to where it is becoming harder to do so. The students belonging to the minority groups also diverted from the other American interviewees on this point, they were less convinced that the possibility is there to start over again.