Influence of the university environment in the entrepreneurial intention in public and private universities

Abstract

This study analyses the entrepreneurial intention (EI) in different higher education institutional environments – public and private universities. To achieve the objectives, an EI model adapted from Krueger et al. (2000) was used, which is known as Entrepreneurial Intention Classical Model. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire applied in three public universities and three private universities in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Through comparative analysis and employing the Difference-in-Differences econometric method, it was seen that the results are in accordance with part of previous studies which pointed out that private university students have higher entrepreneurial intentions. However, the results also revealed that private university students already had higher EI before starting their graduation courses. Therefore, there is no evidence of difference of the influence of public and private university environments in EI, or in its underlying factors (that form EI), except for the factor that expresses the desire to learn about entrepreneurship.