Intentions of entrepreneurship in sports science higher education: gender the moderator effect
| Published date | 11 March 2019 |
| Pages | 147-162 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-03-2019-105 |
| Date | 11 March 2019 |
| Author | Moisés Grimaldi Puyana,Pablo Gálvez-Ruiz,Antonio Jesús Sánchez-Oliver,Jerónimo García Fernández |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,Entrepreneurship,Business climate/policy |
Intentions of entrepreneurship in
sports science higher education:
gender the moderator effect
Moisés Grimaldi Puyana
Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
Pablo Gálvez-Ruiz
Faculty of Education, International University of La Rioja, La Rioja, Spain
Antonio Jesús Sánchez-Oliver
Human Motricity and Sports Performance Area,
University of Seville, Seville, Spain, and
Jerónimo García Fernández
Department of Physical Education and Sports,
Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to understand the current relationship between factors such as desire
and viability and entrepreneurial intention, using the Business Event Model as a point of analysis, as well as
to understand the influence of gender as a moderating effect on entrepreneurial intention.
Design/methodology/approach –A total of 278 students from the Faculty of Education Sciences
(University of Seville) were invited to participate with students carrying out degrees in Physical Activity and
Sport Sciences.
Findings –There is a positive and similar relationship between desire and viability due to gender-related
reasons. In the same way, this study presents a positive relationship in men and women, between desire and
viability, desire and entrepreneurial intention and viability and entrepreneurial intention.
Practical implications –The public policies of the university should be oriented to the promotion of the
desire perceived in women, carrying out sessions or training courses, where the speakers could be women
leaders of companies. In addition, public policies should promote the perceived viability of men through
training by providing technical resources on the operation of a company.
Social implications –This study provides theoretical knowledge on the entrepreneurial intentions of students
at the University of Seville and therefore may help to improve policies aimed at promoting entrepreneurship.
Originality/value –This study provides clear practical implications for the management of students, and
the findings facilitate the improvement of university policies designed to promote entrepreneurship in this
type of student.
Keywords Gender, Entrepreneurial intentions, Business Event Model, Sport university students
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Entrepreneurship education is becoming increasingly important because it can improve the
employability of students (Fuentes, 2011). The university can now be in a strategic
position if it assumes the role of manager of change, being also the largest provider of
entrepreneurial culture. Consequently, the sports sector is an indicator and driver of many
public policies due to its important role in society. For this reason, the knowledge of what
the factors are that affect the entrepreneurship intentions could help to guide public policies
to encourage entrepreneurship in university students.
The figure of entrepreneur has been posed from different fields of knowledge positioning
itself as oneof the main axes of research, especially in the creationof companies (Alonso-Nuez
and Galve-Górriz,2008). Being an entrepreneur means beingable to create something new or
provide a different use to something already existing, and, therefore, generate an impact on
Journal of Entrepreneurship and
Public Policy
Vol. 8 No. 1, 2019
pp. 147-162
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2045-2101
DOI 10.1108/JEPP-03-2019-105
Received 14 December 2018
Accepted 8 January 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2045-2101.htm
147
Intentions of
entrepreneurship
one’s own life and that of the community (García-Fernández et al., 2017). For Ratten (2010,
2011), entrepreneurs are those involved in solving problems of their business, about sports
activities, be it innovative, opportunity based or competitively aggressive. In short, it is an
individualor group attitude with the purposeof growing and recognising opportunities of the
immediate environment (Calabuig-Moreno, 2016).
After the Council of Europe in Lisbon in 2013, with the purpose of encouraging and
creating the figure of the entrepreneur, the Spanish Government began to implement
measures to stimulate growth and create jobs (Martín-López et al., 2013). The agreement
consisted of the application of a community programme called Promotion of Business
Mentality Through Education and Training, initiated from grade school to higher
education. The European document aims to promote entrepreneurship, to understand
entrepreneurship as a driver of economic growth and job creation. Prior to the economic
crisis, Europe was facing a change in its productive model, aimed at improving its
competitiveness and growth, which ended up with the implementation of the
Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. As a result, it is essential for a country’s education
system to provide the necessary training so that young people can start their own
businesses (Del Río-Rama et al., 2017).
Entrepreneurship education has become increasingly more important in universities in
recent years, yet its integration into sports education is still scarce (González-Serrano,
Moreno and Hervás, 2018; González-Serrano, Valantine, Crespo-Hervás, Pérez-Campos and
Calabuig-Moreno, 2018). According to the Spanish university context, until the economic
crisis, the rate of entrepreneurship was increasing, with the entrepreneurial rate in 2013 at 5.8
per cent in the population aged between18 and 64 years, 2 per cent less than that registered
prior to the crisis, where the profile of the entrepreneur was that of a person with higher
education (34.4 per cent and postgraduate 6.6 per cent), who operates in small organisations
(micro-enterprises), with little innovation and minimally internationalised. According to
gender, men havea higher rate than women, where forevery 100 male entrepreneurs thereare
only 57 females (Álvarez et al., 2017). Therefore, policies in the public university ecosystem
environment are geared towards fostering innovation and knowledge transfer, improving
Spanish indicators and, thus, competitiveness (Juliá, 2013).
Guiding entrepreneurship and opportunities with the Physical Activity and Sports
Sciences Degree, there are different areas for entrepreneurship, such as management and
leadership of sports, education, health and fitness or training (Grimaldi-Puyana et al., 2018),
where the area of management is an emerging aspect within the entrepreneurial options for
students of this degreeprogramme. In this sense, sports managementis nowadays an area of
opportunity for these students (García-Fernández, 2016), although entrepreneurship
opportunities are also found in other areas, with respect to a widely diversified labour
market (Campos-Izquierdo et al.,2016; Gambau, 2011; Pérez-Villalba, 2015; Pérez-Villalba et al.,
2018; Viñas and Pérez-Villalba, 2014).
According to Ratten and Tajeddini (2019), “academic research interest in sport
entrepreneurship and innovation is a recent phenomenon but the practical significance
has a long history”(p. 1). However, when analysing the existing literature on
students of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences in Spain, the small number of studies
carried out as regards entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial intention in these students is
notable (Jones and Jones, 2014; González-Serrano, Crespo-Heras, Pérez-Campos and
Calabuig-Moreno, 2017). Nevertheless, in the last decade, educational programmes
within the university setting have pushed the promotion of the entrepreneurial spirit
(Ruiz de la Rosa et al., 2014) and authors such as González-Serrano, Calabuig-Moreno,
García-Fernández, Crespo-Hervas and Pérez-Campos (2017) point out the importance of
understanding the business intention of university students from university.
As an example, there is a study regarding entrepreneurial intention in students of
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