Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: The Effect of Academy, Motivation, Resources, Incentives, and Self-Efficacy in the Entrepreneurship Potential

Entrepreneurship in higher education is a current and relevant topic. The objective of this study is to analyze to what extent the entrepreneurial potential of polytechnic higher education students can be predicted from entrepreneurial motivations, opportunities, and resources to undertake, incentives to entrepreneurship, and self-perception of student efficacy, controlling for academic preparation and desire to undertake. Body--Research methods: Through the analysis of the reasons that encourage higher education students to undertake, a survey was carried out to 6532 students of Portuguese Polytechnic Institutes, who answered to the following measures: scale of opportunities and resources to undertake, scale of entrepreneurial motivations, scale of incentives to entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial potential, academic preparation to undertake, and desire to undertake. Conclusion--Key results: Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that academic preparation to undertake explained R2 = 5% of entrepreneurial potential, followed by motivations to undertake (?R2 = 11.5%), opportunities and resources to undertake (?R2 = 1.4%), incentives to undertake (?R2 = 0.7%), and self-efficacy (?R2 = 3.6%). The results are discussed taking into account the models of entrepreneurship and the importance of the academic preparation to undertake.