The Role of Motivation and Academic Preparation for the Students’ Entrepreneurial Potential

Motivations, psychological and sociodemographic characteristics, and “hard and soft conditions” (Porfírio et al. 2016) emerge as the major factors that lead to entrepreneurial success, despite the distinctive diversity of skills associated with its potential. From the perspective of Santos (2008), entrepreneurial potential is a construction based on three dimensions: (1) realization, which is related to the recognition of opportunities, persistence, and effectiveness (Ramalho et al. 2022); (2) planning, which concerns the definition of objectives, search of information, and continuous and permanent control; and (3) power is identified through persuasiveness and relationship building. In addition, it also comprises a complementary dimension: the (entrepreneurial) intention, which is associated with the entrepreneurial desire (Asif 2022; Rehman et al. 2023; Souza et al. 2016; Valeri 2021). Moreover, according to Schlepphorst et al. (2020), intention can be influenced by a set of different motivations, which can trigger an effective behavior. Hence, entrepreneurial motivations are a determinant of entrepreneurial intention (Lang and Liu 2019). For instance, the study conducted by Asif (2022) explained that, for female, intention is a very important motivational force, as it impels them to achieve their long-term goals in an autonomous and stable way. In turn, authors such as Santos et al. (2013) point out four main differentiating characteristics of the entrepreneur, evidence that the literature has corroborated over the years: entrepreneurial motivations (Chell 2008; Hasan et al. 2021a), psychological skills (Marvel and Lumpkin 2007; Rodríguez 2022), social skills (Baron and Tang 2009; Klyver and Arenius 2020), and management skills (Asif 2022; Chell 2008).