Entrepreneurship intention

among French Grande

cole and university
students
An application of Shaperos model
Rita Klapper and Catherine Lger-Jarniou
Abstract: Arguably, entrepreneurship is still a recent phenomenon in
French society, and its higher education establishments are still
experimenting with ways to teach entrepreneurship and enterprise
creation. This paper presents a unique opportunity to compare and
contrast the entrepreneurial intention of French higher education students
at three different establishments (a management Grande cole, an
engineering Grande cole and a university) using the Shapero intention
model. The study found that most of the students wanted to work in large
organizations and were not intending to create a new company or work in
a family business. There were significant differences, however, between
management and engineering students in terms of their entrepreneurial
environment, which may affect their attitudes to new business creation.
The authors conclude that, while enforced learning through entrepreneurial
courses and seminars may initially be off-putting, such initiatives may
have longer-term beneficial impacts on entrepreneurial intention.
Keywords: entrepreneurship in France; entrepreneurial intention;
Shapero; Grande cole
Rita Klapper is Associate Professor at ESC Rouen, Rue de Marchal, 76000
Mont Saint Aignan, France. Tel: +33 2 32825838. Fax: +33 2 32825833.
E-mail: rita.klapper@groupe-esc-rouen.fr. Catherine Lger-Jarniou is Associate
Professor and Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Paris Dauphine
University, Place de Lattre de Tassigny, 75775 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 44054398.
Fax: +33 1 44054125. E-mail: catherine.leger-jarniou@dauphine.fr.

Before there can be entrepreneurship there must

be a potential for entrepreneurship. For there to be
entrepreneurial potential, there must be potential
entrepreneurs. This paper presents initial ndings from
a survey of the entrepreneurial intentions of higher
education students in France. The theoretical context

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

used to explore their intentions was the Shapero model,

which offers a range of antecedents as key determinants
for entrepreneurial intention.
The study discussed in this article had several
aims: rst, to explore the entrepreneurial intentions of
French HE students using Shaperos intention model

97

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

as a theoretical basis; second, to compare and contrast

the entrepreneurial intentions of students at different
educational establishments (a management Grande
cole, an engineering Grande cole and a public
university); and third, to compare and contrast the
entrepreneurial intentions of students who had attended
entrepreneurial courses with those who had not.
The article begins with a summary of the status of
entrepreneurship in France and actions taken to date in
entrepreneurship education. After an exposition of the
theoretical background and the research methodology
and a presentation of the three establishments in which
the survey was conducted, the research ndings are
discussed and conclusions are offered.

The French context for entrepreneurship

actions to date
The French context for entrepreneurship education has
undergone great change since 1998. Before that time the
French entrepreneurial environment was characterized
by Carayannis et al (2003) as follows:
entrepreneurship is not an important activity,
administration is complex, there is a lack of fund raising,
a fear of the new entrepreneur, a lack of entrepreneurial
activities on the shoulders of the educational system, the
acceptance of failure is not always the norm in the culture
and business creation is not an activity for young people, but
reserved for experienced people and education is targeted
at the normalization of students and discourages the
expression of creativity.

This view is in line with the ndings of Letowski

(1996), whose research indicated that 78% of survey
respondents considered that the entrepreneurial spirit
was insufciently developed in France, especially in the
education system.
However, enterprise creation and entrepreneurship
are now increasingly recognized as vital for French
post-industrial society, given their contribution to
economic regeneration, regional economic development
and employment generation (Fayolle, 1999; 2005). In
fact, in 1999 a Law on Innovation was promulgated
which (a) authorized researchers to set up their own
business, (b) created public incubators (innovation
centres) for hosting these new rms, (c) launched a
national competition for the creation of high-tech
rms, and (d) dened measures to simplify the creation
and management of new rms. This legislation
triggered a long chain of entrepreneurship conferences,
programmes and initiatives. One such initiative
was the creation of Maisons de lEntrepreneuriat
(Entrepreneurial Houses), which are intended to
promote all kinds of activities related to awareness98

raising about entrepreneurship. Furthermore, in

2003 the French government reinforced its efforts to
promote entrepreneurship and enterprise creation with
a Law for Economic Initiative, the aim of which is to
encourage the educational sector to exploit its resources
and expertise to stimulate entrepreneurship teaching
and small business creation.
The interest in entrepreneurship education can
be attributed to various factors. First, the prevailing
economic conditions the changing structure of the
Western economy with downsizing by larger companies
and the movement to different markets, such as Eastern
Europe emphasize the importance of promoting
entrepreneurship and small business creation. Second,
it has been recognized that both entrepreneurship
and small business are critical to employment and
innovation, competitiveness and regional economic
development (CEEDR, 2000; Storey 1994; Timmons,
1994), whereas large enterprises are not necessarily
net employment creators. Third, the rapid expansion of
electronic commerce facilitates entrepreneurial activity
across borders. Fourth, the need to renew the economic
tissue of the country to increase the competitiveness
of the economy adds impetus to the support of
entrepreneurship.
As a result of this policy change in France,
departments, regions and large cities now compete
to encourage entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship
education has become an important subject.
Furthermore, there has been a more general change in
the French cultural attitude towards entrepreneurship
over the past few years (Lger-Jarniou, 2005): a
survey in 2002 revealed that about 15 million French
people were tempted to set up their own business, at
least a third of whom claimed they had a concrete
project which could be implemented over the next two
years. Comparing these gures with similar surveys
in 1992, 1998 and 2000, it is apparent that there
has been a substantial increase in the willingness to
create a business (Hurel, 2002). In 2003, 230,000 new
enterprises were created in France, compared with
175,000 two years previously.

Entrepreneurship and education in France

There is little doubt that entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurship education are still relatively recent
phenomena in France, and consequently research in
the eld has to date failed to mobilize the French
scientic community. Similarly, interest in enterprise
creation and entrepreneurship remains underdeveloped
in France in particular, enterprise creation by young
people: in 2001 only 60,000 people under 30 had
created their own company (APCE, 2004).
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

In September 2002, at the rst conference of

the Observatoire des Pratiques Pdagogiques en
Entrepreneuriat (OPPE Observatory for Pedagogical
Practices in Entrepreneurship), an analysis was
presented of the various entrepreneurship-related
activities in higher education. Analysing 28
entrepreneurial activities at 15 universities between
1998 and 2000, Lger-Jarniou (2002) stressed that
entrepreneurship teaching was still embryonic at
French universities, even if the number of activities
had increased signicantly since 1999/2000. She noted
that there was a great diversity of activities, in terms
of objectives, duration, audience targeted and methods
employed. About half of the programmes aimed to
raise students awareness and were optional, whereas
the other half were specialized courses.
Similarly, in an assessment of entrepreneurial
activities at French management schools, Guillot
(2002) found a signicant increase in the number of
entrepreneurial programmes since the early 1990s.
He identied three types: general awareness-raising
programmes targeted at all rst-year students,
specialized programmes at, for example, Masters level,
and individual start-up projects.
A similar situation was identied at French
engineering schools. Cuzin (2002) analysed 21
entrepreneurial activities at 17 engineering schools,
concluding that entrepreneurship teaching was still,
as it was at university level, at the starting gate.
Most programmes were optional and were integrated
into engineering degree courses, with very few
schools offering an education specically targeted
at entrepreneurship. Like LgerJarniou (2002),
he identied a need for more partnerships between
different educational establishments and business
support organizations involved in enterprise creation.
At present in France, some 200 higher education
establishments take an interest in entrepreneurship
either in a teaching context (to sharpen the students
awareness) or as an accompaniment to study projects
(OPPE, 2005).

The French education system

The research reported here focused on the comparison
of a French university (Paris Dauphine), a management
Grande cole (the cole Suprieure de Commerce de
Rouen, ESC Rouen) and a Paris-based engineering
Grande cole (the cole Nationale de Chimie de Paris,
ENSCP). The traditional division between French
universities and the Grandes coles is founded on the
assumption that the production of general knowledge
was the preserve of the universities while the Grandes
coles were responsible for professional education.
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

This division is beginning to disappear as professional

education at universities is becoming a reality, with
universities also starting to offer professional Masters
programmes as a result of the 3-5-8 reform across
Europe.
The Grandes coles have traditionally played
an important role in the French higher education
system and have often been carriers of both national
and regional policy initiatives. In fact, David (1994,
p 205) described them as carriers of history, as
many organizations and establishments have evolved
into their present forms from recognizably similar
structures that came into existence at some time in
the past to satisfy some important social purpose.
Given the recent focus of the French government on
entrepreneurship and enterprise creation, the Grandes
coles have had to adjust their teaching programmes to
integrate entrepreneurship courses and entrepreneurial
initiatives.
Paris Dauphine University holds a special position
among French universities: it is a public university
created in 1969 for management and economic
education. Unlike other French universities, it
has always chosen its students through a rigorous
selection process (which is not allowed in other public
universities). In 2004 it was attributed the status of
Grand tablissement, which gives it a similar standing
to a Grande cole while maintaining its university
status.
However, the key distinction between the Grande
cole and university system lies in the fact that a
Grande cole is a fee-paying institution while French
universities are free of charge. Thus, as can be seen
from Table 1, there is a much larger student body at
public universities and Instituts Universitaires de
Technologie (IUTs) university institutes of technology.

Theoretical background intention models

As Bird (1988), Katz and Gartner (1988) and Krueger
and Brazeal (1994) suggest, entrepreneurship represents
planned, intentional behaviour and thus lends itself
to research using formal models of intentions. It is
from our contexts that we learn our beliefs, attitudes
and assumptions about the world. Hence Krueger and
Brazeal (1994) suggest that we should also learn our
beliefs about starting a business, which links to the idea
that entrepreneurship can be taught (Cunningham and
Lischeron 1991). Seen in this light, entrepreneurship
is viewed as a series of learned activities which focus
on the central functions of managing a rm such
as developing formal business plans, analysing
opportunities, acquiring resources and working toward
goals (Cunningham and Lischeron, 1991; Bird, 1988).
99

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

Table 1. Number of students at different French education institutions.

Universities and IUTs

IUT
Management schools (coles de
Commerce)
Management Grandes coles
Engineering schools (coles
dIngnieur)
Other undergraduates
Total

Number of institutions

Number of students

Proportion of students (%)

88
24

1,475,500
49,835

61
2

228
186

80,337
490,500

3
19

160

73,460
316,000
2,412,091

3
12

Intention precedes action. Intentions are constructed,

even where they appear to arise spontaneously
(Krueger, 2000). Arguably, entrepreneurial intentions
are crucial to understanding the overall process
of entrepreneurship as they establish key initial
characteristics. This is in line with Bird (1988), who
described intention as a state of mind that directs a
persons attention towards a specic object or path in
order to achieve something. Thus, as Bird elaborates,
entrepreneurial intentions are directed towards either
creating a new venture or creating new values in an
existing venture.
Bird (1988) underlines the importance of intention
models, with their ability to open up new areas
of theory-based research, and she highlights the
relationship between entrepreneurial ideas and the
outcomes of these ideas. Thus the focus shifts away
from previously studied entrepreneurial traits (such
as personality, motivation and demographics) to the
exploration of attitudes and their antecedents to develop
a better understanding of the entrepreneurial process
(see, for instance, Boyd and Vozikis, 1994; Shapero,
1975; Shapero and Sokol, 1982).
Intention models may offer a coherent,
parsimonious and robust framework for studying
entrepreneurial processes (Krueger, 1993; 2000). The
predominant intention models largely focus on the
pre-entrepreneurial event and integrate attitudinal and
behavioural theory (Ajzen, 1991) and self-efcacy
and social learning theory (Bandura, 1986). They
also integrate exogenous factors that contribute to
entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions.
There are, in fact, two major models of behavioural
intention: Ajzens theory of planned behaviour and
Shaperos model of the entrepreneurial event. This
study adopts Shaperos model.

entrepreneurial event. The model hypothesizes that the

intention to start a business derives from perceptions of
both desirability and feasibility and from a propensity
to act on opportunities. In addition, these different
factors are dependent on the particular entrepreneurial
experiences (their breadth and how positive they were)
of the person concerned. Figure 1 shows the different
elements of Shaperos model.
Shapero (1975) and Shapero and Sokol (1982)
argue that there are two key aspects of the decision
to start a business. First, the entrepreneur has to
perceive a credible opportunity. Second, the decision
is motivated, according Shapero and Sokol (1982),
by displacement, which might be either positive or
negative (positive displacement could be meeting
somebody or discovering an opportunity in other
countries; negative displacement could be the loss
of employment). Arguably, negative displacement
precipitates more company formations than positive
displacement. The resulting behaviour then depends
on the subjects propensity to act and the relative
credibility of alternative behaviours (Shapero and
Sokol, 1982).
In Shaperos model desirability, feasibility and the
propensity to act are presented as direct antecedents
to entrepreneurial intention (Peterman and Kennedy,
2003). Ones attitude towards entrepreneurship is
indirectly inuenced by prior exposure to it, which may
well have been through prior work experience and/or
role models.

Shaperos intention model

Shapero (1975) and Shapero and Sokol (1982)
proposed an intentionality-based process model of the
100

Figure 1. Shapero's model of entrepreneurial intention.

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

The construct of perceived desirability assumes, as

Krueger and Brazeal (1994) argue, two attractiveness
components of the theory of planned behaviour
attitude towards the act and social norms which
are typically inter-related. The attitude towards the
act refers to that which an individual nds personally
desirable, and in turn this depends on the likely
personal impact of performing the target behaviour.
For Shapero and Sokol (1982), perceived desirability
is about the degree to which one nds the prospect
of starting a business attractive; arguably the concept
reects ones attitude towards entrepreneurship.
Perceptions of desirability may be inuenced by
culture, family, peers, colleagues and mentors (Shapero
and Sokol, 1982). By comparison, perceived feasibility
is the degree to which the potential entrepreneur
believes that she or he is personally capable of starting
a business. The perception of feasibility may be
dependent on nancial and other support available, role
models, mentors and partners.
Furthermore, the propensity to act is conceptualized
as the disposition to act on ones decisions and thus it
reects the willingness of a person to create (Shapero
and Sokol, 1982). Krueger (1993) argues that different
levels of propensity to act (high versus low) may
inuence the degree to which attitudes are predictive
of intention and action, and therefore suggests that
propensity to act should be viewed as a moderating
inuence rather than a direct antecedent.
To date, relatively few studies have conceptualizd or
measured entrepreneurial potential, although interest
in pre-emergence entrepreneurial activity seems to
have grown (Henderson and Robertson, 2000; Krueger
and Brazeal, 1994). A few studies, however, have
investigated the effect of entrepreneurial education on
intention and new venture creation see, for example,
Bchard (1994), Garavan and OCinneide (1994),
Klapper (2004), Peterman and Kennedy (2003), Rosa
and McAlpine (1991), Vesper (1985) and Webb et al,
1982).
Peterman and Kennedy (2003), for instance,
examined the effect of participation in an enterprise
education programme on perceptions of the desirability
and feasibility of starting a business among secondary
school students in Australia. They found that
participants reported signicantly higher perceptions
of both desirability and feasibility after involvement in
the programme. The degree of change in perceptions
was positively related to the positiveness of prior
experiences and of the experience in the enterprise
education programme itself.
Conversely, Kolvereid and Moen (1997) compared
the behaviour of business graduates with a major in
entrepreneurship with that of graduates with other
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

majors at a Norwegian business school. Altogether, 720

questionnaires were distributed to Masters students to
study three measures of entrepreneurial intention: (a)
the probability of starting a business, (b) the choice
between being self-employed and an employee and
(c) the probability of starting a business as a career
choice. The authors found that the entrepreneurship
graduates were more entrepreneurial and had stronger
entrepreneurial intentions than the other business
graduates, in terms of both actual behaviour and
behavioural intention. In addition, Dyer (1994) assesses
how entrepreneurship education can provide access to
role models who can make entrepreneurship seem more
attractive. Role models such as parents are signicantly
predictive of entrepreneurial activity (Brockhaus and
Horowitz, 1986; Shapero and Sokol, 1982). In this
light, entrepreneurship education can be seen as a kind
of socialization effort, in that it attempts to make
entrepreneurship attractive as a career path.

Entrepreneurship teaching at ESC Rouen,

Paris Dauphine and ENSCP
ESC Rouen was established in 1871 and is the second
oldest Grande cole in France. There are three types
of entrepreneurship course at ESC Rouen, which differ
in both content and duration. Projet Entreprendre is
a rst-year project, running from December to March,
designed to enable students to develop a business idea
and an appropriate business plan. The project was
initiated in 1999 in response to two major concerns: a
growing interest in French society in entrepreneurship
issues and a government-driven agenda to promote
entrepreneurship teaching and training at the Grandes
coles. Most contact between staff and students takes
place on a virtual basis via a shareware programme.
The aim of the project is to develop in students a blend
of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will enable them
to recognize the links between management theory and
entrepreneurial practice (for more information about
Projet Entreprendre see Klapper, 2005).
ESC Rouen also runs a dominante an elevenweek intensive course with 180 teaching hours which
aims to deepen the knowledge of entrepreneurship of
second-year students. There are, in addition, individual
short courses such as Entrepreneurship in Europe
and Female Entrepreneurship (both two-day courses),
which aim to sharpen awareness of particular issues.
These courses are part of the general ESC programme
and/or specialized Masters programmes.
In 1989 Paris Dauphine became the rst French
university to offer entrepreneurship courses to
undergraduates. There are currently three types of
entrepreneurship courses, which differ in content
101

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

and duration. First, there is a one-year major (Filire

Entrepreneuriat) for undergraduates, the aim of
which is to raise awareness about the entrepreneurship
process. Six courses (234 hours) help students to build
a business plan and to present it at the end of the year.
Second, there is a one-year programme for postgraduate
students, a DESS (Diplome dtudes suprieures
spcialises), which focuses on innovation and new
technologies. In this programme students work in teams
over four months to create a business plan together
with a young high-tech entrepreneur. The students
attend a variety of entrepreneurship-related courses
and coaching is available throughout the process.
Third, there is an e-learning course which leads to a
Matrise de Gestion diploma, roughly equivalent to
an undergraduate programme in management. The
students attend 24 courses, one of which focuses on
entrepreneurship (students develop a business plan for a
specic project).
The French engineering Grande cole ENSCP
(cole Nationale Suprieure de Chimie Paris) is
a prestigious engineering school belonging to the
group ParisTech. During a six-day seminar on
entrepreneurship, third-year chemistry students
establish a business plan that is based on either a virtual
or real project. The course is jointly organized with
Paris Dauphine and aims to encourage and develop an
entrepreneurial spirit in students whose rst priority is
to pursue a career in large chemical companies.
Comparing the range and objectives of the courses
offered at ESC Rouen, Paris Dauphine and ENSCP, it
can be seen that they are very similar. They aim (a) to
sharpen students awareness of entrepreneurship issues,
(b) to develop an entrepreneurial spirit and encourage
innovative business ideas and (c) to provide the skills
for business plan development.

Methodology
As mentioned earlier this study has several purposes.
First, using Shaperos intention model as a theoretical

basis, it explores the entrepreneurial intentions of

French HE students. Second, it compares and contrasts
the entrepreneurial intentions of students at different
educational establishments. Third, it compares and
contrasts the entrepreneurial intentions of students who
have attended entrepreneurial courses with those who
have not. This article lls a gap in the literature in that
it offers a unique comparison between two Grandes
coles (management and engineering) and a public
university.
The project, sponsored by the OPPE, consisted of
two stages. In the rst stage, a questionnaire survey
was conducted among students at ESC Rouen and Paris
Dauphine between January and October 2004. The
questionnaire was distributed among seven different
student populations:

rst-year ESC;
second-year ESC;
third-year ESC;
Paris Dauphine MSG2;
Paris Dauphine, major in entrepreneurship;
Paris Dauphine, DESS; and
ENSCP (second stage).

The rst-year ESC students and the University of

Paris Dauphine (UPD) MSG2 students constituted the
control group, as they had not previously attended any
entrepreneurship courses. In general, the target group
consisted of undergraduates aged between 19 and 24.
One group of DESS postgraduate students (Masters
students) was included at UPD. The second stage of
quantitative and qualitative data collection was carried
out at the Paris-based ENSCP in autumn 2004.
Table 2 presents an overview of the different student
populations.
In line with the aims and objectives of the survey,
the questionnaire consisted of both open and closed
questions, testing views and attitudes relevant to
Shaperos model. It comprised a total of 43 questions
and a number of control variables (such as work
experience, gender, age and role models). Questions

Table 2. Overview of student populations surveyed.

Student group
ESC, 1st year (control
group)
ESC, 2nd year
ESC, 3rd year
UPD major
UPD DESS
ENSCP (engineering)
UPD MSG2 (control
group)

102

Total number of
students

Returned questionnaires

Had attended entrepreneurship

courses

260

84

No

380
300
28
28
100
62

47
33
15
25
38
46

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

focused on students understanding of the terms

entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, their attitudes
towards entrepreneurship in general and their
propensity to become an entrepreneur. There were
also questions relating to perceived desirability and
perceived feasibility, in line with the Shapero model.
Initial ndings indicated a balanced distribution
of female and male students. Most were single and
between 21 and 24 years old except for the UPD
DESS students who were between 21 and 26 years old.
Eighty-four rst-year, 47 second-year and 33 third-year
ESC students responded to the survey. This compares
with 46 students in the UPD MSG2 control group, 15
in the UPD major, 25 in the DESS and 38 engineering
students.

Results
Entrepreneurial experiences
Is anybody in your family an entrepreneur or running
his/her own business? In line with the Shapero model,
several questions focused on the entrepreneurial
experiences of the students. Thus they were asked, for
instance, whether anyone in their family was running
his or her own business. The results of the preliminary
analysis are presented in Table 3.
In line with the existing literature that suggests a key
role for the father in establishing the desirability and
credibility of entrepreneurial action for an individual
(see, for example, Shapero and Sokol, 1982), we nd that
the fathers of between 12% and 40% of the respondents
were running a company. The lowest gure in this
respect was found among the engineering students (12%)
and the second-year ESC students (19%). Few students
reported that their mother was running a company in
fact the numbers ranged from none among UPD major
students to 11% among UPD control group students,
although the third-year ESC students were an exception,
with 31%. Very few respondents (between none and 6%)
had a brother or sister who was running a rm but this
was possibly because many students had brothers and
sisters who were not yet old enough to run a business.

A greater number of respondents had grandparents

who were running their own business (between 7% and
33%): the highest number was found among rst-year
ESC students and the lowest among third-year ESC
students. In general, the gures seem to be higher at the
ESC than at Paris Dauphine. Between 16% and 39%
of the respondents in both establishments had an uncle
running a company: here the lowest gure was among
DESS students at Paris Dauphine and the highest was
among rst-year ESC students (39%). Relatively few
students, between none and 23%, had an aunt who was
running a company: the lowest gure was for UP major
students and the highest was for second-year ESC
students. Between 13% and 42% of the respondents had
a friend who was running a business: the lowest gure
was for the UPD major students and the highest was
for rst-year and second-year ESC students. In general,
ESC students seemed to have more friends running
businesses than those at Paris Dauphine and ENSCP.
It is also interesting to note that the statistical analysis
indicates that few females (mothers or aunts) were
running their own business, and that entrepreneurship
seems to be a rather male-dominated domain in France.
Ranking the percentages to indicate importance
across the different target groups, the gures indicate
that rst-year ESC students are more likely to draw on
an entrepreneurial environment than UPD or ENSCP
students. The engineering students, however, have
fewer entrepreneurs in their environment than the
management students.
Entrepreneurial courses and work experience. As the
results presented in Table 4 show, between 1% and
30% of the survey participants had already attended an
entrepreneurial course the lowest percentages were
among rst-year ESC students and ENSCP students
and the highest were among second-year ESC students.
The latter nding is explained by the fact that those
students participate in an entrepreneurial project in the
rst year of their studies at the Grande cole and can
continue their studies in a dominante in the second
year. The low percentage among rst-year ESC students

Table 3. Is anybody in your family an entrepreneur or running his or her own business?

Father
Mother
Sister/brother
Grandparent
Uncle
Aunt
Friend

ESC 1st year

(%)

ESC 2nd year

(%)

ESC 3rd year

(%)

UPD control
group (%)

UPD major
(%)

38
7
4
33
39
13
42

19
4
6
30
34
23
39

28
31
0
7
37
11
30

33
11
2
26
30
9
39

33
0
0
13
27
0
13

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

UPD DESS Engineers,

(%)
ENSCP (%)
40
12
4
12
16
4
29

12
8
0
23
21
3
21

103

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

Table 4. Entrepreneurial courses and work experience.
ESC 1st year ESC 2nd year ESC 3rd year UPD control UPD major UPD DESS Engineers,
(%)
(%)
(%)
group (%)
(%)
(%)
ENSCP (%)
Have you already attended
such a course? (Yes)
Have you any professional
experience? (Yes)
Have you already been
on a placement? (Yes)
I work while studying

30

27

13

22

71

61

83

61

87

68

60

57

94

91

91

87

88

100

36

24

58

37

80

46

41

Table 5. Students aspirations.

Where do you see your
future?
Do you want to create a
business? (Yes)
Do you want to work in an
SME? (Yes)
Do you want to work in a
large organization? (Yes)
Do you want to work in a
family business? (Yes)

ESC 1st year ESC 2nd year ESC 3rd year UPD control UPD major UPD DESS Engineers,
(%)
(%)
(%)
group (%)
(%)
(%)
ENSCP (%)
26

18

24

24

33

32

28

34

23

20

40

20

37

66

68

60

67

40

68

79

23

is attributable to the fact that they join the ESC after

attending a two-year preparatory school in which the
emphasis is on scientic subjects such as mathematics
rather than on matters such as entrepreneurship and
enterprise creation. Thus it is highly unlikely that they
would have attended an entrepreneurship course before
joining the Grande cole.
Between 60% and 87% of the respondents had
had some kind of professional experience: the lowest
gures were for the second-year ESC students, the
engineering students and the UPD control group and
the highest were for third-year ESC and UPD major
students. The low gure in the second year of the
ESC programme can again be explained by the fact
that the students enter the Grande cole after a twoyear preparatory school with little or no professional
experience. They normally pursue a substantial
placement later in the second and third years of their
studies, which is in line with the high percentage
among third-year ESC students. There is a high gure
in the UPD major because these students have chosen
the major in entrepreneurship to be directly involved
in professional activities given their prior business
experience. Furthermore, 57100% of the respondents
had been out on a work placement, with the lowest
percentage registered by rstyear ESC students a
nding consistent with their educational background.
The results also reect the fact that a work placement
is obviously an integral part of the studies of all groups
surveyed.
104

Examining the percentages of the students who

indicated that they were working while studying, we
nd that between 24% and 80% of the respondents
answered positively. The lowest gure was for the
second-year ESC students and the highest was for
the UPD major students. It may well be that the
low number for ESC students reects the demands
of the existing education system (30 hours of class
attendance plus group work per week), which make it
all but impossible to work and study simultaneously.
In addition, the ndings may act as a social indicator,
highlighting the fact that Grande cole (management
and engineering) students may have a higher disposable
income due to parental support than public-sector
university students. However, Paris Dauphine cannot
be considered as an average public-sector university,
given its reputation and standing in the French higher
education system. As a result, many French middleclass or upper-class parents would consider sending
their children to Paris Dauphine as equally desirable as
sending them to a Grande cole.
We conclude from the above analysis that the
students surveyed generally had some professional
experience, whether in the form of student jobs or work
placements.
Perceived desirability
To throw further light on their career decisions, the
students were asked where they saw themselves going
once they had obtained their qualication. As Table 5
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

highlights, the majority of the students (between

67% and 97%) did not want to create their own
business. The greatest negative response was from the
engineering students possibly because, studying at
a very well known engineering Grande cole, they
can expect enticing job offers from large chemical/
pharmaceutical companies when they graduate and
so their interest in starting up their own business is
extremely limited.
Furthermore, the statistical comparison suggests
that students at Paris Dauphine were slightly more
prepared to create a business than were ESC or
ENSCP students. However, the generally low number
of students who wanted to create their own company
may again be a reection of the French HE system,
which expects the Grandes coles (and this includes
Paris Dauphine) to train and provide senior managers
for large organizations. Our results also need to be
understood in light of the fact that, as outlined at the
beginning of this paper, a focus on enterprise creation
and entrepreneurship is only a recent phenomenon
in France. Thus it may be very difcult to instil an
entrepreneurial spirit in a student population whose
parents have themselves attended a Grande cole
(Klapper, 2004).
The majority of the respondents at the HE
establishments (with the exception of the UPD major
students) that is, between 60% and 79% of ESC,
UPD and ENSCP respondents wanted to work in
a large organization, and between 20% and 40%
envisaged working in a small or medium-sized
enterprise (SME). Virtually nobody, however, was
prepared to work in a family business, except for the
third-year ESC students. It is interesting to note that
the UPD major students seemed to be the least set
on working in a large organization (40%), and more
open to the idea of working for an SME (33%) or even
creating their own company (40%). We need to bear
in mind that these students had deliberately chosen an
entrepreneurship course at Paris Dauphine and so were
likely to be more open to these options. Conversely,
we found the highest percentages of students wanting
to work in large organizations among engineering

students, who would not consider working in a family

business at all and who registered the lowest number
of students interested in creating their own business.
Given that the theories suggest a link between role
models and enterprise creation, it may be that the lack
of creators in the engineering students environment,
as described earlier, is not conducive to encouraging an
entrepreneurial spirit.
The inquiry then explored the reasons why
respondents preferred other ways of employment to
creating their own company. As Table 6 shows, only
between 18% and 36% of the students indicated that
they were afraid of creating a business, while between
2% and 18% said that it was the negative experience of
someone they knew that was discouraging them from
doing so. Between 26% and 63% thought that they
lacked the necessary professional experience, with the
engineering and DESS students scoring the lowest in
this respect. The latter group comprises postgraduate
students who are in general older than undergraduates
and therefore may feel more condent about their
professional experience than the other groups surveyed.
In line with these ndings, between 36% and 68%
of the respondents felt they had not the right skills to
create a business, with the highest numbers being found
among third-year ESC and engineering students. This
result is slightly surprising, given that the third-year
ESC students had participated in an entrepreneurship
project and some had attended a 180-hour dominante
focusing on business creation. Thus they should have
acquired at least some of the necessary skills to create
a business. However, the notion of acquiring the
right skills may include much wider issues than just
being able to write a business plan. As our qualitative
analysis has shown, students tend to be reluctant
to start a business because they feel they lack the
appropriate professional experience.
In the case of the engineering students, their degree
at the Paris-based Grande cole focuses on engineering
subjects and very little knowledge is imparted about
business management and the actual running of a rm
(the questionnaire was distributed at the beginning of
the six-day entrepreneurship seminar). This may well

Table 6. Students reasons for not creating their own business.

ESC 1st year ESC 2nd year ESC 3rd year UPD control UPD major UPD DESS Engineers,
(%)
(%)
(%)
group (%)
(%)
(%)
ENSCP (%)
Fear
Negative experiences of a
friend or relative
Insufcient professional
experience
Lack the right tools

24
5

23
2

24
13

22
3

36
0

18
18

16
11

46

55

63

46

55

35

26

44

36

62

46

36

41

68

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

105

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

explain their feelings that they have not yet acquired the
right tools to create a company.
In general, we conclude that it is not necessarily
fear or the negative experience of a relative or friend
that is preventing students from creating their own
business: rather, it is primarily a sense that they do
not have sufcient experience and skills to embark on
company creation. The implication, therefore, is that
more research is needed to establish the skills required
by entrepreneurs.
One question in our survey was designed to
investigate the link between professional experience and
the desire to create a business and between the presence
of entrepreneurs in the family and an inclination to
create a business. As Table 7 shows, around one-third
of the students (between 32% and 44%) felt that their
professional experience had indeed increased their
interest in starting up a business but the engineering
group was an exception, with only 10% answering this
question positively.
Between 8% and 48% felt that the presence of an
entrepreneur in the family had promoted an interest
in enterprise creation again the low end of the
percentage range was registered by the engineering
students, who had few role models in their immediate
environment (see Table 3). Again, this question
supports the nding that there was a very signicant
lack of interest in enterprise creation among the
engineering students.
Feasibility
To examine how students perceived the feasibility of
enterprise creation, we asked them to indicate their
agreement or disagreement with a variety of statements,
one of which asked whether everybody could be an
entrepreneur (recalling the much discussed question of
whether entrepreneurs are born or bred).

Students answered according to a Likert scale

ranging from one to ve, with one representing
strongly agree and ve strongly disagree. The results
for strongly disagree and mildly disagree were
aggregated and are presented in Table 8. As can be
seen, the majority of students disagree with the notion
that anybody can be an entrepreneur. In particular, the
second-year ESC, UPD DESS and engineering students
expressed their disagreement with the statement. The
third-year ESC and UPD major students seemed more
open to the idea, with only 55% and 57%, respectively,
registering disagreement with the statement. This
result may be partly attributable to the fact that the
second-year students had just participated in an
entrepreneurship project in the rst year of their studies
at the Grande cole and this experience may well have
left them highly sceptical about the notion that anyone
could be an entrepreneur. In this sense, teaching
entrepreneurship may deter rather than encourage
certain students. However, as the third-year students
were among those most open to the idea that anybody
could be an entrepreneur, perhaps this negative effect
has diminished by the time the students reach their
third year.
The students were also asked whether they saw a
future for entrepreneurship in France and, if so, why.
The results are shown in Table 9: it is striking that only
a small minority of respondents, between 3% and 13%,
felt that there was a future for entrepreneurship because
many French people are entrepreneurially minded the
exception was the UPD major students (31%), who
seemed more optimistic than the other populations.
The engineering students were the most pessimistic.
The more optimistic outlook of the UPD major students
may be attributable to the fact that they attend an
entrepreneurship course of their choice and thus their
attitude towards entrepreneurship may be different.

Table 7. Factors that increase students interest in enterprise creation.

ESC 1st year ESC 2nd year ESC 3rd year UPD control UPD major UPD DESS Engineers,
(%)
(%)
(%)
group (%)
(%)
(%)
ENSCP (%)
Professional experience
An entrepreneur in the
family

35
44

32
48

44
20

39
46

40
33

35
25

10
8

Table 8. Students responses to the notion that anyone can be an entrepreneur.

ESC 1st year ESC 2nd year ESC 3rd year UPD control UPD major UPD DESS Engineers,
(%)
(%)
(%)
group (%)
(%)
(%)
ENSCP (%)
Strongly disagree or
disagree

106

64

83

55

65

57

79

71

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

Table 9. Is there a future for entrepreneurship in France?
Yes, because
Many French people have
an entrepreneurial mindset
We need entrepreneurs for
the economy
Entrepreneurship favours
employment creation
Many French people want
to create a business

ESC 1st year ESC 2nd year ESC 3rd year UPD control UPD major UPD DESS Engineers,
(%)
(%)
(%)
group (%)
(%)
(%)
ENSCP (%)
11

11

10

13

31

13

66

54

67

62

77

65

58

42

50

79

60

62

44

34

26

41

60

38

23

39

24

Table 10. Is there a future for entrepreneurship in France?

No, because
There is no financial
encouragement
There is no tax incentive
The image of entrepreneurs
is too negative in France
France is too bureaucratic
The economic situation is
too negative

ESC 1st year ESC 2nd year ESC 3rd year UPD control UPD major UPD DESS Engineers,
(%)
(%)
(%)
group (%)
(%)
(%)
ENSCP (%)
21

26

33

38

15

30

24

25
21

33
13

18
29

29
11

15
39

17
26

11
13

39
29

35
15

52
6

47
11

62
23

35
22

47
40

Of the students who thought that there was a

future for entrepreneurship in France, between 54%
and 77% agreed that this was because France needed
entrepreneurs for its economic development (more
UPD than ESC students agreed with this statement).
Furthermore, between 34% and 79% of the responding
students felt there was a future for entrepreneurship
because of its importance in employment creation the
highest level of agreement with this statement was
found among third-year ESC students and the lowest
level was among the rst-year ESC and the ENSCP
engineering students it should be noted here that,
in general, rst-year ESC students had not beneted
from any entrepreneurial courses before joining the
ESC Rouen and, similarly, entrepreneurial teaching
and training are not an integral part of the syllabus
of the engineering Grande cole: thus these students
knowledge about the socio-economic importance of
entrepreneurship may be rather limited.
Asked whether there was a future for
entrepreneurship in France because many French
people want to create a business, between 23% and
60% of the respondents agreed that this was the case.
The lowest level of agreement with the statement was
among the UPD major and engineering students, and
the highest level was recorded among the third-year
ESC students (60%). In general, the level of agreement
with the statement seemed to be higher among ESC
than among UPD students.
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

Comparison of the levels of agreement with the

individual statements shows that the students emphasized
the economic dimension of entrepreneurship and the
importance of entrepreneurs for employment creation.
This suggests that there is a growing awareness of the
importance of these issues even among the French
student population. It is striking, however, that so few
students thought that French people had an
entrepreneurial mindset. In general, the engineering
students seem again to be the most pessimistic of the
groups.
Looking at the responses of those students who
thought there was no future for entrepreneurship in
France, between 15% and 38% felt that there was no
nancial encouragement in France (the highest number
was for the UPD control group and the lowest for the
UPD major students). In a similar vein, between 11% and
33% felt that there was no future for entrepreneurship in
France due to the lack of tax incentives. The results of
this analysis are shown in Table 10.
A very diverse picture emerged when the students
were asked whether there was no future in France
because entrepreneurs had a negative image. More
UPD than ESC students thought that the image of
entrepreneurs was too negative: ESC students may
have a more positive attitude towards entrepreneurs
and entrepreneurship as they are involved in
entrepreneurship from the start of their education at the
Grande cole (for a discussion of an entrepreneurial
107

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

project at ESC Rouen, see Klapper, 2005). Yet, as

our analysis has shown, and as has been discussed
previously by Klapper (2004), the students do not
generally want to start their own company and would
prefer to work in a large organization.
However, there was a relatively high level of support,
in particular among UPD and engineering students,
for the statement that a future for entrepreneurship
was difcult to envisage because France was too
bureaucratic: agreement with this statement ranged
from 35% among the second-year ESC and DESS
students to 62% among UPD major students.
Relatively few respondents (between 6% and 40%)
felt that there was no future for entrepreneurship
because of the negative economic situation in France
the highest percentage was among the engineering
students. UPD students seemed slightly more
pessimistic than ESC students. However, there seemed
to be no great concern about the relationship between
entrepreneurship and the economic situation in France.
In summary, the students identied French
bureaucracy as a principal reason why they thought
there was no or little future for entrepreneurship in
France. Financial aspects such as incentives and the
existing tax regime were identied by some as important
deterrents, but did not attract very many responses.
Propensity to act
The propensity to act was conceptualized as the
disposition to act upon ones decisions, which goes to
the volition of a person to create a business. The section
of the survey dealing with this issue focused on those
students who were interested in creating their own
company and asked them when they would like to start
up. According to our qualitative analysis of students
responses, none of the students felt ready to create
a business: all felt that they lacked the experience,
competence and nancial means, and/or did not have a
precise business idea. They said that they would rather
wait ve or even ten years before starting up their own
company. In general, they were attracted to the service
sector, in which they would also consider creating their
own business at a later stage. The optimistic aspect of
our analysis of the qualitative data is that, even though
the respondents may not have had a sufciently well
dened idea to create a company, they were just waiting
to get the right professional experience to launch a
business.

Conclusions and recommendations for

further research
Shaperos model ultimately aims to assess the
entrepreneurial intentions of the subjects under
108

review. Our questionnaire was designed to evaluate

the entrepreneurial intentions of students at different
higher education establishments. Both quantitative and
qualitative analyses show that many students do not
want to create a business or are hesitant to set up their
own business and become an entrepreneur. Instead,
they look for employment in large organizations once
they have nished their degree at a management
school, university or engineering Grande cole.
Very few of the students questioned saw a future for
themselves as employees in SMEs or as self-employed
entrepreneurs, and even fewer envisaged a career in
the family business. In general, those students at all
three institutions who were entrepreneurially inclined
were intending to acquire more professional experience
and competences before thinking about setting up a
business. There are a number of plausible reasons for
this, some of which relate to the students age and
lack of professional experience and skills, and some
of which relate to French society itself and its higher
education system, which has traditionally aimed to
prepare students for senior management positions rather
than to train entrepreneurs.
It should also be borne in mind that entrepreneurship
education is not directed only towards the launch of
new businesses: it also has much broader educational
goals, such as raising general awareness of
entrepreneurship-related issues and supporting those
students who want to become entrepreneurs.
On an optimistic note, our analysis indicates that
French HE students are generally neither afraid of
creating their own business nor handicapped by
negative experiences. However, it is interesting to note
that the UPD major students who deliberately chose
an entrepreneurship course expressed the most fear
about creating a business. This suggests that the more
the students found out about entrepreneurship and
enterprise creation, the more nervous they became
about the reality of starting a business. Furthermore,
there was a very strong consensus, in particular
among ESC students, that not everyone could be an
entrepreneur this issue is particularly important as it
relates to the born or bred debate in academia which
is key to entrepreneurship education.
We also found a growing awareness among the
students of the importance of entrepreneurship for
national and regional economies and of its role in
employment creation. This increased awareness
may be due to the greater emphasis now placed on
entrepreneurship and enterprise creation at French HE
institutions, which suggests that governmental and
professorial initiatives to promote entrepreneurship
and enterprise creation in the HE sector are slowly
succeeding in bringing these issues closer to a student
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

Entrepreneurship intention among French HE students

audience that has been traditionally untouched by

enterprise creation. However, much work remains to
be done very few students in our sample thought
that French people had an entrepreneurial mindset
and many identied French bureaucracy as one of
the main reasons why they saw little or no future for
entrepreneurship in France.
The comparison between management and
engineering students serves to highlight key differences
between the groups. It was, indeed, striking how
pessimistic the engineering students were towards
entrepreneurship and enterprise creation. These students
also had fewer entrepreneurs among family and friends,
and saw less of a role for entrepreneurship in the
economy and employment creation. The large majority
of the engineering students envisaged a career in large
companies, although some were open to employment in
SMEs. In general, they felt they lacked the right tools
for enterprise creation and their professional experience
did not inspire entrepreneurship. (Further research is
needed to establish what precisely is meant by the right
tools, however.)
The comparative analysis between the ESC and
Paris Dauphine students indicates similar responses and
attitudes in these two groups this is most likely due
to the nature of the French HE system and the similar
social backgrounds of the respondents. Even though
the students of the control group had not attended any
entrepreneurship courses, their responses were very
similar to those of the other groups surveyed.
To summarize, we conclude that:
(1) The majority of the students across the HE
institutions want to work in large organizations.
(2) Management students differ from engineering
students in terms of their entrepreneurial
environment and their intention to create a
business due to their professional experience.
(3) UPD students are more prepared to create their
own company than ESC students.
(4) The UPD major students, who had deliberately
chosen an entrepreneurship course, were more
open to employment in SMEs and to creating their
own company, but at the same time they expressed
the most fear about starting up a business.
(5) In relation to the perceived feasibility of starting a
business, fewer university students disagree with
the idea that anyone can be entrepreneur.
(6) Many of the students recognized the importance of
entrepreneurship for the economy and employment
creations, but identied French bureaucracy as a
deterrent to entrepreneurship.
More work needs to be done to establish the inuence
of education on the entrepreneurial intention of
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION April 2006

students, in order to explore whether formal education,

and in particular management education, impedes
rather than facilitates the entrepreneurial process and
thus enterprise creation. In fact, it may be questioned
whether enforced learning is detrimental to the actual
intention of setting up a business. This is an important
question: it should be remembered that the percentage
of ESC students who did not think that anyone could
be an entrepreneur increased from 64% in the rst
year to 83% in the second, but dropped to 55% in the
third year. As has already been suggested, their rstyear entrepreneurship project may actually have had
a detrimental effect on the students perception of the
feasibility of entrepreneurship and enterprise creation
hence the higher percentage in the second year. At
the same time, in the third year the percentage of
negative responses dropped below the level of the rst
year, so the deterrent effect does not appear to have
been permanent and ultimately a greater number of
students endorsed the idea that anyone could become
an entrepreneur.
This study should be seen as a rst step towards
inquiring into student entrepreneurial intentions in
France. It is intended that the study will be repeated
on a regular basis to compare and contrast how student
intention develops over time. Furthermore, we plan to
conduct interviews with students at the different HE
establishments to develop a deeper understanding of
the students responses in their respective contexts. In
addition, the possibility of conducting a cross-national
study of entrepreneurial intention is currently under
investigation.

Note
1
The objectives of this Observatory, created jointly by the
Ministries of Education, Finance and Industry, the APCE and
the Acadmie de lEntrepreneuriat (the French association
of entrepreneurship professors), are to identify the different
activities in entrepreneurship education and to promote
entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions
and secondary schools.

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