Youth’s Entrepreneurial Intention: A Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis of the Factors Influencing Greek HEI Students in Time of Crisis

Abstract

Governments’ coronavirus disease (COVID-19) measures have forced the community to stay at home. During this period, youths have had time to think about their career paths. For some, a conventional eight-hour job in a private company is undesirable; meanwhile, entrepreneurship can mitigate the adverse effects of the crisis, such as unemployment. Accordingly, this study investigates the intention of Greek youths that study in a higher education institution (HEI) to engage in entrepreneurship in times of crisis, and highlights the factors that drive them to enter the business arena. This study designed and distributed a questionnaire to 369 Greek youths who were studying at the University of Thessaly. The data from the empirical research were used to develop a multinomial logistic regression model to investigate youths’ entrepreneurial intention and reveal the driving factors. The results showed that during times of crisis, youths appeared hesitant to enter the business arena. However, those who were more confident indicated that entrepreneurship could provide them with greater satisfaction. Driving factors for engaging in entrepreneurship were family and friends. Inhibiting factors for establishing a new business were having previous work experience in a family business and lack of educational knowledge. This study contributes to the understanding of youths’ entrepreneurial intention and the driving factors that play a key role in shaping this intention in Greece during a crisis period, since there are few studies on this topic.