GUESSS 2021 Global Report
GUESSS 2021 Global Report
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Preface
Since decades, new ventures created by students have a crucial economic and social impact.
The financial and non-financial value that is created as a result is crucially important,
particularly in times of global crisis such as in the current COVID-19 pandemic.
As such, it is more important than ever to gain new insights into student entrepreneurship on
a global level.
The GUESSS Project (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey) is dedicated
to this mission since 2003. The 2021 Global Report presents the related findings of the 9th data
collection wave in the history of GUESSS. It was conducted in early 2021 in 58 countries, with
more than 267’000 students providing complete responses, which are all-time records for
GUESSS.
Specifically, the report provides insights into students’ (entrepreneurial) career choice
intentions, their entrepreneurial activities, and the underlying drivers. Moreover, it highlights
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hopefully, the findings will advance and inspire
research and practice on student entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in general.
The 2021 edition of GUESSS would not have been possible without the invaluable effort and
support of all country teams, national university partners, EY as the international project
partner, and of course the students who responded to the survey invitation. Thank you!
Yours sincerely,
Citation
Sieger, P., Raemy, L., Zellweger, T., Fueglistaller, U. & Hatak, I. (2021). Global Student
Entrepreneurship 2021: Insights From 58 Countries. St.Gallen/Bern: KMU-HSG/IMU-U.
1
Global GUESSS Report 2021 Table of Content
Table of Content
Preface ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Table of Content ....................................................................................................................... 2
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 3
1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions ...................................................... 4
2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time ........................................................................... 8
3. Entrepreneurial Activities ................................................................................................ 10
3.1 Nascent Entrepreneurs ........................................................................................... 10
3.2 Active Entrepreneurs .............................................................................................. 11
3.3 The Global View ..................................................................................................... 12
4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors .............................................................. 15
4.1 The University Context ........................................................................................... 15
4.2 Field of Study .......................................................................................................... 17
4.3 Gender .................................................................................................................... 18
5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic ......................................................................... 21
6. Selected Recommendations .......................................................................................... 24
7. Further Information ......................................................................................................... 25
7.1 The Sample ............................................................................................................ 25
7.2 The 2021 GUESSS Country Team Leaders ........................................................... 26
7.3 The GUESSS Project ............................................................................................. 27
8. References ..................................................................................................................... 28
2
Global GUESSS Report 2021 Executive Summary
Executive Summary
One project, 58 countries, more than 267’000 students, and one global report with the following
key insights:
Entrepreneurship education and the entrepreneurial climate at the university are key
determinants of entrepreneurial intentions and activities.
Field of study is crucial, with “business and management” students as well as “science
of art” students exhibiting the strongest entrepreneurial spirit.
A gender gap with regard to entrepreneurship can again be observed. The share of
intentional, nascent, and active entrepreneurs is consistently smaller among females
than among males.
That the strength of entrepreneurial intentions has been more or less stable across the
last GUESSS editions signals that the COVID-19 pandemic does not seem to have
affected entrepreneurial intentions substantially.
Still, 22,1 percent of all nascent entrepreneurs and 33,7 percent of all active
entrepreneurs indicate that they plan to create / have created their new venture largely
because of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3
Global GUESSS Report 2021 1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions
7,1
an employee in a small business (1-49 employees)
3,4
2,4
an employee in a non-profit organization
2,3
9,5
an employee in academia (academic career path)
8,8
13,3
an employee in public service
13,5
17,8
a founder (entrepreneur) working in my own business
32,3
1,4
a successor in my parents’ / family’s business
1,4
0,6
a successor in another business
1,1
15,3
Other / do not know yet
12,5
0 10 20 30 40
Percentage (%)
When forming three career groups (i.e., employee, founder, and successor, see Figure 2), we
see a clear pattern that is very stable across GUESSS editions (see, for instance, Sieger,
Fueglistaller, Zellweger & Braun, 2019): students prefer organizational employment directly
after studies (whereby almost 20 percent intend to work in an SME with up to 249 full-time
equivalent employees), and many then plan to swing to an entrepreneurial career path within
the next 5 years.
1 We use the terms “entrepreneurial intentions” and “founding intentions” synonymously. Strictly speaking, also
becoming a successor in the parents’ firm or in another firm represents a type of entrepreneurial career; we do
not refer to these options unless noted otherwise.
4
Global GUESSS Report 2021 1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions
100
80
64,9
Percentage (%)
60 52,7
40 32,3
17,8 15,3
20 12,5
1,9 2,5
0
Employee Founder Successor Other / do not know yet
For more in-depth insights into the specific career plans of intentional entrepreneurs, Figure 3
shows which career path those students who intend to be entrepreneurs right after studies
plan to pursue 5 years later. What is encouraging is that 82,8 percent of these “direct intentional
entrepreneurs” still intend to be entrepreneurs; therefore, their entrepreneurial intentions seem
to be quite stable.
Figure 3. The career plans of direct intentional entrepreneurs 5 years later (N=47'604)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Percentage (%)
Employee Founder Successor Other
5
Global GUESSS Report 2021 1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions
The other way round, Figure 4 shows what those students who intend to be an entrepreneur
5 years after completion of studies plan to do directly after studies.
45,6 percent want to be an entrepreneur directly after studies; almost exactly the same number
(45,7 percent) intend to be employees in the private or public sector. This further supports the
“first employment, then entrepreneur” pattern we observed above.
Figure 4. The career plans directly after studies of the 5 years intentional entrepreneurs
(N=86'479)
an employee in a small business (1-49 employees) 7,0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Percentage (%)
Employee Founder Successor Other
Turning to country comparisons, we look at the share of intentional founders in the 58 countries
of GUESSS 2021 in Table 5.2
We note that these numbers have to be interpreted with caution. The 58 country samples differ
considerably in terms of size, number and types of participating universities, student
demographics, and so forth. Still, we see that intentional founders are particularly prominent in
developing countries (and in particular, in Latin American countries).
Developed industrial countries rather tend to appear at the bottom of the list, which is a
phenomenon already revealed in previous GUESSS editions (Sieger, Fueglistaller &
Zellweger, 2014; Sieger, Fueglistaller & Zellweger, 2016; Sieger et al., 2019).
2 Unless noted otherwise, we only consider countries with at least 20 complete responses in all our country-level
comparisons.
6
Global GUESSS Report 2021 1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions
7
Global GUESSS Report 2021 2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time
We therefore analyzed data from 13 countries who have participated in the last five GUESSS
data collection waves (2021, 2018, 2016, 2013/14, and 2011).3
The share of intentional entrepreneurs (5 years after completion of studies) has been the
highest in 2011. After a considerable decline in 2013 and another small decline in 2016, there
was a noteworthy increase in 2018, with the 2021 number being slightly below the 2018 result.
Overall, entrepreneurial intentions have therefore been quite stable across the last 10 years.
More specifically, the 2021 number is in the same rather small range as the three preceding
GUESSS editions (i.e., between 28,3 and 31,2 percent), whereby the 2011 results were not
substantially higher (34,3 percent). With all the necessary caution when drawing conclusions
across GUESSS editions, it thus seems that the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a
fundamental impact on students’ entrepreneurial intentions.
In the 13 investigated countries (see Figure 7), we see different patterns of increasing and
decreasing shares of intentional founders that call for further in-depth investigation, particularly
when considering the differences between 2018 (pre-COVID) and 2021.
40
35 34,3
Percentage (%)
31,2
30,5
30
28,8
28,3
25
20
2011 2013 2016 2018 2021
3 The number and types of participating universities within each country may vary, as does the number of responding
students per university and country. However, the GUESSS country teams remained stable, so we do not assume
that there is a systematic variation with regard to the data collection procedure and in particular with regard to the
university recruitment strategy. Thus, we believe that our longitudinal findings are reliable and valid. Nevertheless,
they have to be interpreted with great care.
8
Global GUESSS Report 2021 2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time
Figure 7. Shares of intentional founders (5 years after studies) across countries and time
28,6
18,4
Austria 22,5
24,1
21,6
39,1
33,5
Brazil 37,4
38,2
38,4
36,1
36,2
Estonia 37,5
34,0
41,1
30,3
24,7
Finland 30,8
31,5
22,0
24,7
17,6
Germany 17,0
17,7
17,6
27,1
27,0
Greece 32,7
32,7
32,4
37,5
35,4
Hungary 33,0
37,5
34,4
30,7
10,4
Japan 11,7
12,0
9,0
41,4
41,4
Liechtenstein 45,6
37,3
32,7
60,4
66,6
Mexico 65,9
48,2
57,2
32,1
35,7
Portugal 29,2
26,6
23,2
47,1
52,6
Russia 51,3
50,4
42,2
27,2
17,7
Switzerland 21,1
20,1
16,1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Percentage (%)
9
Global GUESSS Report 2021 3. Entrepreneurial Activities
3. Entrepreneurial Activities
68,0
70
60
50
Percentage (%)
40
30
18,5
20
13,5
10
0
From a university course In another form related to the Largely independent from the
university university
47,4 percent of the nascent entrepreneurs indicate that they plan that this business should
become their main occupation after graduation. 22,2 percent said that this is not planned; the
rest has not decided upon this yet.
46,5 percent of the nascent entrepreneurs plan to create their business with one or more co-
founders. This indicates the relevance of networking and support offerings in order to bring
together entrepreneurial teams.
60
53,5
50
40
Percentage (%)
28,3
30
20
11,0
10 7,3
0
On my own (0 co-founders) With 1 co-founder With 2 co-founders With 3 or more co-founders
Number of cofounders
10
Global GUESSS Report 2021 3. Entrepreneurial Activities
In addition, and not surprisingly, the businesses are very small. 27,6 percent of the firms have
no employees (yet); around 48 percent have 1 or 2 employees.
35
31,3
30
Percentage (%)
25
20 18,2
14,6
15
9,2
10 8,3
5,5
3,2 3,9
5 2,1
1,0 1,3 1,3
0
Earlier 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
What is quite surprising is that 30,1 percent of all active entrepreneurs indicated that this
business will not be their main occupation after completion of studies; put differently, the
created firms might be continued on a part-time basis or might even be abandoned. Still, 33,9
percent of the entrepreneurs have not finally decided on this issue yet.
Referring to co-founders, 37,3 percent of the new ventures do not have a co-owner next to the
actual founder; 48,5 percent have 1 or 2 co-owners. This further illustrates the relevance of co-
founders and co-owners in student entrepreneurship.
40 37,3
29,7
30
Percentage (%)
18,8
20
10 7,6
6,6
0
0 co-owners 1 co-owner 2 co-owners 3 co-owners > 3 co-owners
11
Global GUESSS Report 2021 3. Entrepreneurial Activities
How satisfied are the active entrepreneurs with the performance of their business? We asked
them to rate their business’ performance as compared to its competitors since its establishment
in several dimensions (i.e., sales growth, market share growth, profit growth, job creation, and
innovativeness) on a scale from 1 (much worse) to 7 (much better).
The average is 4,54, which is above the neutral point of the scale; almost 36 percent of the
active entrepreneurs rate the performance as higher than 5, which are quite encouraging
numbers.
40
35
Percentage (%)
30
24,3
25 22,2
20 18,7
17,1
15
11,2
10
6,6
0
Up to 2 2-3 Higher than 3 up Higher than 4 up Higher than 5 up Higher than 6 up
to 4 to 5 to 6 to 7
To assess the corresponding future trend, we also assessed the proportion of nascent versus
active entrepreneurs in each country (Table 14). On average, there are 2,6 nascent
entrepreneurs for each active entrepreneur, with numerous countries exceeding this number
considerably. This signals that the number of active entrepreneurs should increase in the
future, while one has to keep in mind that not every nascent entrepreneur will complete the
founding process (Khan, Tang & Joshi, 2014). Still, we can interpret this as a positive signal.
12
Global GUESSS Report 2021 3. Entrepreneurial Activities
Figure 13. Shares of nascent and active entrepreneurs across countries (N=267’366)
13
Global GUESSS Report 2021 3. Entrepreneurial Activities
Figure 14. Proportion of nascent versus active entrepreneurs in each country (N=104’715)
Morocco 6,7
Korea 5,8
Saudi Arabia 5,6
Albania 4,4
Pakistan 4,0
Croatia 4,0
United Arab Emirates 3,8
Jordan 3,5
Hungary 3,5
Belgium 3,5
Ukraine 3,5
Russia 3,5
Sweden 3,5
Japan 3,4
Iran 3,3
Nepal 3,2
Kazakhstan 3,1
USA 3,0
Spain 3,0
Tunisia 3,0
Lebanon 2,9
Panama 2,9
Switzerland 2,8
Slovakia 2,8
Australia 2,8
Dominican Republic 2,7
Mexico 2,7
Portugal 2,7
Colombia 2,6
AVERAGE 2,6
North Macedonia 2,6
Liechtenstein 2,5
Chile 2,5
Poland 2,5
Peru 2,5
Greece 2,4
Costa Rica 2,4
Qatar 2,4
Nigeria 2,3
Italy 2,3
Czech Republic 2,3
Iraq 2,2
El Salvador 2,2
Bolivia 2,2
Bulgaria 2,1
Brazil 2,1
Netherlands 2,1
Germany 2,0
Ireland 2,0
Uruguay 2,0
New Zealand 2,0
Lithuania 1,8
Ecuador 1,7
Austria 1,6
Finland 1,4
Estonia 1,3
Indonesia 0,9
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Nascent/Active-Ratio
14
Global GUESSS Report 2021 4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors
These numbers differ when considering nascent entrepreneurs or students who intend to be
entrepreneurs directly after studies, respectively. While we cannot exclude reverse causality,
as entrepreneurial students may self-select themselves into entrepreneurship education, it
seems that entrepreneurship education indeed has the desired effect as the shares of nascent
and direct intentional entrepreneurs are consistently higher when entrepreneurship education
has been attended.
Figure 15. Attendance of entrepreneurship offerings among different student groups (N=267’366)
6,8
I am studying in a specific program on entrepreneurship. 12,3
11,8
19,6
I have attended at least one entrepreneurship course as
23,7
compulsory part of my studies.
22,2
26,1
I have attended at least one entrepreneurship course as
36,2
elective.
34,6
53,3
I have not attended a course on entrepreneurship so far. 38,7
40,2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Percentage (%)
All Nascents Direct intentionals
Very essential is also how entrepreneurial the students perceive the university environment to
be. Keeping in mind that the numbers need to be interpreted with care, as these perceptions
are affected by a multitude of (also sample-related) factors, we draw a global comparison.
Interestingly, the global average is 4.4, which is slightly above the neutral point of our 1-7
scale.4 Hence, there is considerable room for improvement on a general level. In addition, the
differences between countries are considerable.
4 Based on Franke and Lüthje (2004), we used three items: “the atmosphere at my university inspires me to
develop ideas for new businesses”; “there is a favorable climate for becoming an entrepreneur at my university”;
and “at my university, students are encouraged to engage in entrepreneurial activities”. Students were asked to
indicate the extent to which they agree with these statements (1=not at all, 7=very much).
15
Global GUESSS Report 2021 4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors
Mexico 5,8
Peru 5,7
Indonesia 5,7
El Salvador 5,7
Colombia 5,5
Ecuador 5,5
Dominican Republic 5,5
Liechtenstein 5,4
Jordan 5,3
Panama 5,3
Costa Rica 5,2
Qatar 5,2
Nigeria 5,1
Chile 5,0
Bolivia 5,0
Uruguay 5,0
Ireland 5,0
Netherlands 4,9
Brazil 4,9
Australia 4,8
United Arab Emirates 4,7
Lebanon 4,6
North Macedonia 4,5
USA 4,5
Estonia 4,4
Pakistan 4,4
Finland 4,4
Portugal 4,4
Russia 4,4
Bulgaria 4,4
Albania 4,4
AVERAGE 4,4
Saudi Arabia 4,3
Morocco 4,3
Lithuania 4,3
Kazakhstan 4,3
Greece 4,3
Belgium 4,3
New Zealand 4,2
Iraq 4,2
Sweden 4,2
Croatia 4,2
Ukraine 4,0
Korea 4,0
Slovakia 3,9
Czech Republic 3,9
Austria 3,9
Japan 3,9
Spain 3,8
Switzerland 3,8
Italy 3,8
Poland 3,8
Tunisia 3,7
Hungary 3,6
Germany 3,5
Nepal 3,2
Iran 2,8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Average climate
16
Global GUESSS Report 2021 4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors
26,8
Business / Management 45,1
37,7
15,5
26,8
Science of art (e.g., art, design, dramatics, music) 44,7
43,9
16,5
17,9
36,8
Engineering (incl. architecture) 29,7
10,1
19,4
Economics 36,1
27,6
10,6
21,4
Other 35,2
33,5
13,2
15,5
Computer sciences / IT 33,3
29,4
9,1
17,8
32,3
AVERAGE 28,4
10,8
16,6
Law 27,3
24,3
10,3
14,2
Human medicine / health sciences 26,8
20,0
7,1
11,8
Social sciences (e.g., psychology, politics, education) 21,7
21,7
8,9
12,2
Arts / Humanities (e.g., cultural studies, history, 20,5
linguistics, philosophy, religion) 25,3
10,3
9,4
Natural sciences 19,3
20,0
6,5
8,1
Mathematics 17,1
24,4
9,1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Percentage (%)
17
Global GUESSS Report 2021 4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors
“Business and Management” and “Science of art” students have the strongest entrepreneurial
intentions directly after studies (26,8 percent). 5 years after studies, entrepreneurial intentions
are strongest among “Business and Management” students, closely followed by “Science of
art” students which, in turn, exhibit the highest share of active and nascent entrepreneurs.
The strong entrepreneurial spirit among science of art students appears more surprising than
that among business students. This might be due to the specific job profiles (e.g., working as
an independent freelancer) and is in line with previous GUESSS reports (Sieger et al., 2019).
To avoid any bias related to study field in the different country samples, we only look at
“Business and Management” students, which constitute the largest group in our sample (19,6
percent of all students), in Table 19. The share of intentional founders (5 years after studies)
across all countries confirms the above pattern of higher shares in developing countries (and
especially in Latin American countries) and lower shares in developed countries.
4.3 Gender
We clearly confirm the gender gap already found in previous editions (Sieger et al., 2019): the
shares of active, nascent, and intentional entrepreneurs (both directly and 5 years after
studies) are consistently smaller among females than among males.5
Figure 18. Gender differences among intentional, nascent, and active entrepreneurs (N=266’943)
9,3
Actives
13,0
25,2
Nascents
33,2
30,0
Intentional Founders (5Y)
36,1
15,6
Intentional Founders (D)
21,2
0 10 20 30 40
Percentage (%)
Female Male
We also examined the gender gap among active entrepreneurs in our 58 countries, meaning
the difference in absolute percent between the share of active entrepreneurs among males
and females, respectively. As shown in Table 20, the gender gap significantly varies across
countries. A few countries even exhibit a “negative gender gap”, meaning that the share of
active entrepreneurs among females is higher than among males. The specific reasons clearly
deserve future research attention.
5 We are aware that more than two types of gender might exist; still, we focused on comparing males and females.
18
Global GUESSS Report 2021 4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors
Figure 19. Intentional founders (B&M Students) 5 years after studies across countries (N=52’292)
Ecuador 66,4
Indonesia 65,7
Nigeria 64,5
Mexico 64,3
Colombia 64,2
Dominican Republic 61,3
Panama 61,0
Morocco 60,7
Estonia 58,0
Bolivia 57,9
Russia 55,6
Peru 55,2
Iran 54,5
Lithuania 53,8
El Salvador 52,7
Chile 50,8
North Macedonia 50,7
Slovakia 48,8
Bulgaria 47,9
Kazakhstan 46,5
Qatar 46,4
Costa Rica 45,5
Iraq 45,5
AVERAGE 45,1
Albania 44,7
Lebanon 44,7
Czech Republic 44,4
United Arab Emirates 44,4
Uruguay 44,2
USA 43,8
Pakistan 43,4
Brazil 42,8
Australia 42,5
Ireland 41,9
Hungary 41,8
Poland 41,8
Croatia 40,3
Sweden 39,8
Tunisia 38,5
New Zealand 37,6
Spain 35,6
Belgium 35,2
Liechtenstein 35,1
Greece 33,7
Netherlands 33,6
Portugal 33,2
Italy 32,8
Korea 30,8
Finland 29,0
Saudi Arabia 27,6
Austria 26,5
Germany 26,5
Switzerland 23,5
Jordan 16,7
Japan 9,6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage (%)
19
Global GUESSS Report 2021 4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors
Figure 20. Gender differences among active entrepreneurs across countries (N=266'943)
Liechtenstein 13,3
Iran 12,2
Albania 12,0
Nepal 11,6
Tunisia 11,3
Iraq 9,3
United Arab Emirates 8,5
Bulgaria 8,1
Dominican Republic 7,5
Slovakia 6,8
Russia 6,4
Estonia 6,1
Austria 6,0
Qatar 5,7
Netherlands 5,7
Pakistan 5,6
Lebanon 5,0
Peru 4,9
Kazakhstan 4,9
Belgium 4,4
Lithuania 4,3
Bolivia 4,3
Czech Republic 4,2
Italy 4,1
AVERAGE 3,7
Spain 3,7
Switzerland 3,6
Finland 3,5
Greece 3,5
Poland 3,4
Germany 3,3
Jordan 3,3
Panama 3,2
Ireland 3,2
Portugal 3,2
Uruguay 3,2
Brazil 3,0
Morocco 2,9
Saudi Arabia 2,7
Colombia 2,7
Hungary 2,6
Mexico 2,5
Croatia 2,3
Ecuador 2,1
Japan 2,0
Sweden 1,6
New Zealand 1,4
Indonesia 0,4
Costa Rica 0,4
North Macedonia 0,3
Korea 0,0
Chile -0,7
Australia -1,0
El Salvador -2,5
USA -3,4
Nigeria -6,5
-10 -5 0 5 10 15
Percentage (%)
20
Global GUESSS Report 2021 5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
How has it impacted student entrepreneurship? Above, we have seen that students’
entrepreneurial intentions in 2021 are comparable to those in previous GUESSS editions. This
signals that entrepreneurial intentions have, bottom line, not been systematically or
significantly affected by the pandemic.
In addition, we asked the nascent entrepreneurs whether they plan to create their business
largely because of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic; 22,1 percent said yes. Here,
we observe considerable differences between countries (see Table 21).
In a few countries, more than 40 percent of the nascent entrepreneurs indicate that the
pandemic has induced them to be in the founding process; except for Japan, these can all be
regarded as developing countries. In several other countries, the corresponding share is below
10 percent. Clearly, more research into this pattern would be valuable.
Among active entrepreneurs, and very interestingly, the share of “COVID entrepreneurs” is
much higher: 33,7 percent indicate that they have created their business largely because of
the pandemic. In several countries, mostly developing and often Latin American countries, the
share is between 40 and up to almost 60 percent (see Table 22). This hints to the crucial
relevance of “necessity entrepreneurship” in these countries (Wennekers, van Stel, Thurik &
Reynolds, 2005). In other countries, in turn, the share is clearly below 10 percent.
21
Global GUESSS Report 2021 5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Peru 52,4
Ecuador 52,1
Japan 50,4
Pakistan 48,8
Iraq 46,0
Lebanon 41,3
Nigeria 35,3
Bolivia 33,4
United Arab Emirates 33,2
Panama 33,2
Morocco 31,0
Brazil 29,6
Korea 27,3
Nepal 26,3
Costa Rica 25,0
El Salvador 24,3
Saudi Arabia 23,7
Mexico 23,5
Australia 23,4
AVERAGE 22,1
Jordan 21,8
Bulgaria 21,3
Tunisia 21,1
Chile 19,9
Italy 19,5
Kazakhstan 18,7
Albania 18,6
New Zealand 18,5
Colombia 18,1
Portugal 17,9
Finland 16,8
Croatia 16,5
Indonesia 16,4
Dominican Republic 15,9
Qatar 15,9
Poland 15,8
Lithuania 15,5
Belgium 13,1
Germany 12,9
Slovakia 12,7
Uruguay 12,3
North Macedonia 12,0
Spain 11,6
Iran 11,1
Russia 10,9
Switzerland 10,6
Sweden 9,5
Austria 8,6
Czech Republic 8,6
Estonia 8,3
Greece 6,9
Hungary 6,7
Ukraine 5,0
Liechtenstein 4,0
Netherlands 4,0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Percentage (%)
22
Global GUESSS Report 2021 5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Panama 59,1
Peru 56,9
Pakistan 53,0
Jordan 49,7
Bolivia 48,4
Chile 46,6
Mexico 46,5
Ecuador 46,5
Lebanon 46,2
Saudi Arabia 42,4
Colombia 41,9
Costa Rica 38,2
United Arab Emirates 36,8
Tunisia 36,7
Kazakhstan 35,8
Dominican Republic 35,4
Morocco 34,9
AVERAGE 33,7
Japan 33,3
Bulgaria 33,1
Nigeria 31,8
El Salvador 31,1
Brazil 30,4
Iraq 30,4
Italy 29,6
Australia 27,9
Belgium 27,8
Indonesia 26,0
Netherlands 24,6
Uruguay 22,9
Spain 20,8
Iran 18,4
Poland 17,9
North Macedonia 17,4
Russia 17,1
Qatar 16,7
Albania 15,7
Portugal 14,3
Lithuania 14,3
Korea 14,0
Slovakia 13,9
Czech Republic 13,3
New Zealand 13,0
Hungary 12,9
Germany 12,7
Croatia 10,9
Switzerland 9,3
Finland 8,3
Greece 6,7
Estonia 6,2
Austria 5,7
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage (%)
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Global GUESSS Report 2021 6. Selected Recommendations
6. Selected Recommendations
Students should…
Further improve and expand entrepreneurship education offerings and seek to create
an entrepreneurial atmosphere.
See the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential trigger for entrepreneurship; even though
entrepreneurial intentions do not seem to have been affected, an effect regarding
entrepreneurial activities is clearly visible.
Be aware that entrepreneurship exists since centuries and has thus to be seen also in
a general long-term context.
Seek to provide an objective view on what it means to become an entrepreneur, with
all the advantages and disadvantages. Anyone can start a business, but creating a
successful business is something different.
Actively promote entrepreneurial ecosystems with both public and private players.
Be aware of the gender gap in entrepreneurship and systematically promote female
entrepreneurs.
Further strengthen their efforts when investigating the determinants and outcomes of
student entrepreneurship in general as well as the underlying mechanisms.
Consider the unique implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, but still keep investigating
non-COVID-19-related topics.
Contextualize their research by looking at institutional, cultural, and economic boundary
conditions.
Go for non-traditional topics that also look at the potential downsides of becoming an
entrepreneur.
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Global GUESSS Report 2021 7. Further Information
7. Further Information
The majority of students (59,2 percent) are between 18 and 23 years old, and 60,3 percent are
female. The completed respondents are distributed across countries as shown in Table 1.
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Global GUESSS Report 2021 7. Further Information
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Global GUESSS Report 2021 7. Further Information
If you are interested in participating in the next GUESSS edition in 2023, please contact
Prof. Dr. Philipp Sieger ([email protected]).
GUESSS 2021 was generously supported by Ernst & Young (EY) as the international
project partner. We cordially thank EY for their support. Without it, GUESSS in the current form
would not have been possible.
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Global GUESSS Report 2021 8. References
8. References
Franke, N., & Lüthje, C. (2004). Entrepreneurial intentions of business students—A
benchmarking study. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management,
1(3), 269-288.
Khan, S. A., Tang, J., & Joshi, K. (2014). Disengagement of Nascent Entrepreneurs from the
Start-Up Process. Journal of Small Business Management, 52(1), 39-58.
Sieger, P., Fueglistaller, U., & Zellweger, T. (2014). Student Entrepreneurship Across the
Globe: A Look at Intentions and Activities. St.Gallen: KMU-HSG.
Sieger, P., Fueglistaller, U., & Zellweger, T. (2016). Student Entrepreneurship 2016: Insights
from 50 countries. St.Gallen/Bern: KMU-HSG/IMU.
Sieger, P., Fueglistaller, U., Zellweger, T., & Braun, I. (2019). Global Student Entrepreneurship
2018: Insights From 54 Countries. St.Gallen/Bern: KMU-HSG/IMU.
Wennekers, S., van Stel, A., Thurik, R., & Reynolds, P. (2005). Nascent entrepreneurship and
the level of economic development. Small Business Economics, 24(3), 293-309.
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