Abstract

The general research problem here involves the fall in the numbers of full-time entrepreneurs in Czech Republic which has been ongoing since 2011 and has not yet stopped. The article focuses on the willingness of the young generation to go into business. The purpose of the study is to compare the attitudes of the young generation to doing business in 2013 and 2017 which means the research has been repeated. The attitudes of potential start-up entrepreneurs significantly reflect the quality of business environment and social climate in the country. The goal was to monitor the main motivations and the barriers to starting business after the passage of four years. The research has repeatedly demonstrated that, apart from having a good idea, the dominant motivation for starting own business is expectation of higher earnings. However, the results of the undertaken analysis also point to the fact that, even though the long-term negative perception of the entrepreneurial environment has not worsened in any way, the numbers of those who do not trust themselves or their own ideas has increased rapidly. Fear of stress and responsibility associated with being in business has also increased. Availability of information on doing business was also investigated. Finally, the author grounds that the current trend when young people prefer being employed to managing own business themselves for a number of reasons is indicative of a potential entrepreneurial crisis in Czech Republic. To date, there has been practically no useful overview of the specific attitudes of young people in doing business in Czech environment and of how this has developed over time. This study used the sample of 606 students, some of whom were considering going into business after graduating, while others had ruled this out entirely. The study also worked with the results of the similar research undertaken four years ago on the sample of 776 respondents so that to compare the development of the attitudes of the young generation to start own business. The study findings can be used to formulate entrepreneurship strategies to improve the business environment as well as the educational system, which would be more helpful in understanding how business is done and in strengthening the impact on natural creativity of young people, as this is an extremely important way of increasing added value in economy as a whole.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, young business, barriers to starting business, motivation to start a business, Czech Republic.

JEL Classification: M13, M21, O12.

Cite as: Breckova, P. (2018). Declining trend in the willingness of young people to go into business. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 3, 109-118. https://doi.org/10.21272/mmi.2018.3-09

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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