Entrepreneurial Aspirations and Perceptions: Among University Students in Economically Allied Countries

Abstract

This study aims to explore university students’ perspectives on entrepreneurs. Based on structured interviews, we compared the perspective of students in China and Pakistan regarding the definition of the entrepreneur. Since the inception of a Chinese Megaproject named the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), it is vital to know the student’s viewpoint about entrepreneurs. It was observed from the literature that an entrepreneur is a person who conceives an idea, creates a path of success, and dominates the industry. We surveyed university students and gathered their responses. Based on the textual analysis conducted using NVivo 13, we found that the most frequently used words to define the term entrepreneur by Chinese students are “owner,” “innovator’ money maker “risk bearer” while Pakistani students referred to it as “profit maker, ““innovator” “risk bearer” and “self-initiator” respectively. For an in-depth illustration of students’ perspectives, we employed “word cloud,” “tree map,” “hierarchy graph,” and “chart of nodes.” Given our findings, the entrepreneur is an “owner of a self-organized business who takes calculative risk for the motive of making a profit,” or a person who solely invests his money and resources to achieve profits and growth. This paper is the first to highlight the perception of an entrepreneur in the minds of students and perform a comparative study of China and Pakistan University students. The study’s findings demonstrate how students perceive entrepreneurs. These outcomes are important for academicians and corporate owners to better shape students’ perspectives for cultivating an innovative society.