Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Cornelious, Linda F.

Committee Member

Olinzock, Anthony A.

Committee Member

Yu, Chien

Committee Member

Prince, Debra L.

Committee Member

Davis, James E.

Date of Degree

5-12-2012

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship at a historically black university in central Mississippi. The study examined five areas of students’ perceptions: entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur, entrepreneurial opportunities, entrepreneurship education, and entrepreneurship and technology, and demographic characteristics (i.e., age, sex, academic unit, work status, first generation to attend college, and first in immediate family to attend college). The research design for this study was cross-sectional and descriptive. A 50-item survey was used to collect the data. The research used descriptive statistics, frequencies, and percentages to describe the data. An independent t-test and the ANOVA were used to address the five research questions. When significant statistical differences were reported, a multiple comparison post hoc test (Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference test [HSD]) was computed to determine where the differences occurred between groups. All data analyses were performed at a .05 significance level. The population for this study was 425 students enrolled in classes in the College of Business and School of Engineering. A total of 351 student surveys were analyzed and used in the study. Findings in this study indicated that age and work status impact how students’ perceive entrepreneurship. Also, students’ academic unit impacts how they perceive an entrepreneur. Additionally, students’ generation first to attend college plays a role in their perceptions of entrepreneurial opportunities. Further findings revealed that students from different academic units have similar perceptions of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship and technology. Also, students’ work status plays a role in their perceptions of entrepreneurship education. Based on the findings in this study, it was recommended that future research should be conducted to address factors contributable to students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship based on age and work status. Further research should also address faculty perceptions of entrepreneurship and the educational process. Research should be undertaken to replicate this study in other academic units at the university.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18301

Comments

Entrepreneur||Entrepreneurship Education||Entrepreneurial Opportunities||Entrepreneurship||Entrepreneurship and Technology

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