2021 guesss global report

Global Student Entrepreneurship 2021:Insights From 58 Countries

2021 GUESSS Global ReportPhilipp Sieger / Lea Raemy / Thomas Zellweger / Urs Fueglistaller / Isabella Hatak

Global GUESSS Report 2021 Preface

1

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!

We are already looking forward to the next GUESSS edition in 2023!

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Philipp Sieger University of Bern / GUESSS CEO

Lea Raemy University of Bern / GUESSS Project Assistant

Prof. Thomas Zellweger

Prof. Urs Fueglistaller

Prof. Isabella Hatak

University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG) Members of the GUESSS Supervisory Board

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.

Global GUESSS Report 2021 Table of Content

2

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

Global GUESSS Report 2021 Executive Summary

3

Executive Summary One project, 58 countries, more than 267’000 students, and one global report with the following

key insights:

Regarding students’ entrepreneurial intentions and activities

17,8 percent of all students intend to be an entrepreneur directly after studies.

32,3 percent plan to be an entrepreneur 5 years after completion of studies.

A central and stable pattern is “first employee, then entrepreneur”.

The career plans of “direct intentional entrepreneurs” are very stable: 82,8 percent of

them still intend to be an entrepreneur 5 years later.

Entrepreneurial intentions have been in a similar range across the last GUESSS

editions.

28,4 percent of all students are in the process of founding a new venture (nascent

entrepreneurs). 10,8 percent already own and run their own business (active

entrepreneurs).

Founding teams are of crucial relevance for both nascent and active founders. 46,5

percent of all nascent entrepreneurs plan to create their business with co-founders;

even 62,7 percent of all active entrepreneurs have at least one co-owner.

The shares of intentional, nascent, and active entrepreneurs differ considerably across

countries. The overall pattern is that developing countries exhibit higher numbers than

developed countries.

The new ventures are mostly very young and very small, whereby the entrepreneurs

are relatively happy with their performance.

Regarding influencing factors

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.

Global GUESSS Report 2021 1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions

4

1. Students’ (Entrepreneurial) Career Choice Intentions Almost 18 percent of all students intend to be an entrepreneur directly after studies, compared

to more than 32 percent 5 years after completion of studies. Thus, entrepreneurial intentions

(meaning the intention to create a new business)1 almost double between these two points in

time.

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.

12,5

1,1

1,4

32,3

13,5

8,8

2,3

17,7

6,9

3,4

15,3

0,6

1,4

17,8

13,3

9,5

2,4

20,6

12,0

7,1

0 10 20 30 40

Other / do not know yet

a successor in another business

a successor in my parents’ / family’s business

a founder (entrepreneur) working in my own business

an employee in public service

an employee in academia (academic career path)

an employee in a non-profit organization

an employee in a large business (250 or moreemployees)

an employee in a medium-sized business (50-249employees)

an employee in a small business (1-49 employees)

Percentage (%)

Figure 1. Detailed career choice intentions (N=267’366)

Directly after studies 5 years after completion of studies


5

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.

64,9

17,8

1,9

15,3

52,7

32,3

2,5

12,5

0

20

40

60

80

100

Employee Founder Successor Other / do not know yet

Per

cent

age

(%)

Figure 2. Career choice intentions in groups (N=267'366)

Directly after studies 5 years after completion of studies

2,5

0,8

1,1

82,8

1,9

1,4

0,5

4,8

2,4

1,8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90











Percentage (%)

Figure 3. The career plans of direct intentional entrepreneurs 5 years later (N=47'604)

Employee Founder Successor Other


6

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.

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.

7,0

0,4

1,3

45,6

5,0

3,1

1,2

19,5

9,9

7,0

0 10 20 30 40 50











Percentage (%)

Figure 4. The career plans directly after studies of the 5 years intentional entrepreneurs (N=86'479)

Employee Founder Successor Other


7

9,0

11,7

15,2

16,1

17,6

19,9

21,6

22,0

23,1

23,2

24,2

24,3

24,4

26,5

29,2

30,0

31,1

32,2

32,3

32,4

32,7

33,1

34,4

34,4

36,4

36,5

36,9

36,9

37,6

37,7

38,4

38,7

40,0

40,4

40,4

41,1

41,5

42,2

42,3

42,6

44,1

44,6

44,9

46,3

47,6

47,9

50,3

51,2

51,8

51,8

53,8

57,0

57,2

57,4

58,0

60,2

65,2

3,0

7,2

7,7

4,2

5,3

10,5

6,6

10,8

13,0

7,7

3,6

16,3

7,0

9,4

12,3

18,9

10,9

14,6

17,8

16,8

13,1

11,1

12,5

16,8

17,2

27,5

16,1

9,7

21,0

15,8

22,4

13,4

16,7

24,5

16,0

17,5

31,3

22,6

26,9

22,7

27,5

24,0

26,7

30,2

27,8

36,1

24,6

25,6

44,4

34,3

30,4

37,0

32,1

31,5

38,138,9

53,7

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

JapanKorea

JordanSwitzerland

GermanySaudi Arabia

AustriaFinland

SpainPortugalSweden

IraqNew Zealand

Czech RepublicItaly

KazakhstanBelgiumCroatia

AVERAGEGreece

LiechtensteinNetherlands

HungaryPoland

ChilePakistanAustralia

IrelandCosta Rica

SlovakiaBrazil

United Arab EmiratesUSAIran

LithuaniaEstoniaTunisiaRussia

UruguayLebanonBulgaria

QatarAlbania

PeruPanama

El SalvadorNorth Macedonia

UkraineBoliviaNepal

MoroccoColombia

MexicoDominican Republic

EcuadorIndonesia

Nigeria

Percentage (%)

Intentional Founders (DIRECT) Intentional Founders (5 YEARS)

Figure 5. Share of intentional founders across countries (N=267’366)

Global GUESSS Report 2021 2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time

8

2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time How have entrepreneurial intentions developed over time? This is a very central and important

question, particularly when considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that had started

in early 2020, which was after the previous GUESSS edition had been completed (in 2018).

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.

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.

34,3

28,828,3

31,230,5

20

25

30

35

40

2011 2013 2016 2018 2021

Per

cent

age

(%)

Figure 6. Share of intentional founders (5Y) across GUESSS editions

Global GUESSS Report 2021 2. Entrepreneurial Intentions Across Time

9

16,1

42,2

23,2

57,2

32,7

9,0

34,4

32,4

17,6

22,0

41,1

38,4

21,6

20,1

50,4

26,6

48,2

37,3

12,0

37,5

32,7

17,7

31,5

34,0

38,2

24,1

21,1

51,3

29,2

65,9

45,6

11,7

33,0

32,7

17,0

30,8

37,5

37,4

22,5

17,7

52,6

35,7

66,6

41,4

10,4

35,4

27,0

17,6

24,7

36,2

33,5

18,4

27,2

47,1

32,1

60,4

41,4

30,7

37,5

27,1

24,7

30,3

36,1

39,1

28,6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Switzerland

Russia

Portugal

Mexico

Liechtenstein

Japan

Hungary

Greece

Germany

Finland

Estonia

Brazil

Austria

Percentage (%)

2011 2013 2016 2018 2021

Figure 7. Shares of intentional founders (5 years after studies) across countries and time

Global GUESSS Report 2021 3. Entrepreneurial Activities

10

3. Entrepreneurial Activities

3.1 Nascent Entrepreneurs 28,4 percent of all students (N=75’838) indicated that they are in the process of creating their

own business, meaning that they are “nascent entrepreneurs”. 15 percent of them have

already created a business before and are thus serial or portfolio entrepreneurs. Almost one

third of the nascent entrepreneurs indicates that their project emerged from the university

environment.

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.

13,5

18,5

68,0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

From a university course In another form related to theuniversity

Largely independent from theuniversity

Per

cent

age

(%)

53,5

28,3

11,07,3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

On my own (0 co-founders) With 1 co-founder With 2 co-founders With 3 or more co-founders

Number of cofounders

Per

cent

age

(%)

Figure 8. Emergence of the start-up project (N=50’887)

Figure 9. Number of co-founders (N=51’949)


11

3.2 Active Entrepreneurs 28’877 students indicated that they are active entrepreneurs, meaning that they already own

and run their own business (10,8 percent). As shown below, the businesses are very young;

almost 20 percent indicate that it has been created in 2021, and more than 30 percent say that

this happened in 2020.

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.

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.

8,3

1,0 1,3 1,3 2,13,2 3,9

5,5

9,2

14,6

31,3

18,2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Earlier 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Per

cent

age

(%)

37,3

29,7

18,8

7,6 6,6

0

10

20

30

40

0 co-owners 1 co-owner 2 co-owners 3 co-owners > 3 co-owners

Per

cent

age

(%)

Figure 10. Founding year of active entrepreneurs’ firms (N=25’050)

Figure 11. Number of co-owners of active entrepreneurs (N=27’319)


12

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.

3.3 The Global View Comparing the shares of nascent and active entrepreneurs across countries, we reveal a

picture very similar to that for entrepreneurial intentions (see Table 13): developing countries

tend to be at the top of the list, whereby developed countries rather appear at the bottom.

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.

6,6

11,2

22,224,3

18,717,1

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Up to 2 2-3 Higher than 3 upto 4

Higher than 4 upto 5



Per

cent

age

(%)

Figure 12. Performance ratings of active entrepreneurs (N=27’343)


13

5,1

9,0

9,5

9,9

11,4

13,3

13,4

14,4

15,5

16,1

16,6

16,6

17,9

18,9

19,0

19,1

19,5

21,1

21,3

25,0

25,4

25,6

25,9

26,1

26,9

28,4

30,8

34,8

35,2

35,8

36,6

37,1

37,1

37,2

38,2

41,9

42,3

44,9

45,0

45,3

48,0

48,8

49,2

50,1

50,2

50,6

51,0

52,0

54,1

54,2

55,1

57,6

59,5

65,1

67,4

69,5

75,3

1,5

3,2

6,14,9

4,33,3

3,9

10,3

7,8

6,9

4,7

8,4

7,2

6,3

6,7

8,0

10,6

9,0

10,4

8,3

4,3

12,3

7,3

20,4

9,7

10,8

12,1

14,6

17,7

14,3

10,3

17,6

14,3

11,7

10,2

25,1

12,2

16,5

48,7

15,2

22,3

20,7

16,9

19,020,4

17,4

9,1

19,4

13,5

8,1

25,6

13,1

18,0

18,6

21,831,8

32,2

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

JapanSwitzerland

AustriaGermanyPortugalCroatia

SwedenFinlandIreland

ItalyBelgium

New ZealandPoland

SpainSlovakiaGreece

LithuaniaCzech Republic

NetherlandsUSA

KoreaBrazil

HungaryEstonia

AustraliaAVERAGE

LiechtensteinCosta Rica

UruguayChile

JordanBulgaria

North MacedoniaNepal

United Arab EmiratesEcuador

RussiaDominican Republic

IndonesiaTunisia

El SalvadorQatar

LebanonColombia

PeruPanama

Saudi ArabiaMexico

PakistanMorocco

BoliviaAlbania

IranUkraine

KazakhstanIraq

Nigeria

Percentage (%)

Actives Nascents

Figure 13. Shares of nascent and active entrepreneurs across countries (N=267’366)


14

0,9

1,3

1,4

1,6

1,7

1,8

2,0

2,0

2,0

2,0

2,1

2,1

2,1

2,2

2,2

2,2

2,3

2,3

2,3

2,4

2,4

2,4

2,5

2,5

2,5

2,5

2,6

2,6

2,6

2,7

2,7

2,7

2,8

2,8

2,8

2,9

2,9

3,0

3,0

3,0

3,1

3,2

3,3

3,4

3,5

3,5

3,5

3,5

3,5

3,5

3,8

4,0

4,0

4,4

5,6

5,8

6,7

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

IndonesiaEstoniaFinlandAustria

EcuadorLithuania

New ZealandUruguay

IrelandGermany

NetherlandsBrazil

BulgariaBolivia

El SalvadorIraq

Czech RepublicItaly

NigeriaQatar

Costa RicaGreece

PeruPoland

ChileLiechtenstein

North MacedoniaAVERAGE

ColombiaPortugal

MexicoDominican Republic

AustraliaSlovakia

SwitzerlandPanamaLebanon

TunisiaSpainUSA

KazakhstanNepal

IranJapan

SwedenRussia

UkraineBelgiumHungary

JordanUnited Arab Emirates

CroatiaPakistanAlbania

Saudi ArabiaKorea

Morocco

Nascent/Active-Ratio

Figure 14. Proportion of nascent versus active entrepreneurs in each country (N=104’715)

Global GUESSS Report 2021 4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

15

4. Student Entrepreneurship: Influencing Factors

4.1 The University Context We first examined the extent to which the students had received entrepreneurship education.

As Table 15 shows, more than half of the students in our sample had not attended any

entrepreneurship course so far. 26,1 percent have attended at least an elective course, and

19,6 percent have attended compulsory courses (multiple answers were possible).

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.

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).

40,2

34,6

22,2

11,8

38,7

36,2

23,7

12,3

53,3

26,1

19,6

6,8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

I have not attended a course on entrepreneurship so far.

I have attended at least one entrepreneurship course aselective.

I have attended at least one entrepreneurship course ascompulsory part of my studies.

I am studying in a specific program on entrepreneurship.

Percentage (%)All Nascents Direct intentionals

Figure 15. Attendance of entrepreneurship offerings among different student groups (N=267’366)


16

2,83,2

3,53,63,7

3,83,83,83,83,93,93,93,94,04,0

4,24,24,24,24,34,34,34,34,34,34,44,44,44,44,44,44,44,44,54,5

4,64,7

4,84,94,95,05,05,05,05,15,25,2

5,35,35,4

5,55,55,5

5,75,75,7

5,8

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

IranNepal

GermanyHungary

TunisiaPoland

ItalySwitzerland

SpainJapan

AustriaCzech Republic

SlovakiaKorea

UkraineCroatia

SwedenIraq

New ZealandBelgiumGreece

KazakhstanLithuaniaMorocco

Saudi ArabiaAVERAGE

AlbaniaBulgaria

RussiaPortugalFinland

PakistanEstonia

USANorth Macedonia

LebanonUnited Arab Emirates

AustraliaBrazil

NetherlandsIreland

UruguayBolivia

ChileNigeria

QatarCosta Rica

PanamaJordan

LiechtensteinDominican Republic

EcuadorColombia

El SalvadorIndonesia

PeruMexico

Average climate

Figure 16. Average university entrepreneurial climate across countries (N=266’146)


17

4.2 Field of Study Entrepreneurial intentions and activities of students strongly differ by field of study.

9,1

6,5

10,3

8,9

7,1

10,3

10,8

9,1

13,2

10,6

10,1

16,5

15,5

24,4

20,0

25,3

21,7

20,0

24,3

28,4

29,4

33,5

27,6

29,7

43,9

37,7

17,1

19,3

20,5

21,7

26,8

27,3

32,3

33,3

35,2

36,1

36,8

44,7

45,1

8,1

9,4

12,2

11,8

14,2

16,6

17,8

15,5

21,4

19,4

17,9

26,8

26,8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Mathematics

Natural sciences

Arts / Humanities (e.g., cultural studies, history,linguistics, philosophy, religion)

Social sciences (e.g., psychology, politics, education)

Human medicine / health sciences

Law

AVERAGE

Computer sciences / IT

Other

Economics

Engineering (incl. architecture)

Science of art (e.g., art, design, dramatics, music)

Business / Management

Percentage (%)

Intentional Founders (DIRECT) Intentional Founders (5 YEARS) Nascents Actives

Figure 7. Entrepreneurial intentions and activities depending on field of study (N=267’244)


18

“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

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.

21,2

36,1

33,2

13,0

15,6

30,0

25,2

9,3

0 10 20 30 40

Intentional Founders (D)

Intentional Founders (5Y)

Nascents

Actives

Percentage (%)

Female Male

Figure 18. Gender differences among intentional, nascent, and active entrepreneurs (N=266’943)


19

9,6

16,7

23,5

26,5

26,5

27,6

29,0

30,8

32,8

33,2

33,6

33,7

35,1

35,2

35,6

37,6

38,5

39,8

40,3

41,8

41,8

41,9

42,5

42,8

43,4

43,8

44,2

44,4

44,4

44,7

44,7

45,1

45,5

45,5

46,4

46,5

47,9

48,8

50,7

50,8

52,7

53,8

54,5

55,2

55,6

57,9

58,0

60,7

61,0

61,3

64,2

64,3

64,5

65,7

66,4

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Japan

Jordan

Switzerland

Germany

Austria

Saudi Arabia

Finland

Korea

Italy

Portugal

Netherlands

Greece

Liechtenstein

Belgium

Spain

New Zealand

Tunisia

Sweden

Croatia

Poland

Hungary

Ireland

Australia

Brazil

Pakistan

USA

Uruguay

United Arab Emirates

Czech Republic

Lebanon

Albania

AVERAGE

Iraq

Costa Rica

Qatar

Kazakhstan

Bulgaria

Slovakia

North Macedonia

Chile

El Salvador

Lithuania

Iran

Peru

Russia

Bolivia

Estonia

Morocco

Panama

Dominican Republic

Colombia

Mexico

Nigeria

Indonesia

Ecuador

Percentage (%)

Figure 19. Intentional founders (B&M Students) 5 years after studies across countries (N=52’292)


20

-6,5

-3,4

-2,5

-1,0

-0,7

0,0

0,3

0,4

0,4

1,4

1,6

2,0

2,1

2,3

2,5

2,6

2,7

2,7

2,9

3,0

3,2

3,2

3,2

3,2

3,3

3,3

3,4

3,5

3,5

3,6

3,7

3,7

4,1

4,2

4,3

4,3

4,4

4,9

4,9

5,0

5,6

5,7

5,7

6,0

6,1

6,4

6,8

7,5

8,1

8,5

9,3

11,3

11,6

12,0

12,2

13,3

-10 -5 0 5 10 15

Nigeria

USA

El Salvador

Australia

Chile

Korea

North Macedonia

Costa Rica

Indonesia

New Zealand

Sweden

Japan

Ecuador

Croatia

Mexico

Hungary

Colombia

Saudi Arabia

Morocco

Brazil

Uruguay

Portugal

Ireland

Panama

Jordan

Germany

Poland

Greece

Finland

Switzerland

Spain

AVERAGE

Italy

Czech Republic

Bolivia

Lithuania

Belgium

Kazakhstan

Peru

Lebanon

Pakistan

Netherlands

Qatar

Austria

Estonia

Russia

Slovakia

Dominican Republic

Bulgaria


Iraq

Tunisia

Nepal

Albania

Iran

Liechtenstein

Percentage (%)

Figure 20. Gender differences among active entrepreneurs across countries (N=266'943)

Global GUESSS Report 2021 5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

21

5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic Likely the most central topic since the last GUESSS edition, both in the context of

entrepreneurship and in general, has been 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.


22

4,0

4,0

5,0

6,7

6,9

8,3

8,6

8,6

9,5

10,6

10,9

11,1

11,6

12,0

12,3

12,7

12,9

13,1

15,5

15,8

15,9

15,9

16,4

16,5

16,8

17,9

18,1

18,5

18,6

18,7

19,5

19,9

21,1

21,3

21,8

22,1

23,4

23,5

23,7

24,3

25,0

26,3

27,3

29,6

31,0

33,2

33,2

33,4

35,3

41,3

46,0

48,8

50,4

52,1

52,4

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

NetherlandsLiechtenstein

UkraineHungaryGreeceEstonia

Czech RepublicAustria

SwedenSwitzerland

RussiaIran

SpainNorth Macedonia

UruguaySlovakia

GermanyBelgium

LithuaniaPoland

QatarDominican Republic

IndonesiaCroatiaFinland

PortugalColombia

New ZealandAlbania

KazakhstanItaly

ChileTunisia

BulgariaJordan

AVERAGEAustralia

MexicoSaudi Arabia

El SalvadorCosta Rica

NepalKoreaBrazil

MoroccoPanama

United Arab EmiratesBoliviaNigeria

LebanonIraq

PakistanJapan

EcuadorPeru

Percentage (%)

Figure 21. Share of nascent “COVID entrepreneurs” (N=52’194)


23

5,7

6,2

6,7

8,3

9,3

10,9

12,7

12,9

13,0

13,3

13,9

14,0

14,3

14,3

15,7

16,7

17,1

17,4

17,9

18,4

20,8

22,9

24,6

26,0

27,8

27,9

29,6

30,4

30,4

31,1

31,8

33,1

33,3

33,7

34,9

35,4

35,8

36,7

36,8

38,2

41,9

42,4

46,2

46,5

46,5

46,6

48,4

49,7

53,0

56,9

59,1

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Austria

Estonia

Greece

Finland

Switzerland

Croatia

Germany

Hungary

New Zealand

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Korea

Lithuania

Portugal

Albania

Qatar

Russia

North Macedonia

Poland

Iran

Spain

Uruguay

Netherlands

Indonesia

Belgium

Australia

Italy

Iraq

Brazil

El Salvador

Nigeria

Bulgaria

Japan

AVERAGE

Morocco

Dominican Republic

Kazakhstan

Tunisia


Costa Rica

Colombia

Saudi Arabia

Lebanon

Ecuador

Mexico

Chile

Bolivia

Jordan

Pakistan

Peru

Panama

Percentage (%)

Figure 22. Share of active “COVID entrepreneurs” (N=27’496)

Global GUESSS Report 2021 6. Selected Recommendations

24

6. Selected Recommendations

Students should…

Consider becoming an entrepreneur in whatever form (i.e., as a classic founder or

successor in the parents’ or in a different firm) as a potential career path, for instance

because active entrepreneurs seem rather happy with their new venture’s

performance.

Carefully consider when to create a new venture. Doing it right after studies has certain

advantages, like less opportunity costs; but doing it later has advantages as well (as

human and social capital can be built up when following the “first employee, then

entrepreneur” logic).

Be aware that being an entrepreneur “does not have to be forever”; changing between

an entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial career path over one’s career is possible;

the same is true for relocating across countries.

Be aware that the university normally offers different forms of support, advice, and the

opportunity to meet potential co-founders.

Universities and public institutions 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.

Entrepreneurship scholars should…

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.

Global GUESSS Report 2021 7. Further Information

25

7. Further Information

7.1 The Sample 79 percent of the students in our sample are undergraduate (bachelor-level) students. 13

percent study on the graduate (master) level, 2,8 percent are PhD students, and the remaining

ones are for instance MBA students. Regarding the field of study, “Business and management”

students constitute almost one fifth of our whole sample (19,6 percent).

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.

Table 1. Countries and completed responses.

# Country Responses Valid percent # Country Responses Valid percent

1 Albania (ALB) 434 0,16 30 Lebanon (LBN) 3’224 1,21

2 Australia (AUS) 442 0,17 31 Liechtenstein (LIE) 107 0,04

3 Austria (AUT) 3’236 1,21 32 Lithuania (LTU) 2’154 0,81

4 Belgium (BEL) 2’296 0,86 33 Mexico (MEX) 6’449 2,41

5 Bolivia (BOL) 2’133 0,80 34 Morocco (MAR) 1’265 0,47

6 Brazil (BRA) 7’738 2,89 35 Nepal (NEP) 137 0,05

7 Bulgaria (BUL) 717 0,27 36 Netherlands (NED) 713 0,27

8 Chile (CHI) 10’509 3,93 37 New Zealand (NZL) 1’902 0,71

9 Colombia (COL) 12’401 4,64 38 Nigeria (NGR) 2’093 0,78

10 Costa Rica (CRC) 5’469 2,05 39 North Macedonia (MKD) 175 0,07

11 Croatia (CRO) 1’660 0,62 40 Norway (NOR) 8 0,00

12 Czech Republic (CZE) 1’971 0,74 41 Pakistan (PAK) 896 0,34

13 Dominican Republic (DOM) 594 0,22 42 Panama (PAN) 5’297 1,98

14 Ecuador (ECU) 5’085 1,90 43 Peru (PER) 14’948 5,59

15 El Salvador (ESA) 768 0,29 44 Poland (POL) 6’012 2,25

16 England (ENG) 7 0,00 45 Portugal (POR) 3’596 1,34

17 Estonia (EST) 406 0,15 46 Qatar (QAT) 121 0,05

18 Finland (FIN) 1’094 0,41 47 Republic of Korea (KOR) 1’220 0,46

19 Germany (GER) 8’199 3,07 48 Russia (RUS) 5’407 2,02

20 Greece (GRE) 1’594 0,60 49 Saudi Arabia (KSA) 2’921 1,09

21 Hungary (HUN) 10’104 3,78 50 Slovakia (SVK) 5’754 2,15

22 Indonesia (IND) 2’545 0,95 51 Spain (ESP) 98’226 36,74

23 Iran (IRI) 867 0,32 52 Sweden (SWE) 388 0,15

24 Iraq (IRQ) 613 0,23 53 Switzerland (SUI) 6’919 2,59

25 Ireland (IRL) 103 0,04 54 Tunisia (TUN) 342 0,13

26 Italy (ITA) 3’294 1,23 55 Ukraine (UKR) 43 0,02

27 Japan (JAP) 3’494 1,31 56 United Arab Emirates (UAE) 1’345 0,50

28 Jordan (JOR) 3’237 1,21 57 USA 60 0,02

29 Kazakhstan (KAZ) 2’791 1,04 58 Uruguay (URY) 1’843 0,69

Total 267’366 100,00


26

7.2 The 2021 GUESSS Country Team Leaders

Table 2. List of countries and team leaders (part 1) # Country Team Leader(s) University 1 Albania (ALB) Prof. Ermira Qosja European University of Tirana 2 Australia (AUS) Dr. Louis Geneste Curtin University 3 Austria (AUT) Prof. Alfred Gutschelhofer University of Graz

4 Belgium (BEL) Prof. Johanna Vanderstraeten / Dr. Frédéric Ooms

University of Antwerp / HEC Liège

5 Bolivia (BOL) Prof. Rafael Velasquez Ramirez NUR University 6 Brazil (BRA) Prof. Edmilson Lima UNINOVE - Universidade Nove de Julho 7 Bulgaria (BUL) Dr. Juliana Hadjitchoneva New Bulgarian University 8 Chile (CHI) Prof. Gianni Romaní Universidad Católica del Norte 9 Colombia (COL) Prof. Izaias Martins / Tatiana Lopez Universidad EAFIT 10 Costa Rica (CRC) Prof. Juan Carlos Leiva Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica 11 Croatia (CRO) Gabrijela Vidic / Borna Buljan University of Zadar 12 Czech Republic (CZE) Prof. Klara Antlova Technical University of Liberec 13 Dominican Republic (DOM) Prof. Guillermo van der Linde Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra 14 Ecuador (ECU) Prof. Mariella Jácome Ortega Universidad Católica de Cuenca 15 El Salvador (ESA) Prof. Manuel Sifontes Universidad Dr. José Matias Delgado 16 England (ENG) Prof. Audley Genus Kingston University London 17 Estonia (EST) Prof. Susanne Durst / Velli Parts Tallinn University of Technology

18 Finland (FIN) Dr. Katja Lahikainen / Prof. Timo Pihkala

LUT University

19 Germany (GER) Prof. Stephan Golla Fulda University of Applied Sciences 20 Greece (GRE) Prof. Katerina Sarri University of Macedonia

21 Hungary (HUN) Dr. Andrea S. Gubik / Dr. Szilveszter Farkas

University of Mikolc / Budapest Business School

22 Indonesia (IND) Dr. Eko Suhartanto Universitas Prasetiya Mulya 23 Iran (IRI) Ehsan Salari Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

24 Iraq (IRQ) Dr. Shivan Ahmed Mohammad / Dr. Rebean Al-Silefanee

Nawroz University

25 Ireland (IRL) Dr. Roisin Lyons Dublin City University

26 Italy (ITA) Prof. Tommaso Minola / Dr. Davide Hahn

University of Bergamo

27 Japan (JAP) Prof. Noriko Taji Hosei University 28 Jordan (JOR) Dr. Omar Shubailat / Dr. Aziz Madi German Jordanian University

29 Kazakhstan (KAZ) Prof. Gulzhanat Tayauova / Prof. Saltanat Tamenova

Turan University

30 Lebanon (LBN) Lara Al Arab Lebanese University 31 Liechtenstein (LIE) Prof. Marco Furtner University of Liechtenstein 32 Lithuania (LTU) Dr. Irina Liubertė ISM University of Management and Economics 33 Mexico (MEX) Prof. José Ernesto Amorós EGADE Business School

34 Morocco (MAR) Dr. Jose M. Sanchez / José M. Biedma

University of Cadiz

35 Nepal (NEP) Samundra Paudel Pokhara University

36 Netherlands (NED) Dr. Rainer Harms / Prof. Petra de Weerd-Nederhof

University of Twente

37 New Zealand (NZL) Prof. Rod McNaughton University of Auckland 38 Nigeria (NGR) Prof. Isaac Oluwajoba Abereijo Obafemi Awolowo University 39 North Macedonia (MKD) Dr. Ana Tomovska Misoska University American College Skopje 40 Norway (NOR) Prof. Marina Solesvik Western Norway University of Applied Sciences 41 Pakistan (PAK) Dr. Altaf Hussain Samo Sukkur IBA University

42 Panama (PAN) Dr. María de los Ángeles Frende Vega / Omaris Vergara de Henriquez

Universidad de Panama

43 Peru (PER) Prof. Jaime Serida / Jessica Alzamora / Carlos Guerrero

Universidad ESAN

44 Poland (POL) Prof. Joanna Kosmaczewska Poznan University of Life Sciences 45 Portugal (POR) Prof. Rui Quaresma University of Évora

46 Qatar (QAT) Dr. Allan Villegas-Mateos / Dr. Pablo Martin de Holan

HEC Paris in Qatar

47 Republic of Korea (KOR) Yeong Soo Kim Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation 48 Russia (RUS) Prof. Galina Shirokova HSE University 49 Saudi Arabia (KSA) Dr. Ghadah Alarifi Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University 50 Slovakia (SVK) Prof. Marian Holienka Comenius University in Bratislava Table continued on the next page.


27

Table 2. List of countries and team leaders (part 2) # Country Team Leader(s) University

51 Spain (ESP) Prof. José Ruiz Navarro / Dr. José M. Sanchez

University of Cádiz

52 Sweden (SWE) Prof. Massimo Baù / Dr. Johan Karlsson

Jönköping International Business School

53 Switzerland (SUI) Prof. Philipp Sieger / Prof. Rico Baldegger

Universities of Bern & St.Gallen / HEG Fribourg

54 Tunisia (TUN) Siwar Youssef / Dr. Henda El Gharbi Corvinus University of Budapest / University of Sousse

55 Ukraine (UKR) Prof. Marina Solesvik Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (NOR)

56 United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prof. Rodrigo Basco American University of Sharjah

57 United States of America (USA)

Prof. Isabel Botero University of Louisville

58 Uruguay (URY) Dr. Catherine Krauss-Delorme / DEA Adriana Bonomo-Odizzio

Universidad Católica del Uruguay

7.3 The GUESSS Project GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students´ Survey) has been founded at the Swiss Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (KMU-HSG) in 2003.

Since 2016, GUESSS is jointly organized by the University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG) and the University of Bern (Switzerland, IMU-U). The GUESSS CEO is Prof. Dr. Philipp Sieger (University of Bern). The supervisory board consists of Prof. Urs Fueglistaller, Prof. Thomas Zellweger, Prof. Isabella Hatak (all University of St.Gallen), and Prof. Norris Krueger.

GUESSS is one of the largest entrepreneurship research projects in the world. With every data collection wave, GUESSS has grown and has become more globally.

For every data collection wave, the GUESSS core team develops a comprehensive online survey that meets the highest academic standards. The link to the survey is then sent out to the country delegates who forward the survey invitation to their own students and to the national university partners (who then forward it to their respective students).

GUESSS data have been used for numerous studies, reports, practitioner-oriented articles,

and academic publications (e.g., in renowned journals such as RP, JBV, ETP, and SEJ).

For more information and regular updates about GUESSS, please visit http://www.guesssurvey.org or follow GUESSS on Research Gate (http://www.researchgate.net). 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.

Global GUESSS Report 2021 8. References

28

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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