Search results

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the nationality and the sport education system could affect the entrepreneurial intentions (EI) of undergraduate sport science students in two different countries.

A total of 249 undergraduate sport sciences (SS) students from Spain and Lithuania were analysed. The EI questioner questionnaire by Liñán and Chen (2009) was used to compile the data during the 2016-2017 academic year.

There are significant differences between the sport science students of Spain and Lithuania. The Lithuanian students have significantly higher means in the variables of EI, perceived behaviour control and professional attraction. Moreover, the variables that predict EI are different, and certain path coefficients of the variables are also significantly different.

The sample originates from one university in each country; therefore, these results may not be generalisable to the entire population.

The SS degrees in Lithuania and Spain should follow different educational policies with the objective of fostering EI and increasing the number of entrepreneurs.

Creating adequate educational policies to foster entrepreneurship in sports across countries could improve the number of entrepreneurs in the sports sectors; thus, the youth unemployment rate will decrease.

There has been no previous research that analyses the EI of sport science students across contexts through the theory of planned behaviour. Moreover, there are no studies that compare the EI of university students between Spain (Western Europe) and Lithuania (Eastern Europe).

The sport sector is a very competitive and dynamic industry, son intrapreneurial employees are needed. However, although entrepreneurial intentions in sport sciences students have been studied, less is known about intrapreneurial intentions. It is, therefore, the purpose of this paper to validate a scale to measure the intrapreneurial intentions of sports science students from two different countries.

A sample of 304 final-year students from the sport sector of two different countries (Spain and Lithuania) was analyzed. First, an exploratory factorial analysis of the two samples was performed separately, and then a confirmatory factorial analysis was carried out to performed. Finally, in order to check the invariance of the measuring instrument, a multi-group analysis was performed with the constraints of all factors variances and all factors loading.

The entrepreneurial intentions scale works well both in its English version in the Lithuanian sports students’ and in its Spanish version with the university sports students from Spain. Therefore, it can be said that there is a metric invariance. However, the scale presents better fit indexes, reliability and validity in its English version. Lithuanian sports students scored significantly higher on the risk-taking dimension than Spanish students.

The scale has only been validated with final-year sport science students from two countries. It is necessary to test this scale with a larger sample of students from different fields and countries.

This scale can be used in both in Spanish and English versions to detect potential entrepreneurs in the sports sector, so it can help universities and employers to detect future intraentrepreneurs in the sports sector.

Social implication of this paper is the detection of potential entrepreneurs who can improve economic, social or sports performance in organizations or sports companies.

A new tool to detect the potential sport intrapreneurs in university students has been created. Moreover, a cross-cultural validation of the intrapreneurial intentions scale (in English and Spanish version) with sport sciences students from two different countries has been performed.