Graduate entrepreneurs are
different: they access more
resources?
David Pickernell, Gary Packham, Paul Jones, Christopher Miller
and Brychan Thomas
Business School, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and in what areas, graduate
entrepreneurs are significantly different from non-graduate entrepreneurs, both generally and in terms
of external resources (advice, finance and public procurement contracts).
Design/methodology/approach – The available literature was evaluated to identify issues
affecting enterprise generally, and external resource access and use and educational attainment
specifically. The data used were generated from the 2008 UK Federation of Small Businesses Survey,
providing over 8,000 usable responses for this analysis. Quantitative analysis identified significant
general characteristics of graduate entrepreneurs compared with non-graduate entrepreneurs. Factor
analysis was then used to identify the sets of advice, finance and public procurement customers of
greatest interest, with independent samples t-tests used to compare graduate and non-graduate use
thereof.
Findings – Graduate entrepreneur-owned firms were statistically significantly more likely (than
non-graduate-owned firms) to have younger owners, be younger and more export-oriented businesses,
in high knowledge services, to have intellectual property, make more use of web sites and be of high
growth potential. In terms of external resources, graduate-owned businesses were more likely to have
received beneficial business advice from informal networks/trade associations, government business
services, friends and family, customers and suppliers, and to have public procurement customers at
the national/international level.
Originality/value – The study provides important empirical baseline data for future quantitative
and qualitative studies focused on the impact of enterprise education specifically.
Keywords Graduates, Entrepreneurs, Knowledge management
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The small and medium enterprise (SME) sector plays a pivotal role in creating
innovation, wealth, employment and economic growth in industrialised and
developing countries (Robson and Bennett, 2000). For example, in the UK, SMEs
account for 99.8 per cent of enterprises and 52.4 per cent of employment (Small
Business Service, 2008). The encouragement of entrepreneurial behaviour is therefore
critical for the economy (Gray, 2006) especially given its contribution to economic
prosperity within knowledge-based economies (Hannon et al., 2005). Harrison and
Leitch (2010) have also noted that researchers, governments and policy makers are
recognising the significant role that higher education (HE) in particular must play in
economic development. The need for more graduate entrepreneurs in particular has
been noted as important. For example, the CIHE/NCGE/NESTA (2008) Report
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Graduate
entrepreneurs
183
Received January 2010
Revised June 2010
October 2010
Accepted December 2010
International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behaviour &
Research
Vol. 17 No. 2, 2011
pp. 183-202
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1355-2554
DOI 10.1108/13552551111114932