THE STUDENTS ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES AT PETRU MAIOR UNIVERSITY ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS Georgeta BOARESCU Petru Maior University of Targu Mures e-mail address geta@upm.ro Abstract Since a significant number of students are entrepreneurs too, a study and monitoring activities are necessary in order to assess their performances, to identify their entrepreneurial competences and aptitudes. The result of the present survey refers to the period 2003-2007 and the newest outcomes for 2007. These results are useful for the University on the curriculum projecting for Entrepreneurial Education, counseling and assistance services and continuous education and training addressed to the young entrepreneurs. Keywords: student-entrepreneur, entrepreneurial competences and aptitudes, entrepreneurial education, counseling and assistance 1 INTRODUCTION The student-entrepreneur survey was initiated in 2003 by the academic management of Petru Maior University of Târgu Mureş as an initiative in the process of sustaining and monitoring the students businesses. Launched in a setting of facilities granted by the Romanian Government, this activity became an institutional project developed year by year, so that in the present over 650 students have set up small businesses with promising perspectives. The assessment methodology, the monitoring activities and the effects brought on by the implementation of the project are administrated by the Career Center from the very beginning. The university intends to finalize a network of entrepreneur - students in order to offer managerial support, as well as to provide specialized assistance services, entrepreneurial education curricula and life long education on this field. All the decisions in this matter are based on the monitoring results regarding education, assistance services and counseling needs. The project has already produced some remarkable results, having in view the 500 workplaces created (2006) the majority being held by students or graduates of our university. This social effect created a background for teams of youth in their road to success. The present paper presents the methodology applied in the process of monitoring, assistance and counseling students-entrepreneurs, the results obtained and intervention methods for development of the initiated business. The main purpose of the engagement of the university in encouraging student entrepreneurs is to promote entrepreneurial culture to encourage a behavior oriented towards business development, social and individual success. The student- entrepreneur project constitutes the expression of the entrepreneurial mission of the university as permanent opening to the social and economic environment in the community it serves by supplying competencies and higher education qualification. From the point of view of academic involvement in the creation and implementation of this project, organizational interests are focused on the following objectives: Ensuring best access to government facilities for entrepreneurial initiatives (information, counseling, assistance, etc) 83
Access management by simplification of bureaucracy and less formalities Counseling services provided by the university s Career Center Monitoring student entrepreneurship initiatives from registration of application form to the implementation of the entrepreneurial project and its development Sociological and psychological surveys among student entrepreneurs in order to make a diagnosis of the evaluation and performance of the enterprise Ensuring the resources for the entrepreneurial and managerial design, development and training (business management, project management, HR management, legal counseling, etc) Setting up a communication system with the beneficiaries of the government facilities Creating a network of partners with the students and graduates and of course the university Organization of events to facilitate transfer of best practice examples Setting up and supporting an Entrepreneurial Students Association Organization of a permanent structure for entrepreneurial education within the Petru Maior University of Tirgu Mures meaning allocation of training resources with a curriculum centered on training and development of entrepreneurial skills and competencies) Assistance and counseling in student entrepreneurship projects by implementing the SMO strategy (skills, motivation, opportunities) Building and developing entrepreneurial culture and careers The project is part of the practice of organizational development promoted by the university. Elaboration and implementation of the project are carried out by the Career Center with qualified personnel (psychologists, sociologists). As regards legislation, Government Decision no. 166 of February 13th, 2003 is meant to encourage the setting up by students of own businesses. The fiscal facilities package ensures tax exemptions for a set of services: registration operations, authorization for the activities of the company, legal taxes for publication in the Official Monitor. These facilities are granted to students that attend a specialization in higher education from the second year of studies on, not older than 30. The beneficiaries of the facilities can set up a limited liability company individually or together with other students. The fiscal facilities became effective starting with February 2003, generating an increased interest among students. In the period 2003 2007, over 500 requests to start up a business have been processed. 2 METHODOLOGY AND OPERATIONAL COMPONENTS The main aim of the approach is the assessment of training and assistance needs as resources for encouraging and supporting students in the implementation and development of their businesses. The logical structure of the project follows the track of the students from the moment they submit the application until the company functions. 2.1 The main operations Performed by the Career Center for the support of entrepreneurs are as follows: Registration of requests Submission of the monitoring form Sociological survey to gather information about the stages of the entrepreneurial project Communication (direct, via phone or e-mail) with the business initiators Organization of joint actions on entrepreneurial topics Reports and evaluation of the outcomes To achieve these objectives of the monitoring management and evaluation the following instruments or techniques are used: Form for monitoring the student entrepreneur Sociological questionnaire Form for contacts and communication Form for monitoring the student entrepreneur 84
contains information about the student entrepreneur (identification), type of company and specificity, resources available (material, financial, human, managerial, etc); business plan; motivation for starting the business, prior experience, models and examples, the support requested (material, financial, managerial, logistic), entrepreneurial training needs 2.2 Sociological questionnaire There are two type of questionnaire: the first one is used at the registration moment and is designed mostly to establish and update the data base and to obtain information regarding demographic data, the companies profile, existing resources and needs of the young entrepreneur, (HR, financial, entrepreneurial / managerial competences etc) at the very beginning; the second questionnaire follows the business administration and is applied in the monitoring faze, every year in order to assess the performances / failure of the companies an those causes. Also, the educational and training needs are assessed again presuming that after one or more years of experience the young entrepreneur should have a more accurate image about his / her strong and weak points. Briefly, the initial and monitoring questionnaires are used to update the data base and to assess the evolution of the business, problems that occur, counseling needs, training and assistance. The initial questionnaire is applied to all the students who request facilities to set up a business and the monitoring one is applied by phone to the entire category. This instrument of diagnosis is comprised of items such as: Time needed to go through the formal steps in the establishment procedure The stage the project is in (project, authorization, function) Difficulties encountered in the establishment process Available resources at start The main field of activity of the company Motivation for setting up a business Faith in the ability to develop the business Competencies needed for the administration of the business, as well as managerial skills Performance and success evaluation Form for contacts and communication It is an instrument by which a periodical monitoring actions is carried out every six months or every year. According to the requests of the student entrepreneurs (direct contacts, by phone or by e-mail) communication is achieved at any time, with note on the form. 2.3 The evaluation technique The evaluation technique is based on phone questioning and it is being done by the personnel of the Career Centre, in collaboration with groups of students specially trained in communication techniques and phone interview. A database is being done of the plot of subjects, the statistical processing is done, the data analyses and the research report are being elaborated, communicated to the departments and teams for their usage and decisions. The main investigated parameters are: The year of starting the business; The time since the approval by the leadership of the university and the beginning of the activity; The development phase of the activity; Difficulties in initiating or development of the business; The nature of resources needed to initiate the business; The object of activity; The existence of a development business plan; The existence of the models or examples for a successful business; The reasons for initiating the business; The chances to finalize the business (personal perspective); The type of support needed to start or develop the business; The stage of preparing the initiation and development of the business (self-appreciation0; 85
Self-appreciation regarding the success of the business; Self trust in the capacity to succeed in the initiated business; Knowledge and managerial abilities (self-appreciations); Availability to participate to training and developing activities of the abilities and entrepreneurial competences organized by Petru Maior University; The availability to participate to specific manifestations, organized by the university through the Centre for Counselling and Carrier Orientation or other departments; Orientation towards accessing European structural funds; The number of persons who activate in the firms. 2.4 THE USE OF THE STUDY By monitoring, a repeated application of the thematic questionnaires, the evaluation formula allows the identification of: The needs for training; The stage of the company s development; Special performances; Number of employees; Object of activity. The national and international research projects that Petru Maior University has on entrepreneurial education benefit from this data for the grounds and development of educational programs in the field of young entrepreneurship and for stimulating, at least at the regional level, the propulsion for adopting these studies, obviously neglected in the Romanian educational frame. 2.5 RESULTS OBTAINED BY MONITORING Between 2003-2007 (first of March) 600 requests were registered for the granting of facilities to start up own businesses, according to GD no. 166/2003. The following chart shows the stages of implementation of the started business by the students. 86
Implementation stage As we can see from the graph, 66% of the initiated companies function, 15% are in the paperwork stage for authorization, 8% are in the design stage and 11% have been abandoned. IMPLEMENTATION STAGE ready to be authorized 15% design stage 8% FUNCTION 66% abandoned 11% Graph no. 1: Implementation stage Activity of the company 5 22 TYPE OF ACTIVITY % 73 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 production trade services Graph no 2: Activity of the company Student entrepreneurship is oriented towards the sphere of services and trade, consulting and to a smaller extent, production. The following graph shows the structure of the fields in which projects of students are implemented. Motivation for starting a business Motivation for starting a business is centered on the need to materialize ideas, financial benefit, financial independence, freedom of initiative and own work, as well as opportunities for personal growth, curiosity and ensuring a future. 30% ensuring future 9% curiosity 23% idea 38% money Graph no 3: Motivation for starting a business Skills and managerial knowledge The chapter of managerial skills and knowledge is unevenly distributed among student entrepreneurs. Self evaluation reveals that student entrepreneurs have very good knowledge and skills - 37%, satisfactory knowledge and skills 39% and little or inexistent 24%. 87
MANAGERIAL SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE poor 22% none 2% good 27% satisfactory 39% very good 10% Graph no 4: Skills and managerial knowledge Social effects of student entrepreneurship In the 400 firms that function, 610 people are employed, 68% (412) working on permanent contracts and 32% collaborators. It should be noted that 68% of the employees and collaborators are graduates of Petru Maior University of Tîrgu-Mures. EMPLOYEES & COLLABORATORS 32% employees 68% collaborators Graph no 5: Social effects of student entrepreneurship 88
Overview - 2007 (%) Graph no 6 Time interval between application and the start of businesses (%) Business and / or development plan (%) Graph no 7 Graph no 8 89
The nature of resources needed at the beginning (self evaluation %) Graph no 9 Level of self preparation to start and develop a business (%) Graph no 10 Willing to attend to entrepreneurial training @ the University (%) Graph no 11 3 CONCLUSION By monitoring results obtained by the set up companies we can find significant effects generated by their functioning. One of the most important outcomes is the assessment of the educational needs of young entrepreneurs, their current competences and abilities to administrate their business. Based on the research results, the University is able to project and provide appropriate instruction, assistance and counseling as well as continuous education. At the socioeconomic level, 90
this approach is useful in order to stimulate and preserve the young entrepreneur category as an investment for a healthy future society. BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] Boarescu, G., Marian, L. (2008) The reform of curricula in higher education, principles and evaluation methods of disciplines utility in «Quality management in higher education» proceedings of the 5th International conference ISBN : 978-973-730-496-4 p.13-21, Iasi, Ed. Performantica [2] Marian, L., Boarescu, G., Ciotea, F., (2007), Student entrepreneurship. Project SE 2003, proceedings of thr 5th International Conference on the Management of Technological Changes, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, ISBN 978-960-8932-2-9, vol 2, p 201-207; [3] Boarescu, G., Ciotea, F., (2007), Psycho-sociological factors of inovation in the process of technological change, proceedings of thr 5th International Conference on the Management of Technological Changes, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, ISBN 978-960-8932-2-9, vol 2, p 275-282; 91