A Study Of Aspiration For Agriculture-Related Entrepreneurship Among Agricultural University Students And Its Influence Factors

In the report of the 18 th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,a new national strategy takes shape which aims to “ensure that people have realistic expectations about employment,encourage creating employment through multiple channels and forms,expand job opportunities by creating new businesses,increase job opportunities for young people,especially university graduates” and promote “popular entrepreneurship and innovation”.Entrepreneurship echoes the call of the times,becoming a career alternative for more and more college graduates.As a huge agricultural country,China has focused on the Three Rural Issues in its No.1 central government document for 14 consecutive years since 2003.Against this backdrop,how to encourage students to participate in agriculture-related entrepreneurship is of great significance to the cultivation of agricultural talents,development of rural economy,and improvement the quality of farmers.The level of college students' entrepreneurial activities depends directly on their willingness to start their own businesses,which is in turn affected by many factors.This raises a new research topic regarding the education of college students,i.e.how to promote college entrepreneurship education,which first requires the stimulation of students' entrepreneurial inclination.Therefore,what factors contribute to agricultural college students' involvement in agricultural entrepreneurship? How to improve college students' willingness to engage in agricultural entrepreneurship so that more students are stimulated to join this practice? In the existing research,these problems are addressed only through statistical analysis of questionnaires about the situation of university student entrepreneurship and the corresponding policy recommendations which are offered accordingly.Not only is there relatively very little research on the willingness of agricultural college students to participate in agriculture-related entrepreneurship,but the research is mostly concentrated in the theoretical research stage with no effective solutions for future entrepreneurs.Research models for studying inclination towards entrepreneurship hardly keep up with the development of the times,making it difficult to meet the needs of modern research.Neither are there many studies regarding the influences of its characteristics,prerequisites and potential risks on the inclination to agricultural entrepreneurship.In particular,with the recent guidance of the new national incentive policy,the research on its impact on college student entrepreneurship remains unnoted.For above reasons,this paper conducts theoretical analysis and hypothetical model on the basis of eight factors that affect agricultural students' inclination to agriculture-related entrepreneurship: personal traits,entrepreneurial training,entrepreneurial awareness,entrepreneurial skills,entrepreneurial risks,entrepreneurial prerequisites,entrepreneurial environment and entrepreneurial inclination.A multiple-factor inclination influence model is established to delve on the risk of entrepreneurship and factors influencing the entrepreneurial prerequisites.By connecting the inclination-influencing factors through model building,a comprehensive framework of inclination-influencing factors is thus formulated.On this basis,a questionnaire survey was conducted on 1050 college students from 21 colleges and universities in eight cities,plus semi-open interviews with graduates who have been involved in agricultural entrepreneurship.The survey data were used for empirical analysis of factors influencing college students' inclination towards entrepreneurship.The results show that college students' agriculture-related entrepreneurship is a complicated decision-making process,which is influenced not only by subjective factors of personal traits,entrepreneurial cognition,and entrepreneurial skills,but also objective factors of entrepreneurial environment,entrepreneurial training,entrepreneurial risks and entrepreneurial prerequisites.Students with more frequent participation of entrepreneurial training have deeper interests on agriculture and are more inclined to agriculture-related entrepreneurship;students with high awareness of entrepreneurial policies and processes are stronger in their inclination to agriculture-related entrepreneurship;approval of agriculture-related entrepreneurship from the family,school,and society is an important factor;whether students have been exposed to entrepreneurial training or rich internships is another important factor influencing whether students will engage or continue their agriculture-related entrepreneurship.Different factors are at work which influence undergraduates and graduates.Because undergraduates have inadequate entrepreneurial training,funding,and experience,their motivation to start up a business is relatively lower than graduates who have already started,hence a sound entrepreneurial environment cannot be formed.This forms a sharp contrast with graduates who have already started up their own businesses,boast rich experience and skill and a solid entrepreneurial foundation.This study argues that the key to raising college students' inclination to agriculture-related entrepreneurship lies in the promotion of entrepreneurial training,whose key is to raise their awareness and skills.The essence of entrepreneurial awareness and traits is the enterprising spirit which should be cultivated among students as a critical step to carry out entrepreneurial training and practice.Taking the above factors into consideration,suggestions are proposed as a reference for enhancing college students' inclination to agriculture-related entrepreneurship and advancing entrepreneurial training in agricultural colleges.