Developing students' entrepreneurial spirit

• Author: Gradinaru, E. - Boiciuc, G. - Constantin, C.
• Position: Dept. of Economic Sciences and Business Administration, Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 37-44

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Vol. 5 (54) •No. 2 - 2012

Series V: Economic Sciences

DEVELOPING STUDENTS’

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

E. GRDINARU1 G. BOICIUC1 C. CONSTANTIN1

Abstract: This paper contains a research study about the necessity to

develop the entrepreneurial spirit in universities and how students could be

involved in such initiatives. A qualitative research based on three focus

groups was conducted, having as main objective to identify students’

opinions regarding the initiative to develop an on-line magazine for students

and young people. The results reveal that students prefer the online media to

the traditional ones and the pilot numbers of the magazine received good

appreciations. A business plan for the future development of the magazine is

also presented.

Key words: entrepreneurship, online media, marketing research, business plan.

1 Dept. of Economic Sciences and Business Administration, Transilvania University of Braşov.

1. Introduction

The new trends in higher education have

forced universities to reform their

educational offer in order to obtain a high

integration of graduates in the social life.

As all graduates have to develop their

future careers, they must obtain during

universities the necessary skills and

competences to perform a job in a

company or to develop entrepreneurial

initiatives.

This paper emphasises the necessity of

entrepreneurial education in universities

and focuses on such an initiative taken by a

group of students from Transilvania

University of Brasov – Romania. It

concerns the designing of a digital

magazine, named Studento Press that is

issued periodically in order to inform

students and young people about relevant

topics, for both students’ professional life

and personal development.

A qualitative research study was

conducted in order to obtain the students’

opinions regarding this initiative. The main

hypotheses of our research are the

following: most of the respondents

consider online media to be more

accessible than traditional media; students

prefer journals that are rich in images and

representative graphs; the Studento Press

magazine needs significant improvements

in terms of the articles’ content.

The paper also presents a business plan,

built on strategies meant to reach both

short and long term objectives, the main

purpose being to attract more readers and

contributors from Transilvania University.

2. Literature review

Over time, it has been discovered that

small businesses create more jobs in the

economy, even if they have a relatively

small number of employees. Small

businesses create a competitive

environment and offer opportunities and

benefits to individuals that cannot be gained

in any other way. In the U.S., for example,