Luísa Carvalho

Institute Polytechnic of Setúbal & CEFAGE – University of Évora, Portugal 

E-mail: luisa.c.carvalho@esce.ips.pt ORCID 0000-0002-9804-7813

Entrepreneurial perceptions of students regarding business professional career: The study on gender differences in Latvia

Inese Mavlutova

BA School of Business and Finance, Riga, Latvia 

E-mail: inese.mavlutova@ba.lv 

ORCID 0000-0002-3245-9540

Kristaps Lesinskis

BA School of Business and Finance, Riga, Latvia 

E-mail: kristaps.lesinskis@ba.lv  

ORCID 0000-0001-9810-5203

Rui Dias

Institute Polytechnic of Setúbal & CEFAGE – University of Évora, Portugal

E-mail: rui.dias@esce.ips.pt ORCID 0000-0002-6138-3098

Abstract. This study seeks to investigate the entrepreneurial perceptions among the students regarding their professional careers analyzing macro, micro and entrepreneurial education factors in Latvia, including the analysis of gender differences. The research is based on the analysis of data collected through a survey. The paper uses statistical analysis involving the measures of descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies, means and respective standard deviations) and inferential statistics to examine the differences within an original dataset of 360 young people in Latvia. The results reveal several statistically significant gender differences. This research contributes to enriching literature and also adds value to studies on entrepreneurial perceptions divided by gender. Understanding the factors which shape entrepreneurship education, macrofactors and microfactors affecting young people’s decisions and perceptions, education systems and public policies would allow adjusting and designing policies aiming to boost entrepreneurship education and enhance entrepreneurship as a career choice and balance it in a gender context.

Received: March, 2021

1st Revision: April, 2021

Accepted: September, 2021

DOI: 10.14254/2071-789X.2021/14-3/12

JEL Classification: A230, I230

Keywords: entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial intentions, gender, professional career, Latvia