Guesss Report 2018 Switzerland: a classic career path before startup

The main objective of the GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey) project was to analyse the nature of student entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intentions, and activities among students, the most relevant influencing factors and the role of universities promoting student entrepreneurship. At a global scope, the GUESSS project 2018 was conducted in 54 countries, with over 208,000 participating students from over 3,000 universities. In Switzerland, 9’784 students from 64 universities/faculties participated in the study.

On an international scale, Switzerland is still lagging at position 49; however, it should be taken into consideration that entrepreneurial activities in developed countries are lower in developed countries. Through a closer examination of Switzerland, the study disclosed that only 2.4 percent of the students are active entrepreneurs, 2.3 percent consider starting a company after graduation and 20.1 percent expressed the intention to embark on an entrepreneurial journey 5 years post-graduation. This could be because students prefer acquiring experience before launching a startup. Comparably, Switzerland stands at the same level as Germany (2.4 percent), Austria (3.5 percent) and Norway (7.1 percent).

A closer examination of Switzerland

Role of universities
The university environment in which the students are groomed also plays a significant role in boosting their interest. As a central player, universities provide programs to enhance the student's knowledge base and a platform to gives them access to a network of supporters that are relevant for their activities. Despite the broad offering, a great proportion that is, three-quarters of the students, have never attended events or courses that are directly associated with entrepreneurship. Whether this is due to the overall university environment climate, is unclear. The results showed that Switzerland scored an average of 3.9 (on a scale of 7) in the parameter university entrepreneurial climate.

Further factors affecting the entrepreneurial environment
The level of entrepreneurial activities varies vastly depending on the field of study. Reportedly, mainly students of Art – which encompasses design, music and theatre (10 percent) – and computer sciences (6.6%) have higher intentions of engaging in entrepreneurial activities, even five years after completion (38 percent and 31.9% respectively). The opposite is true for students of Arts (languages, philosophy or history) demonstrated by a 2 percent score.

Other influencing factors include gender in which the results presenta significant difference between male and female aspiring entrepreneurs after their studies (1.1 percent female as opposed to 4.2 percent males) and after five years (17 percent female and 25.2 percent male). However, the results vary when considered across the field of study.

Moreover, previous experience in a startup environment and the size of the team also stimulates students to engage in entrepreneurial activities: unlike 27 percent who intend to be sole proprietors or single founders, every sixth student is interested in having a co-founder before founding.

A promising number of active early-stage entrepreneurs
despite the low figures, there is a promising number of students that are actively building their ventures (16.9 percent). Majority of these companies are still in the early stages of development with an average age of 2 months. Almost half of them anticipate launching in the comping 19 to 24 Months.

Conclusively, the results of the student’s entrepreneurial activities in Switzerland shows that there is still room for improvement and more ought to be done to increase the attractiveness of the entrepreneurial scene particularly when it comes to support-offers, the gender gap and increasing awareness on the topic.

The GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey) project is jointly organized by the University of St.Gallen (Switzerland, KMU-HSG/CFB-HSG) and the University of Bern (Switzerland, IMU). The University of Freiburg School of management (HEG-FR) joined the consortium for the project in Switzerland.

(RAN)