What Factors Decide the Willingness of Higher Vocational College Students to Run a Company: An Empirical Study of the Impact of Willingness to Start Business

Abstract

Under the pressure of the global economic downturn and shrinking international market, especially the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, higher vocational college students in China have encountered a big problem in finding job. Therefore, efforts should be made to improve the employment environment by promoting students’ entrepreneurship interest. Higher vocational colleges as the cradle of talent cultivation, should not only serve as a source of high-lever technology talents to support the country’s high-quality development, but also provide students with knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage students to create entrepreneur in a variety way. This experimental study explored factors that influence higher vocational college students' entrepreneurial situation perceptions. Using data collected from 313 higher vocational college students and 100 of their parents, 100 teachers and 20 governors. We examined the impact of students’ attitude, self-quality and individual interest to start a business. Besides, government policy and family support were also considered to evaluate the influence of their decision by external support. The results suggest that not only students’ attitude and self-quality but also individual interest have impacts on individuals’ willingness to start a business. The influence of family support was greater than government policy. The government policy has no significant influence on students’ willing to start a business.