Young people's attitudes towards entrepreneurship in Finnish society

Abstract

In this study, we analyze young people’s attitudes towards entrepreneurship in the Helsinki-Uusimaa region of Finland. First, our theoretical framework links with attitude research, in particular, Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior. Our second perspective derives from the theory of representations. Third, our analysis is based on discussions of the welfare state and democratic values. We ask what social psychological factors explain young people’s entrepreneurial intentions. Survey data (N=873) was collected in electronic format from secondary and vocational schools. The questions were mainly multiple choice Likert-scale questions. The analysis was undertaken using simple statistical methods. Our results demonstrate that the relationship between social values, representations concerning entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial intention is complex in the Finnish context. While we further argue that the theory of planned behavior is valid in this instance, the representations and social values serve to explain entrepreneurial intention only weakly.