Business Intentions of Australian Veterinary Students-My Business or Yours? A Cluster Analysis

Abstract

Little is known about veterinary entrepreneurial predisposition. Yet entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship (entrepreneurial behaviour of employees) foster business innovation and growth and support wealth creation and employment in both privately and corporately owned businesses which deliver contemporary veterinary services. We used responses from 515 final-year students in Australian entrepreneurship, nursing, and veterinary programs to capture entrepreneurial intention (EI), outcome expectations (OE-sb), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), and corporate/large organisation work intentions (CWIs). Veterinary respondents stood out for their high EI and high OE-sb, but low financial ESE and low CWI. Proportions of veterinary, entrepreneurship, and nursing respondents differed markedly across distinct cluster profiles representing entrepreneurial, intrapreneurial, both entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial, indifferent, and corporate employment intentions and attributes. Post hoc analysis revealed proportional cluster membership differences for respondents from different veterinary schools. Our findings raise questions regarding (1) the effectiveness of veterinary business curricula competencies which focus on expense management and (2) the implications of the mismatch of motivations and goals of new veterinary sector entrants whose low intent to work in a corporate environment is at odds with increasing corporate ownership of veterinary practices. To inform curricular change, we recommend further research to evaluate the relative impact of individual factors, admissions factors, and the formal or hidden curricula on entrepreneurial intention in veterinary final-year students.

Keywords: entrepreneurial intentions; entrepreneurship; field of study; identity; nursing; self-efficacy; students; veterinary.

Figure 1

Mean scores (with standard error bars) of entrepreneurial intention (EI), intention to work in large (corporate) organizations (CWI), entrepreneurial self-efficacies (ESE) (pre-venture, implementing people and implementing finances dimensions), and outcome expectations (OE) of starting/owning a business mean scores for respondents in each of the three fields-of-study and for the whole study population (n = 515). Significant difference of veterinary respondents to other disciplines * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

Figure 2

Mean scores (with standard errors) of entrepreneurial intention (EI), corporate work intention (CWI), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) (Pre-Venture, People and Finances dimensions), and outcome expectations of starting a business (OE-start-business), of respondents in the three participating veterinary schools (n = 236). Significant difference of respondents of University 1 to the other two veterinary schools (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001) ¹ University 1, ² University 2, ³ University 3.

Figure 3

Attributes of cluster profiles—Mean scores (with standard errors) of entrepreneurial intention (EI), outcome expectations of starting a business (OE-start-business), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) (Pre-Venture, People and Finances dimensions), and corporate work intention (CWI) of respondents in different cluster profiles and for the whole study population (n = 515).

Figure 4

Profile proportions per field of study, veterinary school, and gender.