Chempreneurs: Understanding Motivations, Barriers and Intentions in two selected European countries

Universities are expected to produce chempreneurs, entrepreneurs from the chemistry faculties. Chempreneurs are expected to change the industry and to transform the chemical industry towards sustainability. However, German chemistry students are 54 % less likely to start a business of their own, than the average German student [1]. We therefor started a comparative study amongst chemistry students of all grades in Germany and compared them to a sample of polish chemistry students in order to understand motivations, barriers and intentions thereof, and to identify possible differences between both groups.By including samples of students with significant differences in culture, economics, educational background we developed and tested hypotheses about the influence of these factors on the intentions, perceptions, motives and barriers both groups face. A random sample of chemistry students was included for Germany and Poland, respectively. We distinguished between intrinsic and extrinsic factors. In doing so, we observed a number of significant differences between the two groups in terms of their start-up behaviour and influencing factors. We discuss the results and suggest new approaches for the education of chemistry students and for future research approaches.