| Career-Making: Graduating into Self-Employment |
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| Reference Type : |
NCGE Research Reports |
| Authors : |
Nabi, Ghulam; Holden, Rick;Walmsley, Andreas; Harte, Vicky;Jameson, Stephanie;Kyriakidou, Niki; Price, Alison |
| Year : |
2006 |
| Keywords : |
Career; Self-employment; Graduates; Students |
| Abstract : |
Research suggests an increasing proportion of UK graduates find employment in what might be called non-traditional jobs. Against this backdrop, there is an emergent assumption that the small business sector will absorb a larger proportion of an increasing pool of graduates. In recent years, attention and resources have been targeted at graduate entrepreneurship to encourage and support more graduates to consider starting their own businesses on completion of their higher education. The aim of this research was to obtain a better understanding of the complexity of career-related decision-making processes in terms of the transition from student to business start-up and explore the nature and influence of support and guidance.
Despite an increasing body of theoretical literature on career choice in general and a large body of empirical literature on the career choice to start up a business in the form of intention models, there remains a lack of in-depth qualitative research on the stories, circumstances, contexts and complexities of graduates on their journey from student to business start-up. Moreover, a transition from entrepreneurial intentions to actual start-up is often assumed but under-researched in terms of career development and decision-making processes. Some effort has been afforded in the literature to the impact of entrepreneurial training and support on entrepreneurial intent. However, the nexus between training, support, intent and actual career choice to start a business remains under-investigated. Given the complexity of career decision processes a simple relationship should not be expected. Hence, rather than focusing solely on certain aspects of the start-up process, research is needed that takes a more holistic approach.
Data was collected from 15 graduates based in the West Yorkshire region of the UK using story-telling interviews. From a first reading of the transcripts we produced a chronological summary for each respondent. This enabled us to chart the sequence of events and supplement that with illustrative data from the interviews, thereby providing appropriate context and rationale. Subsequent ‘readings’, utilising both the chronological summary and the transcripts enabled us to ‘surface’ a number of key themes which form the focus of the report and lay the basis for our conclusions and recommendations.
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| URL link : |
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| Category : |
The Outcomes of Entrepreneurial Careers and Futures |
| Subcategory : |
Entrepreneurial organisations |
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