Investigating the Entrepreneurship Behaviour among Hospitality Undergraduates in Egypt

Abstract

The present paper makes an attempt to highlight the concept of entrepreneurship behaviour as a new way of employment patterns among hospitality seekers. Nowadays the hospitality graduates find themselves facing the public and private sector challenges. Work vacant places in both the Egyptian public and private sector are seldom to get it due to many problems such as nepotism, lack of salaries fairness, government legislation and privatization. Entrepreneurial behaviour has been a vibrant field of study because of the advantages of its career creation for those who need a career opportunity in their own potential companies. The main aim of this comparative research is to understand undergraduate student behaviour for entrepreneurship and the factors affecting entrepreneurial behaviour in the tourism and hospitality faculties in two different samples of universities in Egypt. One is private Pharos University in Alexandria and the other is public Fayoum University in Fayoum. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to a convenient sample of 130 students based in Fayoum and 60 students from the private one. Results revealed that respondents are considering entrepreneurship and interested in it especially in case of tourism crises that has been appeared after Egypt revolution and the inflation decision of the Egyptian central bank 2016. This research hypothesised that different personality traits, and education influence and shape the hospitality graduates entrepreneurial intentions. Some implications for practice are discussed and the research conceptual model contribution is recommended.