Student Entrepreneurship in the Balkan context

Abstract

Entrepreneurship of students is becoming a major issue for the whole of the globe, while both competition and collaborations are becoming global and getting deprived of all obstacles. Most of the national and international organizations are trying to foster the entrepreneurship of students, considering as granted that it is thought to have a strong impact on the future development and seen as the source of innovation, as well as the levers to boost the creation of wealth. The Balkan countries, in their majority, are adopting those orientations in their policies, while there is an evidence of a changing mindset, which is leading to the creation of networks and other forms of cooperation. Our team has examined this tendency, through the student voluntary associations, because it has been very difficult, if not impossible, to have statistical data representing a reliable population or even a sample with an acceptable degree of confidence. The team methodology has been limited to the categorization of a limited set of factors, commonly used by the international organizations and the European Union policy makers, as they are affecting the students in the candidate countries. The conclusions are concentrated in the negative mindset of the society and the students, the lack of entrepreneurial education and the international networking, on all the Balkan countries, Greece included.