Master’s Students’ Perception of Training in Entrepreneurial Skills Through Social Networks

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the perception and origin of entrepreneurship competence through social networks among master’s degree students in sciences, humanities and arts, and social sciences at the University of Seville, Spain. The economic crisis in Spain has meant that entrepreneurship is often the only way to be employed, while the Internet and e-commerce have obliged us to use social networks to access the global market. Universities play an essential role in creating an entrepreneurial culture through the training of students. A quantitative, ex post facto, non-experimental, descriptive, correlational, and inferential research design was used with non-probabilistic convenience sampling. A total of 178 students completed an ad hoc questionnaire. The results indicate that students perceive their competence level as being moderate to low, although with some differences according to age or type of master’s degree. It was observed that formal higher education does not satisfy students’ expectations in this regard. Therefore, we conclude that training in entrepreneurship through social networks should be improved in the higher education setting.