The Role of Entrepreneurship Education and University Environment on Entrepreneurial Interest of MBA Students in Saudi Arabia

Entrepreneurship has been recognized as an economic panacea, which engenders employment generation and economic development. This becomes so important at this time when many countries including Saudi Arabia are facing the challenges of unemployment in their economies. Among the goals of Vision 2030 is to reduce unemployment and increase the participation of private sectors in Saudi Arabia. Thus, this paper investigates the role of entrepreneurship education and university environment on entrepreneurial interest among MBA students in Saudi Arabia. The data is obtained from the survey conducted among the MBA students in the College of Business at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University. Using ordered logistic regression model, the results reveal that variables ‘I have taken entrepreneurship course before (X1)’, ‘Entrepreneurship course has enhanced my practical managerial skills in order to start a new business (X3)’ and ‘The knowledge of entrepreneurship in my university has enabled me to know the actions I need to take to start my own business (X6)’ are statistically significant and have great likelihood of influencing students’ entrepreneurial interest. This study suggests that Saudi government should make entrepreneurship course compulsory for all fields of study as it has a significant impact on the entrepreneurial interest of students as well as challenge the university environment to fully use the entrepreneurship centres within the university to encourage students to engage in entrepreneurship activities right from school. Keywords: Entrepreneurship education; university environment; entrepreneurial interest; MBA students; Saudi Arabia; unemployment; logistic regression. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-4-0

Factors that influence a patient’s decision to engage in genetic research

IntroductionThe most challenging step in clinical research studies is patient recruitment. Many research studies do not reach their targets because of participant rejection. The purpose of this study was to assess patient as well as the community knowledge, motivation, and barriers to participate in genetic research.MethodsA cross-section study was conducted between September 2018 and February 2020 using face-to-face interviews with candidate patients from outpatient clinics at King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Additionally, an online survey was conducted to assess the community’s knowledge, motivation and barriers to participate in genetic research studies.ResultsIn total, 470 patients were interviewed for this study, with 341 being successfully recruited for the face to face interview, and the other patients being refused owing to time constraints. The majority percentage of the respondents were females. The respondents’ mean age was 30, and 52.6% reported having a college degree. The survey results from 388 participants illustrated that around 90% of the participants, participated voluntarily due to a good understanding of genetics studies. The majority held positive attitudes toward being part of genetic research, which exceeded the reported motivation score of >75%. The survey indicated that >90% of individuals were willing to participate to acquire therapeutic benefits or to receive continued aftercare. However, 54.6% of survey participants were worried about the side effects and the risks involved in genetic testing. A higher proportion (71.4%) of respondents reported that lack of knowledge about genetic research was one of the barriers to rejecting participation.ConclusionRespondents reported relatively high motivation and knowledge for participation in genetic research. However, study participants reported “do not know enough about genetic research” and “lack of time during clinic visit” as a barrier for participation in genetic research