SCOPE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN BITS PILANI

R.D. Dhanush Balaji (2018A8PS1034P)

Spandan Gupta (2018B3A7PS0865P)

B. Harshan (2018A7PS0166P)

Abstract:
With a rapid increase in the popularity of entrepreneurship among the students of BITS Pilani, we need
to explore the factors affecting the same. In this study, we wish to analyze the trends in the mindset of
students in their preference for a working job or entrepreneurship start-ups. And more interestingly
awareness and facilities offered to entrepreneurs in the institute social environment will be studied.
The study will be conducted through the methods of direct observation and study of articles, past
research, and textbooks. Potential problems in the study will be to accurately capture the present
attitude of the students. We will try to mitigate this issue by employing techniques such as handing
out questionnaires/surveys to collect the opinions of BITS Pilani students regarding the start-up
culture on the campus. We also wish to analyze the stupendous influence of the BITS alumni network
on students pursuing this career path. From this study, we hope that the institute might receive
appropriate inputs to further nurture and develop the entrepreneurship culture on the campus. To the
new and inexperienced students, this study helps them to make better career decisions.
Introduction:
The French economist Jean-Baptiste Say coined the word entrepreneur, and he defined it as: “The
entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower into an area of higher productivity and
greater yield.” Entrepreneurship is a fast growing phenomenon in today’s world and plays an
important and indispensable part in the growth of a nation's economy. In a country like India which
has high levels of unemployment, entrepreneurship is the way forward. Entrepreneurs are generally at
the forefront of many innovations and help in improving the standard of living of people.

In recent years, the startup culture in India has taken off and the numbers are staggering, as of
December 2018, 14,600 startups have been recognised by the Government of India[1] . In 2015, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Startup India” initiative with an aim to promote and encourage
young entrepreneurs of the country. A startup fund of around 13,888 crores has been set aside and a
19 point Action Plan spanning various areas related to entrepreneurship has been formulated to
create a conducive ecosystem for the growth of startups in India.

It is therefore very prudent to analyse the perception of students in colleges towards

entrepreneurship as it is them who have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs in the
future. Student startups are also fast becoming popular and it is no longer unusual for students to
create their startup during their college period itself. In a study conducted by Tracxn[2] , BITS Pilani is
among the top three engineering institutes in the country, for producing the most number of tech
entrepreneurs.

The aim of this study is to capture the present mindset of the students of various years in BITS Pilani,
towards entrepreneurship and their viewpoints about certain aspects of the startup-culture. Further
the study also collects specific data from students who are involved in a startup.

This study is a mix of quantitative and qualitative research. The rest of the paper is structured as
follows. Firstly, a literature review has been presented to describe the prior research that has been
undertaken pertaining to this area.
Literature Review:-
Evaluating the learning environment of a cross‑institutional postgraduate programme in
entrepreneurship

Nikolaos Apostolopoulos · Alexandros Kakouris · Panagiotis Liargovas · Zacharias Dermatis · Dimitrios

Komninos

This article evaluates the learning environment of a joint distance learning postgraduate programme in
entrepreneurship between the University of Peloponnese and the Technological Educational Institute
of Peloponnese in Greece. Following the Illeris’ theory for learning, factors from the content,
incentives and environment learning dimensions are evaluated by the 87 alumni of the programme.
The analysis indicates which components in each dimension prevailed and how the three dimensions
are compared in the formulation of the educational setting. It appeared that significant drivers for
participation and engagement with the programme emanated from modern social trends. The pilot
results of the present case offer the basis to enrich and implement the Illerian dimensions of learning
in future entrepreneurship programmes.

Entrepreneurial entrepreneurship youth education: initiating grounded theory

Richard J. Arend

The study uses a field study to flesh out initial prescriptions on how to build successful high school
entrepreneurship education programs. The study concludes that the kind of heterogeneity in
embodied in the ‘pre-entrepreneur’ high school students needs to be addressed better in our
educational systems and our other societal support systems, that the educational systems need to
recognize that people not only ‘think differently’ as entrepreneurs but also at different points in their
lives, and that points to a need for innovation in business schools, especially in entrepreneurship
education, to leverage what potential that the new high school models build. Thus, the study proposes
that programs that leverage identifiable and meaningful heterogeneity in their students, expectations,
and communities will experience greater success across many measures of value creation.

Entrepreneuring for transition: A participatory action research on community‑engaged curriculum

design in higher education

Yahui Fang

The paper is grounded in higher education in a local context in Taiwan. The purpose is to explore
pioneering efforts against poverty and social exclusion and to create a context and opportunity for
authentic participation among educational institutions and communities in the co-creation of
meaning, knowledge, and action during community transitions. Based on participatory action research,
the researcher initiated an entrepreneurial spirit through teaching and learning in the context of
community engaged curriculum design. The paper provides an analysis of how university and local
actors reach the common objective of local development, after which they initiate processes of
personal transition as well as community transition. Participatory planning processes create a space
for transformative social learning that leads to the evolution of academic research into partnership
research, the transformation of oneself and others, and a shift in relationship dynamics leading to
solutions for societal challenges and convivial and inclusive social action.
Impact of social learning on entrepreneurial behavior: case of entrepreneurship education at state
sector universities in Sri Lanka

M. S. J. Fernando · B. Nishantha

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of social learning in entrepreneurship education
conducted by the universities on the development of entrepreneurial behaviors of the course
participants. Primary data are collected from 185 students of extension courses on entrepreneurship
offered by three Sri Lankan universities namely, University of Colombo, University of Sri
Jayewardenepura and University of Moratuwa. According to the factor analysis result, social learning
process comprised four factors, namely attention, retention, motoric reproduction and motivation.
The results show that social learning exists in entrepreneurship education and it positively impacts the
development of entrepreneurial behaviors namely planning activities, establishing legitimacy and
market behavior. Specially, motoric reproduction was found to be a significant predictor of all three
entrepreneurial behaviors. The research provides important insights to the higher education sector in
framing the delivery of its entrepreneurship courses to ensure effectiveness in entrepreneurship
education. Nevertheless, this study affirms the existing arguments on the association between social
learning and entrepreneurship development through a quantitative analysis.

Rationale:
The above literature are case-studies focussing on the region and locality of the respective authors’
demography. The above studies mainly focus on the impact of entrepreneurship caused by
entrepreneurship education provided in their institutes/schools. The study conducted in this paper
aims to use similar analysis approaches to find the broad factors affecting entrepreneurship in BITS
Pilani in general. Therefore, our studies take into account the popular opinions of people and try to
obtain a correlation with the statistics of start-ups in the campus. The broad factors can be peer-based
information, entrepreneurship education, influence of the outside world, and so on.

Knowledge Gap:
The factors leading to entrepreneurial behaviour in different demographics have been mentioned in
the reviewed literature. However, these factors cannot be generalised to an Indian context in general.
There is no data available on students working in existing start-ups or their tendencies to join one in
the future. The data and the analysis is thus started anew and all the data is primary. There is no data
analyzing the opinions of the students in any of the students and the researcher has to come up with
methods on his own to collect and analyze the data. There isn't any existing data on the willingness of
students to work in start-ups and no data exists on the attrition rate or the tendency of students
already working in start-ups while in college, there is a need for this to be analyzed as start-up culture
in BITS Pilani is a big part of the ambience and motivation of people to come to a private institute
instead of going to any other Government institute. We want to analyze why people are willing to give
so much time to an organization and what are the skills the students feel they will be able to develop if
they end up joining it as well. Hence, there might be a missing unknown influence in the
entrepreneurial culture in BITS Pilani. Hence, this study aims to find this missing knowledge.
METHODOLOGY:-
Nature of Study:
Entrepreneurship is one of the rising fields and is explored by a lot of engineers as an opportunity
during their time on campus and after passing out. It is important to understand how students actually
perceive entrepreneurship and the effect it has on the future of India as this is the future of the
nation.

It is important to note that there hadn’t been any previous research papers or surveys related to the
study and required all the data to be collected first hand.

The sampling method used was sending questionnaires via electronic mail , this is suitable for the
study as we’re able to reach most of the students on the campus. This is the optimal sampling
technique as we’re able to cover most of the campus with the least amount of time to be spent.

The study follows a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches that is deriving results from the
data collected and quantizing it to create a relation between the different variables. The different
methods used for analysis are means, proportions and differences. These methods of analysis were
laid down before the collection of data to avoid mining of data.

The aim being to address a theoretical topic required the researcher to extrapolate from the data
collected. The approach used guarantees the optimal amount of sample and the validity of results
derived. The assumption that the students are aware of the start-ups and their work, the prevalence
and popularity of start-ups on campus guarantees the same.

Sample:
Data collection was conducted on the internet through self-reported surveys. The questionnaire was
open for all the students of BITS Pilani to fill.

The final sample size was 220, all the students were assumed to have the knowledge of start-ups and
their workings.

The sample is about 5% of the population of students in BITS Pilani. This can hence be used as an
indicator for the whole population and their opinions.

There were about 20 respondents who are already a part of a start-up and work part-time for the
organization.
The following questions were part of the questionnaire for everyone to answer:

1.What is your gender?

2.What is your stream/branch?

3.Which academic year are you studying in?

4.Please write the number of clubs/tech teams/departments you are a part of. (If not part of any,
write 'None')

5.What do you think major amount of start-ups in BITS Pilani are oriented towards?

6.What skills do you think most start-ups in BITS Pilani inculcate? *

7.How much would you prefer to work in a start-up as compared to an established company?

8.If offered to work in a start-up, in which avenue would you like to work in? *

9.How much time would you like to spend working in a start-up per day while studying, if you wish to
work in one?

10.How much do you think being part of a start-up affect your academics? (3 bring neutral)

11.How popular do you think is the start-up culture in BITS Pilani as compared to outside?

12.How much do you think the start-up culture in BITS Pilani affects the students to create their own
start-ups and pursue it?

The following questions were part of the questionnaire for the people who are in a start-up to answer:

1.What is the name of the start-up you work in?

2.How many people work in the same start-up as you work in?

3.How heavy is your work daily in start-up?

4.Are you able to devote time to other activities?

5.Would you prefer to work in the same start-up after you graduate?
Sampling Techniques:
The survey comprised of 12 questions for all the respondents and an extra 5 questions for the
respondents who are part of a start-up. The questions comprised of personal questions (relating to
gender, branch and year of study), and questions answering their opinions about start-ups and how
they felt about their working. The separate section was important to find a proportion of people who
were part of a start-up and hence there wasn’t any bias.

The sample was collected through self-reported surveys on the internet. The survey questionnaire was
sent to all the students of BITS Pilani ,Pilani Campus. This was assuming that all the students have an
idea of the start-ups on the campus.

There was no bias on the part of the researchers as to the selection of sample, it was found that any
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus student would be an adequate source of information and that each of the
students could weighed equally while considering them as a whole for the campus.

Analysis of Data:
The data collected from the students was as follows:

1)

Most people think that start-ups are oriented towards coding as they are studying in a technological
institute and shows the prevalence of people to be a part of a start-up. There are 35 start-ups in BITS
Pilani each of which requires coders/developers and shows people’s awareness and interest in coding.
2)

More than 33% of the students think that being part of a start-up inculcates skills like
coding/developing, soft skills, outreach, time management, professionalism, leadership.

These skills are life skills that will help further in life and hence this shows the people’s willingness to
be part of a start-up and the reason for the growth in the number of start-ups.

3)

This shows that people consider start-ups as equals to established firms, or slightly better than
working for an established firms showing the popularity and reliability perceived by the students.
4)

This shows the prevalence of start-ups in BITS Pilani and their popularity. This is backed by the fact
that BITS Pilani is 3rd in terms of producing founders of start-ups with respect to other institutes.

Even though the number of start-ups produced isn’t this high, it still shows that people have start-ups
as an option to pursue after graduating from college.
The following were the questions answered by the people who are part of a start-up:

1)

This shows that the people who are working in start-ups part-time are not always satisfied and are not
able to give time to other activities they would usually like to devote time to.

2)

A majority of people would either consider working in the start-up they’re currently a part of or
actually want to work in the same start-up later, this shows that the students are satisfied with their
position as of now and wouldn’t want to change the comfort they’ve created with their respective
start-ups.
Results and Discussion:-
Global modern social trends seem to be a common factor in the scope of entrepreneurship in the
campus.

The satisfaction of solving local social and economic problems also seems to be a driving force, as
suggested by a number of reviewed literature.

The above figures convey that students in BITS Pilani, in general, like to work in a start-up. This is also
backed by the Tracxn survey, where it has been observed that BITS Pilani is the 3rd spot in the country
for producing the most number of start-up founders. The comfort and flexibility factor also plays a
positive role in the start-up culture in the campus, as the figures suggest that students like to work in
the same start-ups after they graduate.

Coding, marketing and outsourcing are found to be the skills that students think they develop by
working in a start-up. The technical skills are in accordance with the fact that BITS Pilani is an
engineering and technical institute.

The present findings also show that activities related to the IT sector are highly popular among the
students of BITS Pilani. A majority of the start-ups on the campus are oriented towards the software
field and this fact is also backed by a good number of students. Also most of them perceive that the
startups in the campus impart skills related to this field and this could be one of the reasons behind
the growth of startups in the college: students willing to work for them and in turn acquire a variety of
skills and relevant experience.

Conclusion:-
From the findings, we can conclude that students of BITS Pilani have a positive reception to the
start-up culture and entrepreneurship education. Considerable number of students prefer to work in a
start-up as compared to a well-established company.

The scope of entrepreneurship in BITS Pilani is spreading as the students themselves think that being
part of the institute tends to incubate the tendency of students to be a part of or open a start-up of
their own.

Apart from that we can see that students are satisfied with the experience they had as part of a
start-up and will cause greater support to future start-ups.

Cumulative all the factors considered point towards a brighter future for entrepreneurship in BITS
Pilani.
References:-
[1]​https://www.startupindia.gov.in/content/dam/invest-india/compendium/Startup%20India%20-%20
National%20report_Final%20Version_web.pdf

[2]​https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/iits-in-delhi-mumbai-churn-out-most-tech-entreprene
urs-1568652902193.html

[4]Richard J. Arend. (2018) ​Entrepreneurial entrepreneurship youth education: initiating grounded

theory

[3]Nikolaos Apostolopoulos, Alexandros Kakouris, Panagiotis Liargovas, Zacharias Dermatis, Dimitrios

Komninos. (2019) ​Evaluating the learning environment of a cross‑institutional postgraduate
programme in entrepreneurship

[5]Yahui Fang. (2018) ​Entrepreneuring for transition: A participatory action research on

community‑engaged curriculum design in higher education

[6]M. S. J. Fernando, B. Nishantha. (2019) ​Impact of social learning on entrepreneurial behavior: case
of entrepreneurship education at state sector universities in Sri Lanka