The Relationship of Entrepreneurship Motivation and Perceived Challenges of University Students: Findings from Mentoring Log Data

Mentoring is an essential aspect of entrepreneurship development, especially in university settings. However, there is a lack of research on entrepreneurship mentoring. This study aims to understand how the level of entrepreneurial motivation of students receiving mentoring in entrepreneurship education influences the tendency of challenges. This paper reports preliminary findings on entrepreneurship mentoring based on data. We compared the entrepreneurial motivation and barriers of two groups from different institutions. Results revealed that perceived challenges were discrete among highly and lowly motivated students and that impediments do not linger between stages of motivation. After clarifying the tendencies of perceived challenges at different entrepreneurial motivation levels, this study’s findings can contribute to practical practice in entrepreneurial education: specifically, differentiating class content, creating curriculum, and teaching materials according to the group’s characteristics.