Entrepreneurial career choice barriers, supports, and coping strategies: Graduates’ experiences

This qualitative study describes Saudi university graduates’ experience of choosing entrepreneurial careers and explores what personal and contextual factors shaped such process. It utilized Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as a foundation theory in this exploration procedure. Study participants were university graduates who were in the stage of running their own established business. Targeting these individuals provided a rich and practical knowledge about the phenomenon as they experienced the whole career process from the time of determining these career choice goals to the present time of successfully implementing them. It also helped in recognizing the key factors influencing their career development journey. Study data was collected through semi-structured interviews to capture key (a) factors that had affected these individuals’ choice of entrepreneurial career, (b) supports and (c) barriers to pursuing their choices, and (d) methods they had used to cope with choice barriers. Investigating these four dimensions provides insights into understandings of the Saudi graduates’ career development (CD) process towards entrepreneurship. Study findings contribute new understanding of graduate entrepreneurs’ development through the lens of career theory and contribute to SCCT literature by employing it, probably for the first time, in the Saudi context. These findings could be utilized to serve several national purposes such as improving CD and human resource development (HRD) practices and better equip potential graduate entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to make effective career choices related to launching a company. They could also contribute to HRD research as there is an emerging interest in studying young entrepreneurs as a special group of leaders among HRD scholars.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Resource Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Albeshri, Fahad O.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Huang, Wen-Hao David
• Makela, Julia
• Greene, Jennifer
• Ward Hood, Denice

• entrepreneurial career choice, career decision-making process, university graduates, Saudi Arabia

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Fahad Albeshri

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105938

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105938