Entrepreneurship and Innovation Based on the RIEMPEI Model: Inequality of Opportunities in Mexico

Abstract

To be able to meet the needs of students and society in general, universities have changed their substantive activity by modifying the way they educate therefore significantly changing their mission (Başçı and Alkan, Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences 195:856–861, 2015; Munuera and Gómez, Opción 8:329–348, 2016) and making innovations in education (Olokundun, Ibidunni, Falola, Salau, and Oyafunke-Omoniyi International Journal of Entrepreneurship 22(1), 1–10, 2018). As Martin (El papel de las universidades en la comunidad de emprendimiento, 2017) points out, universities are looking for the generation of entrepreneurs which in turn creates the tendency of universities to include entrepreneurship in the professional training of their students (Din, Anuar, and Usman, Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences 224, 117–123, 2016; Palomares and Chisvert, REDU Revista de Docencia Universitaria 12(2), 205–230, 2014). Through the development of these activities, it is possible to offer opportunities to university students to overcome some of the inequalities that occur in the country (Mexico).

The objective of this study is to establish a reference model on the influence of the following variables: self-esteem, need for achievement, risk assumption, and creativity in the innovation traits of future entrepreneur engineering students in the Public Institutions of Higher Education in Mexico.

In order to respond to the objective posed in this investigation, a questionnaire consisting of two sections using a sample of 368 engineering students from the Public Institutions of Higher Education (IES) in Mexico between the ages of 18 and 34 years was designed. The first section includes the student profile. The variables which influence the innovation traits of future engineering entrepreneurs from the IES in Mexico can be seen in the second section: self-esteem (four items), need for achievement (four items), and risk assumption (eight items)—Íbañez (Actitudes emprendedoras de los estudiantes universitarios de la CAPV, Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, 2001), creativity (eight items), and the dependent variable: innovation traits (eight items)—Capella, Gil, Martí, and Ruíz (Pedagogía Social 28, 169–188, 2016).

This research follows a quantitative approach by means of a descriptive, correlational, and linear regression analysis, creating a proposal called the RIEMPEI model (features of enterprising innovation in engineering students in the IES in Mexico). The statistical analysis shows that the RIEMPEI model meets the requirements of all the tests to which it is submitted, making it an appropriate model to evaluate the objective posed in this investigation.