Antecedents of entrepreneurship in the career trajectories of junior enterprises alumni

The objective of this study was to advance the understanding of individual and contextual antecedents of entrepreneurship in the career trajectory of junior enterprises alumni. Semi-structured interviews were done with a sample of 15 entrepreneurs. The collected contents were submitted to thematic content analysis of the individual narratives. The results show, among other aspects, that there are multiple motivations for starting a venture and that the experience in junior enterprises helps in the development of attitudes favorable to entrepreneurship. The perception of the interviewees was that university education offers few entrepreneurial training opportunities. In addition, a simplified comprehensive model based on the trajectories analyzed was formulated, which may help guide entrepreneurial educational actions in the university context.