The Sociopolitical Dimension of Entrepreneurship. Founding Motivation of Engineers in Germany

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,3, Otto Beisheim School of Management Vallendar (Chair of Innovation and Organization), language: English, abstract: This Bachelor Thesis investigates the reasons why German engineers are apparently not engaged enough in startups. As the core research question, the thesis seeks to determine the universal founding motivators and evaluates these factors in regard to their impact on the job decision of engineers. The first section is devoted to clarify relevant terms and to prove the general importance of the research approach. After defining the boundaries, the second chapter prepares possible hypotheses on the founding motivation supported by professional literature. These motivators are further discussed in the third section with reference to personal expertise of engineering students, politicians, guiders and founders. This part is dedicated to analyze the actual importance of each motivator for engineers and to develop first recommendations. The conclusion summarizes the findings and outlines a short action-plan for political decision-makers to enhance the founding motivation of German engineers. At last, a personal reflection reviews the thesis and sets the research question into a broader context. Apart from that, the thesis concentrates on sociopolitical motivators of founding and mainly excludes financial aspects, since they are not of major significance for the topic and have been sufficiently discussed in other literature.