Pedagogy and Professional Development

Fashion entrepreneurship among college students: Exploring the motivations and skills to become a fashion entrepreneur

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Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the motivations, internal and external factors for graduated college students to start an entrepreneurship journey, and to identify what support or resources are needed to facilitate success. An online open-ended questionnaire was designed for collecting empirical data. College students in a large university were recruited with extra course credit as incentives. In total, 76 usable responses were included for the final empirical analysis. The majority of respondents were female juniors or seniors. Data were sorted and input into the NVivo 11 qualitative data analysis software for further coding. This study finds out the motivations for college students to start their own fashion business and identifies both internal and external factors affecting fashion entrepreneurship success. It also indicates the specific supports and assistance preferred by college students who want to start fashion businesses. The findings provide a direction for educational and marketing initiatives to offer better support and incubation services for fashion entrepreneurship cultivation. Providing effective training in developing business plans, practical financial management advisement and offering platforms with the opportunities of building networks and business contacts would prepare entrepreneurs for starting their businesses. In addition, offering assistance in identifying merchandise sourcing tools and fashion marketing strategies would also benefit future fashion entrepreneurs.

How to Cite:

Lang, C. & Liu, C., (2017) “Fashion entrepreneurship among college students: Exploring the motivations and skills to become a fashion entrepreneur”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 74(1).