Business school students' acceptance and understanding of venture capital and electronic commerce

The life of an entrepreneur has its risks and unique rewards. Venture capitalists represent one solution to financing the high-risk, potentially high-reward new companies. Electronic commerce provides a new marketing channel for product distribution. New information and technology will give business students who aspire to entrepreneurship a better chance to be successful business owners.; The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the perceptions held by business students at one selected business college in Taiwan and one selected business college in the United States regarding the affinity that aspiring entrepreneurs have for venture capital and e-commerce.; The population for the study was 3,000 college business students enrolled in the two institutions. A sample of 200 students was randomly selected from each business college for a total of 400 students. A survey instrument was designed by the researcher to study the perceptions held by business students regarding the affinity they have for venture capital and e-commerce. The .05 level of significance for two-tailed t tests, one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and Pearson Product-Moment correlations was utilized for this study.; Data were processed, analyzed, and reported using descriptive and inferential statistics. Business students indicated a moderate desire to engage in entrepreneurship, with men indicating a higher desire than women. Business students indicated a preference for traditional debt rather than using family resources and for traditional advertising rather than telemarketing. Students aspiring to entrepreneurship were more accepting of venture capital. Taiwanese students rated e-commerce as a more efficient marketing technique than did students in the U.S. Taiwanese students were more knowledgeable regarding venture capital than U.S. students. Freshmen were more favorable toward e-commerce than other college levels. Students majoring in international trade had a greater acceptance of e-commerce than other majors. There were no significant relationships between business students' premise and understanding of either venture capital or e-commerce.; The findings should be of use to business school instructors as they help students understand the concepts of entrepreneurship, especially the acceptance and understanding of venture capital and e-commerce.