Barriers and Incentives for Youth Entrepreneurship Start-Ups: Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract

Reducing unemployment of youth has become one of the most difficult challenges for Bangladesh where youths constitute one third of total population. This study examined a range of key constraints that impede young people in Chittagong, Bangladesh, from starting and running a business and at the same time the study identified incentives, initiatives and measures that may improve young entrepreneurship. For a qualitative intervention, 44 complete questionnaires were analyzed who were selected from Chittagong, the second largest in Bangladesh, following a convenience and purposive sampling technique. Results reported that most cited start-up challenge is neglecting knowledge-based innovation, being their own boss is the main motivation to engage in business, parents and family mainly influenced young people to start business while financial risk is the most pressing de-motivator to start-up business.