Mario Duarte Canever

How does the public and private university environment affect students’ entrepreneurial intention?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the causal links between public and private university environments and the entrepreneurial intention (EI) of students. Design/methodology/approach The impact of different university environments on the students’ EI was checked using a model adapted from Krueger et al. (2000). The study comprised a sample of students enrolled in business administration from three public and three private universities at first semester (freshmen) and at the last two semesters (senior) in Brazil. The model was measured through various questions and later assessed by principal component analysis to build constructs. Via t-test and path analysis the EI and the antecedents were subjected to a comparative analysis to test the equality of the models across the four categories emerged. Findings The two main types of Brazilian university environments (public and private) do not present significant differences in the way they influence EI and its antecedents. Both the tests of means and the tests of measurement of the structural relations between constructs confirm this finding with only a few exceptions. The result of this study is opposed to other studies carried out in Brazil, by showing that the public university environment is not worse for the entrepreneurship than the private. The environmental effects are mostly equal and they as a whole are not conducive to the development of EI. Research limitations/implications The study comprises business students only, and enrolled on regular universities. It is worth highlighting that evidence was brought to the debate for a group of universities in Brazil. Replicating the study with students from other areas and other universities, as well as students in Master’s and Doctorate programs could enrich the analyses. Practical implications This study provides insight into entrepreneurship education, as to which the university environment is conducive to the entrepreneurship. It brings insights for the development of entrepreneurial universities. Originality/value This study contributes to understanding the differences between the public and private universities environment regarding students’ EI.

Correlação e causalidade entre os preços de commodities e energia

This paper aims to test and analyze the integration and causality of energy and agricultural commodity prices in the Brazilian context. In order to do that, econometric tests of time series analysis using monthly data, from 2000 to 2012, of the prices of crude oil, ethanol, sugar cane, corn, soybeans and the exchange rate were used. The results show that the prices of petroleum and the exchange rate are the elements most integrated into agricultural prices. The ethanol price is integrated into sugar cane, soybeans and corn prices. Furthermore, soybean prices are also integrated into sugar cane, ethanol and corn, showing that there is a complex and coordinated price mechanism in these markets in Brazil. On the other hand, the Brazilian prices (ethanol, corn and soybean) are caused, in the sense of Granger, by their American counterparts making the Brazilian commodity price formation even more complex.