Examining the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurial spirit(Case of study: students of Ferdowsi and Medical Sciences Universities of Mashhad)

The unprecedented increase in the unemployment of university graduates and the incapability of the government to provide jobs, makes entrepreneurship an important issue which should be seriously taken into account. In this regard, the aim of the current research is to identify the state of entrepreneurial spirit of students and also investigate the effects of social capital and its types, cultural and economic capital on entrepreneurial spirit. This research has been done quantitatively. The statistical population of the research is 442 undergraduate, master's and doctoral students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Medical Sciences who were collected at random. A researcher-made questionnaire is used and its validity and reliability were estimated by Cronbach's alpha method.The findings indicate a positive correlation between social capital, friendship and family capital and entrepreneurial spirit, and a negative relationship between institutional capital and entrepreneurial spirit. Also, cultural capital and entrepreneurial spirit are negatively (r=0.219), and economic capital and entrepreneurial spirit are positively (r=0.159) correlated. In addition, the results show that besides strengthening social capital, it is necessary for universities to prompt students involve in working in the real environment in the discussion of university education in their educational models. This would stimulate the issues and challenges that entrepreneurs issues and challenges experienced by entrepreneurs in real-life situations for students.