Demographic factors, personality and entrepreneurial inclination: A study among Indian university students

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of demographic, social and personal dispositional factors on determining the entrepreneurial inclination. Specifically, the author examined the role of gender, age, stream of study, family business background and six psychological traits of locus of control, tolerance for ambiguity, propensity to take risk, self-confidence and innovation in differentiating entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs.

As university students constitute pool of potential entrepreneurs, participants for the study consisted of 274 students from two new and upcoming universities in an emerging economy of India. The sample included students from both business and non-business schools. Data were reported and analysed using descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, t-test and stepwise logistic regression

The study results suggest that the traits of locus of control, tolerance for ambiguity, self-confidence and innovativeness were significant in differentiating entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs. At the same time it was also observed that need for achievement and risk-taking propensity were not found to be significantly different for these two groups which was contradictory to the expectations. In addition to these six psychological traits, the study results also underlined the role of family background and school in predicting entrepreneurial inclination.

The study carries huge public policy implications for education system in India which largely prepares the students for jobs in public and private sectors rather than entrepreneurship.

The study discusses some of the missing links in the entrepreneurship research by providing new insights from India.