Title: The effects of demographic characteristics on entrepreneurial intention in the pre-venture stage of entrepreneurship

Authors: Adnan Ozyilmaz

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Mustafa Kemal University, Tayfur Sokmen Campus, 31100 Antakya-Hatay, Turkey

Abstract: Individuals| entrepreneurial intentions are the foundations of new-organisation creation. Using the demographic-characteristics approach of entrepreneurship as its basis, this study examines the effects of selected demographic characteristics on pre-venture entrepreneurial intentions. This study analysed the responses of 698 undergraduate university students to a questionnaire to test its hypotheses. Statistical analyses found significant and positive relationships between both being a male and having an entrepreneur-parent role-model and having entrepreneurial intentions for business-administration students, but the entrepreneur-parent role-model was the sole significant and positive predictor of engineering students| entrepreneurial intentions. Age was not a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intentions for undergraduate students. This study|s findings do not support birth-order argument. Implications and future research directions are also discussed.

Keywords: pre-venture entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial intentions; demographic characteristics; demography; new organisations; new business ventures; undergraduate students; universities; higher education; significant relationships; positive relationships; males; gender; entrepreneurial parents; role models; business administration students; significant predictors; positive predictors; engineering students; age; birth order; Turkey; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2011.042761

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011 Vol.14 No.3, pp.406 - 424

Published online: 21 Oct 2014 *

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