The relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intention

In today's complex globalized business environment where innovation in terms of markets and products is increasingly vital for survival of economies, entrepreneurship is a unique resource which should be the focal point. Not only vast majority of the innovation comes from newly founded firms, but also start-ups lift economies by decreasing unemployment, diversifying available products and services, increasing efficiency of the markets and attracting investments. In other words, entrepreneurs are the long sought key solutions for stagnated economies which are ineffectively tried to be revived by fiscal and monetary policies. While the benefits of entrepreneurship for the social and economic welfare are well understood, the same thing cannot be said for the decision-making processes, personality characteristics, thought processes of the individuals behind these companies. Who, where and when becomes an entrepreneur is yet to be clarified and structured in academic literature considering multitude of possible environmental, personality, contingency and cultural factors. The main purpose of this study is to determine whether selected personality traits; need for achievement, tolerance for ambiguity, innovativeness, locus of control, risk- taking propensity, self-confidence, need for autonomy, which are frequently emphasized in the literature, influence entrepreneurial tendencies and have predictive power for entrepreneurial intention of people. In addition to this aim, prevalence and variability of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial characteristics according to demographic variables - age, gender, marital status- and two other variables; entrepreneurship training background and entrepreneurs in the family, are tested. Factor and reliability analyses forced us to remove self-confidence, locus of control, tolerance for ambiguity from the study. Multivariate Regression, T-test, ANOVA and correlation analyses were applied to the rest of the data with using SPSS. Result of statistical analyzes indicated; all of the sample showed high entrepreneurial characteristics and high entrepreneurial intention. Significant relationship found between personality characteristics of innovativeness, risk-taking propensity, need for autonomy and entrepreneurial intention. Need for achievement failed to explain entrepreneurial intention. Males displayed higher entrepreneurial intent than females. People who had entrepreneurial course during their careers also appeared to have higher entrepreneurial intention, risk-taking propensity and innovativeness than who hadn't. Risk-taking propensity came out to decrease with age. And lastly, singles demonstrated higher risk-taking propensity than married. Suggestions and implications for the results are discussed in conclusion.