ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION ENROLLMENT INTENTIONS: THE EFFECT OF ATTITUDES, NORMS AND PERSONALITY

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education (EE) has grown exponentially over the past three decades, providing myriad benefits to society. Interestingly though, despite such benefits, scholarly research has rarely focused on who is likely to seek EE. Drawing on Azjen’s theory of planned behavior as well as previous research in education seeking, the current study investigates how individuals’ personality, attitudes and perceived norms affect EE intentions. Results indicate that entrepreneurial norms and attitudes toward both the morality of business and the instrumentality of education are positively associated with EE intentions. Further, results suggest that extraversion and openness to experience are positively associated, whereas conscientiousness is negatively associated with EE intentions. Interestingly, the desire to start one’s own business mediates these effects generally, but mediation analyses also imply that extraversion, openness to experience and instrumentality of education have direct effects on EE intentions regardless of one’s desire to start a business. As such, encouraging these individuals to seek EE may result in a previously unrecognized source of students for EE programs as well as potential business creation that would otherwise not occur. Implications of our study are discussed.