Influence of attitude, risk taking propensity and proactive personality on social entrepreneurship intentions

Abstract

Entrepreneurship as a field of research has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers for decades. In particular, social entrepreneurship is emerging as a research area that is attracting increased research interest among researchers globally. Among the various factors which influence social entrepreneurship intentions is attitude, risk taking propensity and proactive personality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of attitude, risk taking propensity and proactive personality on social entrepreneurship intentions among university students. A quantitative research approach was adopted for the study. A questionnaire was administered to two hundred and ninety four (n=294) students from selected universities in the Gauteng province, South Africa. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the influence of attitude, risk taking propensity and proactive personality on social entrepreneurial intentions. Preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure no violation of assumptions of normality, linearity, multicollinearity and homoscedasticity. Upon testing the significance of the independent variables, the results showed that in the model, only two variables were statistically significant, with risk taking propensity showing a higher beta value (beta = .540, p= <.000) than attitude towards entrepreneurship scale (beta = .259, P< .000). In order of importance, these results mean that risk taking propensity represented the most unique contribution towards social entrepreneurial intentions followed by attitude. Proactive personality did not make a unique contribution. It was concluded that social entrepreneurial intentions of university students are driven by their attitude and willingness to take risks.