Studying Gender Effect on Entrepreneurial Intentions Among Business Graduates

Studying Gender Effect on Entrepreneurial Intentions among Business Graduates Abstract: In this study we use the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to detect gender effects in the variables that shape entrepreneurial intentions among business graduates. We conclude that the gender effect on intentions is interceded via personal attitudes toward entrepreneurship and more so via perceived control over becoming an entrepreneur.

These mediation effects at factorial level can be explained by moderation effects at indicator level.Where male graduate students are driven by the more dominant action-oriented entrepreneurial values, female students are more driven by the less dominant balance-oriented entrepreneurial values. Where male students are driven by both internal and external feelings of control, female students are driven by the more dominant internal feelings of control. This study adds to the research that studies entrepreneurial intentions and clarifies how different entrepreneurial definitions for men and women may drive entrepreneurial behavior.Introduction: The role of entrepreneurs on economy changes by seeing to its stage of economic development.

The study and practice of raising entrepreneurial intentions has been the subject of much Debate in recent years. The main focus in this study is to see the ratio of entrepreneurial activity on the basic two genders male and female. This study is done to see increasing gender differences in entrepreneurial activity. Such a study of gender differences in entrepreneurship is a recent but not new venture. In this study we try to cover the loose ends of Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) to develop an instrument that explores gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is a framework that models the different variables that impact the intention to engage in a particular behavior: personal attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioral control.

Previous research showed conflicting results with respect to the importance of the factors subjective norms and perceived behavioral control.The objective of this study is to overcome both measurement and analytical shortcomings of previous TPB entrepreneurial studies by focusing on exploring the gender effects that form entrepreneurial intentions. The developed countries are all innovation-driven economies and the developing countries in the present study are all efficiency-driven economies. In efficiency-driven Economies, institutions support industrialization in search of higher productivity and economies of scale. As the economy develops further, the emphasis on industrial activity gradually shifts towards expanding the service sector, which develops and becomes more stylish.

This change is mostly associated with increasing passion in research and development as well as knowledge, and it leads to the materialization of innovative, opportunity looking for entrepreneurial activities. Literature review: International studies such as the “Global Entrepreneurship Monitor2007 (GEM)” and “The International Survey on Collegiate Entrepreneurship 2006 (ISCE)” clearly display nationwide differences in indicators of entrepreneurial activity and aim respectively.Given the socio-economic benefits generally attributed to entrepreneurship(Carree & Thurik, 2006),for the study of different factors like academic, educational and governmental institutions to see their impact on entrepreneurial intentions. We try to work to greater area .. Results from the GEM 2007 study shows that woman are less average score towards the entrepreneurial activity (TEA) index as compared to men and that even though this difference has decreased.

So a gender-gap still remains (Allen, Elam, Langowitz & Dean, 2007).These authors found that the gender-gap in TEA is more in the areas having high income where men are almost twice as likely to be early stage or established business owners (GEM, 2007). As an extreme example, Belgium (the target country of this study) has a ratio of four male to one female entrepreneur.. In her review of previous entrepreneurship literature, Ahl (2004) noted several shortcomings of previous studies on gender effects in entrepreneurship: the one-sided empirical focus on men, the use of male-gendered measuring instruments and the lack of theoretical grounding.Means men are mostly taken into the consideration.

To address the lack of theoretical underpinnings, De Bruin, Brush and Welter (2007: 323) suggest that: “a separate theory on women’s entrepreneurship may not be3. required. Rather, existing theoretical concepts should be expanded to incorporate explanations for the distinctiveness of women’s entrepreneurship, and current theoretical approaches,which is used so that womans entrepreurship should be expanded.TPB has been productively adopted to explain and predict a wide variety of behavior (Armitage & Conner, 2001). In an entrepreneurial setting, TPB is mostly and widely used to explain entrepreneur’s start-up intentions (Krueger et al.

, 2000) and their results(Kolvereid & Isaksen, 2006). Methodology: This research has been conducted in order to find out the entrepreneurial intentions among business graduates. For this purpose we conducted a survey on a sample of 120 graduate students from the University of Sargodha.The questionnaire for this research was adopted from the study (Meuleman 2009). We collected data from the University of Sargodha well renowned university of Pakistan.

We gave questionnaire to 120 business students in Business Administration Department, in total all respondents completed the survey and all were suitable for analysis, resulting in a final response rate of 100%. For conducting this study the data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The questionnaires were filled in the month of May, 2010.The questionnaire consisted of the total 26 questions which were classified according to the variables of this study, the first 3 questions were related to the entrepreneurial intentions second 3 were related to the personal desirability third 3 related to the expectancy fourth 3 were related to the value fifth 3 were related to the perceived feasibility sixth 3 were related to the belief strength seventh 4 were related to the belief power eighth 3 were related to the last Motivation To Comply and last 1 was about the gender of the respondents.The questionnaires were filled from male and female respondents. The five-point Likert-type scale was used ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Descriptive statistics and the comparison of mean have been used to study the response of the sample. The Cranach’s Alpha revealed the result for the overall homogeneity between the variables of this research and the items of scale used in this research to measure the variables. Correlation analysis were used to study the relationship between the variables such that these analysis studied the ositive relation of all the independent variables (entrepreneurial intentions, personal desirability) with the dependent variable (expectancy, value, perceived feasibility, belief strength, belief power, Motivation To Comply,). Regression analysis was used in order to test the hypothesis for this research. Data analyses: Correlation: Correlations ENTREPRENEURIAL_INTENTIONSPERSONAL_DESIRABILITYEXXPECTANCYVALUEPERCEIVED_DESIRABILTYBELIEF_STRENGTHBELIEF_POWERMOTIVATION_TO_COMPLY ENTREPRENEURIAL_INTENTIONSPearson Correlation1. 520**.

347**. 363**. 207*. 323**. 257**.

296** Sig. (2-tailed). 000. 000. 000.

023. 00. 005. 001 N120120120120120120120120 PERSONAL_DESIRABILITYPearson Correlation. 520**1. 430**.

350**. 349**. 337**. 333**. 166 Sig. (2-tailed).

000. 000. 000. 000. 000. 000.

070 N120120120120120120120120 EXXPECTANCYPearson Correlation. 347**. 430**1. 395**. 283**. 321**.

399**. 320** Sig. (2-tailed). 000. 000. 000.

002. 000. 000. 000 N120120120120120120120120 VALUEPearson Correlation. 363**.

350**. 395**1. 444**. 465**. 342**.

446** Sig. (2-tailed). 000. 000. 000. 000.

000. 000. 000 N120120120120120120120120 PERCEIVED_DESIRABILTYPearson Correlation. 207*. 349**. 283**.

444**1. 291**. 414**. 316** Sig. 2-tailed).

023. 000. 002. 000. 001. 000.

000 N120120120120120120120120 BELIEF_STRENGTHPearson Correlation. 323**. 337**. 321**. 465**.

291**1. 377**. 408** Sig. (2-tailed). 000.

000. 000. 000. 001. 000. 000 N120120120120120120120120 BELIEF_POWERPearson Correlation.

257**. 333**. 399**. 342**. 414**.

377**1. 321** Sig. (2-tailed). 005. 000. 000.

000. 000. 000. 000 N120120120120120120120120 MOTIVATION_TO_COMPLYPearson Correlation. 296**.

166. 320**. 446**. 316**. 408**.

321**1 Sig. (2-tailed). 001. 070. 000. 000.

000. 000. 000 N120120120120120120120120 **. Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed).

. Correlation is significant at the 0. 05 level (2-tailed). H1: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with personal desirability: Personal desirability has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 520), so we will accept H1. H2: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with expectancy: Expectancy has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0.

347), so we will accept H2. H3: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with value: Value has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 63), so we will accept H3. H4: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with perceived desirability: Perceived desirability has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 207), so we will accept H4.

H5: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with belief strength: Belief strength has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (o. 323), so we will accept H5. H6: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with belief power: Belief power has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 57), so we will accept H6. H7: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with motivation to comply: Motivation to comply has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0.

296), so we will accept H7 Regression: Model Summaryb ModelRR SquareAdjusted R SquareStd. Error of the EstimateDurbin-Watson 1. 583a. 340. 298. 705852.

146 a. Predictors: (Constant), MOTIVATION_TO_COMPLY, PERSONAL_DESIRABILITY, BELIEF_POWER, PERCEIVED_DESIRABILTY, BELIEF_STRENGTH, EXXPECTANCY, VALUE b. Dependent Variable: ENTREPRENEURIAL_INTENTIONS Durban Watson value is between 1. 8 and 2. 2, which is good.Our Durban Watson is 2.

146 R square value is also showing that all the variables are having positive correlation with the dependent variable. ANOVAb ModelSum of SquaresdfMean SquareFSig. 1Regression28. 70974. 1018.

232. 000a Residual55. 801112. 498 Total84. 510119 a. Predictors: (Constant), MOTIVATION_TO_COMPLY, PERSONAL_DESIRABILITY, BELIEF_POWER, PERCEIVED_DESIRABILTY, BELIEF_STRENGTH, EXXPECTANCY, VALUE b.

Dependent Variable: ENTREPRENEURIAL_INTENTIONS ?This is showing that at significance level of 0. 000, we are going to have the statistical findings. Residuals Statisticsa MinimumMaximumMeanStd.DeviationN Predicted Value1. 78464. 44463.

5361. 49118120 Residual-2. 065201. 62812. 00000. 68477120 Std.

Predicted Value-3. 5661. 850. 0001. 000120 Std.

Residual-2. 9262. 307. 000. 970120 a.

Dependent Variable: ENTREPRENEURIAL_INTENTIONS Reliability analysis: Reliability Statistics Cronbach’s AlphaN of Items .86725 Our data is showing cronebach alpha as 0. 867,which is quite reliable as it should be more than 0. 600. FINDINGS: H1: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with personal desirability: Personal desirability has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 20),so we will accept H1.

H2: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with expectancy: Expectancy has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 347),so we will accept H2. H3: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with value: Value has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 363),so we will accept H3. H4: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with perceived desirability: Perceived desirability has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0.

07),so we will accept H4. H5: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with belief strenght: Belief strenght has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (o. 323),so we will accept H5. H6: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with belief power: Belief power has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0. 257),so we will accept H6. H7: Entrepreneurial intentions have a positive correlation with motivation to comply: Motivation to comply has a positive correlation with entrepreneurship with the value of (0.

96),so we will accept H7. This is showing that our all variables are in complete relation with our dependent variable: Appendix : Respondents were asked to rate a Likert scale for each of the following statements: Entrepreneurial Intentions(The commitment to starting a new business) I. I have considered becoming an entrepreneur one day. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3.

Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree II. I have given the startup of a business. 1. Strongly Disagree 2.

Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree III.When the opportunity arises, I will become an entrepreneur.

1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5.

Strongly Agree Personal Desirability(The phenomenon when a respondent does responds his own personal views) IV. It seems attractive to become an entrepreneur. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4.

Agree 5. Strongly Agree V. Entrepreneurship would present more benefits than drawbacks. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3.

Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree VI.I dream of being an entrepreneur one day. 1. Strongly Disagree 2.

Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree Expectancy(The act or state of expecting) VII. Entrepreneurs experience a lot of freedom. 1.

Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree VIII. As entrepreneur you can make a good living.

1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5.

Strongly Agree IX. As entrepreneur you can better balance work and private life. 1. Strongly Disagree 2.Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4.

Agree 5. Strongly Agree Value(Worth,desirability,or utility) X. I value freedom in my future profession. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3.

Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XI. I think it is important to earn enough money. 1. Strongly Disagree 2.

Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XII. I would like to meet a lot of challenges in my profession.

1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5.

Strongly AgreePerceived Feasibility(This is defined as the perception regarding their own capacity to carry out a specific behavior) XIII. I have every confidence that I can become an entrepreneur. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3.

Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XIV. I believe I can overcome most obstacles in becoming an entrepreneur. 1. Strongly Disagree 2.

Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XV. I believe to possess sufficient capacities to become an entrepreneur. 1.

Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4.Agree 5. Strongly Agree Belief Strength(Belief in what it is that you desire is one of the most important thoughts and feelings when it comes to the Law of Attraction.

) XVI. An entrepreneur requires having applied knowledge (know how). 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3.

Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XVII. Entrepreneurship requires good external business opportunities. 1.

Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XVIII. Becoming an entrepreneur requires creativity in business ideas.

1. Strongly Disagree 2.Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5.

Strongly Agree Belief Power (The psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true) XIX. I think I have knowledge to become an entrepreneur. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4.

Agree 5. Strongly Agree XX. I am creative enough to formulate new business ideas. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3.

Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XXI. Lack of financial means does not stop me becoming entrepreneur. 1. Strongly Disagree 2.

Disagree 3.Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XXII. An unsupportive climate does not affect my entrepreneurship.

1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree Motivation To Comply(The act of motivating in accordance with some rules) XXIII.

Would you give importance to the opinion before others of becoming anentrepreneur? 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree XXIV.

I would listen to the advice of others when deciding whether to be an entrepreneur. 1. Strongly Disagree 2.Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree 5.

Strongly Agree XXV. My environment has important impact on my decision to become an entrepreneur. 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3.

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