Family Entrepreneurship and Personal Career Preferences as the Factors of Differences in the Development of Entrepreneurial Potential of Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the differences in family entrepreneurship background and personal attitudes of students regarding their future career preferences and its effects on the development of specific dimensions of entrepreneurship potential of a student population. The sample consisted of a student population from Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina as EU candidate countries and Belgium as an EU member country. A sample of 1008 university students from these three countries participated in this research. Instruments used in this research were the Questionnaire of Entrepreneurial Traits (QET) and the Scale of Entrepreneurial Potential (SEP). Canonical discriminant analysis confirmed significant differences in scores on both QET and SEP scales of entrepreneurial potential between students that have family entrepreneurship background and those who do not. Differences were also shown among students who strive for self-employment, and consider establishing their own business, and students who would like to find employment in the state or private sector. Young people whose family members are engaged in entrepreneurship are influenced by their parents who started companies, parents’ personal characteristics, and parent’s model of behavior, which significantly shapes the behavior and characteristics of these young people, compared to those young people whose parents do not start companies. Young people who prefer to build a career within their own enterprise have basic characteristics that predispose them for engagement in entrepreneurship within their own company, whereby this provides them with the only way they can achieve the full capacity of their individual potential. Both these groups display a more developed initiative, independence in decision making, they are more open minded and prone to take on risks, have more developed organizational skills, and more positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Results of this study can help identify and foster factors that significantly develop specific characteristics of entrepreneurship potential of student populations, such as family entrepreneurship background and career preferences.

Psychological and sociological determinants of entrepreneurial intentions and behaviors

“…Third, sociological factors were much less important than psychological elements for establishing a business, yet entrepreneurial local support background showed some effect. Interestingly, the finding that a person’s family entrepreneurial background is not related to entrepreneurship (in terms of starting a business) contradicts findings of past studies based on students (e.g., Marques et al, 2018 ; Mitrovic Veljkovic et al, 2019 ; Georgescu and Herman, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2021 ) and confirms the notion that actual entrepreneurs need to be included as respondents in entrepreneurship research ( Salmony and Kanbach, 2022 ).…”

“…Following the suggestions of Antončič et al (2015) and somewhat less so the findings of Rauch and Frese (2000 , 2007) , we found that the Big Five are the most important for starting companies, with specific motivational personality characteristics also being important, and sociological factors being less important. This study contributes to past research on entrepreneurial personality (e.g., Antončič et al, 2015 ; Murugesan and Jayavelu, 2017 ; Şahin et al, 2019 ; Sahinidis et al, 2020 ; Salmony and Kanbach, 2022 ) and sociological determinants of entrepreneurship (family entrepreneurial background, e.g., Dombrovsky and Welter, 2010 ; Schenkel et al, 2013 ; Marques et al, 2018 ; Mitrovic Veljkovic et al, 2019 ; Georgescu and Herman, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2021 ; local supportive entrepreneurial background, e.g., Reynolds et al, 2005 ; Wong et al, 2005 ; Hisrich et al, 2013 ) by developing the model and providing evidence about the relative importance of psychological and sociological factors for business start-up intentions and behaviors. This study contributes in terms of methodology to research on the Big Five personality characteristics and entrepreneurship (e.g., Murugesan and Jayavelu, 2017 ; Şahin et al, 2019 ; Sahinidis et al, 2020 ; Salmony and Kanbach, 2022 ) by using a sub-sample of actual entrepreneurs and three variables of entrepreneurship.…”

“… Marques et al (2018) studied entrepreneurship educations and discovered gender and family background variables as moderators with a positive impact on individual entrepreneurial orientation of students. Mitrovic Veljkovic et al (2019) pointed out that family entrepreneurship background is important for entrepreneurial preferences of students. Georgescu and Herman (2020) found relationships between entrepreneurial family background, entrepreneurial personality traits, effectiveness of entrepreneurship education, and entrepreneurial intentions of students.…”

Mitigating the lack of prior entrepreneurial experience and exposure through entrepreneurship education programs

“…Individuals with family members (particularly parents) running firms are said to be more likely to engage in entrepreneurial activity (Hamilton, 2011). Students with entrepreneurial parents have been found to be more influenced toward entrepreneurial activities than those having non-entrepreneurial parents (Veljkovic et al, 2019). Students entering a VCP with an entrepreneurial pedigree should therefore benefit from the visceral learning provided through family-based embeddedness in entrepreneurial activity when initiating new entrepreneurial efforts in the program and therefor more actively choosing an entrepreneurial career after graduation, leading to the following hypothesis:…”

“…, 2020; Barrett, 2014). Veljkovic et al. (2019) investigated the career preferences of students with entrepreneurial parents vs non-entrepreneurial parents, finding those with entrepreneurial parents are influenced by parents' characteristics and behavior toward entrepreneurial activity.…”