Extant studies on entrepreneurial success usually focus on the process of resource acquisition and value creation. While these have led to a deeper understanding of the social network and resource support requirements of entrepreneurs, they have shed less light on the antecedents to the propensity for entrepreneurial activity. This gap is being filled by such studies as Kourilsky and Walstad (1998) who tried to understand the pre-entrepreneurial characteristics of students to understand how entrepreneurship education should be structured. Our study adds to this growing literature by modeling the pre-entrepreneurial characteristics of Asian undergraduate and graduate students as antecedents to the propensity for entrepreneurship, defined as the likelihood that students will create their own ventures after graduating. Specifically, these antecedents are hypothesized to fall into three categories: personal background and past experience, beliefs about the importance of organization on entrepreneurial success and attitudes about entrepreneurship. Background and attitudes are hypothesized to predict the propensity for entrepreneurship while beliefs are hypothesized to moderate the relationship between attitudes and the propensity to start a new business.

Method

Data is collected from a sample of 13014 undergraduate and graduate students at a large Asian university. The response rate was 60.98%. Preliminary response analyses revealed no response biases. The survey instrument is based on scales constructed from past studies in entrepreneurial attitudes and knowledge. The dependent variables were measured as the likelihood of starting a business and the interest in starting a business. The variables on attitudes and knowledge were measured using Likert scales. We determined there was little method variance problems. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses and assess the additional variance explained by the moderating variables.

Implications

The results broadly confirm the research model and imply that both entrepreneurship education and early education to create the right attitudes towards entrepreneurship are important for encouraging entrepreneurial behavior. Also, the greater the opportunity cost of failure (as measured by the amount of formal education) the less likely that an individual will risk starting a new venture. High levels of human capital represent a high marginal product of labor and therefore high salary potential for the individual. As these investments have to be recovered, it is more likely that the individual will seek employment rather than new venture activity.