Screening enterprising personality in youth: an empirical model

Measuring entrepreneurship in adolescents at school: New psychometric evidence on the BEPE-A

The economic situation worldwide demands individuals with entrepreneurial skills and aptitudes. The adolescence stage is a critical period in which these abilities could be developed and the school is a relevant setting for this purpose. To this end, instruments that allow assessing enterprising abilities are needed. Nonetheless, there remains a lack of instruments with adequate evidence of validity. The purpose of this study was, thus, to analyze the psychometric properties of the Battery for the Assessment of the Enterprising Personality-Adaptive (BEPE-A). The sample included a total of 1105 participants (men = 528; 47.4%) with an age range from 12 to 19 years (M = 15.23 years; SD = 4.40). The BEPE-A and the Entrepreneurial Attitudes Scale for Students (EASS) were used in the study. The EFA, conducted in a subsample of 512 participants, revealed that each of the subscales of the BEPE-A were basically unidimensional. The CFA, conducted in a second subsample of 593 participants, showed that a bifactor model best fit the BEPE-A structure. In addition, measurement invariance was found both by gender and age. The BEPE-A was positively associated with other measures of entrepreneurship. Results found in the study contribute valuable information about new evidences of a battery that allows screening for entrepreneurship in a critical developmental period such as adolescence, and in a relevant setting like school.

Basic business knowledge scale for secondary education students. Development and validation with Spanish teenagers

INTRODUCTION

In the current international context, entrepreneurship education claims a privileged place within educational systems, given that it contributes decisively to innovation and to the set of competences demanded in the new knowledge-based economy. The state of the research in this line highlights the existing formative deficiencies at these basic education levels, despite the fact that numerous initiatives of fostering business culture have already been developed. Among the currently existing gaps, conspicuous by its absence is the lack of instruments capable of efficiently measure the basic business knowledge, needed to progressively constitute a consistent business identity stands out. In this sense, we set ourselves the construction and validation of a basic business knowledge scale for the Secondary Education stage.

METHODS

This study was implemented in two phases. In the first phase, the dimensions and components of the Basic Business Knowledge Scale were identified via a systematic review of the literature following the PRISMA-P protocol and a qualitative study. In the second phase, the scale was developed and validated. On the one hand, a content validation was conducted through interviews of experts and students, studying the content validity (the Content Validity Ratio and the Content Validity Index) and the face validity (Think-aloud protocols). On the other hand, the construct validity was analyzed through an Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Then, the reliability was calculated with the Cronbach Alpha and the test stability with a test-retest. The convergent validity has been validated by the average variance extracted (AVE) and the discriminant validity between constructs was established through the AVE estimated for each construct with the squared interconstruct correlations associated with that factor. The sample was made up of 1440 students (679 girls and 761 boys) from age 11 to 17 (M = 14.6, SD = 1.597).

RESULTS

The EFA and the CFA showed evidence of a first-order three-factor structure (Knowledge in Business Management (KBM), Legal Knowledge (LK) and Strategic Knowledge (SK)), and a second-order factor, Basic Business Knowledge. In the construct validity two items were eliminated due to their factor loadings being lower than .40. The results of the fit indices contributed acceptable values regarding the proposed model. The three subscales and the scale as a whole revealed a satisfactory internal consistency with Cronbach alphas over .75. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was above .90, showing an appropriate stability. The convergent validity offers values over .80 in the composite reliability (CR) and the average variance extracted (AVE) is greater than .50. Moreover, in the divergent validity, the values of the square root of the AVE are greater than the correlations with the other constructs. Finally, the Basic Business Knowledge Scale has 18 items.

CONCLUSIONS

We find evidence concerning the validity and reliability of the Basic Business Knowledge Scale, tested with Spanish Secondary Education students within the compulsory stage of teaching. We believe that this Scale can contribute to a better understanding of the formation of indispensable basic culture to establish a genuine business spirit.

Development of a computerized adaptive test to assess entrepreneurial personality

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

Entrepreneurial behavior is of great importance nowadays owing to its significance in the generation of economic, social, personal, and cultural wellbeing. This behavior is influenced by cognitive and personality characteristics, as well as by socioeconomic and contextual factors. Entrepreneurial personality is made up of a set of psychological traits including self-efficacy, autonomy, innovation, internal locus of control, achievement motivation, optimism, stress tolerance, and risk-taking. The aim of this research is the development of a computerized adaptive test (CAT) to evaluate entrepreneurial personality.

METHOD

A bank of 120 items was created evaluating various aspects of the entrepreneurial personality. The items were calibrated with the Samejima Graded Response Model using a sample of 1170 participants (Mage = 42.34; SDage = 12.96).

RESULTS

The bank of items had an essentially unidimensional fit to the model. The CAT exhibited high accuracy for evaluating a wide range of θ scores, using a mean of 16 items with a very low standard error (M = 0.157). Relative validity evidence for the CAT was obtained with two additional tests of entrepreneurial personality (the Battery for the Assessment of the Enterprising Personality and the Measure of Enterpreneurial Tendencies and Abilities), with correlations of .908 and .657, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The CAT developed has appropriate psychometric properties for the evaluation of entrepreneurial people.

Grit as Predictor of Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment in Spain

Extending the growing literature on the role of grit in different life domains, this research explores the relationship between grit and involvement in entrepreneurship. The research highlights the role of personal income and satisfaction with one’s current financial situation as moderators of the relationship between grit and entrepreneurial behavior. Using a large representative sample of Spanish young adults and controlling for a number of potential confounding variables, we find that grit is modestly negatively related to the probability of involvement in entrepreneurship. As predicted, however, this relationship is qualified by both income and satisfaction with current financial situation, though in opposite directions and more weakly for satisfaction with financial status. Gritty individuals with higher levels of income are more prone to become entrepreneurs than gritty individuals with lower levels of income. Gritty individuals with lower levels of satisfaction with their financial situation are more likely to set up a business or become self-employed.

Assessment of Eight Entrepreneurial Personality Dimensions: Validity Evidence of the BEPE Battery

Background: The study of entrepreneurial activity has undergone intense development in recent decades. Traditionally this topic has been addressed from three approaches: economic, sociological and psychological. In the study of enterprising personality, two fundamental perspectives stand out: the use of general personality traits, like the Big Five, and the use of more specific traits related to entrepreneurial spirit, such as self-efficacy, autonomy, innovation, optimism, and others. The objective of this study is to provide validity evidence for a new instrument for measuring eight specific dimensions of entrepreneurial personality (BEPE). Methods: The sample was composed of 1,170 adults from the general population (59.9% women). The average age was 42.34 years with a standard deviation of 12.96. Of the sample, 13% were self-employed. Internal factorial structure and reliability of BEPE were examined. The relationships with other variables and the discriminative capacity of the BEPE between different groups of workers were analyzed. Results: First order exploratory factor analyses show the essential unidimensionality of each of the eight proposed sub-scales, with factorial weights ranging between 0.341 and 0.825. In the Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the best fit was achieved with a Bifactor model. With regards to reliability, the eight BEPE sub-scales gave high alpha coefficient values, between 0.81 and 0.89, as did the total battery (0.97). BEPE sub-scales show a high canonical correlation with the Big Five personality factors (0.796) and with the sub-scales of the Measure of Entrepreneurial Talents and Abilities questionnaire (0.779). Conclusion: The BEPE questionnaire for the evaluation of the eight fundamental specific dimensions of the entrepreneurial personality presents adequate psychometric properties. Its relationships with other measures of personality traits are in line with what is expected. Therefore, the BEPE is a new measurement instrument that can be used with confidence both in the applied field and in research.

Gender-based Differential Item Functioning in the Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior for the Study of Entrepreneurial Intentions

Over the past years the percentage of female entrepreneurs has increased, yet it is still far below of that for males. Although various attempts have been made to explain differences in mens’ and women’s entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions, the extent to which those differences are due to self-report biases has not been yet considered. The present study utilized Differential Item Functioning (DIF) to compare men and women’s reporting on entrepreneurial intentions. DIF occurs in situations where members of different groups show differing probabilities of endorsing an item despite possessing the same level of the ability that the item is intended to measure. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the present study investigated whether constructs such as entrepreneurial attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms and intention would show gender differences and whether these gender differences could be explained by DIF. Using DIF methods on a dataset of 1800 Greek participants (50.4% female) indicated that differences at the item-level are almost non-existent. Moreover, the differential test functioning (DTF) analysis, which allows assessing the overall impact of DIF effects with all items being taken into account simultaneously, suggested that the effect of DIF across all the items for each scale was negligible. Future research should consider that measurement invariance can be assumed when using TPB constructs for the study of entrepreneurial motivation independent of gender.

Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale: Adaptation to Spanish

Entrepreneurship is linked to the perception of opportunities, to orientation, to attitudes, to the fear of failure and to entrepreneurial motivations. Entrepreneurial orientation is a fundamental construct for understanding the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. What is more, it is multidimensional and has attracted considerable attention from researchers in recent years. The objective of this study was to adapt the original 12-item English scale to Spanish and to analyze its psychometric properties. The participants in the present study were 925 Spanish employees (48.2% men, 51.5% women, M age = 42.49 years, SD age = 11.25) from the Autonomous Communities of Catalonia and Castilla-León. After applying an ESEM (RMSEA = .06; CFI = .97 and TLI = .95) a structure was determined made up of four factors which corroborated the structure of the original scale: Autonomy (α = .71 and CI = .68 - .73), Innovativeness (α = .70 and CI = .67 - .73), Risk Taking (α = .72 and CI = .68 - .74) and Competitive Aggressiveness (α = .70 and CI = .67 - .73). The four factors displayed suitable reliability. The study also found evidences of validity in relation to a series of external correlates and various scales which refer to workaholism, irritation and burnout. The scale presented here may prove useful for satisfactorily identifying, in Spanish, the entrepreneurial orientation of the working population.