Comparison of Entrepreneurial Intention Level between Overseas Scholarship Recipients and Local Students in Taiwan

National Chiao-Tung UniversityMarketing ResearchProf. Charles TrappeyFall 2007

Karen Ochaeta 9573601

Outline

• Introduction• Literature Review• Research Questions• Hypotheses• Methodology• Results• Analysis and Discussion• Limitations• Conclusion• Future Research• References

Introduction

• Based on previous studies about entrepreneurial intention models, the present research aims to establish the entrepreneurial intention level of two samples: overseas students under a scholarship programme in Taiwan and local students, both on the second year of Master degree (students facing career decisions).

• The purpose of this research it to find out if there is a direct relationship between the entrepreneurial intention level and the situation under individuals study their graduate career (i.e. overseas or locally) and at which degree it affects its decision to start a new business in the future.

Literature Review

• Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking that emphasizes opportunities over threats.

• Intentions are valid predictors of entrepreneurial behavior.

• Attitudes influence behavior by their impact on intentions.

• Intentions and attitudes depend on the situation and person.

• Intention models will predict behavior better than individual (personality) variables (Krueger, 2000).

Literature Review

• According to Segal (2005), the motivation to become an entrepreneur follows the pattern shown in the Figure below:

Personal Background Attitude Conviction Intention

Situation

Literature Review

• Other researchers have established a similar pattern, although with small variances (Liñan, 2005)

PerceivedDesirability

Propensityto act

Intention

PerceivedFeasibility

Research Questions

• Question No.1: The difference between the level of entrepreneurial intention of two groups of students –local and overseas- can be used to determine the influence of international education experience on entrepreneurial behavior?

• Question No. 2: Are the entrepreneurial attitude and intentions among overseas scholarship recipients in Taiwan influenced by the experience gained during the programme?

• Question No. 3: Are the entrepreneurial attitude and intentions among overseas scholarship recipients in Taiwan influenced by the knowledge acquired during the programme?

Hypotheses

• Hypothesis 1: The entrepreneurial intention level between local and overseas students is different

• Hypothesis 2: The perceived influence that the experience of graduate education has over entrepreneurial intention is different between local and overseas students

• Hypothesis 3: There is a direct relationship between the experience of graduate education and the entrepreneurial intention level

Methodology• Sample

• 28 overseas students under a Scholarship Programme, coming from developing countries from 2 different universities in Taiwan

• 28 local students from 1 university

• Questionnaire – Likert Scale

Second year of Master degree Technology Management, Computer Science, and Industrial Engineering Management

Professional Attraction

Entrepreneurial Capacity

Entrepreneurial Intention

Education Experience

Graduate Education

International Education

Local students

overseas

1

2

3

4

Methodology• Data Analysis

Comparison of sections (1), (2), and (3) of both samples,

local and overseas students to test hypothesis 1 and 2

T-testCorrelation

analysis

Establish the strength of relationship among

Graduate/International education experience and

level of entrepreneurialintention to test

hypothesis 3

Results• Hypothesis 1: The professional attraction toward entrepreneurship is

different between local and overseas students (not supported)

• Hypothesis 2: The entrepreneurial intention level between local and overseas students is different (supported)

• Hypothesis 3: The perceived influence that the experience of graduate education has over entrepreneurial intention is different between local and overseas students (supported)

Local Students

Overseas Students

Pr > t NullHypothesis

Hypothesis Supported?

Professional Attraction

4.61 5.37 0.0056 n/a n/a

Entrepreneurial Intention

4.13 5.42 0.0003 Rejected YES

Perceived Influence of graduate education experience

3.43 5.20 <0.0001

Rejected YES

Results• Correlation analysis for overseas students

ProfessionalAttraction(Perceived

Desirability)

EntrepreneurialCapacity(perceivedFeasibility)

GraduateEducation Experience(situation)

EntrepreneurialIntention

0.63

0.86

0.50

0.33

Significant correlation

Weak association

Weak association

Strong association

x

Conviction

Results• Correlation analysis for local students

ProfessionalAttraction(Perceived

Desirability)

EntrepreneurialCapacity(perceivedFeasibility)

GraduateEducation Experience(situation)

EntrepreneurialIntention

0.52

0.56

0.61

0.80

Weak association

Weak association

Strong association

Weak association

Conviction

Discussion• Although the level of entrepreneurial intention between local and

overseas students is significantly different, it is possible to establish a pattern of behavior based on the correlation analysis of the responses.

• For local students, the perceived feasibility (entrepreneurial capacity) of becoming entrepreneurs is strongly associated to the graduate education experience, nevertheless it does not affect positively the entrepreneurial intention level, since they perceive that their capacity is not enough to take the risk of running a business.

• The previous statement is the contrary for overseas students; they perceive that the graduate experience does not influence directly the entrepreneurial capacity –the knowledge associated with it- but it does influence the entrepreneurial intention level. In this case, this behavior can be related to the fact they are considering the graduate education experience as an incentive to become entrepreneurs based on the overall experience of studying abroad.

Limitations

• Availability of overseas students under different graduate programmes.

• Difficulties to do sample segmentation in order to eliminate the personal background factor and its influence over the entrepreneurial intention level.

Conclusion

• The present research has addressed a situational factor that can affect the entrepreneurial intention level of a sample of graduate students that are about to face career decisions. The cultural background clearly influences the decision making, nevertheless the results show how the experience of studying abroad is directly related to the intention level of becoming an entrepreneur in the future, and how different cultures perceive the influence that academic education has on entrepreneurial capacity.

Future Research

• Test the difference between overseas students before and after the graduate programme to eliminate the cultural factor during the comparison of two samples.

• Establish the specific experiences and situations (e.g. internship, career design) that might have influence over entrepreneurial intention for overseas students.

References• Douglas, E., and Shepherd, D. (2002). Self-employment as a career choice: attitudes

entrepreneurial intentions, and utility maximization. Journal of Entrepreneurial Theory and Practice, 26(3), 81-90.

• Krueger, N.F., Reilly, M.D., and Carsrud, A. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15, 411-432.

• Legget, K. (2007). International education is helping to spread the benefits of social entrepreneurship across the globe. International Educator Journal, 6, 31-38.

• Liñán, F., and Chen, Y.W. (2006). Testing the entrepreneurial intention model on a two country sample. Document de Treball d’economia dell’empresa, 37.

• Liñán, F., Rodríguez, J.C., and Rueda, J.M. (2005). Factors affecting entrepreneurial intention levels. 45th Congress of European Regional Science Association. Amsterdam.

• Paasio, K., and Pukkinen, T. (2006). Path dependency in becoming an entrepreneur. 51st World Conference of International Council for Small Business, 8.

• Segal, G., Borgia, D., and Schoenfeld, J. (2005). The motivation to become an entrepreneur. Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 11(1), 42-57.

• Schroder, E., and Schmitt-Rodermnd, E., (2006). Crystallizing enterprising interests among adolescents though a career development program: The role of personality and family background. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69, 494-509.