Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Entrepreneurial Intentions: A Cross-Culturals Study of Potential Entrepreneurs in India, China, Thailand and Australia

The intention of an individual to behave entrepreneurially arises because the entrepreneur perceives self-employment (or entrepreneurial behaviour within an organization) to be utility-maximizing, and thus forms the motivation to behave entrepreneurially. As argued elsewhere, the intention to behave entrepreneurially depends on the human capital of the individual. Here we argue that human capital includes not only personal abilities and social capital but also innate attitudes to aspects of entrepreneurship, such as independence, firm ownership and risk. Thus the motive for pursuing self employment (or any other entrepreneurial behaviour) is considered as a function of an individual’s abilities and attitudes. This study investigated the relationship between entrepreneurial attitudes and abilities and entrepreneurial intentions across four countries, viz: India, China, Thailand and Australia. We find that entrepreneurial attitudes are significant in explaining career decisions in all four countries with some variation in the relative importance of each of these attitudes. We also find cross-cultural differences in the degree to which entrepreneurial attitudes explain entrepreneurial intentions.