Entrepreneurial Orientation and Family Background : A Correlation Analysis

Entrepreneurial orientation is the individual’s inclination to start new venture. In addition to an array of external factors, some socio-demographic characteristics such as family background, education, age, and sex influence the entrepreneurial activity. In terms of individual approach, demographic variables have an important role in being entrepreneurial. It is pertinent to analyse the entrepreneurial orientation of educated youth of India where the policy makers are looking upon the under 25 population as the future pool of entrepreneurs and employment originators. The present study aims at identifying the correlation between family background and entrepreneurial orientation of management students. A sample of 200 final year post-graduate management students are selected randomly from leading management institutes in Warangal region of the state of Andhra Pradesh. The responses collected through questionnaire were initially subjected to component reduction and the resultant 11 factors representing the critical dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation were tested for correlation with family occupation of the respondents. All the eleven factors yield significant correlation with family background. While one factor – persistence, yielded a perfect positive correlation, others exhibited inverse correlation. The inverse nature of the correlation establish that the intensity of these factors tend to decrease while the occupational differences increase and vice versa