The influence of demographical and professional characteristics on managers’ risk taking propensity

The purpose of this paper is to determine in what way certain demographic and professional characteristics influence managerial risk taking. The research is conducted using the questionnaire on a sample of middle and top level managers employed in small, medium and large Croatian hospitality companies. Research sample consists of 81 Croatian managers. The results of ordinal logistic regression and several statistical tests suggest that certain demographical and professional characteristics determine managerial risk taking. Age, education, management level, income and authority have positive, while dependents and size of a company have negative influence on risk taking propensity. Therefore, it is more probable that older managers with higher education who have lower number of dependents, higher income and authority, and who are employed at a higher level of management in a small hotel companies are greater risk takers comparing to younger managers with lower education who have more dependents, lower income and authority, and who are employed at lower levels of management in a medium and large hotel companies. -- risk taking propensity ; professional characteristics ; demographical characteristics