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The purpose of this paper is to test a model of entrepreneurial intentions among secondary students based on their psychological characteristics. Furthermore, this seeks to determine whether teenage students (14-15 years old) possess entrepreneurial characteristics and whether these characteristics correspond to entrepreneurial intentions.

A sample of secondary students was chosen ranging from 14 to 15 years old. Data were collected through a questionnaire and analysed by univarite statistics and structural equations modelling (PLS) to measure the relationship between the psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions.

The results demonstrate there is a relationship between (some) psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions. The propensity to risk negatively influences entrepreneurial intentions, meanwhile self-confidence and the need for achievement positively influence the construct. The relationship between tolerance and ambiguity, locus of control and innovativeness with entrepreneurial intentions reported no statistical significance.

The results reinforce the idea that psychological characteristics (trait approach) influence entrepreneurial intentions. However, the model needs further development through the incorporation of behavioural characteristics. This would allow for the understanding of whether behaviour and trait theories oppose or complement each other.

The paper provides important evidence for improving entrepreneurship education for young students. First, it is important to incite and develop some psychological characteristics in order to promote entrepreneurial intentions. Second, entrepreneurship curricula should jointly develop both entrepreneurial characteristics and the awareness among students about the viability of an entrepreneurial career. This may be achieved not only by presenting entrepreneurs as role models, promoting an entrepreneurial culture but also by developing entrepreneurial skills that improve self-confidence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics and personal values of a successful entrepreneur in order to understand the quality of such characteristics. Thus, this paper aims to investigate how these characteristics and personal values impact strategic decision-making and outcomes driving the success and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The research question is answered through a single case study approach based on the case of the charismatic and flourishing entrepreneur and owner of Gemar Balloons, a balloon-manufacturing company established in the centre of Italy a century ago.

The paper shows how the success of SMEs in a dynamic environment is influenced by the central resource, “the entrepreneur”, whose entrepreneurial mindset, culture and leadership are essential and partially replicable. They allow strategic management to seek opportunities and develop innovation, achieving competitive advantages and creating wealth.

This paper contributes to an understanding of how values and specific personal characteristics establish an entrepreneurial mindset, culture and leadership, and whether and how these factors are exportable and repeatable. In this way, it allows a better understanding of how possible it is to establish an entrepreneurial mindset and culture by working on a younger generation's values and characteristics. Moreover, it explains why and how entrepreneurial SME leaders are best able to make decisions and manage resources strategically to create competitive advantages.

The paper is new because it shows the distinctive values and characteristics influencing the emerging strategic decision-making model and corporate outcomes.

A better understanding of the characteristics and capabilities of women entrepreneurs can significantly improve their chances of success. Therefore, three studies were conducted for this exploratory paper. We have discovered the characteristics of entrepreneurial intelligence among female entrepreneurs through semi-structured interviews based on conventional content analysis. According to the second study, qualitative meta-synthesis was utilized to identify characteristics of women's entrepreneurial intelligence at the international level. As a third study, we examined the evolutionary relationships of entrepreneurs' intelligence components following the discovery and creation of opportunities.

The present paper was based on three studies. In the first study, 15 female entrepreneurs were interviewed using purposive sampling in the Guilan province of Iran to identify the characteristics of entrepreneurial intelligence at the national level. An inductive content analysis was performed on the data collected through interviews. Using Shannon entropy and qualitative validation, their validity was assessed. In the second study, using a qualitative meta-synthesis, the characteristics of women's entrepreneurial intelligence were identified. Then the results of these two studies were compared with each other. In the third study, according to the results obtained from the first and second studies, the emergence, priority and evolution of entrepreneurial intelligence components in two approaches to discovering and creating entrepreneurial opportunities were determined. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with 12 selected experts using the purposeful sampling method using the fuzzy total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) method.

In the first research, this article identified the components of entrepreneurial intelligence of women entrepreneurs in six categories: entrepreneurial insights, cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, intuitive intelligence, presumptuous intelligence and provocative intelligence. In the second study, the components of entrepreneurial intelligence were compared according to the study at the national level and international literature. Finally, in the third study, the evolution of the components of entrepreneurial intelligence was determined. In the first level, social intelligence, presumptuous intelligence and provocative intelligence are formed first and social intelligence and provocative intelligence have an interactive relationship. In the second level, entrepreneurial insight and cognitive intelligence appear, which, in addition to their interactive relationship, take precedence over the entrepreneur's intuitive intelligence in discovering entrepreneurial opportunities. With the evolution of the components of entrepreneurial intelligence in the opportunity creation approach, it is clear that intuitive intelligence is formed first at the first level and takes precedence. At the second level, there is cognitive intelligence is created. At the third level, motivational intelligence and finally, at the last level, entrepreneurial insight, social intelligence and bold intelligence.

This study has the potential to discover credible and robust approaches for further examining the contextualization of women's entrepreneurial intelligence at both national and international levels, thereby advancing new insights. By conceptualizing various components of entrepreneurial intelligence for the first time and exploring how contextual factors differ across nations and internationally for women's entrepreneurship, this paper challenges the assumption that the characteristics of women's entrepreneurial intelligence are uniform worldwide. It also depicts the evolution of the components of entrepreneurial intelligence.

Recognizing women’s potential and directing their talents to realize these potentials can be of great benefit. Accordingly, this paper aims to identify the characteristics of entrepreneurial intelligence in female entrepreneurs, drawing on a national-level study and the international literature on this topic.

The present paper conducted two studies. First, 15 female entrepreneurs in the Guilan province of Iran, who were selected using purposive sampling, were interviewed to identify the characteristics of entrepreneurial intelligence nationally. The data gathered by interviews were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Then, their validity was tested using qualitative validation and analyzed using Shannon entropy. In the second study, the characteristics of female entrepreneurial intelligence were identified through a qualitative metasynthesis. The results of the two studies were compared together.

This categorized entrepreneurial intelligence into six categories, namely, entrepreneurial insights, cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, intuitive intelligence, presumptuous intelligence and provocative intelligence. Ultimately the characteristics of women’s entrepreneurial intelligence in each category were compared according to the national-level study and the international literature.

This study has the potential to discover credible and robust approaches for further examining the contextualization of women’s entrepreneurial intelligence at both national and international levels, thereby advancing new insights. By conceptualizing various dimensions of entrepreneurial intelligence for the first time and exploring how contextual factors differ across nations and internationally for women’s entrepreneurship, this paper challenges the assumption that the characteristics of women’s entrepreneurial intelligence are uniform across the world.

This study explores entrepreneurial decision-making in the equity crowdfunding (ECF) context, and it aims to shed some light on the relationship among three aspects: entrepreneurial characteristics (i.e. entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial self-efficacy), entrepreneurial motivations (i.e. promotion, improvement of networking and acquisition of product and market knowledge) and entrepreneurial behaviours (i.e. campaign characteristics in terms of communication and offerings).

The hypotheses testing and analysis were conducted using the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling, and data were collected from the overall population of Italian ECF platforms.

Our results highlight that entrepreneurial characteristics may be central in ECF because of their significant impact on some motivation entrepreneurs have to adopt ECF, which in turn have an impact on meaningful campaign characteristics that can influence ECF performance.

The current literature is mainly focused on investors' decisions, while a neglected perspective until now has been that of entrepreneurs. This study is among the first to focus on entrepreneurs in the ECF context, and, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first study to investigate the entrepreneurial decision-making process. The added value of this research lies in the analysis of the entrepreneurial aspects underlying entrepreneurial decisions to use ECF.

This study focussed on investigating the impact of entrepreneurial characteristics on the entrepreneurial intention of university students in Nigeria.

This research adopted a survey research design via a well-constructed questionnaire. The study's sample size consisted of 354 aspiring student entrepreneurs.

The result from the statistical analysis revealed that the entrepreneurial characteristics, especially risk tolerance, the need for achievement and the locus of control (LoC) significantly influence students' entrepreneurial intentions.

One implication of this study is that risk tolerance has a positive influence on the ability to identify business opportunities. Thus, when persons pay adequate attention to tolerating risks, they have more chances of identifying business opportunities. Despite the valuable contribution made by this research, an important area of future research is to carry out investigations that use a more robust sample size and a multivariate analysis to identify the impact of entrepreneurial competencies on entrepreneurial intentions of university youths from a cross-country perspective amongst developing economies.

There are very little understanding and empirical evidence about how the entrepreneurial characteristics of the youths, especially those in the formal university system of developing countries like Nigeria, can determine and direct their intentions to venture into entrepreneurship endeavours. This study, therefore, undertakes an interventionist role to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Nigeria.

This paper aims to establish the antecedents of the entrepreneurial intentions in the case of youth beneficiaries of entrepreneurial higher education studies and/or entrepreneurial role models, being grounded in the theoretical framework of rational action and planned behavior (TPB) reference model (Ajzen, 1991, 2002).

The quantitative study took place in the biggest academic center in the western part of Romania, by applying a questionnaire-based survey between 2008 and 2015 on 650 students, both female and male participants. The authors’ research endeavor to model different types of factors influencing entrepreneurial intentions, required the assessment of alternative configuration models via structural equation modeling, completed with several statistical tools, including descriptive statistics, scale reliability, factor and validity analysis, respectively, pairwise critical ratio differences.

At the level of investigated sample, composed of 650 students from the Timisoara academic center, the empirical results of the study highlighted that: entrepreneurial higher education training and behavioral characteristics are significant and direct predictors of entrepreneurial intentions; behavioral characteristics also mediates the influence of psychological characteristics and of parental or social environmental specific entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial intentions; gender identity is a moderator, differentiating the direct effects of entrepreneurial education and behavioral characteristics on entrepreneurial intentions.

The proposed research model does not seek to explain the inclination of the surveyed students to act according to their entrepreneurial intention; also, the obtained empirical results cannot be generalized because of the restricted sample size. The theoretical utility of the research regards the predictability enhancement of the reference TPB model on identifying the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions in diverse national contexts and investigated populations. At practical level, the study sustains the importance of tertiary entrepreneurial education in stimulating youth’s entrepreneurial intentions, especially for women, along with the detection of motives of preferring an entrepreneurial career and sustaining it through personalized entrepreneurial education programs.

The papers originality is conferred by the following: large, comprehensive and relevant investigation sphere of the direct, mediator and moderator influencing factors of entrepreneurial intentions in the case of youth; respectively by research methodology applying four configuration models; and the empirical analysis performed via structural equation modeling and multi-group moderation. The value of the paper consists in its theoretical and empirical contribution on investigating and enhancing the role of entrepreneurial spirit stimulating academic education for specific contexts and investigated groups.

Unemployment is the biggest issue for all the developing countries, especially India, where millions of educated people are passed out every year from different educational institutes, but against this, the jobs are not being generated. This situation will only be addressed effectively when the government/authorities make more efforts to identify/create potential entrepreneurs. The present study investigates the relationship of entrepreneurial characteristics on entrepreneurial attitude and intention among engineering undergraduates engaged in various technical institutions in Chhattisgarh state.

Stratified random sampling was used to collect sample of 1,000 engineering undergraduates enrolled in third and fourth year at different technical institutions of Chhattisgarh state.

Structural equation modelling and hierarchal multiple regression analysis were incorporated, and the analysis revealed that the entrepreneurial characteristic was found to be a significant predictor of entrepreneurial attitude and intention of engineering undergraduates. The study also discusses managerial implications, limitations and avenues for future research.

Looking at the current scenario, the present study discusses with several factors influencing entrepreneurial attitude and intention of engineering undergraduates, which might be the only solution to a significant issue, i.e. unemployment. In addition, there is a huge lack of research in addressing unemployment issue through entrepreneurship in the state of Chhattisgarh.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the entrepreneurial characteristics among university students in India studying business and also comparing the levels of entrepreneurial characteristics between entrepreneurially inclined and entrepreneurially not inclined students.

In this study, the authors included six entrepreneurial characteristics, namely, risk taking propensity, innovativeness, locus of control, need for achievement, general self-efficacy and tolerance for ambiguity to define the entrepreneurial profile of students. Convenient sampling was used for collecting the data using a seven-point Likert scale based on 38-items self-administered questionnaire. Data were collected from three universities of different cities, namely, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, CSJM University, Kanpur and KMCUAF University, Lucknow. In total, 300 questionnaires were distributed in each of the universities, and 719 questionnaires were found statistically suitable for the study. Students were asked the question “What career option are you planning to choose after completing your graduation?” to know the inclination of the students.

Results of the t-test confirmed that levels of all the entrepreneurial characteristics are higher in entrepreneurially inclined students when compared to entrepreneurially not inclined students except in terms of general self-efficacy. Thus, entrepreneurially inclined students carry higher risk taking propensity, innovativeness, locus of control, need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity.

This study is confined only to undergraduate students from business background, and only three universities were included in the sample. Further research can be done taking students from different streams, namely, engineering, science and technology and arts etc. University-wise studies can also be conducted with the view to bring comparability among the students in terms of levels of entrepreneurial characteristics based upon the inclination shown.

This research provides the deeper understanding about what course contents are effective in developing entrepreneurial characteristics among the students and what are to be added with the view to raise potential entrepreneurs.

This paper contributes to establishing the differences across different entrepreneurial characteristics between entrepreneurially inclined and non-inclined undergraduate students.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the microfoundations of student entrepreneurship, a cornerstone of innovation ecosystems. To this end, this paper assesses how perceived university support for entrepreneurship influences entrepreneurial characteristics and intentions in students enrolled at Amazonas and São Paulo State Universities.

A quantitative approach based on multivariate data analysis using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 420 respondents.

Results indicate that the university environment positively influences entrepreneurial behavior and intention in students. Nonetheless, further integration between academia and external dimensions of the ecosystems is necessary to drive more intense entrepreneurial activity in students. The educational contexts of Amazonas and São Paulo present significant differences in the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intention with a stronger influence found for Amazonas. This finding suggests a relative lack of propensity of students from São Paulo to engage in entrepreneurial venturing.

The main limitations involve the use of non-probabilistic sampling procedures and students’ heterogeneity in terms of academic seniority.

This research offers guidance for policies targeting the generation of entrepreneurial activity in universities embedded in developing countries’ innovation ecosystems and facing distinct levels of socioeconomic development.

This research presents a novel analysis of the microfoundations driving student entrepreneurship within different educational contexts in a developing country. Results highlight the necessary conditions for universities to foster entrepreneurial activity and, incidentally, feed innovation ecosystems with entrepreneurial talent.