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The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of getting a higher education degree in a developed country on entrepreneurial intentions of individuals in developing countries by using the social cognitive career choice theory.

A quantitative methodology was utilised through the application of a questionnaire in a sample located in Northern Cyprus.

This research found that for the students who study abroad, the effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, outcome expectations and entrepreneurial interest on entrepreneurial career choices are different than for students who study in their homeland. This finding indicates that the location of the university differentiates the antecedents of entrepreneurial career choice of university students.

This research has similar limitations to any cross-sectional research. Conversion of these intentions to behaviour should be explored further. Moreover, different models, such as the theory of planned behaviour, should be incorporated to determine if there are significant, meaningful differences between both groups.

The authors did not come across any other research combining the social cognitive career theory and the study abroad subject relating to entrepreneurial career choice. Thus, this research makes a unique contribution to the entrepreneurial career choice theory by showing the moderating role of studying abroad.

The low number of women in the information technology (IT) field is a concern. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors behind the exclusion of girls from the IT field.

The present work includes a narrative literature review and an exploratory interview study with ten girls and six study guidance counsellors (GCs) from Finnish senior high schools. Using the nexus analysis as a theoretical lens, the authors examined the exclusion of girls from IT.

Earlier literature directed attention to the cultural norms, assumptions and stereotypes still prevalent in society and the lack of role models and positive media as factors contributing to girls excluding themselves from the IT field. In this research study’s data, the authors not only found evidence of the unintentional exclusion of girls from IT by others but also by the girls themselves. Findings of this research study illustrate the various discourses, actors and their interactions, their background and history-related factors affecting girls' career choices. The novelty of this study is in approaching high school as a site of exclusion, where problematic discourses, interactions and histories come together, reproducing exclusion of girls from the IT field.

The authors contribute with a literature review of the research study on gender and IT and the inclusion/exclusion dynamics around IT. Using the nexus analysis, the authors identify the exclusion dynamics in this complex social issue. Several decades of research have shown that the inclusion of women remains low in IT disciplines. In this study, high schools are viewed as sites of exclusion, engendering a prevalent lack of information and education on the field. The authors offer novel insights into the role of curriculum, GCs and online information excluding girls from the IT field.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the reason of attraction for the young professionals (who left their paid employment) to pursue social entrepreneurship (SE) education, to understand role played by SE education program on developing entrepreneurship knowledge and skills to create social impact and to explore the influence of SE education on their career choices and job-preferences.

This exploratory study uses qualitative methodology to collect data from 16 alumni of Master of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship (MASE) Program, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.

The findings indicate that the knowledge and skills learned through the MASE program played a significant role to create an entrepreneurial mindset and put such skills into action to create impact (as job creator/entrepreneur or job seeker/intrapreneur) as well any change in their career choice, job-preference and job-mobility. The findings force us to re-define “success of SE education”, as in both the cases, they are creating social impact using their entrepreneurship knowledge and skills. Career advancement and personal growth opportunities, and their willingness to create impact as decision makers act as strongest motivators to choose the program. Furthermore, the study also highlights the additional factors, which influence their decision of choosing/not choosing SE as career option.

The findings cannot be generalized. The qualitative data is analyzed inductively to arrive at the findings.

The findings are relevant for SE educators and also the policy makers. Promotion of SE education will not only create employment for others, but will also address several other social problems, and contribute to inclusive development of the country.

The uniqueness lies in understanding the motivations behind the decision of pursuing MASE program then followed by exploring the influence of SE education on their career choices and job-preferences.

Earlier work on career choice has identified that career choice involves gendered processes which lead to differentiated career outcomes for women and men. However, this literature remained anaemic in offering career counselling strategies for addressing the negative impacts of these processes. The paper aims to explore the creativity cycle and other tools derived from personal construct psychology (PCP) and other feminist literature as potential means for dissolving gendered perceptions of various professions and organisational practices.

This is a conceptual paper.

The paper argues that PCP can provide a theoretical and methodological framework for discussing how dichotomous and gender identified the perceptions of professions can be and how such perceptions might be challenged.

This theory and its techniques allow us an exploration of the flexibility of one's constructions system, which determines a person's ability to construe alternative views and to develop new ways of understanding oneself and others.

The PCP's potential as a technique to combat gendered perceptions of a career is examined.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and significance of flexibility in decisions about education and training options. This is done through an examination of the relevance of real options valuation (ROV) to our understanding of educational and training choices. Through this examination, the paper aims to contribute to the debate about how we can better advise and support people making such decisions.

The research involved three overlapping stages: a critical examination of the theoretical work on flexibility in decisions; a review of the literature on the role and significance of flexibility in education and training decisions; and an application of the lessons of ROV to the analysis of decisions about education, training and careers.

The analysis of the theoretical work on flexibility alongside the review of the literature on education and training decision‐making, demonstrated that there was little current application of theory to the analysis of such choices. Reviewing the literature, it was discovered that ROV held significant lessons for the analysis of education and training decisions, and important practical implications for the support and guidance of people making these choices.

This is the first study to apply the principles of ROV to educational and training choices.

This paper aims to present results of interviews with Australian students in junior, middle and senior secondary‐school. It also aims to provide a current insight into the declining diversity of the information technology (IT) student cohort that is not captured in the existing literature. Educational psychology theories of self‐efficacy shed light on the development of like and dislike towards aspects of IT, it also seeks to consider the career choice decision‐making theories and models to understand the cost‐benefit dimensions of career choice in young people in the twenty‐first century. Socio‐cultural factors that condition young women for their expected role in society also apply to career choice and build a theoretical framework for the research.

Qualitative research methodology of semi‐structured focus group interviews were conducted with students of both genders from three different year levels. The interviews were analysed using a meta matrix approach aligned with themes suggested in the literature.

This research found that IT rarely entered their schematic repertoire of possible future careers, a schematic repertoire strongly influenced by parental opinion and habitus at all stages of education. While it would appear that there is a deficit in student knowledge of what an IT career involves beyond that of the most stereotypical portrayal of a programmer, this deficit of knowledge is evident in both genders. While it would appear that there is a deficit in student knowledge of what an IT career involves beyond that of the most stereotypical portrayal of a programmer, this deficit of knowledge is evident in both genders. This research found a pattern of factors specific to Information Technology that encouraged some males to choose this career path and a pattern of inhibiting factors that had a stronger negative impact on young women than young men.

It is apparent from this study that the lack of women in IT is not necessarily a gender issue, but an issue embedded in the image of the IT discipline, an image of lower status than most other professional careers. It is apparent from this study that the lack of women in IT is not necessarily a gender issue, but an issue embedded in the image of the IT discipline, an image of lower status than most other professional careers.

A positive implication is that there is little differentiation between the genders in IT use, despite greater confidence in technical ability residing with males.

A lack of diversity in a workforce is detrimental to creativity and future design. IT professionals, industry and academics need to work together to engender greater interest in this discipline and increase their focus on parents of students.

This paper adds to current theory by suggesting that parents remain the primary influencers to student career and course choices. A second important contribution to current theory is the perpetuation of the poor image that students hold of the IT profession.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of career regret. It examines processes that give rise to it including social comparison, social influences on career choice and career satisfaction and explores its association with occupational commitment and intention to quit the profession.

Hypotheses were tested among 559 British cardiac physiologists, using an online survey and structural equation modelling.

Research propositions were supported; social influences and social comparison are both associated with career regret. Direct and indirect pathways were found between career regret, occupational commitment and intention to quit the profession.

The paper provides a starting point for future career regret research using a range of methods.

Careers advisers both at the point of career choice and within organisations should encourage realistic occupation previews. Managers should become aware of career regret and help to mitigate its effects – for example, facilitating job crafting or reframing of experiences.

This paper is one of the first to investigate career choice regret and its associated psychological mechanisms.

While there is a large body of literature examining the effect public service motivation (PSM) has on both an individual’s career and volunteering decisions, the effects of social learning and parental influences on both volunteerism and selection into public service are relatively unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between parental volunteering and career choice, PSM, and the volunteering behaviors and career choices of their adult children.

The authors examine data collected from first-year undergraduate students at a large, public university in the southeastern USA to examine, the impact of parents in the development of public service behaviors like volunteering and career choice.

The authors find that parental influence matters in shaping voluntary behavior and career aspirations, but that this social learning is distinct by gender.

The authors are unaware of work that directly focusses on parents’ volunteering and career choices, after controlling for PSM, on both the volunteering and public service career decisions of their children.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in this special issue and some issues surrounding choosing management as a career. A jointly developed questionnaire is also presented.

The paper is descriptive in nature.

It is crucial for researchers and practitioners to expand their perspectives to include other cultures and other theoretical perspectives beyond those offered by traditional vocational choice theories.

Understanding the antecedents, correlates and consequences of people's vocational choice to become managers will not only help researchers and practitioners and benefit managers, but will improve the understanding of career choice in general.

Men and women are now being admitted to membership of the major UK professional accountancy bodies in approximately equal numbers. This trend has focused attention on the ways in which professional accountants combine careers and family life, particularly when women have children. Recognising the limitations inherent in the widely‐used term “work‐life balance” that polarises life and work, this paper instead seeks to consider the “work‐lifestyle choices” made by female accountants. Work‐lifestyle choices refer to the ways in which people place different emphases on the work and private spheres, according to their individual circumstances. Feminist researchers have argued that women's work‐lifestyle choices have been limited by structural constraints. Over the past decade, a newer argument, preference theory, has emerged, suggesting that women's choices owe less to inequalities in the workplace and more to the preferences of individuals, particularly, but not exclusively, women. The purpose of this paper is to explore the work‐lifestyle choices made by female members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), in terms of both structural constraints and preferences, in order to present a more holistic understanding of the work‐lifestyle choices made by this particular group of well‐educated, middle‐class women.

The paper combines feminist theory and preference theory in the context of the results of a questionnaire survey of female members of ICAS and 14 interviews with female members of ICAS.

The responses of these accountants suggest that, while structural constraints are evident, many work‐lifestyle choices were driven by a desire to spend more time with children, and by women's perceptions of their mothering role. Most women, while recognising the opportunities forgone, were nonetheless happy with the choices that they had made.

The paper contributes to the literature by examining the voices of female accountants in order to explore how perceived gender roles impact on career decisions and work‐lifestyle choices.