DOI: 10.2478/V10167-010-0107-9
Magdalena Kaczmarek
University of Social Sciences and Humanities
THE SELF-EFFICACY
(GENERALIZED AS WELL AS CONTEXT SPECIFIC),
THE BIG FIVE TRAITS AND THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION.
conducted based on the methodology proposed by Ostwerwalder and Pigneur and predictors of this effectiveness in the area of individual differences. The study assessed the sense of
collected from 124 subjects. Most hypotheses were supported. Course participants differed in their personality tendencies from their peers, and the course proved to be effective by increasing both knowledge of entrepreneurship, motivation to run a business, and entrepre-of the human capital, proved to be the most important predictor entrepre-of the individual measures of effectiveness of the course.
Key concepts:
INTRODUCTION
Stimulating entrepreneurship is one of the most important goals of economic policy in almost all countries. This stems from the belief to bear the risks and run new companies leads to greater innovation, generates new jobs, and thus creates the conditions for economic growth
-Decision to follow this career path depends on various external factors, such as tax incentives or market situation. It is also an essential candidate motivation, which is part of the broader issues This includes the experiences, knowledge, skills and competences usually that develop from the ability or personality characteristics. A meta-analysis of previous studies conducted by Unger, Rauch, and Rosenbuch Frese (2011) showed weak
Piotr Kaczmarek-Kurczak
indicators of personal capital and success as an entrepreneur (r = 0.10). Personal capital is re-lated to competencies and skills, which are also referred to as active resources (as opposed to the education or experience due to more static nature called investment).
The interest in entrepreneurship education has In many countries, including Poland, activities in this area are part of the curriculum in public schools. Moreover, separate courses on entrepre-neurship are popular at universities, including curriculums dedicated exclusively to this issue various trainings are being offered to support the decision of young entrepreneurs to start their own business.
effectiveness of entrepreneurship learning in their meta-analysis of 42 independent studies on this subject. The authors reviewed the effectiveness to undertake business activity from the impact on personal competences in this area. The results of this meta-analysis suggest that a change in one of these indices of effectiveness is not necessarily accompanied by a change in the other. The review indicated that entrepreneurship education is an ef-fective way to promote entrepreneurship, showing that the average effect of training and education in -dents’ own business was r = 0.15 while the average effect of increasing the entrepreneurial activities associated with personal capital amounted to r = heterogeneity of the results, which suggests that some factors, such as competence and personal-ity of students, may moderate the effectiveness of such training.
Fairlie and Holleran (2012) described the results of experiments, which showed that the entrepreneurship training effectiveness depends on such variables as the willingness to take risks and the need for autonomy. Participants with
higher willingness to take risk and greater need the training more, but only in reference to short-term trainings. It has also been noted that when trainings or courses on entrepreneurship are vol-untary, those who take part in them are different from those who take part in them compulsorily in terms of general personality variables (cf. Martin, Another factor that should be considered when considering the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education is the form and content of the courses in
of education was academic education held in the classes in schools or universities rather than separate -tion, demonstrating that education that enables a conscious building of a sense of competence in activities related to establishing and running a business is the most effective form of learning entrepreneurship.
The training proposal formulated by Osterwal-der and Pigneur (2012) has been rising attention for last several years. It is based on the develop-ment of their own business model, which takes the
such a way that the whole corresponded with each other and is a single entity. The template includes -ments, customer relations, delivery channels to the customer, key activities, key resources, key partners, and the structure of costs and revenue streams. While working on the scheme, the par-ticipant must then gain some expertise needed the knowledge useful in its own business. This form of education stimulates creative thinking, the point of view of the psychology of learning, we can say that this methodology promotes the development of competence that is closely related
to the business activities. However, it is assumed that participants are motivated and interested in starting their own business.
Research on personality determinants of en-trepreneurial intentions and success shows, that
to the nature of the tasks and challenges faced by an entrepreneur, you can expect entrepreneurs to have greater emotional stability (resistance to stress), higher extraversion (activity), greater openness to experience (creativity), greater con-scientiousness (hard working and ambition), and also lower agreeableness (independence). The two separate meta-analyses. Zhao and Seibert entrepreneurs compared to managers were char-to experience, lower agreeableness, and greater conscientiousness. There were only exception from the expectations in the level of extraver-sion. In another meta-analysis, Zhao, Seibert, and Lumpkin (2010) focused on the distinction between stage within which entrepreneurship, including both entrepreneurs and potential en-trepreneurs, were studied (66 independent stud-ies). It was found that in terms of the intention of becoming an entrepreneur and success in this role, all hypotheses were supported in reference to all of the tested characteristics, except for the agreeableness.
Another meta-analysis carried out by Rauch and
associated with a trend towards the establishment of personality and success in business was r = 0.25. In the studies, the concept of entrepreneurial
self -ing into account the context of the situation. The
(ESE) – describes someone’s own beliefs, but only in the context of the tasks and challenges faced
meta-analysis, which have already been discussed, show that the GSE is also related to the intentions and to success in business.
-fectiveness of the series of courses designed to train entrepreneurs based on the methodology proposed the role of individual differences in the area of the effectiveness of this form of teaching.
-potheses were formulated.
Hypothesis 1. Training will meet its goal, which entrepreneurship, increased intention to become in this role.
Hypothesis 2. Due to the voluntary participation in the course, subjects should be less neurotic, more agreeable, more extraverted, more open to experi-ence, more conscientious, and have a greater sense
-neurial intentions measured both before and after the training should related to lower neuroticism and agreeableness, increased extraversion, open-ness to experience, conscientiousopen-ness and a SE
Hypothesis 4. The set of predictors of the SE measured both before and after training should include higher extraversion, conscientiousness, and correlation between both measures of the SE is expected.
METHOD Participants
A total of 124 students or graduates of Warsaw University of Social Sciences and Humanities took part in training in eight separated groups
sample). Age ranged from 20-48 years, but the -ing was free of charge, and the participation in it was voluntary. It took place in the form of workshops and apart from a brief initial presenta-tion, participants worked on their own business model and its presentation in the whole group using the template proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2012).
Measures and procedure
The study was conducted as longitudinal re-search with two measurements time points. At the beginning of the training (hereinafter referred to as the moment T1), all participants were asked to complete a knowledge test about entrepreneur-and the intention to set up a business, as well as complete ESES and GSES questionnaires. At the end of the training (hereinafter referred to as T2), participants were again asked to complete a test of knowledge, re-asses their desire and intention to become an entrepreneur, and complete again
on the group).
Test of the knowledge of entrepreneurship and running a business contained 14 multiple-choice -mat). At the beginning and end of the training, participants completed the same test.
The questions about the desire to become an which were described by the following statements: 1. I don’t want establish my own business at all; 2.
Rather I wouldn’t like to establish my own business; Rather, I would like to start my own business; 5. I want to establish my own company.
The question of the intention to become an entrepreneur was measured on a 5-point scale described by the following statements: 1. I just do not plan to start my own business; 2. Rather, I do a little, and some do not; 4. Rather, I plan to start own business.
consists of 60 statements measured on a 5-point -ality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
GSES is a self-assessed questionnaire consisting
question is, “I can solve most problems if I put in a lot of effort.”
ESES is a self-assessed questionnaire measuring the entrepreneur. It refers to the measure proposed a similar questionnaire was used in the study
con-indicated the presence of a single factor. Cronbach’s -the volume of sales?”
RESULTS
The analysis began by testing the hypothesis 1 on the effectiveness of the training, comparing the measurement at the beginning and at the end of training (see Table 1).
Table 1.
entrepreneur (ESES) before (T1) and after training (T2). T values illustrate the result of comparisons Student’s t-test for dependent samples.
Variable M (SD) t p < T1 T2 0.001 4.11 0.001 Desire 4.22 (0.88) 1.04 Intent
M – mean; SD – standard deviation; p
The results showed that the training actually proved to be effective, increased knowledge, and increased intentions to become an entrepreneur and ESE. Descriptive analysis also showed differences
however, that their ESE measured at the beginning of training did not differ from that observed in the group of students not choosing such classes. Table 2. The means (M), standard deviations (SD) and correlations (Pearson’s r) between scales measuring
gen-not choosing courses in entrepreneurship).
1 2 4 5 6 8
Stati-stics GSES ESES T1 ESES T2 OPE AGR
M (SD) (16.10) 16.52 (6,05) (6.55) t (p) n.s. 2 0.02 4 -0.11 5 -0.42 6 0.10 -0.05 -0.05 0.10 -0.01 -0.05 -0.15 -0.01 8 0.10 0.01
Correlation analyses showed that ESE is related to the GSE, but only when measured before the training. After the initial training level of this sense in the context of entrepreneurship is not associated
The results of the hierarchical linear regression analyses in which dependent variables were
suc-Table 3. Results of linear regression analysis using backward elimination. The explaining values of the variable
Desire Intent ESES
T1 R2 0.28 F n.s. GSES 0.40 ESES (T1) 0.41 ---T2 R2 0.04 0.25 0.26 F -0.20 OPE 0.20 GSES -0.25 ESES (T2) 0.20 0.51 0.56 0.52
dependent variable was ESES measures in T2).
-tion to become an entrepreneur, especially for measuring in T2, proved the best predictors of the ESE. Among the personality traits, only emotional stability, extraversion, and openness to experience can be considered important explaining factors but only in reference to some of the indices of the
personality traits, and the most important predictor
DISCUSSION
The analysis of the effectiveness of training showed that the training increased the knowledge of entrepreneurship, the intentions to start their own businesses, and the belief in the possibili-ties of action in this regard. This last result can capital. What is interesting, the change in desire to become an entrepreneur was not statistically
In our studies, participants took part in the training voluntarily. It is not surprising that in accordance with previous studies and our expectations, they differed in their personality characteristics from their general population of peers. These differences correspond 2011). This result therefore suggests that the partici-pant were not representative of the general student population, and the conclusions about the effective-ness of the training described relate more to people already interested in engaging in entrepreneurship rather than to students in general.
The regression analyses performed to describe the predictors of the indicators of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training showed primarily on the important role of entrepreneurial sense of
self-of ESE increases the in measurement after trainings (T2). The results showed that the GSE does not play -tant, but only in a few cases, for example, the lower
extraversion is linked to a higher level of knowledge after the training, and less neuroticism is related to stronger intention to start business measured at the beginning of the program. It is also important to note differences in the set of predictors of entrepreneurial intentions measure by the question of desire and planning to start their own business.
simulative experience, increases motivation to take the action, and, when preceded by a real experi-ence in this area (measured T2), it is not associated weakly associated with the characteristics of the to be a promising indicator of personal resources that can be used as a measure of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education.
We share opinion expressed by the authors cited in the introduction that the main aim of education should be to develop the competence useful in set-ting up and running a business and an increased is steaming from the increase of competences and focused on the other goals than the increase of desire to become an entrepreneur. Proposed curriculum based on the models by Osterwlader and Pigneur, however, require further research and comparisons with other forms of work, especially because this training has also been spreading in companies aimed stemming from entrepreneurship courses can lead to a greater number of new businesses as well as a greater number of enterprising workers who are
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