Fostering Entrepreneurial Drive in Business Education: An Attitudinal Approach

Abstract

Drawing from research in individual characteristics of entrepreneurs and the theory of planned behavior from social psychology literature, this study identifies attitudinal dimensions of entrepreneurial drive (ED), proposes a model, and develops and tests an instrument to measure it. Results show that students differentiate among five attitudes that have been found to promote entrepreneurial behavior in prior research, namely, preference for innovation, nonconformity, proactive disposition, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation. Taken together, these attitudes define the authors’ conceptualization of ED. The article provides recommendations of initiatives that were proven to be helpful in developing entrepreneurial drive in undergraduate business students.