The Impact of Demographic and Psychological Characteristics Affecting the Students' Entrepreneurial Attitudes, Case Study: Shiraz University

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1 Pal. Jour. V.16, I., 017, Copyright 017 by Palma Journal, All Rights Reserved Available online at: The Impact of Demographic and Psychological Characteristics Affecting the Students' Entrepreneurial Attitudes, Case Study: Shiraz University Kazem Askarifar Assistant professors of Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, Abstract This study, which is a functional, integrated and descriptive, was conducted to evaluate the impact of demographic and psychological variables on entrepreneurial attitudes of students of Shiraz University. Variables in this study included the demographic factors, psychological, and aspects of entrepreneurship, which standardized tests are used MBTI and EAO. The research population includes students of Shiraz University, and the sample included 16 students who were selected randomly. Analytical instruments have been descriptive statistics and Kruskal - Wallis. The findings show that attitudes to entrepreneurship students were at moderate level, and the level of innovation of students, less than other properties, which has a relationship with, field high school, and university education, extroversion, and considerable work being. Also, the achievement of married people, and Judging was thinking more. Features personal control, have a relationship with, sex, marriage, and major, and personality type Intuition, and feature self-esteem have a significant relationship with major, ethnicity, and extraversion. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Demographic, Psychology, Attitude, University. Introduction Entrepreneurship is one of the priorities of the plan, in different countries, particularly in developing countries. Entrepreneurs, as the human capital of any economy, play a significant role in creating value and wealth. Also, entrepreneurship is recognized as one of the ways to create sustainable employment opportunities, and policy makers in different countries, trying to take advantage of these opportunities (Ayegba and Omale, 016). However, entrepreneurs have different features, such as risk-taking, leadership, confidence, results-oriented and forward-looking (Chodhury, 017). Universities, as important part of human resource development have a unique role in the training of entrepreneurs and develop the required characteristics of entrepreneurship. In the process of entrepreneurship education, positive attitude towards entrepreneurship is one of the basic principles of training of entrepreneurs; the academic community has always been part of their educational activities for the subject. So that, more than 300 entrepreneurship programs in universities, have been defined, from 1990 to 016. In this context, researchers have done several studies on the factors affecting the development of entrepreneurial attitudes of students, that their results have been different, in some cases. In this regard, this study was conducted to investigate demographic and psychological factors affecting entrepreneurial attitude of students of Shiraz University. According to the topic of entrepreneurship in Iran, because of the problem of unemployment, as well as the country's major universities, including the University of Shiraz, were the defining factors of this research. The main research question is what demographic and psychological factors are affecting students' entrepreneurial attitude. Accordingly, this research has been done in fieldwork type, and the results are presented below. Background research Entrepreneurship and attitude, is one of the things that has always been of interest to researchers. In this Volkmann and tokarasi (009), they have evaluated the attitude of students, with five nationalities, German, Romania, Latvia and Italy towards entrepreneurship. In this study, a questionnaire was used. The results show that there are significant differences in attitudes towards entrepreneurship among the various Palma Journal

2 Students' Entrepreneurial Attitudes 301 nationalities, such that, the attitude of Romanian students to entrepreneurship, higher than any other nationality. Also, in the investigation of the reasons of attitudes, students have attributed part of their attitude towards entrepreneurship, university professors, so that more than 59 percent of Australians, have expressed their look entrepreneurial influenced by the masters. Tamizaharasi and Panchanatham (010), have examined entrepreneurial attitude among SMEs of India. In this study, some characteristics such as Innovation, achievement, personal control and self- esteem have been checked. The results show difference between men and women in different jobs, and men tend to be more entrepreneurial more than women. Secondary school students' entrepreneurial attitude in South Africa is the title of a study which was conducted by Steenkamp et al. (011). The Attitude toward Enterprise (ATE) test has been used. The findings of this study, is that demographic variables, such as age, gender, ethnicity, native language, have a significant impact on students' entrepreneurial attitude. In another study Ferriera et al (01) have provided a model to the entrepreneurial attitude, the psychological and behavioral approaches have been used in it. In this model, the variables that influence entrepreneurial attitudes, such as achievement, selfesteem and personal control are entered in the model. Fanni et al (013) investigated the factors affecting entrepreneurial attitudes in students of Islamic Azad University. In this model, the seven variables, risk taking, Achievement motivation, Entrepreneurial training, Confidence, creativity and Innovation have been investigated. All hypotheses of impact entrepreneurship were confirmed. Azizi and Taheri (013), used a before-after study, to investigate effect of entrepreneurship education on students' entrepreneurial intentions features, and reviews have a passion for entrepreneurship students, using a questionnaire. According to the results, the features, achievement, risk taking, independence, and self-control, students, improve own again, after the entrepreneurial period. A similar study was carried out by Mohseni, Mousavi, and beauty, in 013, and entrepreneurial attitudes were assessed using Robinson entrepreneurial attitude test. The findings also confirmed the effect of education on entrepreneurial attitude (Mohseni et al., 013). Papzan and colleagues have examined the five entrepreneurial attitudes, the effort, creative, risk-taking, accountability, and Mdyrgra, using Q methodology. The research instrument was a questionnaire, based on previous studies, and finally, students are sorted into five groups based on the mentioned attitudes (Papzan et al., 015). Jahangiri et al. (015) have examined the impact of psychological and sociological characteristics, related to entrepreneurial spirit, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Varamin graduate students. In this study, the impact of higher education on the growth characteristics of achievement and independence male students, and students communicate with people, entrepreneurs and visits to entrepreneurial, were identified as important factors in the development of students' attitudes. It seems that the study of factors affecting entrepreneurial attitudes in students is of interest to researchers. However, this result is expected to community college to train entrepreneurs. In these studies, both in terms of sociological and psychological factors that influence people's attitudes to entrepreneurship have been studied. Methodology This research is functional, mixed and description in order to variables. The study variables include demographic variables and psychological variables in two main groups. Also, EAO model used in the entrepreneurial attitude, involves four main variables, innovation, achievement, self-control, and selfesteem. Data were collected, including two standard tests MBTI, for psychological traits, as well as EAO for students' entrepreneurial attitude. The research population included undergraduate students in all departments of Shiraz University. The sample size was determined using Cochran relationship, and were randomly sampling. Tools of analysis, is descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis test was used, in part of determining the relationship between demographic and psychological variables, and entrepreneurial attitude. The time domain of this study is a period of six months, since July 016 to January 017. Findings This study was conducted at the University of Shiraz, and the continuous undergraduate students. Shiraz University has more than 14,000 students in various disciplines, who are almost students in undergraduate and postgraduate rest. The samples were 16 undergraduates at the University of Shiraz, that studying in five categories of agriculture, engineering, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The

3 30 K.Askarifar students are in the third and fourth (fifth semester to eighth semester). Demographic distribution of participants, are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Distribution of students, based on demographic characteristics Category Characteristic Frequency % Average Experimental Sciences Pre-University Mathematical Sciences Certificate Humanities Sciences Gender Female Male Balouch Ethnic Lor Fars Marriage Single Married Occupation Yes Experience No Agriculture Engineering Academic Field of Humanities Study Science 36. Social Sciences Standard Deviation (SD) Coefficient of Variance (CV) The coefficient of variability indicates that students have the lowest dispersion. The majority (over 83 percent) are Persians, while, there is no person from some ethnic groups, such as Turks, Kurds, and Arabs. After that, the employment situation has the most homogeneous. Because of this, it could be due to the level of education, all of which are undergraduate, and at this point, it is usually very low employment rate, as approximately 80% of the sample, has no job history. More than 90 percent are single people, which could be due to their young age, and educational level. MBTI test is used to evaluate the psychological characteristics of people, from four Introverted-Extroverted, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking-Feeling and Judgment-Perception. In this test, a person can be rated the number one to 15, every feature that the outcome of the two complementary feature, shows, closer to which personality traits. Psychological testing has been distributed to participants in Table. Psychological type Table. Distribution of students, based on psychological traits Frequency Male Female Total Valid Percent Average SD * CV ** Introverted Extroverted Sensing Intuition Thinking Feeling Perceiving Judging * Standard Deviation, ** Coefficient of Variance According to coefficient of variability, most of samples have the Feeling personality and intellectual personality trait in decision-making. Entrepreneurial Attitude Test (EAO) is used to assess students' entrepreneurial spirit. In this test, four, innovation, achievement, self-control, and self-esteem were measured. Prioritize psychological traits of entrepreneurship in students, are presented in Table

4 Students' Entrepreneurial Attitudes 303 Table 3. Distribution of students, based on the entrepreneurial characteristics Psychological Innovation Achievement Personal Control Self-Esteem Characteristics Domain Score Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Very Low Low Medium High Very High Students' overall situation assess, in entrepreneurial characteristics show that, in all four dimensions, innovation, achievement, self-control, and self-esteem of students, are almost at the intermediate level. Of course, among these features, achievement is in a better situation than other characteristics, features and innovation, has the lowest (Table 4). In this assessment, it appears that there are relatively high, reaching up to the ideal position on the basis of this test. In other words, a specific plan should be made for the development of entrepreneurial attitudes in students, the criteria of entrepreneurial activities at the University, be strengthened. This is important in that role and mission of the University of Shiraz, as one of the great universities of Iran, considered in the regional and national economy. Table 4. Entrepreneurial Dimension s rate among the students Entrepreneurial Dimensions Std. Deviation Innovation Achievement Personal Control Self-Esteem Statistical analysis Kruskal-Wallis (H) is used to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics and psychological, and the size of their entrepreneurial attitude. The effect of demographic and psychological variables on the entrepreneurial aspects, are given in Table 5 and 6. Table 5. Effect of demographic and psychological variables on students' innovation and achievement attitude Category Pre-University Certificate Gender Ethnic Marriage Occupation Experience Academic Field of Study Psychological Innovation Characteristic Experimental Sciences Mathematical Humanities Sciences Female Male Balouch Lor Fars Single Married Yes No Agriculture and Livestock Engineering Humanities Science Social Sciences Introverted Extraverted Sensing Intuition Thinking Feeling Judging Perceiving Achievement

5 304 K.Askarifar Table 6. Effect of demographic and psychological variables on students' personal control and self-esteem Category Pre-University Certificate Gender Ethnic Marriage Occupation Experience Academic Field of Study Psychological Personal Control Characteristic Experimental Sciences Mathematical Humanities Sciences Female Male Balouch Lor Fars Single Married Yes No Agriculture and Livestock Engineering Humanities Science Social Sciences Introverted Extraverted Sensing Intuition Thinking Feeling Judging Perceiving Self-Esteem Results and Discussion As it can be seen in Table 5, students' innovative features, is significantly related to pre-university course of study. So that the students that were educated in mathematics in high school, are superior to other students, the invention features, in significant quantities. This could be due to the induction at problem solving in mathematics. Also, major college students, has an impact on this issue. University education, there is a significant relationship with innovation features. There are more associated with innovation in agriculture and engineering, they are considered as technical disciplines. Psychologically, as well as two features, extroversion, and also consider the work of the people, have a significant positive impact on student innovation features. This corresponds with the results of Solomon's study (Solomon, 017). However, Sinha's study (011) noted that, introverts have more creativity, which is inconsistent with the results of the study. Achievement among demographic variables, there is a significant relationship with marital status, so that it is more characteristic of married people. Because of this, we can be motivated by married people. Married, for better understanding of the living conditions, the economy needs and should have known, and usually think to the future. They feel responsibility for themselves, generally, part of which relate to the future. But single people live more in the present. Also, psychologically, this has a significant relationship with both thinking and Judging. Usually, features thinking, relate to people, how they make decisions based on thinking, analysis, and logic. It seems that people with this personality type, expect to succeed based on logic, and their expectations of success based method of decision-making. For these people, success is the achievement of decision thinking, and this is the result of a logical thinking. Judging is characteristic of other psychological variables, which has a significant relationship with achievement. Such people, has a strong life style, lack of flexibility in life. They usually carry out activities based on the specific program, and in the direction of the team, with minimum deviation. Considering the way the decision thinking, as well as lifestyle judging, it seems that achievement; the more people who make decisions based on logic, and according to schedule, and the expected success, and features for entrepreneurship in them are more Internal control third characteristic is measured in entrepreneurial attitude. This feature has a significant relationship with gender, marital status, and academic disciplines. Among married people, it seems that the amount of personal control in men, more than women, which is corresponded with the theory of psychological control (Mirowsky, 00). Also, personal control in married

6 Students' Entrepreneurial Attitudes 305 people more than single people. This correlation could be due to a greater understanding among married couples, from ambient conditions, and engaging them with environmental issues, directly and closer, it has been noted in studies (Ross, 1991). Course, is the other demographic variables, which are correlated with self-control feature. In between courses, students of Social Sciences, has more a sense of personal control, compared to other fields. We can understand the reason for this is when we consider the economic and environmental issues associated with the fact that there were about marriage and sex. Social sciences are closest to the economic, business and financial conditions of the environment. In fields such as economics, management, and accounting, students must learn the real conditions of society, and this could be the cause of more personal control of the students. In between psychological variables, those with personality type Intuition, with the greatest sense of personal control. These individuals receive environmental data, for their intuitive and subjective judgment, understand environmental information. On the other hand, since Intuition is more important than the sense in economic, business and financial understanding of the circumstances, therefore, it is obvious that the people, has more sense of personal control compared to those with Feeling personality type. Self-esteem has a relationship with a university education and ethnicity. In between academic disciplines, it seems that engineering students have more self-esteem Feeling. Because of this, it is important to recruit students in universities, as well as the alumni community. In admissions, in Iran, people who earn better grades, in the entrance examination, tend to choose engineering, and from this perspective, the students have more sense of achievement compared to other students in the fields of nonmedical. On the other hand, look at society, to engineering students, because of their history of employment and income, and also the management style country by technocrats can create the impression of engineering students, they have high standing in the community. On the other hand, the characteristics of self-esteem are correlated with ethnicity of students. It seems that the Persian students have more self-esteem. It can also be due to historical and cultural context. Throughout history, economy, government jobs, were run mainly by Persian people, and other ethnic groups due to non-state jobs, mainly agriculture and livestock, and the simple life style, have been absent from public office. The difference in lifestyle, gradually led people to believe that, Persian-speaking peoples, have higher status than other ethnicity. On the other hand, the lack of proper attention to ethnicity in education in areas such as language, local clothes, customs, cultures, etc., has strengthened this suspicion to. It seems findings, does not match with the Garshad et al (017) (Garshd, 017). Examining the relationship between personality types and characteristics of the entrepreneurial attitude, extroversion, has a significant relationship with self-esteem, which is consistent with the results, Kenneth (014) and Nazarzadeh et al (014) (Kenneth, 014). Conclusion This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of demographic and psychological variables, on the entrepreneurial attitude Shiraz University. In this study, in addition to demographic variables, MBTI test was used to determine the psychological characteristics, and EAO test was used to determine the entrepreneurial attitude. Assess the overall situation of students in entrepreneurial characteristics, shows that students are almost at the intermediate level, in all four dimensions of innovation, achievement, selfcontrol, and self-esteem. Of course, among these features, achievement is more favorable situation than other characteristics, features and innovation, has the lowest, for students in the study, and it seems that there are almost too much to reach the perfect spot, on the basis of this test. In other words, special planning should be done for the development of entrepreneurial attitudes in students has the features needed to be strengthened at the University of Entrepreneurial Activities. This is important, given the role and mission of Shiraz University, as one of the great universities of the country, regional and national economy. Also, according to Kruskal-Wallis test, it was found that the character of student innovation in individuals who had studied in high school mathematics, and engineering in college is more. Also, this feature is more of an extrovert and conservative people. Achievement among demographic variables, there is a significant relationship with marriage, so that it is more characteristic, married individuals. Also, this feature psychologically, has a significant relationship, with both thinking and Judging. The third characteristic of internal control has been in entrepreneurial attitude. This characteristic has a significant relationship with gender, marital status, and academic disciplines. Among married people, it seems is the personal control of

7 306 K.Askarifar men over women. Also, it is of course also other demographic variables which have a significant relationship with self-control feature. Among the fields of study, students in the social sciences, have more sense of personal control, compared to other fields. In between psychological variables, those with personality type Intuition, have the greatest sense of personal control. Features Self-esteem has a significant relationship with the major, and ethnicity. In between academic disciplines, it seems that engineering students have more self-esteem. Among students, it seems that the Persians have more self-esteem. Examining the relationship between personality types and characteristics of entrepreneurial attitude, extroversion has a significant relationship with self-esteem. References Ayegba, O. and Omale, S. (016). A Study on Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Development in Nigeria. European Journal of Business and Management, 8(1), Azizi, M. and Taheri, M. (013). The Effect of Entrepreneurship Course on Entrepreneurial Intention and Characteristics of Students. Journal of Innovation and Value Creation, (4), (in Persian) Chowdhury, F.N. (017). A Study of Entrepreneurship Development in Bangladesh: Pros and Cons. Journal of Asian Scientific Research, 7(1), Fanni, M., Valiollahi por, M. and Hoseinzadeh, M. (013). Factors affecting entrepreneurial attitudes of MA students in Islamic Azad University (Babol Branch). European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences, (3), Ferriera, J.J., Raposo, M.L. and Rodrigues, R.G. (01). A model of entrepreneurial intention: an application of the psychological and behavioral approaches. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 19(3), Garshad, A., Hashemi, M., Hatame, A., Hossienpour, B., Ostade, N., Hossienzadeh, A., et al. (017). Examine the relationship between self-esteem and religious attitudes nursing students Bojnoord. Jnkums journal, 8(3), Jahangiri, S., Baradaran, M., Khosravipour, B. and Ghaniyan, M. (015). Identification of Psychological and Sociological Features Associated with the Entrepreneurial Spirit among Graduate Students of Ramin Agricultural and Natural Resources University. Journal of Agricultural Education Administration Research, 34, (in Persian) Kenneth, K. (014). Correlates of Personal and Self-Esteem among Youth. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 19(), -6. Mirowski, J. (00). Age and the Gender Gap in the Sense of Personal Control. Social Psychology Quarterly, 65(), 15. Mohseni, A., Mousavi, S. H. and Jamali, M. (013). The Role of Entrepreneurship Course in Entrepreneurial Attitude and Efficacy Belief of Students. Journal of Research and Planning in Higher Education, 69, (in Persian) Nazarzadeh, F., Mami, Sh. And Nazarzadeh, M. (014). The relationship between personality type and level of confidence among female students in Zainab dormitary of Lorestan University. Scientific Journal of Ilam University of Medical Sciences, 3(3), Papzan, A.H., Shiri, N., Poorghasem, F., Khoshmaram, M., Ghorbani, F. and Tatar, M. (015). Identifying Entrepreneurial Attitudes of Agricultural students: Application of Q Methodology. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture, (4), (in Persian) Ross, C.E. (1991). Marriage and the Sense of Control. Journal of Marriage and Family, 53(4), Sinha, A. and Fatima, S. (011). Impact of Extroverted-Introverted Personality on Individual s Level of Creativity: An Empirical Study. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 3(), Solomon, Y. (016). Science takes a look at whether extroverts are more creative than introverts, or the other way around. Inc. Publishing Co., USA, available at last retrieved on 18 January 017. Steenkamp, A.G., van der Merwe, S. and Athayde, R. (011). Application of the Attitude Toward Enterprise (Ate) Test on Secondary School Learners in South Africa. Sajems NS Journal, 14(3), Stough, R.R. (016). Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development: Some reflections. Journal of Regional Research, 36, Tamizharasi, G. and Panchanatham, N. (010). Entrepreneurial Attitudes among Entrepreneurs in Small and Medium Enterprises. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 1(4), Volkmann, C. and Tokarski, K.O. (009). Student Attitudes To Entrepreneurship. Management & Marketing, 4(1),