Values, entrepreneurial attitudes, and start-up intentions of indigenous south african nascent entrepreneurs

This research examines the values-entrepreneurial attitude relationship in necessity-based nascent entrepreneurs. Necessity-based entrepreneurs establish businesses because they need to – to survive – not necessarily because they want to as do opportunity-focused entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial attitude has been found to be effective in discriminating between existing (opportunity-focused) entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. This research identifies entrepreneurial attitude to be also effective in discriminating between necessity based nascent entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. Although attitudes have proven to be an effective discriminator, attitudes can be unstable and can change over time with events that impact the attitude. Values, however, are considered to be more stable than attitudes. Values drive attitudes which, in turn, drive intentions and behavior. This research, therefore, examines the values-entrepreneurial attitude relationship with a view to examining the context within which entrepreneurial attitudes are framed. The research identifies positive internal values and external values – entrepreneurial attitude relationships but not a fun and excitement valuesentrepreneurial attitude relationship in necessity-based nascent entrepreneurs. Necessity-based nascent entrepreneurs also demonstrated higher levels of internal and external values and entrepreneurial attitude than non-entrepreneurs. INTRODUCTION Distinguishing entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs has consumed the passions of a range of researchers who have focused on criteria such as personal attributes (e.g., McClelland, 1961; McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, and Lowell, 1953) and demographic characteristics (e.g., Brockhaus, 1975; Brockhaus and Horwitz, 1986). These lines of research tended to produce no real fruitful results and were not regarded highly by some researchers (Gartner, 1988). With the same objectives of distinguishing between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, another research approach was adopted in more recent times that focused on the attitudes of entrepreneurs (see, for example, Robinson, Stimpson, Heufner, and, Hunt, 1991; McCline, Bhat, and Baj, 2000). Whereas entrepreneurs exhibit an entrepreneurial attitude, non-entrepreneurs do not (Robinson, Stimpson, Heufner, and, Hunt, 1991; McCline, Bhat, and Baj, 2000). Thus, entrepreneurial attitude has provided the basis for differentiating between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. Attitudes however, are susceptible to change and are not as stable as values (Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 1992). Thus, entrepreneurial attitude may not necessarily be a reliable indicator of an individual’s entrepreneurial tendencies depending on when an individual’s attitude is measured (for example, if some entrepreneurially-related event has left a negative lasting impression on an entrepreneur who had a positive entrepreneurial attitude prior to the event occurring, this attitude may be negated and if a AGSE 2008