DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES INFLUENCING INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND STRATEGIC THINKING CAPABILITY

Strategic thinking capability is interesting part of the cognitive development of each entrepreneur. This paper develops on notion that there a number of demographic variables that shape the behavior of each particular elements of entrepreneurial orientation and strategic component of each entrepreneur. The demographic variable that have significant role will take the role of moderator in further research. Since both constructs are multidimensional, the demographic variables are not influencing them in the same way. The empirical research has been performed on IT firms in Croatia in 2014. Individual entrepreneurial orientation is measured by the construct developed by Bolton and Lane’s (2012) individual entrepreneurial orientation instrument. The instrument is grounded in the seminal work of Miller (1983), Covin and Slevin (1986; 1988; 1989), Lumpkin and Dess (1996) and Covin and Wales (2011); consisting of three dimensions – risk-taking, innovation, and proactiveness. Strategic thinking was measured by Pisapia’s (2009) Strategic thinking questionnaire (STQ). The STQ asked respondents to rate how often they use systems thinking, reframing, and reflecting skills. Within the framework of individual entrepreneurial orientation the following demographic variables shape the trends: age, gender, education abroad and previous experience. Entrepreneurs between 40-60 years old are less prone to risk, female entrepreneurs are more proactive than men, education abroad provides with the additional proactiveness and the entrepreneur with previous experience is prone to higher risk, proactiveness and innovativeness. Within the framework of strategic thinking capability the following demographic variables shape the trends: age, gender, education and experience. Entrepreneurs older than 60 score high on system thinking as well as females, females also score higher on reframing. Entrepreneurs with PhD degree score lower on reframing, while managers working more than 20 years score high on reframing. All the relevant demographic variables can be introduced later on as moderators investigating individual entrepreneurial orientation and strategic thinking capability relation