What Makes an Entrepreneur? A Study on Entreprenurial Intentions among Dutch Master Students and Indonesian Master Students

This study takes a deeper look at the entrepreneurial intentions in two countries with different cultural and social structures, Indonesia and The Netherlands. Survey among 94 Indonesian and 93 Dutch master students examine several factors of entrepreneurial intentions such as demographic factors (gender, age, education background, work experience), personality factors (need for achievement and self-efficacy) and environment factors (access to capital, access to information and social networks). Moreover, it has been decided to compare some need for achievement and social network variables between the two samples. Generally, the findings of this study find evidences for the effect of demographic, personality and environment factors on entrepreneurial intentions. Gender, education background, need for achievement, self-efficacy and social networks variable are found to be determinant factors of entrepreneurial intention of master students in Indonesia and The Netherlands. Interesting result has been found that age has negative significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions while other factors like working experience, access to capital and access to information do not have significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions of the samples. Moreover, the comparative analysis of this study found that Indonesian have higher entrepreneurial intention, need for achievement and social network than Dutch master students. Summing up, this study found the support that demographic, personality and entrepreneurial factors have an impact on entrepreneurial intentions of master students in developing country like Indonesia and developed country like The Netherlands. Results of this study are expected to give insights for government and scholars to develop policies, theories, and programs to cultivate entrepreneurial intentions of students