Identification and Comparison of Interest and Personality Profiles for College Business Students Based on Background and Intention of Entrepreneurial Activity

Entrepreneurial activity, the starting of a business, has always been an important value in a free enterprise economy. Recently, several social and economic elements have created a new interest in the value of entrepreneurship. While studies of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial process have increased, little has been written about the career decision of the entrepreneur. Research by Borland (1975), Shapero (1975,1976), Komives (1966), and Schreier (1975) has shown that a profile of the entrepreneur can be developed. The existing research shows, however, that a continued effort is needed to relate the identifiable factors to the career decision process in a useful manner. This study attempts to build a foundation for understanding the career decision of the entrepreneur by examining the identifiable characteristics of the entrepreneur and relating them to career decision making and career counseling. The problem studied was: There is no information on the interest and personality factors of college students who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs or who have backgrounds which might influence entrepreneurial behavior. Eight hypotheses were formulated to study this problem. Each of the hypotheses looked at a specific relationship between Interest scores, Personality scores, and Entrepreneur Background and Intention scores. By examining these relationships for possible differences, the study hoped to accomplish five goals: 1) to investigate differences in career interests and personality factors; 2) to develop a base for further study; 3) to develop information useful in counseling potential entrepreneurs; 4) to create information useful for future research; and 5) to explore interests and personality factors for males and females. Three instruments were used in the study, the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory, the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, and the Entrepreneur Background and Intention Seale which was developed for this study. Data was collected from two college populations, 65 general business majors from Mount Mary College and 60 business majors from Marquette University. The data were analyzed using the coefficient of correlation and the t-test..