Ekaterina Zabelina, Olga Deyneka and Diana Tsiring
The purpose of this paper is to explore how students’ entrepreneurial attitudes are related to their economic attitudes regarding business, investments, savings and consumption…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how students’ entrepreneurial attitudes are related to their economic attitudes regarding business, investments, savings and consumption. The study presents a new research tool to analyze the characteristics of the economic mind – the economic attitudes questionnaire.
Design/methodology/approach
The method consists of a multiple-factorial questionnaire, a verification of reliability and internal validity (exploratory and confirmation factor analyses), a quantitative survey and a correlation analysis.
Findings
Two main ways of preparing students for a market economy are identified: one is connected to entrepreneurship, and the other to rational investment and financial planning. The complex nature of economic attitudes’ interaction is confirmed: by the direct relationships between entrepreneurial attitudes of students and investment activity, and between risk and satisfaction and consumer opportunities, as well as by the negative relationships between entrepreneurial attitudes and the level of mistrust to banking structures, unwillingness to make savings, unwillingness to share and financial pessimism. The economic attitudes questionnaire was developed and it showed sufficient validity and reliability on samples of student youth.
Research limitations/implications
The study was limited to Russian students.
Originality/value
Adapting the questionnaire to other cultures will allow conducting cross-cultural research of entrepreneurial attitudes, which may be relevant in the global economy.
Details
Keywords
Ekaterina Zabelina, Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas, Olga Deyneka, Aleksandr Maksimenko, Jorge Guadalupe-Lanas and Carlos Ramos-Galarza
Green entrepreneurship is a topic of transcendental importance for today's societies. Studies on why entrepreneurs engage in green business have primarily focused on external…
Abstract
Purpose
Green entrepreneurship is a topic of transcendental importance for today's societies. Studies on why entrepreneurs engage in green business have primarily focused on external influences, paying little attention to internal factors such as cognitive mechanisms. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the characteristics of the perceived (psychological) time of entrepreneurs who choose green businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sequential exploratory mixed methods design, this study conducts a series of 20 in-depth interviews with green entrepreneurs in Russia, an emerging economy, and then formulates the hypotheses. The hypotheses are tested in the quantitative phase by surveying 389 green and non-green entrepreneurs.
Findings
The data obtained in the survey phase support several hypotheses. Specifically, green entrepreneurs think more critically about their past than their non-green colleagues. Similarly, green entrepreneurs have a longer time perspective and are more focused on possible future events. Finally, green entrepreneurs are farsighted and perceive the future more negatively than non-green entrepreneurs.
Research limitations/implications
The data obtained in the survey phase support several hypotheses. Compared with non-green entrepreneurs, green entrepreneurs think more critically about their past, have a longer time perspective and are more focused on possible future events. In addition, green entrepreneurs are farsighted and perceive the future more negatively than their non-green counterparts.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the least examined area in the relevant literature by identifying internal factors that explain green entrepreneurship. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is one of the first to provide an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of the perceived (psychological) time of green entrepreneurs.