Abstract
Having emerged as an important concept in the organizational field, entrepreneurial orientation has also become a key idea in the context of education. Indeed, entrepreneurial education is now one of the common objectives for education and training systems in the European Union. Despite its importance, however, there is a scarcity of valid and reliable measures for assessing entrepreneurial orientation in students. The present study aimed to address this by developing and examining the psychometric properties of the Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale (EOS). A second objective is to study the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and gender, self-efficacy, and personal initiative. The sample comprised 411 vocational training students (50.36% male, 49.64% female). The final version of the instrument comprised 32 items assessing six dimensions: innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitiveness, achievement orientation, and learning orientation. The EOS showed good psychometric properties and its dimensions demonstrated concurrent relationships with self-efficacy and personal initiative. The EOS may be used to measure entrepreneurial orientation in the educational context and to evaluate interventions designed to promote an entrepreneurial spirit in schools, colleges, and universities.
Highlights
Since the 1980s, increasing importance has been attached to the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (Miller, 1983; Covin and Slevin, 1989), especially in the literature on entrepreneurship and organizational performance
The autonomy dimension reflects the independent and autonomous actions that are implemented by leaders and teams with the aim of launching a new venture
The resulting Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale (EOS) comprised 32 items distributed across six dimensions
Summary
Since the 1980s, increasing importance has been attached to the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (Miller, 1983; Covin and Slevin, 1989), especially in the literature on entrepreneurship and organizational performance. Assessment of Entrepreneurial Orientation (Shapero and Sokol, 1982; Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Veciana, 1999; Krauss et al, 2005; Rauch et al, 2009; Vij and Bedi, 2012). Lumpkin and Dess (1996) define EO as the processes through which organizations seek to develop a strategic basis for decisions and entrepreneurial actions. The first dimensions of EO to be consistently identified by organizational research were innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness (Covin and Slevin, 1991). Lumpkin and Dess (1996) subsequently proposed another two dimensions of EO: competitive aggressiveness and autonomy. Learning orientation refers to the ability to learn from both positive and negative experiences and to the willingness to question assumptions or mental models in the pursuit of success
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