Business Startup in Iran: Entrepreneurial Skills, Personality, and Motivation of Iranian Nascent Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Nowadays, numerous businesses are annually started up by the Iranian nascent entrepreneurs who have the required entrepreneurial skills, personality, and motivation. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2013 data, 75% of Iranian early stage entrepreneurs are nascent entrepreneurs whose average age is 32 and 73% of them are male. Most of nascent entrepreneurs (approximately 66%) are opportunity-based entrepreneurs versus 34% of them who are necessity-based entrepreneurs. Furthermore, 43% of Iranian nascent entrepreneurs believe that there will be good opportunities for starting a business in the next six months in the area where you live; meanwhile 83% of them have the knowledge, skill and experience that is necessary to start a new business. Accordingly, 67% of Iranian nascent entrepreneurs are risk takers (no fear of failure) and 48% of them know someone personally who started a business in the past two years. However, multi-regression results show that the entrepreneurial skills of Iranian nascent entrepreneurs, and not their personality, can affect the entrepreneurial motivation (19%). It means that nascent entrepreneurs who have more entrepreneurial skills start up their businesses based on entrepreneurial opportunities recognition rather than a necessity option. Therefore, entrepreneurship education programs should be formed to empower entrepreneurial skills such as capabilities of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and business startup on potential entrepreneurs.