Entrepreneurial Activities in Post-Soviet Societies : Impacts of Social Psychological Characteristics

Abstract

This article focuses on the impacts of locus of control and self-esteem on the likelihood that young adults in post-Soviet societies engage in entrepreneurial activities. Despite the especially high level of uncertainty and risk associated with entrepreneurship in transitional societies, the literature has largely neglected the role of social psychological characteristics of undertaking entrepreneurial activities in such societies. In logistic regression analyses of longitudinal data on samples of secondary school graduates in five former regions of the Soviet Union, we find that social psychological characteristics at ages seventeen to eighteen (measured in 1983-84) have effects on entrepreneurial activities in transitional societies a decade or more later when individuals are young adults. Three different measures of entrepreneurial activities (owning a business or firm, self-employment, and the mix of entrepreneurial activities) are examined. The results suggest that greater self-esteem at ages seventeen to eighteen increases the likelihood that a young adult has engaged in some form of entrepreneurial activities since the Soviet Union collapsed, and, additionally, that a higher internal locus of control at ages seventeen to eighteen increases the chances that a young adult owns a business or firm in the late 1990s.