Exploring the Association between Entrepreneurial Intentions and Personality Traits in University Students of Punjab: Emotional Intelligence as a Moderator

Abstract

Interest in entrepreneurial intention has significantly increased during the last few decades. Understanding the minds, behaviour, and personality profile of individuals who commence their ventures can help our nation's economy flourish. The motivation behind this study is to investigate the association between Big Five personality traits and the Entrepreneurial Intentions of university students of Punjab and to investigate whether the association between these traits and entrepreneurial intentions is moderated by Emotional Intelligence. Data collection was done from 170 university students through a survey using the Convenience sampling method. The outcomes obtained by correlation-regression analysis through SPSS software show that Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion positively and significantly influenced Entrepreneurial Intentions. Also, Emotional Intelligence as a moderator significantly strengthened the relationships between these dimensions and entrepreneurial intentions which was done using the Cohen, Cohen, West, and Aiken’s approach. This work advocates that some measures should be taken to enhance the personality traits of the students of Punjab as well as encourage them towards entrepreneurship so that they can lay the foundation for global success stories. Educators should create programs for personality development that will assist pupils in developing the kind of personalities that are ideal for becoming entrepreneurs.