Intention to pursue a career in entrepreneurship: The role of risk aversion and proactive personality

Abstract

Although personal characteristics have the potential to stimulate the pursuit of entrepreneurial career, not all of them facilitate entrepreneurial career. An individual may have numerous characteristics but not all may predispose him to pursue a career in entrepreneurship. Drawing on the theory of person-environment fit, the study contends that while risk aversion would be associated with decreased intention to pursue a career in entrepreneurship, proactive personality would be associated with greater intention to pursue it; and that the proactive personality would attenuate the negative relationship between risk aversion and entrepreneurial intentions. The study employed 200 undergraduates pursuing various business administration courses in a Ghanaian public. The results showed that risk aversion relates negatively to entrepreneurial intentions, proactive personality relates positively to entrepreneurial intentions; and risk aversion related significantly and negatively to entrepreneurial intentions for less proactive, but insignificantly for highly proactive individuals. The results showed that it is possible for a risk averse individual, who is proactive to venture into business and succeed because his/her Proactiveness would enable him/her to anticipate, network, forecast and prepare for the challenges in the business environment, leading to the successful navigation and effective management of challenges that characterized entrepreneurship.