Developing a measurement instrument for high school students’ entrepreneurial orientation

Abstract

Business owners, especially successful ones, can be assumed to have eminently developed an entrepreneurial orientation ever since their high school days. However, thus far there is no standardized scale to specifically measure entrepreneurial orientation behavior in high school students. This study analyzes the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation in 368 high school students in six major cities on the island of Java, Indonesia. Items of the scale are arranged based on five dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation by Lumpkin and Dess. The result of the exploratory analysis indicates four dimensions that are proven valid and reliable, namely innovativeness, risky proactiveness, autonomy, and competitiveness. However, the result of external validity test shows only three valid dimensions, hence leading to the exclusion of the autonomy dimension from this scale. This scale can be implemented by educators to identify and develop entrepreneurial orientation in high school students.