Personality traits and variables of the individual’s planned behavior: a study of its effects on entrepreneurial intentions

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effects of personality traits on the entrepreneurial intentions of students concluding Accounting courses at two private higher education institutions and a public one, located in the Midwest region of Brazil. Methodology: Descriptive study, carried out from a survey, with the sample consisting of 173 students, 86 from a public university and 87 from two private universities. The survey instrument was applied in person to the respondents and for data analysis, the structural equation modeling technique was adopted. Results: Among the results, it was found that attitudes affect students’ entrepreneurial intentions in a statistically significant way, allowing inferring that it is one of the strongest principles to start an entrepreneurial career due to the evaluation of the pros and cons. It was also confirmed that personality traits (proactive personality and locus of control) are very relevant to understanding an individual’s entrepreneurial interests. The proactive personality is a characteristic that positively affects the attitude, the subjective norm, the perceived behavioral control and also the entrepreneur’s intentions. The locus of control in turn affects both the subjective norms and the perceived behavioral control of the individual. Contributions of the study: Its results allow inferring that the personality traits and the variables of the Theory of Planned Behavior are in good parts predictors of the behavioral intentions.