Journals Proceedings

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through empirical analysis, a) whether or not undergraduate students have any entrepreneurial intentions, based on their psychological characteristics such as locus of control, etc. and b) whether or not these psychological characteristics have any impact on their entrepreneurial intentions. For this purpose, anonymous questionnaires were administered to undergraduate students in the third and final year in higher education institutions in the Athens area. Statistical tools were employed in order to analyse the collective data. Results indicated that in general Greek undergraduate students were not risk-takers while they had little inclination towards entrepreneurship. Moreover, Greek undergraduate students have shown a positive locus of control, good self confidence and an aptitude for innovation while they have not shown high levels of tolerance to ambiguity Taking into consideration that a) the economic development and the competitive advantage of a country are basically determined by the qualitative improvement of, and the productive use of, inputs such as entrepreneurship, and b) the enhancement of entrepreneurial skills of students is mainly the result of an effective education system, then this paper supports the view that advancing the existing knowledge on the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and the entrepreneurial intentions of young people would make a valuable contribution to a more competitive education system and to more innovative entrepreneurship.