A developing-country perspective on tourism students’ entrepreneurial intention using trait approach and family tradition

ABSTRACT

By adopting the conceptual model from Altinay et al.'s study of 2012 on the influence of family tradition and psychological traits on entrepreneurial intention, the current paper aims to investigate the effects of reportedly most cited psychological traits including; locus of control, innovativeness, need for achievement, tolerance for ambiguity, and risk-taking tendency along with entrepreneurial family background or family tradition on entrepreneurial intent of tourism and hospitality students in Iran. The adoption of this holistic approach in a country characterized by economic and political instability would enrich the literature on entrepreneurial traits, family tradition, and risk-taking propensity. Making use of improved survey instruments of some of the constructs, the study also provides the possibility of more accurate measurements including between-groups comparison of students’ entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, applying percentile bootstrapping approach, more valid estimations of mediating relationships were achieved. The findings indicate that while enterprise intent is low with those from entrepreneurial families, the intent was significantly and positively affected by tolerance of ambiguity, need for achievement, and risk-taking propensity but not by locus of control and innovativeness. Concerning the mediating effects of risk-taking, only need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity were able to indirectly influence the intent.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurial intention
• family tradition
• trait approach

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, S. E., upon reasonable request.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Saeed Ehsanfar

Saeed Ehsanfar, is an independent researcher and received his Master's degree in tourism development planning from the Tourism Management Faculty of Semnan University, Iran. He has conducted research into sustainable tourism development, entrepreneurship and environmental evaluation of tourism development published in national tourism journals and conferences. His research interests are focused on tourism entrepreneurship, capital theory, sustainable tourism development, gender and events industry. He speaks English and French.

Sadegh Khosh Namak

Sadegh Khosh Namak, is from Department of Tourism Management, Faculty of Tourism and Desert Studies, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran.

Leila Vosoughi

Leila Vosoughi, is from Department of Tourism Management, Faculty of Tourism and Desert Studies, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran.