Exploring entrepreneurial intentions of MBA students in light of the shapero entrepreneurship event theory

Abstract

Small businesses are an indispensable conduit that allow for millions of people to enter the economic and social mainstream of a society by creating sustainable employment and decreasing poverty. This makes entrepreneurs the heroes of society, they are central to value creation, and reside at the heart of economic evolution. In order for South Africa to reach its national development objectives of true economic growth, the country will have to enable more entrepreneurs. This study used the Shapero Entrepreneurial Event Model to gauge the entrepreneurial intentions of South African MBA students. The Shapero Model is a parsimonious intentions tool that has high predictive power on whether or not individuals will discharge entrepreneurial behaviour. The dependent variable of Entrepreneurial Intention was regressed against the independent constructs of Perceived Desirability, Propensity to Act and Perceived Feasibility in order to assess the entrepreneurial intention of South African MBA Students. The study found that only Perceived Desirability and Propensity to Act had a significant predictive power of Entrepreneurial Intention when the entire Shapero Model was taken into account. Perceived Feasibility was found to be insignificant. Perceived feasibility is a function of the context and the environment and as such it appears that these are yet to be fully accessible to future entrepreneurs in South Africa. This has relevance to policy makers and all stakeholders within the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. In general, the study found that participants wanted to become entrepreneurs in order to attain self-realisation as well as to do the work they like. This is a noteworthy point of departure.