The impact of personality and entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention, the personality traits that can affect entrepreneurial intention, and the traits that cause positive changes in entrepreneurial intention after the intervention of an entrepreneurship program. In order to measure the changes in entrepreneurial intention levels, two questionnaires (pretest-posttest group design) were used. Both questionnaires were completed by 202 business students, studying at a public university based in Athens, Greece. Our analysis indicates that the personality traits that affect entrepreneurial intention levels are openness, extraversion, and risk aversion. Using paired samples test we found an increase in entrepreneurial intention following the course attendance. Cluster analysis indicated that students with higher levels of extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and lower levels of risk aversion and neuroticism demonstrated statistically significant and higher means change in entrepreneurial intention levels (at the end of the entrepreneurship program). The literature examining the personality traits of individuals who benefit most from entrepreneurship education has been developing in recent years. However, the studies that refer to this topic are scant (Burch, Murphy, & Tocher, 2019; Israr, 2017). The findings of this paper emphasize the need for further investigation of the results in different contexts in order to validate them.