Role model influences on entrepreneurial intentions: A comparison between USA and Mexico

Most research and popular writing includes entrepreneurial role models as an important factor in the decision to start a business. Few, if any, studies compare the influence of business owner role models between two different countries. Further, studies cite the importance of role models for potential entrepreneurs but ignore how the role model process actually works. This study looks at activities that role models might engage in and compares their influence on respondents in the US and Mexico. This is the first study that examines differences in role model influence between two countries. Ten of the variables are significantly different between respondents in the two countries. Nine of the differences were rated as being significantly more influential among Mexican students than US students while only one variable was rated as being significantly less influential. Results of the study, especially as related to the specific influence of role models on career intentions, may be relevant in designing entrepreneurship programs. The results may also be appropriate in courses that discuss entrepreneurship in different countries (e.g., international entrepreneurship). The results may also be relevant in family businesses where eventual continuity of family ownership through succession is desired.

[1]  Michael D. Reilly,et al.  Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions , 2000 .

[2]  Douglas Gollin,et al.  Nobody's Business but My Own: Self Employment and Small Enterprise in Economic Development , 2008 .

[3]  Jeffrey H. Kahn,et al.  A multiple-groups analysis of predictors of higher level career aspirations among women in mathematics, science, and engineering majors , 1998 .

[4]  Jeffrey S. Hornsby,et al.  An Examination of Owner's Goals in Sustaining Entrepreneurship , 1997 .

[5]  A. Licht,et al.  The Social Dimensions of Entrepreneurship , 2005 .

[6]  James G. Hunt,et al.  Entrepreneurial Processes as Virtuous and Vicious Spirals in a Changing Opportunity Structure: A Paradoxical Perspective , 1995 .

[7]  A. Shapero,et al.  The Social Dimensions of Entrepreneurship , 1982 .

[8]  Daniel F. Twomey,et al.  The Long-Term Supply of Entrepreneurs: Students' Career Aspirations in Relation to Entrepreneurship , 1988 .

[9]  Developing Entrepreneurial Behaviours: A Social Learning Theory Perspective , 1989 .

[10]  Steven D. Brown,et al.  Toward a Unifying Social Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest, Choice, and Performance , 1994 .

[11]  Learning and socialization. , 1963 .

[12]  N. Krueger.  The Cognitive Infrastructure of Opportunity Emergence , 2000 .

[13]  W. Dyer,et al.  Toward a Theory of Entrepreneurial Careers , 1995 .

[14]  Glenn R. Carroll,et al.  The Career Dynamics of Self-Employment , 1987 .

[15]  Deborah V. Brazeal,et al.  Entrepreneurial Potential and Potential Entrepreneurs , 1994 .

[16]  Janet S. Adams,et al.  Role Model Performance Effects on Development of Entrepreneurial Career Preference , 1989 .

[17]  Harold P. Welsch,et al.  Major Elements in Entrepreneurial Development in Central Mexico , 1993 .

[18]  B. Biddle,et al.  Role Theory: Concepts and Research , 1966 .

[19]  D. Shepherd,et al.  Self-Employment as a Career Choice: Attitudes, Entrepreneurial Intentions, and Utility Maximization , 2002 .

[20]  V. Vincent.  Decision-Making Policies among Mexican-American Small Business Entrepreneurs , 1996 .

[21]  David A. Baucus,et al.  Second-Career Entrepreneurs: A Multiple Case Study Analysis of Entrepreneurial Processes and Antecedent Variables , 1995 .

[22]  Susan A. Basow,et al.  Role-Model Influence: Effects of Sex and Sex-Role Attitude in College Students , 1980 .