Characteristics of Oregon agricultural export entrepreneurs

• Main Author: Johnson, Wayne E.
• Other Authors: Suzuki, Warren N.
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Behavioral assessment
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/36320

The creation of a new business venture is a multidimensional event, but little research has addressed the interaction of entrepreneurial characteristics and their relationship to new venture creation. The purpose of this study was to propose a conceptual framework for systematically studying the entrepreneurial personality. The major components of the proposed framework were attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, the three antecedents of behavior, and demographic indicators. A stratified random sample of 20 subjects, 15 males and five females, was identified for this study from a population of 120 Oregon agriculture exporters. The study had an important limitation: the population consisted only of agriculture export entrepreneurs. The data were gathered in two ways: an interview and a survey questionnaire. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework was proposed. The framework consisted of three antecedents of behavior: attitude toward the behavior, perceived behavioral control, and the subjective norm. These antecedents were influenced by selected demographic variables. Prominent factors were need for achievement, long-term involvement, risk taking (moderate), internal locus of control, sex (gender), and family background. Additional variables deserving further study are: innovation, drive and energy, persistent problem solving, age, birth order, educational history, and previous experience. The entrepreneurial behavior model developed from the conceptual framework was supported by the results of the study. === Graduation date: 1992