Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of parental role model in gender entrepreneurial intentions. The authors distinguish between paternal and maternal role models and investigate how their influence on students’ decision to become self-employed is moderated by gender. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a logit model on a sample of 3.703 university students from Colombia Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students Survey 2016. Findings As pointed out by results, the findings show not only that the presence of parental role model increases entrepreneurial intentions but also that the effect of this influence is moderated by gender. Research limitations/implications First, data limitations do not allow us to analyze the ways in which the parent self-employed role model contributes to increasing entrepreneurial intentions. Second, the effects of specific characteristics of father and mother role model, such as education, age, culture and experience in the sector, are not taken into account to assess the link with entrepreneurial intentions. Originality/value This study offers a new insight relating parental role model and their impact to increase entrepreneurial intentions among universities student. The findings of this paper offer relevant information to universities policymaker to design of university strategies that promote entrepreneurial activity in Colombia.

Entrepreneurship and the youth population interact to enhance economic performance, and actions oriented to bring down social barriers linked to the fear of entrepreneurial failure are as important as policies focused on access to finance or human capital formation.

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Purpose -This paper aims to demonstrate the impact of two important socio-cultural factors on the level of the entrepreneurial activity of young individuals in rural regions.Design/methodology/approach -Our empirical study is based on a sample collected from an adult population survey, and analyzed using a logit model that controls for territorial and aging sources of heterogeneity. Our theoretical framework is anchored on a contingency perspective that emphasizes the unique influences of the contextual environment in driving entrepreneurial behavior.Findings -The main findings of our study is that in Spain the likelihood of being entrepreneurially active is no different for young and old individuals, and between rural and urban regions. Surprisingly, unlike shown in most studies, entrepreneurial role models do not have any effect on the entrepreneurship by young individuals in rural regions of Spain, while the negative impact of fear of failure in the entrepreneurship on young individuals in rural regions is much higher compared to the rest of the population.Originality/value -Our findings reveal that the context (regional) has a more significant impact on entrepreneurship for some segments (younger individuals) of the population than for others.

Latin America and the Caribbean is recognized as a region of entrepreneurs, as evidenced by the high amount of ventures per capita; however, just a few number of companies export and most of them show a weak growth and little innovation. Using information from the GEM database -Colombia 2010 and 2011, this study investigates the mutual effects between the owner-manager's commitment to innovation and the export behavior of companies. Logistic and Ordinal regression models are used to test the proposed hypotheses in this study.The main findings of this study suggest that the owner-manager's commitment to innovation is an important booster for exports, as well as for increasing sales abroad. Furthermore, the results suggest that the export propensity, in turn, increases the likelihood of involvement of owner-managers to innovate in Colombia.