An investigation of Indian student attitudes towards entrepreneurs and managers

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of business students in India toward business managers (not self-employed) and entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach Students’ perceptions of the ethical behaviors of business managers and entrepreneurs were measured using the Bucar and Hisrich (2001) model. The scale comprises 20 behavioral descriptors, and the students were asked to indicate the degree to which they believed entrepreneurs and business managers would consider these actions as ethical. Findings Responses to general items of ethical behavior demonstrated a difference in the perception of Indian students between business managers and entrepreneurs. Originality/value This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship in two ways. One involves the results of the hypothesis testing presented herein to evaluate the perceptions of business students in India toward entrepreneurs and business managers. The second contribution is comparing these results to that of a similar study using a US sample (Batchelor et al., 2011) to compare the differences in perceptions toward entrepreneurs and business managers across these two nations.

Building Entreprenurial Intention Among Business Students at Greater Jakarta

“…Further, they acknowledge that attitudes tend to change over the long run circumstances through an intelligent transform with the environment which is proven by the changing of entrepreneurial attitude of university students are much higher compare to community college peers. Their finding is also supported by various studies (Nguyen, Dinh, Luu, and Choo, 2020;Barber III, Ghouse, Batchelor, Chaher, Harris, and Gibson, 2019;Aloulou, 2016). In addition, according to Robinson, Stimpson, Huefner, and Hunt (1991), entrepreneurial attitudes are the changing of thoughts, feelings, and behavioural intentions related to innovation, achievement, self-esteem, and personal control.…”

Czech Students’ Perceptions of Ethical Behavior in Business and Entrepreneurship

“…A study in the United States (Batchelor et al, 2011), found there was a different perception of managers than entrepreneurs. A study using the same methodology on the perceptions of Omani students found no difference between the ethics of managers and entrepreneurs (Ghouse et al, 2019). Hypotheses 2 and 3 were related to the potential difference between American and Czech students' perceptions of managers and entrepreneurs.…”

“…Interestingly, except for slight gender differences, Czech student perceptions are similar to those in the United States. Previous research in India (Barber III et al, 2019) showed substantial differences in the perceptions of Indian and U.S. business students. With the U.S. sample viewing both entrepreneurs and managers as more ethical than their Indian counterparts.…”

“…Yet another study found there to be little to no difference in these perceptions (i.e. Barber III et al, 2019). Yet the most up to date study in this area (Ghouse, Batchelor, Barber III, Gibson, & Harris, 2020) found U.S. women to perceive entrepreneurs as more ethical than Omani women.…”

“…With reference topic at hand, past articles have argued that entrepreneurs are freer to take a stakeholder perspective than are business managers (Batchelor et al, 2011;Barber III et al, 2019;Ghouse et al, 2020). Entrepreneurs are freer to take this perspective because they are not bound by an agency relationship to their principal as are business managers.…”