Students' attitude towards entrepreneurship: does gender matter in the UAE?

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of the study is to examine whether there is a difference in the entrepreneurial intentions among male and female students in UAE. The study is extremely relevant and interesting since females in the UAE have a higher success rate in education but this has not been translated into comparable increases in employment rates. Given the social, cultural, and religious fabric of the country's indigenous society and the rising number of female graduates, this anomaly in the corporate sector might result in more female entrepreneurs in this part of the globe, as compared to the rest of the world.Design/methodology/approach -The research studies a sample of first year business students from the United Arab Emirates, namely Dubai Men's College and Dubai Women's College. The primary survey was a part of an international study involving 12 universities in Europe, Middle East and Australia. A five-point Likert scale was used for each question and dummy variables were computed based on the scores. The authors used a multivariable econometric model to assess the statistical significance of the determinants of entrepreneurial attitudes. The empirical assessment of the students' entrepreneurial propensity was based on the estimation of a logistic regression. Findings -The authors' results show that male and female students were equally strong in terms of their propensity to become future entrepreneurs. Female respondents showed higher risk-taking behavior than males, which was contradictory to past research findings that have typically found females to be more conservative in risk-taking than males. The estimation results showed that the propensity of future entrepreneurship does not depend on gender -it depended on factors like creativity, motivation and awareness. This is a very important result since the authors' sample does not follow the expected trend in the existing literature on gender differences and entrepreneurship propensities where a wide gender gap has been found.Originality/value -Both academia and practitioners have increased their efforts in promoting an entrepreneurial mindset within society. However, only a few studies have investigated entrepreneurial attitudes amongst students and no research studies have been conducted in the UAE. The authors' research fills this lacuna and shows that the efforts need to be directed towards nurturing the creativity and awareness of both male and female students for future business ventures.

Important characteristics of an entrepreneur in relation to risk taking: Czech Republic case study

“…The results of Majumdar and Varadarajan (2013) show that male and female students were equally strong in terms of their propensity to become future entrepreneurs. Female respondents showed higher risk-taking behaviour than males, which was contradictory to past research findings that have typically found females to be more conservative in risk-taking than males.…”

“…In our opinion and according to other authors (Lituchy & Reavley, 2004;Kim & Vonorts, 2014;Caliendo et al 2014) successful business is inevitably associated with acceptance of some degree of risk. Veber et al (2005) and other authors show that the most important personality traits of the entrepreneurs seem to be honesty and creativity (Hines, 2004), conscientiousness (Zhao & Seibert, 2006), responsibility (Beugelsdijk & Noorderhaven, 2005), optimism (Frese & Gielnik, 2014) and initiative (Bruttel & Fischbacher, 2013) in addition to the aforementioned risk-taking (see also Lituchy & Reavley, 2004;Majumdar & Varadarajan, 2013;Kepler & Shane, 2007).…”

Exploring the Effects of Entrepreneurial Education on Entrepreneurial Intention between Genders: A Pair-Wise Methodology Approach

“…A similar study by Ali, Topping and Tariq (2010) on Pakistani students also argues no difference in entrepreneurial intention between genders. A further study from Majumdar and Varadarajan (2013) comparing entrepreneurial intention among male and female students in the United Arab Emirates argued that both male and female students in the UAE have a higher propensity to become an entrepreneur. A study by Göksel and Aydıntan (2011) argued no difference in the influence of entrepreneurial education and gender on the intention of students to become entrepreneurs in the Turkish context.…”

Science, Technology and Innovation through Entrepreneurship Education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

“…EEP is important in producing entrepreneurs who have all the necessary knowledge and skills in conducting a business [12]. Often supported by government policy, formal EEP is sometimes made a mandatory program in higher learning institutions in countries such as Canada [13], Singapore [14], UAE [15], Turkey [16], the Netherlands [17] and Germany [18]. Even so, a contradictory view of the role of EEP was argued [18], whereby education and exposure on the actual entrepreneurship experience were seen to supersede indoctrination.…”