2023 Volume 45 Issue 2 Pages 70-80
The objective of this study is to clarify the relationship between studentsʼ entrepreneurial intentions and their role models. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 834 first-year university students to resolve the following research questions. First, is there a relationship between university studentsʼ entrepreneurial intentions and the presence of various entrepreneurial role models in a nurturing environment? The results indicated that parents, relatives, acquaintances, or friends, as entrepreneurial role models, promoted studentsʼ entrepreneurial intentions. However, fictitious characters, or those not closely associated with the students, did not affect their entrepreneurial intentions. Second, what is the impact exerted by “loosely connected” entrepreneur role models, on the studentsʼ entrepreneurial intentions? An analysis was conducted regarding the change in the perception of students before and after listening to a speech by a loosely connected entrepreneur role model. It was observed that studentsʼ entrepreneurial intentions were promoted by the speech, thereby indicating that loosely connected entrepreneurial role models could serve as what Granovetter (1973) and Aldrich & Zimmer (1986) termed “social resources.” They could be involved in various situations, including the acquisition of information, generation of motivation and orientation, and the deepening of self-understanding.
