Entrepreneurial Traits among School Owners and Teachers in Lalitpur District

Abstract

Entrepreneurship, a process of converting risks into capital, is a milestone of the development of a country. It is pertinent in institutional schools as they are growing in numbers in Nepal. The concerns of choosing entrepreneurship in institutional schools become important because a larger number of educated people have been involved in such schools as teachers or owners. With the purpose of finding the possible factors that make graduates, who are either owners or teachers in the institutional schools, choose (or not choose) entrepreneurship as a career, this research was carried out with two fundamental research questions: a) Do socio-demographical differences make graduates perceive internal traits of entrepreneurship (psychological and cultural dimensions) and external traits of entrepreneurship (financial and policy dimensions) as a career options differently? b) To what extent do internal entrepreneurial traits (personal-psychological and cultural attributes) and external entrepreneurial traits (financial and policy attributes) contribute the graduates to choose entrepreneurship as a career? This research was primarily based on survey design method. The Krejcie and Morgan formula was used to determine the sample size. Among all the full-time teachers ii and owners of the institutional higher secondary schools of Lalitpur district, 171 teachers and 125 owners were selected (as determined by the sampling formula) randomly as the sample. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire, and they were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t/ ANOVA test and multiple regression. The analysis revealed that psychological and cultural traits were the most influencing factors to develop entrepreneurial attitude of people among the entrepreneurial dimensions. The result also indicated that the concern was distinct in Janajati, other ethnic/ social groups and Dalits. For Janajati and other ethnic/ social groups, culture played vital role in entrepreneurial perception building but for Dalits, culture did not have influence to become entrepreneur. The concern was also visible in financial and policy traits. The unfavorable policy and situation and financial instability had higher influence on people for not developing their entrepreneurial attitude. In conclusion, financial and policy traits appeared to be weaker than psychological and cultural traits of a graduate to choose entrepreneurship as a career. Therefore, it is suggested that future researchers are to be engaged to explore the reasons by which Nepal has been falling back from policy support and favorable financial condition to enhance the entrepreneurship attitude among graduates.