Entrepreneurship traits of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) students

Abstract

Entrepreneurship studies and education courses have increased significantly with the realisation of its importance for economic growth. Entrepreneurship courses are no longer only lectured by business schools, economical and management sciences, but also in natural science and engineering departments. The aim of this study is to determine the enterprising tendency of science, engineering and technology (SET) students with the General Enterprising Tendency (GET) test developed by Dr Caird. The SET students have an enterprising tendency above average indicative that they are likely to be enterprising in some way, but most likely through intrapreneurship by being part of a group within a corporate environment. The first degree (BEng, BSc and BTech) of the SET students appear to have no influence on their enterprising tendency. The male students have a higher enterprising tendency than the females, and the BTech males revealed a significantly higher need for autonomy than BTech females. The White students have a higher tendency for the entrepreneurial traits such as “need for autonomy”, “calculated risk taking” and “internal local of control”, whereas the Black students have a higher “need for achievement”. The future aim with continuing this study will be to structure technopreneurship courses in order to provide more effective training for SET students.