A Study on Entrepreneurial Intention among Nascent Entrepreneurs of Coir Industry in Kerala

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is regarded as the mainstay of any developing economy. The enterprise promoting economic as well as environmental sustainability is a powerful weapon in nation building. Coir industry is one among these industries. This traditional, agro-based labourintensive industry has the potential to trigger the nation towards economic freedom without disturbing the ecological balance. Entrepreneurship, especially in the traditional industries, always remains as a perennial domain for research. The present study tries to unveil the Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) and Entrepreneurial Self Efficacy (ESE) of the Nascent Entrepreneurs (NE) of the coir industry. The main objectives of the study are to explore the antecedents of ESE and to analyze the impact of ESE on EI. Attitude, External factors and personality traits are identified as the factors influencing the ESE. The influence of demographic profile on the ESE and EI are also explored in this research. Thorough survey on literature pertaining to the coir industry helps to develop a better understanding of the current status of the coir industry in the country. The survey method was administered to collect primary data from 402 NEs of the coir industry in Kerala. A simple random sampling was adopted to select the respondents. The statistical analysis of the data indicatethat ESE has a significant impact on the EI of the NEs. The attitude, external factors and personality traits of the NEs have an influence on the ESE.An NE’s attitude towards setting up new business is found to influence the ESE of the NE, whereas the attitude towards risk taking has an insignificant effect on ESE. Social Subjective Norms and Entrepreneurial Education could not exert any identifiable difference in the ESE of the NEs whereas Social Networking could. The Big Five personality factors except Conscientiousness have an influence on the ESE. The relationship of independent variables with EI is partially mediated by ESE. Among the demographic variables, education, work experience and role model are found to influence the ESE and EI. Apart from its contribution to the existing entrepreneurship literature, thestudy results help in policy framing and curriculum designing for the Entrepreneurship Development Programmes pertaining to the coir industry