The findings from the quantitative followed by the qualitative findings are presented separately. Lastly, integrating quantitative and qualitative enhanced the robustness of the results.
Phase I- Quantitative Study Results
Psychological traits were described by taking six different personal dimensions supported by the methodological literature (Khuong & An, 2016; Ndofirepi, 2020; Sun et al., 2020; Zang & Zang, 2013): the need for achievement, freedom, ambiguity tolerance, creativity/ innovation, locus of control and risk-taking propensity. All the dimensions were measured using the five-point Likert Scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5), taking at least two different items for each dimension. Table 1 is the regression analysis where personal traits are the dependent variable. In contrast, the independent variables are the need for achievement, ambiguity tolerance, enthusiasm, creativity/ innovation, locus of control, and risk-taking propensity.
Table 1
Model One of Psychological Traits and Different Personal Dimensions Psychological Traits and Different Personal Dimensions
Model
|
Unstandardized Coefficients
|
Standardized Coefficients
|
t
|
Sig.
|
Collinearity Statistics
|
B
|
Std. Error
|
Beta
|
Tolerance
|
VIF
|
(Constant)
|
.285
|
.070
|
|
4.042
|
.000
|
|
|
Need for Achievement
|
.143
|
.011
|
.281
|
12.867
|
.000
|
.743
|
1.345
|
Ambiguity Tolerance
|
.109
|
.009
|
.258
|
12.445
|
.000
|
.820
|
1.220
|
Enthusiasm
|
.170
|
.010
|
.350
|
16.713
|
.000
|
.808
|
1.237
|
Creativity/Innovation
|
.176
|
.013
|
.285
|
13.596
|
.000
|
.806
|
1.241
|
Locus of Control
|
.150
|
.011
|
.294
|
13.038
|
.000
|
.694
|
1.441
|
Risk Taking Propensity
|
.157
|
.016
|
.186
|
9.711
|
.000
|
.959
|
1.042
|
Dependent Variable: Average of Psychological Traits
Each independent variable ranges from one to five; specifically, 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.
In the model summary, the value of R is 0.948, which indicates that the multiple correlations of all the predictors to the dependent variable are very strong and positive. The R-square value of 0.898 indicates that the overall psychological value change in entrepreneurship traits contributes to 89.8% of the predictors' values. The Durbin-Watson value of 1.677 lies in the accepted range of 1.5 to 2.5, indicating no autocorrelation in the samples. The ANOVA table suggests that the overall regression model is a good fit for the data with the F (6,288) value of 423.37 and the p-value < 0.001.
The coefficient table shows that the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) for each regression coefficient is less than ten, and the Tolerance Value for each is less than 1. Therefore, no multi-collinearity exists among the independent variables. All the explanatory variables are significantly independent, as the p-value for each corresponding t-value is less than 0.05.
The Glejer Test of Heteroscedasticity was conducted to understand the issue of residuals, and it was found that none of the explanatory variables significantly define the residual. Further, no significant correlation between residual and the explanatory variables indicates no endogeneity issue exists. So, the regression model has met almost all of the conditions valid as required. Therefore, creativity/ innovation is more influential (with a coefficient of 0.176) than the other dimensions, whereas ambiguity tolerance (with a coefficient of 0.109) has a minor effect.
The model reveals that a unit change is ambiguity tolerance keeping other independent variables constant will change the overall psychological traits by 0.109. Considering regression coefficients, it can be concluded that the creativity/innovation variable difference can significantly change a person's psychological traits.
The model suggests that the highest value of entrepreneurial traits was 4.495, and the lowest was 1.127 out of 5. It means a wide range of traits was noticed between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. The study figured out two school owners with a high level of psychological traits to become an entrepreneur and two teachers with shallow levels of entrepreneurial traits. We were interested in finding the reasons why some people have a higher level of entrepreneurial traits than others. We also wanted to know how personal traits support people to choose entrepreneurship as a career. For this, we conducted four case studies which have been explained below.
Phase II: Case Study Result
A multiple case study design was used for collecting and analyzing the qualitative data (Stake, 2006). The primary purpose of the case studies was to understand the different dimensions of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneur. The unit of analysis was a person, either an entrepreneur or a teacher (non-entrepreneur). Each case study was bound by one individual and the time they started a professional career in the education sector. For anonymity, the pseudo name and demographic characteristics are used.
Case Selection
To select the cases, the respondents were divided into two groups: entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. The characteristics of each point have been explained, followed by the relevant data related to the case. Further, a cross-case analysis is made to extract the findings.
Case of Shanta Sharma
Ms. Shanta Sharma lives in the central part of Kathmandu Valley. She did her schooling in a remote village in a district of the eastern region of Nepal. She had to walk seven hours from home to the nearest market. The primary profession of the family was agriculture, specifically rearing buffalo. Her primary duty was picking up a milk can and sending it to a collection center 1.5 hours away from her village. She started doing the work when she reached grade five. It means waking up early and supporting her parents by selling milk was her foremost duty during the time she was in school. Despite the hectic household work, she completed her SLC and went to a city for further study. Due to the poor economic condition of her family, she started a low-paid job to serve as a home tutor for school children. This made it easy for her to pay her rent, campus fees, and other living expenses. After completing the intermediate level, she joined a private school as a primary teacher. The earning was not substantial; however, it was sufficient to sustain her life in Kathmandu.
Moreover, given her dedication and hard work, the school promoted her to become a secondary teacher after two years. She exhibited a great deal of creativity while teaching in the school. Apart from teaching classes, she also volunteered to work with students involved in extracurricular activities such as drama, poem recitation, etc. Due to her regular efforts and hard work, the school recognized her need. With a certain percentage of share, the school even proposed that she become the owner. She accepted the proposal. Then, she became an entrepreneur- an owner of the school without investing her money. Her case had all the traits discussed above to a great extent.
Ms. Sharma demonstrated a medium level of risk-taking propensity. She agreed that before establishing the institution, she took many risks. When she realized the institution had reached its saturation point, she started to spend less time as she saw low risks. She considered that there was good community support and could easily attrack students despite the lower level of time investment. By highlighting the situation, she shared:
For now, it is saturated. We have perfect trust in the local community. We can easily attract students from the nearby community if we invest more. But it becomes hard for my partners and me to invest more because there is an equal risk of getting lost. So, at this point, we are interested in investing less in it. Moreover, we are ready to invest the yearly surplus from this investment.
This quote indicates that her risk-taking propensity had by now become medium. She was ready to invest the entire amount she earned from the organization but needed to prepare better in order to invest her own money. Ms. Sharma showed a higher level of Locus of Control. She believed she could easily tackle the external forces disturbing her. She has a high level of confidence in herself. Therefore, the neighboring schools' massive investments to attract students are okay with her. She stated:
I can easily tackle external influences. We have made a perfect relationship with the community. We try to make our students good at studying and other extracurricular activities. Since our establishment, our products (SLC and + 2 batches) have stayed below average. Due to our regular efforts, we can easily control the external forces that may appear while running this business.
This statement clearly states that she has a high locus of control and good strategies to overcome externalities that may arise while running this business.
A high degree of creativity and innovation has been observed in Ms. Sharma. She has many new ideas to grow and sustain her business in the long run. Along with her team, she uses innovative ideas for business promotion and helps students in their academic activities. Concerning her efforts, in her own words:
Despite the competitor schools with a good investment, we have provided much time to perform our job differently. With a small scale of investment, we are applying our 100% to achieve better. One of the innovations I used was to build an excellent rapport between the parents and the local community. We have established community learning forums where our teachers and I facilitate children's learning during the holidays. We collect our children and let them read or do creative work under our supervision. Other schools that invested much can only come inside their school compound. However, we are always interested in doing things differently.
This signifies that she has a high level of innovation, and her work always supports sustaining their business in the long run.
Ms. Sharma's ambiguity tolerance was found to be medium. She was clear that she needed to invest more, and she was ready to invest the entire surplus gained every year from the school business. However, she needed help in the areas of investment. She needs to determine whether the hardware parts, such as building and infrastructure, or the software parts, such as teachers' training and reading materials, are the best investment areas. "I believe but need to learn better that if we invest in the infrastructures, we can triple the number of students and income. But I am unsure that making a huge investment will create good profit in the long run" She further says, "I am not sure (about) the strategies that we should apply to retain these medium-class students and the high-class students who will join after investing a lot." These statements show that she has a medium level of ambiguity tolerance. Fundamentally, she is clear about the business; however, she needs to be more explicit about the operational strategies that make the business sustainable.
Thus, Ms. Sharma was found to be good at creativity and tackling the external forces that may arise in the business. However, she is still in a dilemma to take a high level of risk and possible strategies to welcome both medium-class and high-class students and sustain her business.
Case of Gyanendra Chetteri
Gyanendra Chetteri is the owner and principal of one of the higher secondary schools in the Lalitpur District. He is from a rural area of the Kathmandu Valley. However, he did his schooling at a private school. His colleagues believe he is one of the lucky people as he had the opportunity to study in a private school which was a rarity in their school days. During his study, his parents supported him well. His father paid his bills up to the master's level. After completing the master's level with decent marks, he started teaching in a private higher secondary school. After two years, he decided to invest in the school sector. He sold some parental property (i.e., family land) and bought a school in Kathmandu Valley. Now, he is working as the principal of the school. His risk-taking propensity was found to be high. He narrated his story in this way:
I was convinced that the + 2-school sector is one of the best business areas. You can go up to the master level with the same infrastructure. I sold some of my parental property and invested in this school. Over time, I realized I could expand my business if I ran BBS (Bachelor of Business Studies).
Pointing to a building, he says, "I constructed this building by taking a bank loan. I believe I can easily pay the loan in three years. If you hire good teachers, you never have students scarcity". This statement indicates that the person has a high level of risk-taking propensity. He also used his parental property in the business and took many bank loans to expand it.
However, Mr. Chhetry's locus of control was found to be medium. He explained about his business,
I believe in the quality of our school. We make much effort to get better results. However, the big investors have become threats to us. The school is urban, so we need fixed community and feeder areas. Parents tend to choose schools by looking at various aspects. One of the essential aspects is the relationship between owners and the principal. Usually, parents choose the school where the investors are from the same districts they belong to. For example, the parents from the Syangja district usually select the schools where investors are from Syangja. So, managing external forces has become a tough job. However, I have maintained good relations with the parents by making one-to-one correspondence with them.
The statement indicates the efforts of Mr. Chhetry to make an exemplary locus of control. However, he feels that many externalities could be more controllable.
Mr. Chhetry has a high level of creativity and innovation. He uses many ideas to expand and retain his business. One of the ideas was that he had agreed with a gym club. This kind of network might attract teenagers. About the scheme, he explained:
We had agreed on a gym house. Our students are members of the gym house. The gym house only trains our students from 6:00 am to 7:00 am. We directly deal with the club. We take fees from our students and pay to the gym house. Students these days prefer to open themselves to the four walls of a classroom. So, to capitalize on this, we started working with a gym house. We are planning to make a contract with the Zumba house too. Doing this can attract teenagers, mainly grade 11 and 12 students.
This explanation signifies the remarkable creativity to retain and make additional income in his business. The level of ambiguity tolerance of Mr. Chettri was also found to be high. He knew the business trend and was ready to expand his business in this direction. He says:
We are applying to bring a new program, such as hotel management courses, to expand our business. Nowadays, students choose to go for new subjects. So, we are planning to run the hotel management courses. Similarly, we are trying to expand this bachelor's program with new subjects such as BBM (Bachelor of Business Management), BCA (Bachelor of Computer Applications), etc. We have already applied for BBM and BCA. I hope we get affiliation for BBM the following year.
The descriptions show that he has a clear idea and is confident in enhancing his business. He is clear about the direction and level of investment to move further.
Unlike entrepreneurs, non-entrepreneurs have a lower level of personal traits. Their characteristics have been discussed below.
Case of Achyut Thapa
Achyut Thapa, from a district in Terai - the southern part of Nepal - is a Mathematics teacher in one of the higher secondary schools in Lalitpur. He did his schooling in a public school. Being from a farming family, he had to do extensive agricultural work before attending school. Besides his school activities, his day-to-day work was plowing, planting, and harvesting. It took much effort for him to manage the time to study during his school life. Balancing his study and farm work was his major challenge during school. Later, his family agreed to send him to Kathmandu for higher study. When he came to Kathmandu, he was supposed to do a job in order to maintain the resources needed for his research and stay in Kathmandu. Fortunately, he got a job in a private school as a primary teacher. He continued his career in the same school for five years. Once he completed his bachelor's degree, he got a chance to work in a school as a secondary-level teacher. Then, he moved from one school to another, searching for better schools, mainly concerned with salary issues. Now, he is working as a secondary teacher in one of the schools in the valley.
Mr. Thapa's risk-taking propensity was found to be low. He said that he got many investment opportunities, but he refused them. He explained his thoughts and experiences in these ways:
Many colleagues encouraged me to invest in schools. As I have seen many other colleagues who invested and found no return, I was always reluctant to invest. I feel safer working than investing in schools. I cannot invest solely, and I have to work as a partner with many other colleagues. The partners would have clashed, and the business could only go briefly. One of my relatives invested in a school by selling his parental properties, but due to internal conflict among the partners, they could not run the school well, and he bore a significant loss. Successful entrepreneurs can be counted on fingers. Most of them failed to sustain for long. So, teaching in a good school is safer than investing as an entrepreneur.
The version of Mr. Thapa shows that he has a low risk-taking propensity and sees a high degree of failure in entrepreneurship. Mr. Thapa's locus of control was found to be medium. He believes we can sustain our business with a good amount of money. He says:
You can easily control your surroundings if you have good capital. However, if you cannot invest but your competitors are investing a lot, you will lose what you have, too. So, you can easily overcome external hindrances if you have sufficient resources, but if you cannot invest on time, you have to bear a loss.
This shows that Mr. Thapa has a medium degree of locus of control. He is more concerned about the amount of investment.
Despite his high creativity in teaching-learning, his creativity and innovation related to entrepreneurship were low. He knows how to teach well and make students good in their subjects. However, he needed to be more open to creating a better business. Regarding the matter, he said,
I do not have a good idea to improve an organization, but I know how to make students good at Mathematics. ECA (extracurricular activities) cannot only be an attractive force to bring more students into schools. Why does my school have a CEO on the top and the principal and the communication in charge?
The version of his explanation indicates that his innovation level in running and sustaining enterprises could have been higher.
Like creativity, Mr. Thapa's degree of ambiguity tolerance related to business was also low. He needs to clarify the investment areas that will give good profit. His opinions can be traced from the following statements:
As I told you, I am still deciding if many alternatives exist. … I am unsure whether to invest in a laboratory or a new building to make a good school. I have seen a school with good internal resources, such as the quality of teachers, the library, and the laboratories, do well. Also, I have witnessed that schools with good buildings and advertisements make a good profit. So, it is hard to decide what is best.
His explanation indicates that his level of tolerance for ambiguity is low. Therefore, he could not become an entrepreneur.
Case of Ms. Yogita Shrestha
Yogita Shrestha, a recently graduated teacher from Kathmandu, teaches Accountancy in a + 2 school in Lalitpur. She is a young teacher and has just graduated this year. She did her schooling in one of Kathmandu's 'best' schools. Her parents were businesspersons running a medium-sized fancy store (retail of readymade clothes and shoes). She studied in a private boarding school, did her bachelor's degree from a private college, and completed her master's degree from a community college. Her parents invested in her education up to her master's level. After completing her master's degree, she got a chance to teach in a higher secondary school. She has been teaching theoretical courses such as Business Studies. She has less experience in the 'business' in the education sector. However, she feels risk in investing. She loves to get her salary at the end of the month and feels good to give her relatives and friends gifts with her earnings.
Ms. Shrestha's degree of risk-taking propensity is found to be low. She needed to be more confident about being an entrepreneur. She states:
I know this sector (and other sectors) very little. If I invest, I will bear a loss. I am still trying to figure out how to run a business. I feel safe and sound working for a six-hour day. The teaching job has more freedom and good earnings than the banking sector. Many of my friends work in the banks. They never get long holidays and work eight to nine hours a day. My job is better than their jobs. I get a handsome salary and good holidays. To become an investor, you must spend a lot of time. You will have stress. I am different from the kind of person to take office tension to home.
Her version clearly shows that she fears investing and has no idea about running a business.
She believes that her locus of control could be higher in degree. She knows how to tackle other people but needs to learn business tactics.
I can easily understand what other people think about me and know how to deal with them. However, business is not the area, and I need to figure out how to overcome the competition in the business. I am okay with my job. I have to satisfy students. That is all.
This shows that she has no ideas about the business and locus of control to overcome the business hurdles, and her creativity and innovation are better than other attributes. She thinks that if the school brings some innovation, the number of students can be increased.
Suppose the school establishes the red cross circle and involves students in community activities such as cleaning and blood donation campaigns. In that case, the school can be visible in the community, and trust would be enhanced, which can increase the number of students in the school. However, I need to find other ideas schools should apply to improve their business.
This indicates that she has some innovative ideas but doubts implementing the concepts in practice. Ms. Shreshta's degree of ambiguity tolerance was found to be low. She needed to be more transparent on the priorities that the school should immediately consider for the betterment of the business. She says,"
Many good schools are neighboring this school. Schools have their peculiarity. Some schools have good buildings, and some have good outreach. I need to find out the primary component that makes a school good. I know good teachers are always essential for a good school. It is tricky for me to answer if someone asks me about the factors that make a good school.
This description indicates that her degree of ambiguity tolerance was low.
Cross case analysis
By looking at the above four cases, we have developed a word table (Table 2) by making a cross-case analysis that helps understand the personal traits of entrepreneurship.
Table 2
|
Shanta Sharma
|
Gyanendra Chettri
|
Achyut Thapa
|
Yogita Shrestha
|
Risk-taking propensity
|
Medium
|
High
|
Low
|
Low
|
Locus of control
|
High
|
Medium
|
Medium
|
Low
|
Creativity/ Innovation
|
High
|
High
|
Low
|
Medium
|
Ambiguity Tolerance
|
Medium
|
High
|
Low
|
Low
|
Table 2 clearly shows that entrepreneurs have a high or medium risk-taking propensity. They are ready to bear a risk and believe that risk will be ultimately converted into capital. Compared to entrepreneurs, the risk-taking capacity among non-entrepreneurs was low. They think it is unsafe to bear risk due to unfavorable conditions. Likewise, dealing with externality among the entrepreneur is high, and they are well aware of the competition and cooperation they should make with outsiders and competitors.
Similarly, data show that to become an entrepreneur, the level of creativity should be high. Entrepreneurs have a high level of creativity; it was found to be either low or medium among the non-entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are found to always think about their businesses and apply their creativity for growth. However, non-entrepreneurs used their creativity in teaching-learning than thinking about entrepreneurship. The ambiguity tolerance among the entrepreneurs was found to be either high or medium. On the other hand, it was found to be low among non-entrepreneurs.
Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Studies
Both quantitative and quality studies support that personal traits are the significant factors that mold a person to become an entrepreneur. The joint display below describes the personality traits that help becoming an entrepreneur.
The joint display clarifies that among other factors of entrepreneurship, risk-taking propensity, ambiguity tolerance, creativity/ innovation, and locus of control were the dominant factors. Among them, creativity was the factor with the highest coefficient. The display also shows that entrepreneurs showed a higher degree of risk-taking propensity, better locus of control, better ambiguity tolerance level, and a higher level of creativity than non-entrepreneurs. The display also shows that all the factors mentioned earlier are responsible for being an entrepreneur. Thus, quantitative data gave the factors and their strengths associated with the entrepreneur, whereas qualitative data revealed the reasons behind the higher or lower level of entrepreneurial traits. Moreover, the qualitative data also captures people's voices concerning entrepreneurship.