Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172

www.elsevier.com/locate/technovation

Entrepreneurial interest of university students in Singapore

Clement K. Wang ∗, Poh-Kam Wong
Centre for Entrepreneurship, National University of Singapore, Singapore 118412

Abstract

This paper examines the level and determinants of interest in entrepreneurship among university undergraduate students in Singa-
pore based on a large sample survey conducted in 1998. Although there have been past studies looking at entrepreneurial interest
of students, this study is one of the first comprehensive studies of the attitudes of undergraduates toward entrepreneurship in Asia.
While the study finds a high level of interest, inadequate business knowledge and perceived risk are found to be significant deterrents.
Moreover, three background factors—gender, family experience with business and educational level—are found to affect entrepren-
eurial interests, but not family income status, ethnicity and citizenship. Of the significant factors identified, that pertaining to
inadequate business knowledge has direct policy implications for university administrators, as it strongly suggests the need to
provide students in engineering and science with educational programs that impart business knowledge. Furthermore, the government
can also contribute by promoting more awareness of successful entrepreneurial role models, removing bureaucratic impediments
to start-ups, and attenuating the social stigma of failure.
 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; University education; Singapore

1. Introduction of undergraduate university students in Singapore con-

The impact of entrepreneurship education has been
recognized as one of the crucial factors that help youths
to understand and foster an entrepreneurial attitude
(Gorman et al., 1997; Kourilsky and Walstad, 1998).
Due to the influence that education could have on the
attitudes and aspirations of youth, there is a need to
understand how to develop and nurture potential
entrepreneurs even while they are still students in school.
Few empirical studies have examined the entrepreneurial
propensity of university students as a source of future
entrepreneurs. Their attitude and knowledge of
entrepreneurship are likely to shape their inclination to
start their own businesses in the future. This type of
study will also help universities and other institutions to
develop suitable educational programs to promote
entrepreneurship. Obviously, findings from such a study
will have certain policy implications in inducing more
university graduates to start their own businesses.
Based on an entrepreneurship survey of a large sample
∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +65-874-3154; fax: +65-775-0216.
E-mail address: cwang@mus.edu.sg (C.K. Wang).
ducted in the autumn of 1998, this paper examines their
potential interest in entrepreneurship and the key factors
affecting their interest. Though there have been past
studies looking at entrepreneurial interest and related
topics, this study is one of the first comprehensive stud-
ies of the attitudes of undergraduates toward
entrepreneurship in Asia.
2. Literature review
Prior relevant research has focused on university stud-
ent career aspirations. In their study of students in the
US, Scott and Twomey (1988) reported that only 24.6%
of students aspired to self-employment in the early
1980s. However, the macro-environmental changes since
the 1980s have brought higher entrepreneurial aspir-
ations, particularly with the recent perceived success of
Internet-based businesses. The self-employment rate
increased from 7.4% in 1975 to 9.7% in 1990 (Devine,
1994). According to Timmons (1994), the great dis-
covery of the extraordinary power of the entrepreneurial
mind is a silent revolution in the US. Based on his study,
one third of Harvard Business School (HBS) graduates

0166-4972/$ - see front matter  2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0166-4972(02)00016-0
164 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172
ended up working for themselves, and 90% of HBS stu-
dents have the dream of self-employment. Survey results
in the 1990s have confirmed this trend. In a study of
business school senior undergraduates, 55% preferred
operating their own business given the complete freedom
of choice, but only 5% of the respondents indicated they
would probably choose to operate their own business
after considering their actual situation and constraints
(Brenner et al., 1991). A national sample survey of US
high school students reported that 66.9% of them desired
to start a business of their own (Kourilsky and Wal-
stad, 1998).
Cases in other countries provide similar findings. Scott
and Twomey (1988) found that 40.7% of students in the
UK and 34.3% of Irish students were interested in start-
ing their own business in the early 1980s. In a 1987
survey of 2802 UK university graduates, Rosa and
McAlpine (1991) reported that 40% of them wished to
start their own business, though only 5% had actually
become self-employed or small business owners. Kol-
vereid (1996) reported 37.6% of Norwegian business
graduates preferred self-employment. In the UK, the
self-employment rate grew from 7.7% in 1979 to 12.4%
in 1987 (Hakim, 1988) and was around this level in the
1990s. Similar increases can be found in Canada (8.9%
in 1987, and 10.9% in 1997), Netherlands (9.9% in 1987,
and 11.3% in 1996) (1997 OECD Statistics). Likewise,
this pattern of a high interest in starting a business is
found in Singapore. Doh et al. (1996) did a survey on
final year undergraduate engineering students and found
61.8% of the 359 students (response rate 23.2%) had the
intention of starting their own business. Ghazali et al.
(1995) have conducted a survey on 2486 graduates in
Singapore (with a response rate of 34.1%) who gradu-
ated after 1–8 yr, and found 8.6% of them to be self-
employed. Thus, the desire to start a business far out-
weighed the actual growth of self-employment in a num-
ber of industrialized countries. Although a wide gap
exists between student aspiration and actual self-employ-
ment, there is an increasing trend in moving towards an
attitude of entrepreneurship among the students.
As a city state, Singapore has its own distinguishing
attributes. As its main ethnic group, the Chinese have
had a long tradition of owning small businesses as immi-
grants wherever they went over the last century. With
its rapid economic development and high demand for
manpower, the well-educated generation typically pre-
fers jobs in large corporations rather than self-employ-
ment. According to Applied Research Corporation sur-
veys (various years) conducted each year in Singapore
on graduates six months after graduation, the employ-
ment rate of university graduates was about 90% in the
1990s (88.5% in 1993, 92.3% in 1994, 91.6% in 1995,
and 93.5% in 1996). In the 1990 National Population
Census, the overall rate of self-employment (own
account worker plus employer) was 9.8%, but the self-
employment rate of university graduates was only 5.3%.
Most self-employed in Singapore are older Chinese in
small businesses and they tend to lack proper education.
In fact, the education level of 52% self-employed in
1990 was primary school level or below. Unlike other
countries, the self-employment rate of Singapore was in
decline in the 1980s (14.8% in 1980) along with its
economic development, and has since settled at around
11% in the 1990s.
The next section presents the development of the
hypotheses to entrepreneurial propensity. Specifically we
look at gender, family background, race, nationality,
degree level (school performance) and risk-averse atti-
tude. Next, methodology is explained. The results from
the findings are presented along with a discussion of the
hypotheses in the following sections. The last section
concludes by discussing the implications with respect to
researchers, educators, and policy makers. Closing
remarks are offered as to some directions for further
research.
3. Hypotheses on entrepreneurial propensity
3.1. Gender
Besides the level of entrepreneurial propensity, vari-
ous factors affecting this propensity have also been ana-
lyzed in the literature. The gender factor has been closely
scrutinized in many past studies. It is expected and also
observed that male students have stronger
entrepreneurship aspirations than females. Many studies
have observed this phenomenon, such as De Wit and
Van Winden (1989) in the Netherlands; Lerner and Yeo-
shua (1996) and Mesch and Czamanski (1997) on Russia
immigrants in Israel; Matthews and Moser (1996) on
business graduates in the US; Crant (1996) on US under-
graduates and MBAs; and Kourilsky and Walstad (1998)
on US high school students. Matthews and Moser (1996)
also discovered through a longitudinal study that males’
interests are consistent but females’ interests decline
with time. Schiller and Crewson (1997) found significant
differences in business success as well as entry into self-
employment between males and females. Traditionally
it is thought that the self-employment sector is the
domain of males. One reason is the high risk associated
with doing one’s own business since females may have
a lower propensity for risk-taking in the current socio-
economic context. However, it has been observed that
the self-employment rate of women rose significantly in
recent years especially in Western countries. For
example, the ratio of women in self-employment in the
US rose from 23.7% in 1975 to 32.3% in 1990 though
the female ratio in total employment only rose from
43.2% in 1975 to 47.2% in 1990 (Devine, 1994).
In the Singapore context, traditional Asian culture dis-
 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172
courages women from working either as an employee or
as an employer. However the shortage of manpower in
rapid economic growth has pushed many women into
the work force in the last few decades. The ratio of
women in the labor force rose from 34.5% in 1980 to
40.9% in 1997, and approached the level of developed
countries. Encouraging more women as entrepreneurs is
an important task for policy makers, and the policy suc-
cess largely relies on a good understanding of their
characteristics and attitudes. In their studies of Singapore
graduates, Ghazali et al. (1995) found gender differences
in the self-employment rate among non-professional
degree holders (science, computer science, arts, and
business) but not for professional degree holders
(engineering, medicine, law, accountancy).
From the above discussion it is hypothesized that:
H1: The level of interest in entrepreneurship is related
to gender; males’ interest is higher.
3.2. Family background
The second factor often discussed is family business
background. Self-employed parents affect the entrepren-
eurial interest as well as the career choice of their chil-
dren. There are two models to explain the family influ-
ence: parental role model and family support model. The
parental role model asserts that persons with self-
employed parents are more likely to start their own busi-
ness due to the example of their parents. The family sup-
port model attributes this phenomenon to the financial
or social support of their families. Thus it is expected to
observe the positive correlation between entrepreneurial
propensity and family income or social status.
Scott and Twomey (1988) reported that students
whose parents owned a small business demonstrated the
highest preference for self-employment and the lowest
for employment in a large business. In the Netherlands,
De Wit and Van Winden (1989) found that self-
employed fathers had a significant impact on self-
employment but the effects of parents’ social status was
not significant, which confirmed the parental role model
but rejected the family support model. Brown (1990)
also observed a similar phenomenon in the UK when
conducting a training program to assist undergraduates
in starting their own business. He found that 38% of the
pre-selected students (who are very interested in starting
own business) had fathers with their own businesses,
which is higher than the general level. Similar findings
include Hakim (1988) on self-employment choice in the
UK; Crant (1996) on US undergraduates and MBAs;
Schiller and Crewson (1997) on self-employment choice
in the US (only significant for females but insignificant
for males); and Taylor (1996) on self-employment in
the UK.
Taylor (1996) also reported a positive correlation
165
between housing equity and self-employment. Dolton
and Makepeace (1990) observed a strong relationship
between high social class (private school education) and
high self-employment among UK graduates. Evans and
Leighton (1989) found men with higher assets were
more likely to be self-employed in the US. These three
findings seem to affirm the family support model. On
the other hand, Brenner et al. (1991) found the influence
of parental role on entrepreneurship propensity of U.S.
business school undergraduates was insignificant. Ghaz-
ali et al. (1995) reported a similar observation on the
self-employment choice of graduates in Singapore. The
most detailed analysis so far is the study by Matthews
and Moser (1996) who used longitudinal investigation
for US graduates. They found the family background
factor to be significant in the first two surveys (the first
conducted upon graduation and the second, 2 yr after
graduation), but not significant in the third, conducted
5 yr after graduation. This may explain the seemingly
contradictory findings.
In Singapore, the two models on the influence of fam-
ily background can be tested. Living in a city-state, Sin-
gaporeans’ income level can be largely measured by the
type of housing they live in (as a proxy). In general,
families living in small public houses are poorer than
those living in large public houses or private houses. The
test of the family support model can be done on the
relationship between housing type of students and
entrepreneurial aspiration. On the other hand, many self-
employed persons are small storeowners and may not be
very wealthy. Thus the correlation between income level
and self-employed family is not very strong. Ghazali et
al. (1995) only studied these factors with real self-
employment choice, while this study is focused on the
entrepreneurial propensity of students. Although the
relationship is not conclusive, it can be presented in the
second and third hypotheses:
H2: The level of interest is related to family business
background; respondents with a family background in
starting business are more likely to be interested in
entrepreneurship.
H3: The level of interest is not related to types of
family residence (proxy of family income); i.e., there
is no interest difference among students living in 3-
rooms, 4-rooms, 5-rooms, executive HDB, and priv-
ate houses.
3.3. Ethnicity, citizenship and opportunity cost of
capital
Other related factors from literature include ethnicity,
citizen vs immigrants and level of education attained. A
number of US studies reported the high self-employment
rate among mainstream ethnic groups—the Caucasians
166 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172
(Evans and Leighton, 1989; Devine, 1994), however
such phenomenon does not appear to exist in the UK
(Dolton and Makepeace, 1990). Thus the following
hypothesis is to test whether the ethnic factor is signifi-
cant.
H4: The level of interest toward entrepreneurship is
not related to ethnicity; i.e., there is no interest differ-
ence between the dominant ethnic group (Chinese)
and other minority ethnic groups.
Mesch and Czamanski (1997) found high entrepren-
eurial intention among Russian immigrants in Israel due
to the occupational closure in the local employee market.
There are two competing hypotheses. One concerns the
above occupational closure, which leads more people in
minority ethnic groups or immigrants to self-employ-
ment. The other is that entrepreneurs from the main-
stream race may enjoy better business conditions to start
and manage their business. Thus,
H5: The level of interest toward entrepreneurship is
not related to citizenship status; i.e., there is no inter-
est difference between Singaporeans and foreigners.
The effect of education on entrepreneurial propensity
is ambiguous in the literature. Stewart et al. (1999) stud-
ied corporate managers, small business owners and
entrepreneurs, and found that while on average,
entrepreneurs were more educated than small business
owners; it was the corporate managers who were the
most highly educated. This suggests that while content
knowledge is important for individuals to take the
entrepreneurial plunge, a surfeit of knowledge can lead
to risk aversion behaviours that reduce the propensity
to engage in entrepreneurial activity. Another possible
contributing factor to the negative influence of a higher
level of education is the opportunity cost of human capi-
tal, since higher education levels may lead to lucrative
career opportunities in large existing firms. In contrast,
Van de Ven and Schroeder (1984) suggested that entrep-
reneur’s level of education and distinctiveness of the
business idea were important positive contributions to
new venture success. In particular, they found that col-
lege educated entrepreneurs were more likely to be asso-
ciated with longer surviving firms. The positive effect of
education may be accentuated in the case of start-ups in
high technology areas.
Possibly as a result of the above opposite effects,
empirical findings on the effect of education have been
mixed. For example, Dolton and Makepeace (1990)
reported that self-employment rate is not related to
school performance (e.g., First Class, Upper Second,
etc.) in the UK. In Singapore, Ghazali et al. (1995) found
university graduates of Chinese origin are less likely to
be self-employed, and that graduates with good honors
or higher degrees are less likely to be self-employed.
Given the abundant jobs available from the high pres-
ence of multinational corporations in Singapore, this
finding suggests that the opportunity cost of starting
one’s own business may be a significant deterrent factor
outweighing the importance of more advanced education
in technology-based start-up by graduates in technical
fields. Thus,
H6: The level of interest is not related to degree level;
i.e., there is no interest difference between honors and
non-honors undergraduates.
3.4. Risk-averse attitude
In general, many believe that innovation, risk taking
and internal locus of control are essential traits for the
success of starting new businesses. Crant (1996) pro-
posed a proactive personality scale (an instrumental trait
of personality), and found a strong association between
this scale and entrepreneurial intentions. Sexton and
Bowman (1985) found the difference of risk tolerance
between entrepreneurs and managers. Cunningham et al.
(1995) tested the personality trait difference between
business school undergraduates and small business
owners in Singapore, and found some differences in risk
taking. Starting one’s own business is potentially a high-
risk, high-return career, and thus it is natural to assume
that the attitude of the high interest group should be less
risk-averse (Mill, 1984; Cunningham et al., 1995).
Hence,
H7: Respondents with low interest in
entrepreneurship are more risk-averse than are those
from the high interest group.
4. Methodology
The survey covered undergraduates in technical fields
(engineering, science and computing) from the National
University of Singapore, the largest public university in
Singapore. The sample size consists of 5326 undergrad-
uate students in Singapore which represents a 57.7%
response rate from the total of over 9230 in the targeted
fields of studies. Analysis revealed no response biases.
The survey instrument was based on scales constructed
from previous studies (see references in section 3) as
well as from interviews with academics in the area of
entrepreneurship. The way the variables were derived
and measured is described below.
4.1. Variables
Entrepreneurial interest, the dependent variable, is
measured by the maximum of two Likert-scale scores
 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172
measuring the interest in starting a new business in a
respondent’s area of study (engineering, science, and
computer science), and the interest in starting a business
not in the area of study. Eight explanatory variables are
extracted from the survey instrument. These include four
socio-economic background measures inquiring about
the respondents’ gender, ethnicity, citizenship, type of
family residence (as a proxy measure of family income
status), and whether family members have started their
own businesses before. Students’ level of education is
measured by a single variable indicating whether they
are pursuing an honor’s degree or not. Students’ attitude
towards risk is measured by their Likert scale response
to the statement ‘risk of failure is a major concern for
me’. Entrepreneurial knowledge is measured by the
mean of two Likert scale scores measuring the self-per-
ceived knowledge in starting a business and knowledge
in managing business.
5. Testing of hypotheses
5.1. Results of dependent variables
The independent effects of each of the individual
explanatory variables on the dependent variable were
tested together with a multivariable regression model.
The significance and sign of the regression coefficients
are then used as test of the various hypotheses identified
earlier. Because of the high bivariate correlation between
the dependent variable and the business knowledge vari-
able, the latter is excluded from the multivariate
regression model to minimize method variance prob-
lems.
Before presenting the regression analysis results, we
first report on the overall level of knowledge and interest
in entrepreneurship among the respondents. From the
survey data, it is found that the business knowledge of
undergraduate students is poor while their interest to
start own business is high (see Table 1). 71.6% of the
students claim that their knowledge of doing business
is below average, and only about 4% assert that their
knowledge is good or very good. On the other hand,
Table 1
Knowledge and interest to start a businessa
Level description Level of interest Level of knowledge
No 6.1% 26.5%
Little 9.5% 22.5%
Somewhat (a bit) 13.4% 22.7%
Average 20.4% 24.6%
Above average 32.6% 3.0%
Very high 18.1% 0.8%
a
Valid sample=5317.
167
their interest in starting their own business is quite high.
Only 15.6% students have little or no interest, while
50.7% students are quite interested or very interested.
This finding is similar to other studies such as Kourilsky
and Walstad (1998) on high school students in the US.
The entrepreneurial interest of Singapore undergraduates
is high and matches the pattern observed with their
Western counterparts.
6. Results on background factors and
entrepreneurial interest
To test the seven hypotheses, hierarchical regression
is applied. The entrepreneurial interest (EI) is the depen-
dent variable. The list of independent variables, with
their means and correlation are seen in Table 2. Due to
the large sample size, only variables with strong corre-
lation (P-value⬍0.001) are denoted.
From Table 2, it is observed that more women have
business background family members and more foreig-
ners are males. The income level of families with their
own business is higher; more foreigners have family
business background (some of them are sent to Singa-
pore by their wealthy parents in neighboring countries),
and also live in better housing. More minority races
enjoy higher family income level.
Through the bivariate correlation analysis, four fac-
tors: gender (male higher), family background (with
business background higher), honors (honors lower), and
citizenship (foreigner higher) are found to relate to
entrepreneurial interest. The next step is to apply the
hierarchical regression model as shown by:
앫 Step 1: EI ⫽ a ⫹ b1 x1 ⫹ b2 Risk ⫹ e
앫 Step 2: EI ⫽ a ⫹ b1 x1 ⫹ b2 Risk ⫹
b3 x1Risk ⫹ e
where EI is the entrepreneurial interest, x1 are back-
ground variables (gender, family, race, citizen, income,
honors) and e is the random factor.
Regression analysis is conducted by step. Here we
take a P-value of 0.01 instead of the normal 0.05 as the
threshold of significance due to the large sample size.
The results are listed in Table 3.
Gender, family business experience and honors
emerged as the only significant factors in the analysis,
while the other four factors were found to have little
influence. The interaction between risk and the other
three significant background factors is found to be not
significant either. The possible interaction effects of the
three background factors are also analyzed using the
ANOVA procedure since these independent variables
are nominal; the results are shown in Table 4.
The ANOVA results confirm the findings from the
168 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172

Table 2
Variable list and correlationa

List of independent dummy variables

Gender Taking value 0 if the respondent is a male, 1 if female.

Family Taking value 0 if family members starting own business, 1 if not.
Grade Variable ranges from 1 to 4, denoting years of the respondents in university. 1 means 1st year student, 2 2nd year, and so on.
Ethnic Taking value 0 if the respondent is Chinese, 1 if other races (Malay, Indian, etc.)
Citizen Taking value 0 if the respondent is Singapore citizen or permanent resident, 1 if non-Singaporeans
Income Ordinal variable taking value 1 if family resided in HDB 3-room flat, 2 if HDB 4-room flat, 3 if HDB 5-room flat, 4 if HDB
maisonette/executive flat or HUDC flat, 5 if private house (condominium, terrace, bungalow, etc.). In regression, it is divided
into 5 dummy binary variables
Honours Taking value 0 if non-honors, 1 if honors.
Risk Taking value 1 to 5 based on the answer to statement ‘risk of failure is a main concern for me’. The higher the value, the more
risk-averse.

Mean s.d. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Gender 0.47 0.50

Family 0.65 0.48 ⫺0.075∗∗∗
Grade 2.28 1.06 ⫺0.105∗∗∗ 0.032
Race 0.08 0.27 0.041 0.010 ⫺0.055∗∗∗
Citizen 0.15 0.36 ⫺0.079∗∗∗ ⫺0.104∗∗∗ ⫺0.045 0.093∗∗∗
Income 2.94 1.47 ⫺0.017 ⫺0.181∗∗∗ ⫺0.011 0.058∗∗∗ 0.289∗∗∗
Honours 0.05 0.23 ⫺0.044 0.022 0.391∗∗∗ ⫺0.034 ⫺0.024 ⫺0.009
Risk 3.70 0.94 0.003 0.035 0.031 0.013 ⫺0.078∗∗∗ ⫺0.028 ⫺0.009
DV 3.18 1.44 ⫺0.132∗∗∗ ⫺0.096∗∗∗ ⫺0.013 ⫺0.021 0.050∗∗∗ 0.024 ⫺0.054∗∗∗ ⫺0.024

a
N ⫽ 5326; ∗∗∗P⬍0.001.

Table 3 Table 4
Result of hierarchical regression on entrepreneurial interesta ANOVA test on interaction effectsa

Variable Entrepreneurial Interest Independent variable F

Beta B SE (standard Gender 20.988∗∗∗

(standardized) error) Honours 9.223∗∗
Family 26.439∗∗∗
Step 1: R2 change 0.035∗∗∗ Gender∗ honours 0.000
Background and risk Gender∗ family 0.163
Gender ⫺0.144∗∗∗ ⫺0.413∗∗∗ 0.041 Honors∗ family 4.248∗
Family ⫺0.106∗∗∗ ⫺0.319∗∗∗ 0.043
Ethnicity ⫺0.019 ⫺0.105 0.080 a
N ⫽ 4851; ∗P⬍0.05; ∗∗
P⬍0.01; ∗∗∗
P⬍0.001.
Citizen 0.031∗ 0.140∗ 0.067
Income ⫺0.003 ⫺0.003 0.015
Honours ⫺0.057∗∗∗ ⫺0.355∗∗∗ 0.088 on business knowledge, a separate multiple regression
Risk ⫺0.012 ⫺0.018 0.022 test is conducted using the same set of explanatory vari-
Step 2: R2 change 0.000 ables minus the risk attitude factor. The results are listed
Interactions
Gender∗ risk 0.070 0.043 0.043
in Table 5. The results show the same set of explanatory
Family∗ risk gender -0.023 -0.014 0.044 factors being significant. In addition, the ethnicity factor
Honours∗ risk 0.069 0.074 0.094 also appears to be significant.
Overall model F 17.85∗∗∗
Overall adjusted R2 0.034∗∗∗ 6.1. Results on risk-averse attitude and
entrepreneurial interest
a
N ⫽ 4851; ∗
P⬍0.05;∗∗P⬍0.01;∗∗P⬍0.001.

As mentioned earlier, the risk attitude factor appears

regression analysis. Gender, family business experience
and honors are the three significant factors. Also interac-
tion among these factors is not significant (here 0.01 is
chosen as the threshold similarly).
To understand the effects of these background factors
to have no independent effect on interest in
entrepreneurship. Indeed, a more detailed analysis of the
data reveals that students with different entrepreneurial
interest gave very similar responses. The means of the
five groups (from the ‘no interest’ group to ‘very
 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172 169

Table 5 On average, the risk-averse score is the same for male

Result of regression on entrepreneurial knowledgea and female, all with 3.70. This is also surprising, since
according to traditional thinking females are more risk-
Variable Entrepreneurial Interest
averse than males. From this observation, the source of
Beta B SE (standard gender interest difference may be more on social gender
(standardized) error) roles. It should be noted, however, that the risk attitudes
of males tend to be somewhat more extreme, that is, a
R2 change 0.043∗∗∗ larger proportion of males tend to strongly agree to take
Background risk or exactly the opposite than females.
Gender ⫺0.117∗∗∗ ⫺0.288∗∗∗ 0.035 The effects of other factors on risk attitude are also
Family ⫺0.156∗∗∗ ⫺0.403∗∗∗ 0.037
Ethnicity 0.043∗∗ 0.208∗∗ 0.069 found to be weak. The family business background is
Citizen 0.009 0.033 0.057 not related to risk attitude, and there is no risk attitude
Income 0.009 0.007 0.012 difference among honours and non-honours students.
Grade ⫺0.058∗∗∗ ⫺0.067∗∗∗ 0.017 Lastly, risk attitude is only weakly negatively related to
Model F 35.60∗∗∗ business knowledge (R ⫽ 0.088R=0.088). Thus, while
Adjusted R2 0.041∗∗∗
better knowledge reduces the risk aversion somewhat,
a
N ⫽ 4811; ∗P⬍0.05; ∗∗
P⬍0.01; ∗∗∗
P⬍0.001. high entrepreneurial interest does not encourage students
to take higher risks.
interested’) are 3.57, 3.74, 3.77, 3.75, 3.71, and 3.59 A word of caution needs to be mentioned here as the
respectively. risk measure employed in this study may marginally bias
To test Hypothesis 7, a t-test was performed on the the analysis. The current statement whether ‘risk is a
means of the two extreme groups. It accepts the null- main concern’ may cause a downward bias as some
hypothesis with a significance level of 0.83, which respondents may regard risk as a significant but not a
reveals no significant difference existing between the main concern, and thus rank it low. However, we have
two groups. Regression analysis also finds no correlation no reason to believe people in different groups would
with model fitting with an R value of only 0.024. Thus show a differently biased response. Therefore, such a
Hypothesis 7 is rejected. bias only affects the overall risk-averse score but not the
This finding is surprising, and it may be the reason difference. Findings reported here should be valid after
for low actual participation rate of graduates in starting the consideration of possible bias.
a business. The mean of the above statement is 3.7,
which shows the high risk-averse attitude of university
students. The mean of 3.7 can be interpreted as 74% of 7. Discussion of hypotheses
the students agree with the statement and 26% neutral.
This risk-averse attitude explains why there is a low rate 7.1. Gender
of actual participation of starting one’s own business
by Singaporeans. H1 on gender is accepted from the above regression
Besides the overall test, the gender difference on risk and ANOVA analysis. The gender factor is the most sig-
attitude is also studied through a chi-square test with the nificant factor in the seven background factors. From the
result shown in Table 6. analysis of the regression results, it is also observed that
the gender effect is not related to other background fac-
Table 6 tors. It confirms previous literature findings on gender
Test on risk-averse attitude with gendera difference. Ghazali et al. (1995) have reported gender
differences among non-professional degree holders but
Male Female not among professional degree holders.
Compared to the knowledge level, it is observed that
Strongly disagree 74 27 the R2 change in regression affected by gender factor is
Expected count 53.8 47.2 0.0175 before knowledge is taken as a control variable,
Disagree 263 189
Expected count 240.7 211.3 and 0.0094 after that. Thus the knowledge factor
Neutral 689 687 accounts for about 47% of the gender effect. Still, more
Expected count 732.6 643.4 than 50% of gender differences in entrepreneurship are
Agree 1161 1119 purely interest driven.
Expected count 1213.9 1066.1
Strongly agree 597 423
Expected count 543.1 476.9 7.2. Family business experience
Pearson chi-square 42.65∗∗∗
H2 on family business experience is accepted from
a
N ⫽ 5229; ∗∗∗
P⬍0.001. the above regression and ANOVA analysis. It is the next
170 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172
most significant factor after gender in the seven back-
ground factors. From regression results analysis, it is
also noticed that family background effect is not related
to other background factors. It affirms previous literature
findings. Combined with the insignificant influence of
family income, the role model is accepted but the family
support model is rejected for undergraduates. This find-
ing is also different from that of Ghazali et al. (1995).
This disparity may be due to the difference between
entrepreneurial interest and action.
Statistical test on knowledge reveals that the family
background effect is mainly driven by business knowl-
edge (R2 change decreased from 0.0094 to 0.0025),
where knowledge accounts for 73% of the background
effect. The family business background mainly exposes
respondents to a business environment from a young age
and tends to improve their business knowledge as well
as interest.
7.3. Ethnicity
H3 on ethnicity is accepted from the above regression
analysis. The ethnicity factor has no effect on
entrepreneurship. Though university students of Chinese
origin have better business knowledge in general, it does
not lead to higher entrepreneurship interest. This finding
is interesting because in southeast Asia, Chinese immi-
grants have traditionally been well known for showing
a higher propensity to start their own business due to
the occupational closure by local residents. However, in
Singapore such closure no longer exists for the Chinese.
Thus one generation after its independence, the ethnicity
effect is no longer significant. Here the finding is differ-
ent from Ghazali et al. (1995).
A more detailed analysis of the non-Chinese respon-
dents in the sample reveals that a higher proportion of
these minority groups are foreigners, have above average
business knowledge, or have family business experience.
While their family background improves their business
understanding, their interests in starting a business are
no higher than the respondents of Chinese origin, poss-
ibly due to higher uncertainty about their future career
plans. Their wealthy family may expect them to inherit
and take over the family business at home rather than
starting their own (new) business in Singapore.
7.4. Nationality
H4 on nationality is weakly supported by the above
regression analysis. Respondents who were non-Singa-
poreans reported a slightly higher interest in
entrepreneurship compared to Singaporean citizens, with
significance only at the 0.05 level. In the bivariable cor-
relation study, citizenship is weakly related to entrepren-
eurial interest (Pearson’s R ⫽ 0.05). However its effect
has diminished in multiple regression after controlling
for gender and family background. A detailed analysis
finds that gender (most foreigners are male) and family
background (more foreigners have business background
compared to locals) account for 72% of the citizenship
effect.
7.5. Family income level
H5 on income level is accepted from the above
regression analysis. The income factor has no effect on
entrepreneurship. It is interesting that income level and
entrepreneurial interest are not related even in a bivariate
correlation. The financial ability of the respondent’s
family is not related to his or her business interest. The
source of this interest is based more on his or her own
idea and drive rather than family support.
7.6. Educational level
H6 on educational level is rejected from the above
regression and ANOVA analysis. Honors students are
less interested in entrepreneurship, and the effect is not
related to other background factors. This observation
was also found by Ghazali et al. (1995).
A more detailed analysis has found that the influence
of business knowledge is not significant, thus the effect
of degree level is purely from their interests. One poss-
ible reason for this phenomenon may be the better career
prospects of honors graduates. With bright career pros-
pects in the corporate and public sectors, it is risky for
them to start their own business and give up all the bene-
fits and security in Singapore, a country that strongly
emphasizes paper qualifications.
8. Conclusions
In this paper, the entrepreneurial interests of under-
graduates in Singapore are examined along with their
related factors. The findings have insightful implications
for researchers, university educators and administrators
as well as government policy makers. First, the entrepr-
eneurial interests of undergraduates in Singapore are
high and mirror the findings of their Western counter-
parts. Although many of the students in Singapore desire
to run their own businesses, their dreams are hindered
by inadequate preparation. Their business knowledge is
insufficient, and more importantly, they are not prepared
to take the risk to realize their dreams.
Second, three background factors—gender, family
business experience and education level are found to sig-
nificantly affect interests in starting one’s own business,
while other factors such as ethnicity, citizenship and
family income status are found to have little independent
effect. Further analysis discloses that female university
students are less interested in entrepreneurship, not
 C.K. Wang, P.-K. Wong / Technovation 24 (2004) 163–172
because of their risk-averse attitude but due to the lack
of entrepreneurial knowledge as well as the possible
influence of the traditional social role. The study also
shows that the early family role model and business
knowledge rather than family income contribute to the
interest level towards entrepreneurship. Currently, edu-
cation seems to play a deterrent role to entrepreneurship
as honors students are less interested in start-ups and the
longer time spent on campus does not transform to
higher interest even though their business knowledge
may increase.
The findings provide several implications for univer-
sity educators and administrators. First, the existence of
strong entrepreneurial interest along with poor business
knowledge implies a high potential for entrepreneurship
courses among non-business undergraduate students in
technical fields. In particular, since female students are
no more risk-averse than males, but appear to have lower
business knowledge, entrepreneurship courses should be
particularly encouraged for female students. Educators
should also try to change the traditional mindset of the
social role of females.
In the aftermath of the recent Asian economic crisis,
many governments in Asia have emphasized a higher
priority in nurturing local, homegrown entrepreneurship,
particularly start-ups in high-tech areas. For policy mak-
ers who want to promote entrepreneurship, especially in
high technology start-ups, the policy should focus on
raising interest in entrepreneurship among the techni-
cally trained, university students and graduates. Our
study findings strongly suggest the need for policy mak-
ers to focus on ways and means to mitigate the socio-
economic environmental factors that contribute to the
perceived risk and opportunity cost of entrepreneurship.
In the case of Singapore, the high overall level of risk-
averse attitude among university students, and the sig-
nificant negative effect of higher level of education (with
honors vs without) on interest in entrepreneurship, are
likely to have been accentuated by the special environ-
mental context of Singapore characterized by rapid econ-
omic growth and the high presence of large multinational
corporations providing a plentiful supply of high paying
jobs and lucrative careers. The policy implication here
is that the government needs to counter-balance these
factors by promoting more awareness of successful
entrepreneurial role models, removing bureaucratic
impediments to start-ups, and attenuating the social
stigma of failure. Indeed, the Singapore government has
recently made a significant move in this direction by
announcing several policies to encourage technopren-
eurship (high-technology start-ups) in 1999 including the
relaxation of bankruptcy laws, change in tax policies that
discourage business angel investing, and regulations pro-
hibiting business operations within housing estates.
More such incentives for young start-ups may reduce the
opportunity cost of entrepreneurs and attract more talents
171
to leave stable government or private sector jobs for
risky but potentially high-reward opportunities. The
social acceptance of failed entrepreneurs may also allevi-
ate the fear of failure among potential entrepreneurs,
especially in Singapore.
Entrepreneurship educational programs can also play
a role in attenuating the risk-averse attitude of students,
by providing them with training to take calculated busi-
ness risks, and by emphasizing the use of local role mod-
els (e.g. successful entrepreneurs) and local case studies
to raise the students’ awareness of the upside opport-
unities of starting their own businesses.
Future research can extend the present study in several
directions. One direction would be to replicate the same
questionnaire with other faculties at the undergraduate
level. In the current study, only three faculties were
sampled: engineering, science and computer science.
One could also conduct the same study on graduate stu-
dents (Masters and Ph.D. students) in the various facul-
ties. It would be interesting, for example, to analyze
whether students from the business faculty would have
a higher entrepreneurial propensity than other faculties.
One could also investigate in greater depth whether more
university education would facilitate or hinder one’s
desire to start a business. If education acts as a deter-
rence, what can be done to overcome this problem in
encouraging more graduates to consider starting a busi-
ness on their own?
Another avenue of research could examine how stu-
dents in other tertiary institutions, such as polytechnics,
would compare with university students with respect to
entrepreneurial interest. As students in these institutions
tend to be more practical (i.e. ‘hands-on’ type of
education), they could be more prepared to start their
own businesses. Additionally, further investigation into
the linkage of entrepreneurial knowledge and interest in
actually starting a business is much to be desired.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the research
assistance by Qing Lu and the Centre for
Entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore
for permission to use the survey data.
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Clement K. Wang received his Ph.D. in Management Sciences
(Engineering) from University of Waterloo. He is an Assistant Professor
at NUS Business School, and Research Associate at Centre for
Entrepreneurship, National University of Singapore. His research interests
include management of technological change and the interplay between
entrepreneurship and venture capital. His publications have appeared (or
forthcoming) in various journals, including Applied Financial Economics,
IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Banking and
Finance, Journal of Financial Research, and Venture Capital. He has been
active as a consultant for several SMEs as well as large organizations such
as the Asian Development Bank, Asian Productivity Organization and
UNIDO. He is also a registered professional engineer in Ontario.
Poh-kam Wong is an Associate Professor in the Business School at the
National University of Singapore, where he directs the Centre for
Entrepreneurship. He obtained his B.Sc., M.Sc. Ph.D. from MIT. He has
consulted widely for international agencies such as the World Bank Insti-
tute and the Asian Development Bank, various government agencies in
Singapore and Malaysia, and many high tech firms in Asia. His current
research interests include management of technological innovation, S&T
policy and technology entrepreneurship. His publications have appeared
in many international refereed journals, including Information Systems
Research, International Journal of Technology Management, Journal of
Business Venturing (forthcoming), Omega, Information Infrastructure and
Policy, Information Economics and Policy, and International Journal of
Production Economics. He has been active in business angel investment
and currently serves on the board of directors/advisory board of several
high tech start-ups in Singapore and Malaysia.