Experience level: 
Beginner
Intended Audience: 
All
Authors: 
Emilio J. Morales-Fernández, Paola Soto-Arrivillaga, Guillermo Díaz-Castellano y Martha Pérez-Contreras

THE PSYCHOSOCIAL PROFILE OF POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS INVOLVED IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROCESSES IN UNIVERSIDAD RAFAEL LANDÍVAR (GUATEMALA)

Creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship are drivers of entrepreneurial culture, socio-economic, human, inclusive, and sustainable development and are essential in turbulent environments subject to continuous technological and social change. In recent decades, entrepreneurship has been analyzed by focusing on the identification of isolated traits and skills, without paying attention to more holistic perspectives of competences as context-dependent constructs. An interesting challenge is to provide a coherent conceptual framework from a perspective based on the concept of entrepreneurial competence and its interrelations with creativity and innovation to develop entrepreneurship, considering theoretical approaches that are complementary to each other, such as the theory of psychological traits, behavioral and functionalist approaches or social cognitive theory. Research is needed that addresses the analysis and evaluation of the characteristics of people working in activities related to entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in the business and academic fields. The objectives of this work are twofold. On the one hand, to classify the postgraduate students involved in entrepreneurship processes according to the entrepreneurial trends and skills (Ahmetoglu, 2015). And on the other hand, determine the profiles of personality traits and skills, trends, and behaviors of each group and establish the differences between the different profiles. A sample of 158 postgraduate students involved in entrepreneurship processes was administered questionnaires to determine the Big Five or five basic personality traits (Goldberg, 1992) and the entrepreneurial trends and skills (Ahmetoglu, 2015). Individuals have been classified into one of the groups based on entrepreneurial trends and skills. For each group, the average profiles of personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness) and entrepreneurial trends and skills (Entrepreneurial Awareness, Entrepreneurial Creativity, Opportunism, and Vision) have been elaborated and through multivariate statistical techniques the significant differences between the profiles of the groups have been analyzed. The results obtained indicate that postgraduate students with a more defined entrepreneurial profile show significant differences in several personality traits and trends and entrepreneurial skills. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Psychosocial Profile, Personality Traits, Post-graduate Education.