Entrepreneurial Intention and Motives: A Study among the Educated Youth of Tamil Nadu

Entrepreneurship as a career option has gained a lot of traction due to the growing unemployment rate. The state of mind in which an entrepreneur directs his or her attention, experiences, and behaviours toward a specific goal or action is entrepreneurial intention; and motives for choosing entrepreneurship as carer/profession could have a significant impact on the intention and actual entrepreneurial activities. The study aimed to analyse the level of entrepreneurial intention and motives of entrepreneurial entry among the educated youth of Tamil Nadu. The data was collected randomly from a sample consisting of 385 educated youth from five districts of Tamil Nadu i.e. Coimbatore, Namakkal, Salem, Erode and Tiruppur. Entrepreneurial intention was measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale and motives of entrepreneurial entry were ranked based on the mean scores. Highest level of intention to become entrepreneur was found in the sample aged between 21 – 25 years, and in female respondents. Majority of the sample respondents from the district of Dharmapuri had high level of entrepreneurial intentions, followed by Coimbatore, Erode, Namakkal and Salem. The sample respondents reported that their major motive to become entrepreneurs was personal independence, followed by dissatisfaction in salaried employment, and to create something of their own. The findings of this study may be of interest to policymakers and can aid in the development of existing entrepreneurial ecosystems as well as in the formulation of new policy measures to encourage entrepreneurial culture.