Some characteristics of technical entrepreneurs

Sixty-nine technical entrepreneurs were studied emphasizing description of several of their characteristics such as family background, education and motivation. The results indicate that entrepreneurial fathers are more likely to produce entrepreneurial sons. An individual's home environment and attitudes that seem to be embodied in his religious background are likely to have strong influences on his goal orientation, education, and whether or not he becomes an entrepreneur. In addition, those technical entrepreneurs whose fathers had high occupational status were educated sooner and to a higher level than those whose fathers had low occupational status. At the same time it was determined that the technical entrepreneurs who had self-employed fathers usually reached the M.S. degree level, the median education of the entire sample. The predominance of such educational behavior for entrepreneurial sons may be explained by their goal orientation toward a level of education adequate for effectively running a technically based enterprise. Motivational influences on entrepreneurial behavior were not clearly evidenced by analysis of this sample.