The Role of Entrepreneurial Spirit and Self-Efficacy in Technology Entrepreneur New Venture Creation

Technology entrepreneur new venture creation (TENVC) plays an important role in developing and commercializing technologies worldwide. Yet, one of the critical and on-going debates is about the paradigm shift from the trait approach to the behavioral approach which emerges from what successful entrepreneurs do and how they perform, rather than what their personality traits are. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to study both the entrepreneurial spirit and self-efficacy as key factors for TENVC. The mixed methods research was employed by combining the quantitative and qualitative approaches. The samples were chosen based on convenience sampling for the quantitative study and judgment sampling for the qualitative study. The finding shows that both entrepreneurial spirit and self-efficacy are correspondingly important for TENVC among technical students and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs). There is only a small difference in value in their positive significant relationship led by self-efficacy compared to entrepreneurial spirit with r=.005 for TENVC of technical students in IHLs. This finding is convergent with the outcome of the case study analysis that both factors are among the key indicators for TENVC of technical students in IHLs. The technology entrepreneur development organizations (TEDO) may utilize this result in developing TENVC in their institutions.