ENTREPRENEURIAL MENTAL MODEL AND ITS PREDICTORS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

To explore the characteristics of the entrepreneurial mental model and its influencing factors, four scales of the College Students' Entrepreneurial Mental Model Questionnaire, Chinese Multiethnic Adolescent Cultural Identity Questionnaire, Chinese Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, and Williams’s Creativity Tendency Inventory were used to survey total of 102 entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial college students. The results indicated: (1) Overall, the development of entrepreneurial mental model is at above medium level for college students, and the entrepreneurial students’ scores were significantly higher than those of the non-entrepreneurial students. (2) For entrepreneurial students, the scores of entrepreneurial mental model were not associated with that of cultural identity, but were significantly positive correlated with the critical thinking and the creativity tendency. The critical thinking could indirectly positive affect the entrepreneurial mental model via the complete mediation of creativity tendency. (3) For the non-entrepreneurial students, the entrepreneurial mental model did not correlated with critical thinking and creativity tendency, but was positively affected by the cultural identity.  The conclusions suggest that entrepreneurial experience can enhance the entrepreneurial mental model, and to intervene in the cultural identity, critical thinking ability and creativity tendency will promote the development of entrepreneurial mental model.

Keywords: College students; Entrepreneurial mental model; Cultural identity; Critical thinking; Creativity tendency