Values and Entrepreneurial Orientation of Early Stage Entrepreneurs

This exploratory study builds upon individual values research from the marketing area and entrepreneurship theory. It represents an initial effort at developing an Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation (IEO) scale and comparing values of people who had started a business to those who had not. The results support high reliability, and face, construct, and criterion validity of the scale. They show different values between entrepreneurs and non entrepreneurs. At the theoretical level, this study extends existing knowledge by examining entrepreneurial orientation and values at the individual level. At the applied level, the scale can serve as a diagnostic to measure an individual’s natural orientation to be an entrepreneur.