Measuring Regional Variations of Entrepreneurial Intent in India

Abstract

This study reports the first use of a newly developed approach to measuring entrepreneurial intent (EI) among regional populations in India. An improved EI scale is needed to avoid the problems that undermine previous attempts to accurately measure EI—especially the confounding of intentions with similar but theoretically distinct constructs such as beliefs, attitudes and expectations. This new 12-item scale is employed to measure EI levels of 335 participants in three regions of India: Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Moderately high levels of EI are observed in each location, but the level in Kolkata is found to be significantly higher than the other two regions, contrary to popular expectations. The use of this improved scale is recommended to researchers and policymakers interested in entrepreneurship in India.