THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIONS TO PROMOTE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE CASE OF FEEVALE

Abstract

For some time, studies indicate the contribution of entrepreneurship to regional development. Based on this assumption, educational institutions and governments promote initiatives to the development of personal entrepreneurial characteristics. Nevertheless, researches disagree on the concept of entrepreneur and its characteristics, as well as on methods to measure the efficacy of initiatives to promote it, while ignoring the role of the family on their models. Methodological limitations observed on these studies, which approach a multi-causal problem, impose restrictions to its results analysis. The present article aims to build a measurement model for entrepreneurial characteristics and intentions that associates them with the initiatives actually performed by a superior education institution: Feevale. Familiar environment, age and number of financial dependents are also considered in this model. The measurement instrument was developed and validated; and a structural model was proposed to this objective. Standard estimates of the structural model indicate a stronger association between family and entrepreneurial characteristics than between educational activities and these characteristics. Results suggest that the entrepreneurial individual should be tailored since the beginning of its social relations, and that educational practices in Feevale should be reviewed with the objective of emphasizing entrepreneurship.