Determinants of Entrepreneurial Interest and Risk Tolerance Among Russian University Students: Empirical Study

This paper, examines the determinants of entrepreneurial interest and risk tolerance among Russian university students using the ordered logit model. The data for the paper was retrieved from a survey conducted in spring of 2008 involving 200 students from three St Petersburg-based universities. The paper produced three main findings. Firstly, the students were highly interested in pursuing entrepreneurial careers and had moderate risk tolerance. Secondly, the respondents with high entrepreneurial interest included males, students of business/economic specialties, students with family business backgrounds, students with experience of being self-employed, and those students who had favourable attitudes toward entrepreneurial behaviour, perceived social norms about entrepreneurship and higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Thirdly, the respondents who tended to have the lowest level of risk tolerance were females, students of technical specialties, students without entrepreneurial experience and students with lower entrepreneurial self-efficacy.