FEATURE
PAPER
Prediction
of Employment Status Choice: An Analytical Approach on the
Relations between an Entrepreneurship Class at a US University
and Employment Status Intentions.
The
following paper was witten by Anita Leffel of the University
of Texas at San Antonio and was presented at the 2008 United
States Association for Small Business and
Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
.
Abstract
This paper illustrates research on the application of the
theory of planned behavior to predict employment status choice
for undergraduate business students at a university in the
United States. This study replicates a study conducted on Norwegian
students which found support for the theory of planned behavior
as applied to employment status choice intention. Gender and
self-employment experience were found not to influence actual
employment status. The most important relationships found that
self-employment intentions are directly influenced by attitude
and pressure from social norms but not from perceived behavior
control. This implies that students lack the self-confidence
required to be self-employed.
Introduction
The number
of definitions of entrepreneurship in the literature demonstrates
the various perspectives on how universities across the country
view this
growing field, and ultimately how courses are taught, what
topics are covered, and how students and programs will be
evaluated. According to the Small Business
Administration, there are actually 12 different definitions
of an entrepreneur which are listed in “The Report
of the President” (SBA, 2005).
Krueger
and Brazeal, (1994) provide an effective definition of entrepreneurship
as the pursuit of an opportunity irrespective
of existing resources, and entrepreneurs as those who perceive
themselves as pursuing such opportunities. They declare the
entrepreneurial potential requires potential entrepreneurs.
Peter Drucker, management guru, simplifies but articulates
the essence of the field when he stated, “The
entrepreneurial mystique? It’s
not magic, it’s not mysterious, and it has nothing to
do with the genes. It’s a discipline. And like any discipline,
it can be learned” (in Kuratko,
2006). In fact, the notion of whether or not entrepreneurship
can be taught is a non issue and thus whether or not an entrepreneur
is born not made is obsolete (Gorman, Hanlon, and King, 1997;
Solomon, Duffy, and Tarabishy, 2002).
The dilemma
in entrepreneurship pedagogy is not who is the entrepreneur
but meeting the challenges of the
young entrepreneurs
while advancing as an academic discipline in
the academy. To that end, Minniti and Bygrave (2001) informed
by Kerner’s 1973 paper define entrepreneurship as “a
process of learning, and a theory of entrepreneurship requires
a theory of learning” (2001, p 6).
Research
indicates that prior start-up experience provides tacit knowledge
that
facilitates decision-making about entrepreneurial opportunities
under uncertainty and time pressure (Sarasvathy, 2001).
From a theoretical perspective, entrepreneurs learn from
past experiences,
thus emphasizing the importance of learning in shaping
the potential of others (Minniti and Bygrave, 2001).
Read
the Entire Paper...
TIP
OF THE WEEK
Computerized Accounting Packages
A computerized accounting information system can help a small
business manager get accounting information efficiently and
quickly. Computerized accounting can save time in entering
accounting data and generating accounting statements, can
improve the traceability of income and expenses (which could
prove important for audits), and can increase the timeliness
and frequency of your accounting statements.
Selecting appropriate
hardware and accounting software can pose a major challenge.
To facilitate your decision making,
let’s examine some of the better-known accounting packages.
QuickBooks
Pro (www.quickbooks.com). Quick-Books Pro will automate all
money matters, including check writing,
invoicing, billing,
payroll, and receipts. Modules include an integrated merchant
credit card service, electronic postal service, and web site
creation using 250 templates. Peachtree
Complete Accounting (www.peachtree.com). Peachtree Complete
Accounting, a powerful, comprehensive accounting
package, is by far the dominant one for small businesses.
It comes with
payroll, inventory, job0cost, and order-entry functions to
create an extensive array of reports, forms, and financial
statements.
MYOB
Plus (www.myob.com). MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) is another
excellent general-purpose accounting program.
It
has more than 150 predefined reports and more than 100
custom charts
of accounts.
Simply
Accounting (www.simplyaccounting.com). Simply Accounting
is a package aimed at the very small business market.
It does not offer all the features of the other software
discussed
here but is powerful and appropriately named.
Intacct
Small Business (us.intacct.com). Intacct Small Business is
a package aimed at companies that have
outgrown Excel
and QuickBooks. It has a suite of applications to run
a multitude of financial operations.
Sageworks’ ProfitCents (www.profitcents.com). While not a complete accounting package,
Sageworks ProfitCents is a financial
analysis software that can be pretty handy. When
you enter in your financials, you get a detailed assessment
(in plain
English) of your liquidity, asset management, sales
performance and other metrics.
Keep in
mind that your choice of an accounting software package depends
on the size of your choice of an
accounting software
package depends on the size of your business and
its accounting needs. Generally speaking, the more
features
and customization
options provided in the package, the more expensive
it will be and the more complex to install and
use.
Small
Business Management, 4th edition
Pg. 208. Timothy S. Hatten (Mesa State College)
Copyright 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Teen Camp
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SBI
Journal - Request for Papers
The Small Business
Institue is now requesting papers for the Small Business
Institute Journal. If you are interested in submitting a
paper, please let us know. The first issue is to be printed
April 2008. For more information please click
here or email us at sbij@uca.edu.
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