Career decision making, stability and actualization of career intentions: The case of entrepreneurial intentions
Hirschi, A. (2013). Career decision making, stability and actualization of career intentions: The case of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Career Assessment, 21(4), 555-571, doi:10.1177/1069072712475287
Abstract
Career counselors are often concerned with stability and likelihood of implementation of clients’ career intentions. It is often assumed that the status in career decision making (CDM) is one likely indicator, yet empirical support for this assumption is sparse. The present study focused on entrepreneurial career intentions (EI) and showed that German university students (N = 1,221), with high EI can be found in very different empirically derived CDM statuses that range from pre-concern to mature decidedness. Longitudinal analyses (n = 561) showed that career choice foreclosure (high decidedness/low exploration) related to more EI stability and that mature decidedness (high decidedness/high exploration) amplified effects of EI on opportunity identification, a form of EI actualization. The results imply that CDM statuses are useful to estimate stability and actualization of career intentions.
Keywords: entrepreneurial intention; career decision making; vocational identity; career exploration; career intentions
Work values as predictors of entrepreneurial career intentions: A longitudinal analysis of gender effects
Hirschi, A. & Fischer, S. (2013). Work values as predictors of entrepreneurial career intentions: A longitudinal analysis of gender effects. Career Development International, 18(3), 216-231. doi:10.1108/CDI-04-2012-0047
Abstract
Purpose
Work values are an important characteristic to understand gender differences in career intentions, but how gender affects the relationship between values and career intentions is not well established. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether gender moderates the effects of work values on level and change of entrepreneurial intentions (EI).
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 218 German university students were sampled regarding work values and with EI assessed three times over the course of 12 months. Data were analysed with latent growth modelling.
Findings
Self‐enhancement and openness to change values predicted higher levels and conservation values lower levels of EI. Gender moderated the effects of enhancement and conservation values on change in EI.
Research limitations/implications
The authors relied on self‐reported measures and the sample was restricted to university students. Future research needs to verify to what extent these results generalize to other samples and different career fields, such as science or nursing.
Practical implications
The results imply that men and women are interested in an entrepreneurial career based on the same work values but that values have different effects for men and women regarding individual changes in EI. The results suggest that the prototypical work values of a career domain seem important regarding increasing the career intent for the gender that is underrepresented in that domain.
Originality/value
The results enhance understanding of how gender affects the relation of work values and a specific career intention, such as entrepreneurship.