Entrepreneurial spirit: an Italian study on the values of entrepreneurs.

For years entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship have been the subject of multidisciplinary studies and nowadays they are the main actor of the European economic scene (Brandstätter, 1997). They are very important to increasing wealth—both personal and societal (Baron, 1998). The entrepreneurs avowed as the capital of the economy and so the European Union seeks to promote more effectively the entrepreneurial spirit (Commission of European Communities, 2003). Effort to answer this claim has focused on the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs in terms of personality factors (Brandstätter, 1997, Ciavarella et al. 2003, Zhao & Seibert, 2006). The present study suggests that valuable insight into the questions posed above may be obtained through careful analysis of the values of entrepreneurs. “The values are a motivational construct. They refer to the desirable goals people strive to attain” (Schwartz, 1992, pag.1). The construct of personal values increase the likelihood to answer to some questions: What motivation to use one’s own resources in order to begin a new economic activity? What values draw entrepreneurial activity? 309 entrepreneurs answered the Italian version of Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ – Capanna, Vecchione & Schwartz, 2005). We expect that even within the entreprenuers’ group there are significant differences, and these are noted in particular in the importance given to the opposing values of each of the bipolar dimensions proposed by Schwartz (Openness to change vs. Conservation, Self-transcendence vs. Self- Enhancement ).