A research submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration

Research Studies Project Report (M.BA.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2016

Impact of entrepreneurship in a nation's economy is enormous. Number of research on entrepreneurship is iucreesing day by day due to its importance on socio-economic development. This paper aims to understand the influential factors having impact on entrepreneurial intention of university students in South and Southeast Asian region as well as to examine the impact of regional dimensions on their entrepreneurial decision making. To explore these, a cross-sectional entrepreneurial attitude orientation (EAO) survey was carried out on 402 students from an international university in Thailand. The EAO consists of demographic characteristics, social surrounding, personality traits, environment for starting business and entrepreneurial education. Analysis of collected data shows that entrepreneurial intention of the potential or current "founder" are highly relevant for 'regional dlmensleu'. Personality traits, like; need for achievement, internal locus of control, tolerance of ambiguity as well as autonomy and authority are found to be significantly influencing the entrepreneurial intention of the sample respondents. Some of their demographic characteristics, like; relationship status (marital status) and course of study were found significantly important for their entrepreneurial intention, whereas influence of age and gender are not supported by the empirical evidence. The surrounding environment and entrepreneurial education did not pose any impact 011 the students' entrepreneurial intention according to this study. The policy makers and educators may find areas to focus on for promoting entrepreneurship among students in South and Southeast Asia from this study.