Unlocking circular potential: The influence of personality traits on university students’ circular entrepreneurial attitude and intention

Abstract

Converting the paradigm of linear production into circular production is an enormous challenge whose implementation requires the intervention and collaboration of all the actors that make up the ecosystem. In this context, university students are privileged actors, as they may become future entrepreneurs responsible for promoting sustainable development. This research explores the effect of university students’ attitudes toward circular entrepreneurship on their intention to become a circular entrepreneur and the direct and indirect effects of three personality traits – perceived creativity, proactive personality, and risk-taking propensity – on both their circular entrepreneur attitudes and intentions, respectively. A quantitative approach was followed through the partial least squares method applied to a sample of 510 Portuguese university students. The results show that even though respondents reveal only a moderate intention to become circular entrepreneurs, this intention is directly influenced by their attitude toward sustainable entrepreneurship and indirectly (in this order) by their propensity to take risks, having a proactive personality, and creativity. The attitude toward sustainable entrepreneurship is, in turn, positively influenced by respondents’ propensity to take risks and their proactivity without any effect of creativity. The present study demonstrates the importance of younger personality traits on their attitudes regarding sustainability business and their intentions to become circular entrepreneurs. The present study shows that students’ risk-taking and proactive personality and, in particular, their creativity should be stimulated to create a new generation of circular entrepreneurs. With this work, we seek to help develop a new class of entrepreneurs, praising the role of universities, which allows Portugal to be closer to achieving sustainable development. Furthermore, this study will contribute to the yet scarce literature about circular economy and entrepreneurship in general.