Entrepreneurship and the role of risk:A theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between entrepreneurship and risk and the differences bet

Entrepreneurship has received more and more attention since the 80s, but we still don‟t know much about the characteristics of the entrepreneurs. This thesis will look at the individuals who engage in entrepreneurship as well as at the ones engaging in social entrepreneurship. The aim is to find further evidence to confirm or reject the assumption of the risk-seeking entrepreneur. This will we done by using the Flash Eurobarometer Survey on Entrepreneurship (2010) that consists of more than 26.000 answers of individuals from 36 countries, a unique dataset with a large sample size. This thesis will also focus on a subset of entrepreneurs, the social entrepreneurs by examining the role of risk with specific regard to social entrepreneurs. Based on academic literature and theories a variety of hypotheses on the relationship between entrepreneurship and risk as well as on the expected relationship between social entrepreneurship and risk will be formulated. These hypotheses will be tested in the empirical part of this thesis by using binary logistic regression models as well as ordered logistic regression models. By testing those hypotheses this thesis will generate new insights about the characteristics of entrepreneurs in general as well as of social entrepreneurs. As it will be shown in the empirical section, this thesis is successfully showing that entrepreneurs are almost twice as likely to be willing to take risks compared to non-entrepreneurs. In addition this thesis is successful in the attempt to show various differences between social- and commercial entrepreneurs with respect to their willingness to take risks and also show that social entrepreneurs are more afraid of financial risks than commercial entrepreneurs.