Developing entrepreneurial skills among youth is more important for the growth of an economy like India. It will create employment opportunities and increase the country’s exports, which in turn will lead to improvement in the standard of living. The important skill with regard to the development of entrepreneurs is the entrepreneurial traits. The present paper analyzes whether the entrepreneurial traits among the commerce students of Arts and Science colleges in Theni district play an important role in developing their own establishments. The study also seeks to find out if there is any relationship between socioeconomic factors and the level of entrepreneurial traits. The paper concludes that entrepreneurial traits are important factors in developing prospective entrepreneurs and creating new ventures, and the educational institutions as well as the government should lend a helping hand to the students in this regard.

Development of any country depends on the development of entrepreneurship which in turn depends on entrepreneurial traits. India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, is also emerging as an economic leader in Asia. The Indian government is of the view that the economy is growing at the rate of 7.6% per year and soon it will reach around 8%. In this scenario, the contribution of primary sector to economy is declining, but the growth of the secondary and service sectors is more, and their contribution to the Indian economy is greater than that of the primary sector. A recent report of NASSCOM-McKinsey shows that there would be 110-130 million job seekers in India, including 80-100 million freshers in the near future (Agarwal and Upadhyay, 2009). Under such circumstance, it would be very difficult for the manufacturing and service sectors to provide jobs for all and accommodate such a huge number of job seekers through traditional employers like government and primary sector.

In India, there has been a positive growth of entrepreneurship due to the collective efforts of the government and other organizations. Hence, India needs more entrepreneurial activities which will create new job opportunities. Promotion of entrepreneurship not only helps in reducing unemployment, but also plays a vital role in income distribution, attainment of economic self-dependence and economic uplifting (Agarwal and Upadhyay, 2009). Usually, studies on entrepreneurship focus only on existing entrepreneurs and their success stories. Some of the studies also focus on the traits of the entrepreneurs and their relationship with the socioeconomic factors, but the literature fails to address the issue of socioeconomic factors which inculcate entrepreneurial skills among the prospective entrepreneurs. Success of any entrepreneur depends on his entrepreneurial traits (behavior) such as risk-taking capacity, need for achievement, innovation and taking responsibility. It is a well-known fact that behavior is an outcome of one’s attitude. Past studies also show that friends, family, relatives and education have a great impact on the development of attitude (Agarwal and Upadhyay, 2009). For example, a few communities in Tamil Nadu like the Nadaars, Chettiars, Marvadies, etc., are known for their entrepreneurial traits. Several studies have analyzed the factors which contribute to the creation of a successful entrepreneur. But it is rare to find a study with regard to entrepreneurial traits among college students in India. This study makes an attempt to fill this gap in literature.

Entrepreneurship Development Journal, Entrepreneurial Traits, Commerce Students, Commission of European Communities (CEC), Educational institutions, Solving problems.