Determinants of entrepreneurial intentions: Mexican immigrants in Chicago

This paper focuses on Mexican immigrants who are considering to start a business but do not so for various reasons (latent entrepreneurs). The research design is unusual in that it queries the individuals at the very preliminary stages of the process when they are contemplating the alternatives, so it is well suited to learn about the determinants of business ownership. First, the findings demonstrate the potential value of personality measures (e.g., risk disposition) for predicting who will want to start a business. Second, the results underscore that having close family members in business exposes individuals to role models and sources of financial and nonfinancial help that might put business ownership within reach of people with modest resources. Third, economic resources in the household, in the form of financial investments, also affect the wish to start a business because they furnish available capital for the start-up.