Investigating Factors Affecting Entrepreneurship of Agricultural Science Graduates

Abstract Unemployment of university graduates is one of the most important challenges in Iran. Taking into account the capacity of the agricultural sector in Iran, the problem of agricultural graduate unemployment can be solved by enhancing entrepreneurship. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate and identify the factors affecting entrepreneurship of the agricultural graduates of Urmia University. The statistical population of this study consisted of agricultural graduates who had studied in Urmia University and succeeded to start and maintain a business. 120 graduates were selected by using purposeful and snow ball sampling formula. Data was collected through a questionnaire that the validity of which was approved through expert's views and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach-Alpha coefficient as 0.79. The findings of the research showed that achievement motivation and training were the most important factors affecting entrepreneurship of the graduates. The results of stepwise regression analysis showed that achievement motivation and training were the most influential variable in entrepreneurship of the graduates and six variables including achievement motivation, training, experience, risk taking, independence and tolerance of ambiguity could explain 57.7 percent of variation in dependent variable (entrepreneurship).