Abstract:
The purposes of this study were: (1) identifying the most influential environmental factors driving Thai youth entrepreneurs to start up a business, (2) investigating the key elements of success for Thai youth entrepreneurs, and (3) identifying the differences among the success factors of two types of entrepreneurs; inherited and self-start-up entrepreneurs. Data were collected from Thai entrepreneurs whose ages were not more than 35 years old via online questionnaires and questionnaire sets. There were 212 respondents who participated in this study, divided into 121 self-start-up entrepreneurs and 91 inherited entrepreneurs. The study examined the influential factors that drive youth Thai entrepreneurs to start-up business by using descriptive analysis. The key elements of success for entrepreneurship were investigated by using Pearson Correlation, and the differences among the success factors of both entrepreneurs’ types were identified by using Independent sample t-test. The results indicate that “social networking” and “cultural and social norms” were the main factors that facilitate Thai youth start-up new business. In terms of the key success factors, “ease of access to capital” was the most powerful element among environmental factors toward entrepreneurial success; while, “creative” and “self-efficacy” were the most powerful elements among psychological factors toward entrepreneurial success.
