Measuring Innovativeness, Risk Taking and Proactiveness: A Comparison Between Postgraduate Employees in Public and Private Sectors

The purpose of this study is to explore the innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking behaviors of business postgraduate students from Saudi universities working in the private sector, by comparing them with their counterparts in the public sector. The three behaviors of the study are used to determine the entrepreneurial orientations of universities master's students. The study is undertaken on a random and convenient sample of business postgraduate students working in either the public or private sector (n = 336) from four Saudi universities. The measurements of the studied behaviors were decided from previous studies. In short, a 10-item questionnaire (innovativeness has four items, risk taking has three items and proactiveness has three items) was distributed to the sample, with questions relating to demographic variables such as, years of profession, experience, age and gender. To investigate this, three hypotheses were formulated. The results of the dependent samples test showed that there are no significant differences between postgraduates working in the private and public sectors, in relation to their innovativeness, risk taking and proactiveness. The findings promote advice whereby all establishments, in both sectors should seek to promote entrepreneurial behaviors with their organisations. The study contributes to the literature by measuring innovativeness, risk taking and proactiveness amongst postgraduate employees in the private and public sectors. Further suggested studies could be conducted on wider disciplines and educational institutions.