Risk Taking Propensity: An Attribute of Entrepreneurship?: A Comparative Analysis‪.‬

INTRODUCTION The earliest cited definition of entrepreneur is generally Cantillion who wrote circa 1700 (Carland, Hoy, Boulton & Carland, 1984). Among the characteristics which Cantillion cited was risk bearing (Kilby, 1971). Mill (1848), who was credited with bringing the term 'entrepreneur' into general use (Schumpeter, 1934), also believed that the key difference between entrepreneurs and managers was risk bearing. Risk bearing or risk taking behavior continued to be a major aspect of entrepreneurship until modern times (Carland, et. al., 1984). Brockhaus (1980) cast doubt on the traditional perspective with an empirical study which showed no difference between the risk taking characteristics of entrepreneurs, managers and the general public. The issue is far from settled. There have been a number of empirical studies of risk taking and the results are frequently contradictory. Are differences in findings related to the instruments used? This paper will present an empirical examination of risk taking propensity and test two popular measures of risk taking to identify sources of conflict in the literature.