Percepções dos sul-americanos sobre dimensões ligadas ao empreendedorismo: os casos do Brasil, do Chile, da Venezuela, da Bolívia e do Uruguai

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand the profile of potential Brazilian entrepreneurs in comparison to Chileans, Uruguayans, Bolivians and Venezuelans in order to provide information for future policy-making using entrepreneurship as a tool for local economic development. To achieve the goal, the methodology adopted was to perform the nonparametric Mann-Whitney, through statistical analysis software SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) in a sample of 884 questionnaires, checking differences between the variables to be studied at a level of significance 5% through the data collected from a questionnaire prepared by the Federal University of Alagoas and Dom Cabral Foundation-MG. Then the results were compared to the socio-economic and / or cultural variables, trying to find some justification that may have influenced the formation of perceptions of the interviewees. The results showed that among 10 studied dimensions, Brazil has a similar perception with Chile in four of them – uncertainty tolerance, internal locus of control, ethics and leadership / persuasion - similar to Venezuela in six cases - the uncertainty tolerance, ethics, ability to perform / planning, network of relationships, industry knowledge / information and leadership / persuasion – with Uruguay in one of five cases - internal locus of control, self-learning, ethics, selfconcept / need for achievement and leadership / persuasion – and with Bolivia in 5 cases - internal locus of control, self-concept / need for achievement, network of relationships and leadership / persuasion.