Gender approach in measuring emotional intelligence and student's entrepreneurship competencies

There are new evidences to suggest that personality and emotional intelligence play a significant role in origin of entrepreneurship. However، few studies are carried out in this area particularly with regard to gender differences among individuals. Therefore، the main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on students’ entrepreneurship competencies in agricultural fields of Zanjan University and to examine the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship competencies. The target population of the study contained all M. Sc. students in agriculture faculty of Zanjan University (n=366). According to Krejcie and Morgan table، a sample size of 280 was selected using a stratified random sampling method (n=280). A questionnaire was used to collect the data. A panel of faculty members in University of Zanjan confirmed the content validity of the questionnaire. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for the main scales of questionnaire was at appropriate level. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) multivariate technique. The results showed that emotional intelligence had a positive and significant effect on dependent variable of entrepreneurship competencies explaining about 35 percent of its variances. Also، the result indicated that gender had a moderating effect on the relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship competencies; so that the relationship was non-significant for male students، whereas it was positive and significant for female students.