economical crisis, the economical growth and Introduction The economical and psychological researches during the past

decades have granted special attention the entrepreneur ship, its emerging and maintenance conditions, in the context where a direct connection with the Purpose Romania recorded during 2004 -2008 one of the highest growth rates in the European Union, registering in the last quarter before the crisis a net increase of 8.9% and a budget deficit of 1.2% of GDP One of the main sources of economic growth was considered to be consumption financed by bank loans. The national government has tried to respond to the crisis situation with a set of public policies designed to reduce social and economic impact. The immediate effect was rather the opposite: more than 300,000 SMEs have been closed and the number of unemployed reached almost one million people. For this situation seem to be responsible factors of "objective" nature as well as factors of psychological nature. Among factors of "objective" nature might be included low efficiency of public policies initiated in response to the economic crisis and the changing attitude of banks in terms of investment and consumption loans. Among psychological factors there is the mass media reaction in Romania regarding the global crisis, which has sent in printed and Entrepreneurs and the possession of an internal locus of control (Sapp and Harrod 1993). In the actual situation of global audio-visual media messaged mostly of "catastrophic" type, with increased negative character. Most television stations have rather the future prosperity are seriously doubted, owing both to the great number of SME who bankrupted, and to the dramatic decrease of the newly established SMEs.

economical development had been hyphened. The preoccupations aimed, in the economical the

psychology

preponderantly,

finding of those psychological treats/factors that are in some way or another implicated in the augmentation and predicting of

entrepreneurial tendency. A remarkable number of researches (Gilad, 1982; Gartner, 1985; Perry 1990; Bygrave 1993; Kaufmann & Walsh 1995) evidenced the capacity of Internal Locus of Control of predicting the propensity of a person for employing in a small business All type

entrepreneurial

activity.

extensive

research showed that an internal locus of control has been one of the psychological characteristics most often used as predictive of entrepreneurship (Perry 1990; and

Kaufmann &Walsh 1995). Also, a person with an internal locus of control is more likely to believe that environmental influences, such as the economy, can be influenced rather than passively accepted (Wheatly, Anthony, & Maddox 1991; and Ward 1993). Moreover, a correlation is believed to exist between

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preferred the approach of "tabloid" manner in the presentation of economic and social effects of me crisis. Therefore we have evaluate decided the to

3.22). From the theoretical point of view they should follow a strong tendency to engage in entrepreneurial activities and a low tendency to passively accept an external situation and the precarious state of the economy.

experimentally interaction

possible as

effect of

factors such

exposure to negative media

messages

regarding the state of the economy and personal perceptions on source/value of money regarding young people Tendency to invest in a small business. Method In order to evaluate the possible effect of factors such as exposure to negative media messages regarding the state of the economy and personal perceptions on source - value of money regarding the young people tendency to invest in a small business, we used an experimental method, 2x2 factorial design with independent groups.

Procedure
The 181 pre-selected participants were randomly divided into four experimental groups (scenarios) within a 2x2 type between subject design experiment Out of these 152 students actually participated in the

experiment.

Experimental Variables
In the framework of the experiment two independent variables were manipulated, with 2 levels each, respectively: VII: Source of money (money won at lottery versus money derived from credit); VI2: media messages (containing strongly negative economic information versus neutral

Participants A total of 273students from the Faculty of Economics, specializing in Management and Finance-Banks were recruited and completed Rotter's Locus of Control Scale, student's form. After applying, there were eliminated the students who had obtained scores over or equal to considered 13 to points, have respectively those an external LOC,

economic content)

Experimental scenarios:
Scenario 1: Subjects watched a video with
duration of 12 minutes, which contained a set of news about the economic situation in Romania, with strongly negative news. Later, the viewing subjects decided by filling in a questionnaire, how much money they should invest in a small business under the conditions that they would have won at the lottery sum of 300,000 lei (about 70,000 Eur).

maintaining a total of 181 study participants with scores below 13. We thus obtained a sample of 181 students, made up of 62% girls and 38% male, average age 21.4 years (SD =

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scale (amount of Invested money express in

Scenario 2: Subjects watched a video with

duration of 12 minutes, which contained a set of news about the economic situation in Romania, with strongly negative news. Later, the viewing subjects decided by filling in a questionnaire, how much money they should invest in a small business under the conditions that a bank would have preselected them for a very advantageous loan of 300,000 lei (approx. 70 000 Eur).

thousand Lei

Table

1:

Descriptive

Statistics

for

all

experimental groups

Scenario, 3: Subjects watched a video with

duration of 12 minutes, which contained a story about the ocean, with neutral content. Later, the viewing subjects decided by filling in a questionnaire, how much money they should invest in a small business under the conditions that they would have won at the lottery sum of 300,000 lei (about 70,000 Eur). A Source of money (2) x Media messages (2) analysis of variance was used to test differences between means for significance. Figure 1 shows the mean DV for the two experimental factors and reveals that the effect of F2 Media messages was much larger for Invested money (DV) than it-was the effect of Fl Source of money.

Scenario 4: Subjects watched a video with

duration of 12 minutes, which contained a story about the ocean, with neutral content. Later, the viewing subjects decided by filling in a questionnaire, how much money they should invest in a small business, under the conditions that a bank would have preselected them for a very advantageous loan of 300,000 lei (approx. 70 000 Eur). Results The 152 students were exposed to the four experimental scenarios and the Dependent Variable DV level was measured on a ratio For the analysis of null hypothesis for the main effects of the 2 factors and for the interaction effect there has been used TwoWay Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), with results shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Tests of Between -Subjects Effects

Discussions Initial assumptions based on existing theories and previous researches have been infirmed. Thus, we

expect for young people with internal LOC the negative message versus neutral message to The main effect Fl Source of money was not significant, F(l,148)=2.271, p=0.577, so no experimental evidence that Invested money amount differ in relationship with Fl Source of money factor. The main effect F2 Media produce an insignificant difference,

individuals having alleged ability to consider the external environment as controllable and adjustable. Average of potentially invested amounts by the exposed subjects to "negative media messages" was significantly lower than average of amounts invested by the subjects exposed to the "media message neutral" of factor F2 (p 0.001). Also, we expect that young people have a significantly greater tendency to invest money without cost and without risk taking, like win the lottery, against those who would fund a possible investment by bank credit. For F1 the primary Table 3: F2 Estimates effect is insignificant (p 0.05). Lack of main effect Fl most likely causes no interaction effect. It is plausible to think that mostly negative economic news create a strong emotional display, causing negative attitudes regarding the entrepreneurship tendency. The The variability associated with the interaction of the two independent variables is not significant, F(l,148)=2.271, p=0.134, so no experimental evidence that Invested money amount differ in relationship with Source of money x Media messages interaction existence of such an emotional display could later or simultaneously make the effect of one factor or another to become insignificant. It seems reasonable to believe that both

messages was significant, F(l,148)=6.806, pO.GT, proving evidence that Invested money amount differ in relationship with tip of media message exposure: the level of investment temptation is significant superior for Neutral messages scenario of F2 (Table 3).

reduction of consumption, and the dramatic decrease in number of small businesses opened in Romania in 2009-2010 (both with values significantly higher than the EU average) is partially influenced by dominant

paradigm and negative media messages in Romania. This conclusion emphasizes the possible positive need public for a realistic/ strategy,

proprietors. The Mid-Atlantic Journal of Business, 27, 213-224 Perry, C. (11990), After further sightings of the heffalump. Journal of Managerial

communication

Psychology, 5, 22-31 Rotter, J.B. (1966), "Generalized expectancies for internal verses external control of reinforcement", Psychological monographs, vol.7 l.No.2. Sapp, S. & Harrod, W. (1993). Reliability and validity of a brief version of Levenson's

public-financed and distributed by public and independent media channels, to mitigate the "psychological crisis" of investment and consumption.

locus of control scale. Psychological Reports, 72,

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