US women veterans: military skill transfer and career outcomes

Purpose Women veterans, a rapidly growing segment of the US veteran population, bring unique skills to the workforce, often acquired during their military service. We aim to understand and assist women veterans in career choices, including entrepreneurship and paid career success. Design/methodology/approach Using a survey approach, we focus on women veterans' unique learned military skills, the length of their military service, and the well-known cognitive factors of tolerance of ambiguity and risk-taking propensity concerning their entrepreneurial intentions. Social cognitive theory and the theory of planned behavior provide a theoretical base for this study. Findings Our findings revealed some encouraging trends for women veterans: (1) learned military skills were positively related to entrepreneurial intentions, (2) learned military skills were positively correlated with paid career success for women veterans, (3) length of military service was positively related to entrepreneurial intentions, and (4) risk-taking propensity amplified the positive relationship between tolerance of ambiguity and entrepreneurial intentions. Originality/value We specifically focus on the application of the unique learned military skills of women veterans to entrepreneurship and paid employment.