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The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between entrepreneurial implementation intention and subsequent actions, addressing the isotropic issue under uncertain entrepreneurship.

The authors conducted two rounds surveys, a total of 2,350 individuals are surveyed, and 240 of whom expressed entrepreneurial intention but had yet to start a business comprised the sample.

This research finds that entrepreneurial implementation intention has a significant positive relationship with subsequent actions, affordable loss mediates the effect of implementation intention on subsequent actions, environmental uncertainty negatively moderates the relationship between affordable loss and subsequent actions, and the indirect effect of entrepreneurial implementation intention on entrepreneurial action can be enhanced at the low level of environmental uncertainty.

This study contributes new insights to the literature on Rubicon model of action phases in entrepreneurship field by using affordable loss and uncertainty. It also contributes to the literature on affordable loss by examining how environmental uncertainty conditions the effect of affordable loss on entrepreneurial action. Additionally, the negatively moderating role of environmental uncertainty offers a new possibility to explain entrepreneurial uncertainty.

The present paper aims to identify a set of cognitive and contextual characteristics that explain entrepreneurial intentions, actions and venture creation, thereby covering three successive stages of becoming an entrepreneur.

The analysis is based on entrepreneurship data from a self-reported online survey (n = 1,492) gathered among the Estonian population in 2017. The authors use an exploratory factor analysis to reduce initial survey responses about the external environment into latent factors. Linear regression models are applied to predict the determinants of entrepreneurial intention and actions, whereas the logit model is applied to find out the determinants of being or not being an entrepreneur.

Younger people, respondents with vocational education and the unemployed have a higher intention to start up. Men are more active than women in the second stage of taking real action, whereas middle-aged respondents and managers are less active. In the final stage of enterprise creation, men become more likely entrepreneurs, whereas younger people and those who do not have higher education become less likely entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial attitudes and competencies as preconditional factors of entrepreneurial readiness have a positive effect in all three stages. The role of motivation appeared to be controversial – it has a weak positive effect on the intention stage but a strong negative effect on the action stage, becoming insignificant in the final stage of becoming an entrepreneur. In the final stage, taking real action has the strongest positive effect. Regarding differences between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs have a more positive perception of the business environment and the ease of doing business, including the simplicity of entrepreneurship-related legislation. On the other hand, entrepreneurs are more skeptical about the availability of financial resources, and they perceive public attitudes and the role of entrepreneurs in a society less positively.

As data of this study originates from a survey, the sample may not represent the whole population. This might limit the extent to which the conclusions of this study can be generalized. Also, the study’s data do not enable us to consider all potential factors that may affect entrepreneurial intention, action and venture creation. For example, the authors do not consider the effect of income or differences between opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship because of data limitations.

This study focuses on environmental obstacles and individual restrictions that are important in different stages of becoming an entrepreneur. In terms of policy implications, providing better financing opportunities both from private and public institutions and keeping entrepreneurship legislation simple and transparent have the utmost importance in increasing the share of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship-related benefits in society. The younger population’s high entrepreneurial intentions should be transferred more effectively into real actions toward starting up, paired with supportive entrepreneurship education.

The study results show that developing positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship and providing relevant competencies through the education system are relevant factors in all stages of becoming an entrepreneur, thus enabling entrepreneurial activities in society.

First, the authors investigate the factors of entrepreneurship separately during the three stages in the journey of becoming an entrepreneur, starting from intentions, followed by preparation actions and finalized by real enterprise creation. Second, the analysis of this study is based on the original Environment-Readiness Entrepreneurship Intention model, which emphasizes the role of the external environment in entrepreneurial processes. Ten factors of the external environment are extracted using exploratory analysis instead of using three traditional predefined factors of the economic, political and socio-cultural environment. Third, our focus on Estonia broadens the knowledge about entrepreneurship in the Central and Eastern European region in general and in the Baltic region, more specifically.

This study aims to explore the intention–behavior gap of student entrepreneurs who develop entrepreneurial intention in a venture creation course and decide to continue working on the business idea after completing the course. While many students decide to work on business concepts, they often struggle with taking further steps when the course ends. This suggests that the development of entrepreneurial intention in the course does not directly lead to entrepreneurial actions after the course. Hence, this paper examines the sources for the intention–action gap and behavioral responses of student entrepreneurs.

This study applied a systematic inductive qualitative research method to examine how student entrepreneurs encounter challenges after the entrepreneurship program and how they respond to them. The authors selected a venture development course at a German public university as their research context.

The findings revealed that students encountered substantial challenges after the program, which invoked their procrastinating behaviors. Based on the findings, this study developed a process model of the intention–behavior gap in student entrepreneurship. The process model provides a roadmap to follow the main findings, which consist of three main parts: (1) the antecedents of the intention–behavior gap; (2) behavioral responses of student entrepreneurs and (3) the outcomes of procrastination.

This study contributes to the emerging student entrepreneurship literature by identifying obstacles for students who intend to continue developing a venture after attending venture creation courses, as well as elaborating on possible student responses to these barriers and their subsequent impact on their nascent ventures. Furthermore, the findings contribute to developing the understanding of the intention–behavior gap in entrepreneurship education at higher education institutions by highlighting challenges for students that emerge in the transition phase from course participants to autonomous entrepreneurial actors.

Scholars have generally emphasized the vital role of entrepreneurship education in developing the entrepreneurial intentions of students as prospective entrepreneurs. However, researchers have only rarely examined how these intentions are translated into actions. Furthermore, the existing research on students' intention–behavior gap is limited to quantitative studies that demonstrate the existence of the gap empirically or apply theoretically derived moderators to their analysis. Consequently, the literature calls for more qualitative, explorative research approaches to understand what happens to students' entrepreneurial intentions once their entrepreneurship program is over.

This study endeavors to decode the propensity for entrepreneurial action by addressing the perceptions of feasibility and desirability stemming from entrepreneurs' and non-entrepreneurs’ appraisal of holding marketing capabilities; complemented by the direct and indirect effects of market stakeholders' support, assessed as bridging or buffering the entrepreneurial action.

Three groups were formed from a random sample of 1,957 Canadian (from Quebec) respondents to an online questionnaire: non-entrepreneurs with low entrepreneurial intentions, non-entrepreneurs with high entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurs with high entrepreneurial intentions.

The analyses revealed salient effects of perceptions of feasibility and desirability, coupled with appraisals of possessing marketing capabilities, on entrepreneurial propensity; and their strengthened relations when obtaining stakeholders' support. Overall, the results suggest that perceived market feasibility and market desirability are prominent factors in differentiating between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial action, and the type and function of stakeholders' support are prominent in differentiating between intentions.

Practical implications include facilitating the transmission of marketing knowledge to novice entrepreneurs through higher education and the ecosystem.

The authors show that perceptions of feasibility and desirability are particularly dependent on the entrepreneur's perceived marketing capabilities and perceptions of entrepreneurial ecosystem supportiveness. This study thus captures a fuller range of the intentions–action relationship by gauging the unidimensional approach to entrepreneurial action through intertwining attributes at the individual and market levels. It takes a new look at feasibility and desirability through marketing capabilities; and offers a more robust classification of stakeholders' support—institution/people, bridging/buffering. Practical implications include facilitating the transmission of marketing knowledge to novice entrepreneurs through higher education and the ecosystem.

This paper aims to contribute to the explanatory debate of the entrepreneurial intention-action gap that results from the interposition of normative-regulatory, sociocultural and economic-financial barriers facing potential and intending entrepreneurs.

Grounded on post-positivist position, the authors propose a quantitative approach, surveying 569 potential and intending entrepreneurs from a longitudinal and stratified sample of 22 years.

The economic-financial barrier is the most important, followed by the sociocultural except in the period in which access to banking financial support is facilitated, where the order is reversed. The impact of the normative-regulatory barrier is statistically relevant, but irrelevant on the magnitude. The results also allow us to conclude that a lower development of the project accentuates the entrepreneurial intention-action gap and, finally, support the existence of a medium/long-term temporal relation between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial action.

From an empirical standpoint, the sample was limited to potential and pretending entrepreneurs from one national institution and one country. This limits the scope of generalization. Further studies in multiple contexts should be undertaken.

The study points to contradictory results with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor – Portuguese Reports, which, if confirmed, require the reformulation of Portuguese national policies in the promotion and development of entrepreneurial activities.

The study is novel by providing new insights about entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial intention-action gap.

This chapter describes part of the philosophical and psychological context for the study of entrepreneurial action. Unlike some other human behaviors, entrepreneurial action is typically extended through time, bringing it into the realm of personal causality. When intention, motivation, and environmental properties are all considered, one is led to the metatheoretical assumptions that (a) human beings are capable of conscious thought, (b) they are capable of intentional action, and (c) effort exerted in the direction of an intention can lead to an “equifinal” outcome regardless of starting point or obstacles that may appear along the way. Entrepreneurship research should more explicitly take note of these traditions to ensure that the measures selected incorporate the multiple antecedents of entrepreneurial action. This chapter has four primary objectives: to outline the precursors of intentional action of any sort, to touch on the specifics of entrepreneurial intention, to ameliorate a bit of our concern over self-report measures, and to describe methodological alternatives that might have promise for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute a deeper understanding of how natural disasters influence entrepreneurial intentionality as an important antecedent of entrepreneurial intention. It reviews the conceptual and operational backgrounds of natural disaster research and entrepreneurship theories and formulates a distinctive conceptual approach to entrepreneurial intentions in natural disaster settings.

An exhaustive review of research articles published in peer-reviewed entrepreneurship journals is provided and focuses on entrepreneurship, natural disasters, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Six propositions about the influence of natural disasters on entrepreneurial intentions in ways that are distinct to the specific circumstances of post-disaster environments.

The paper’s findings serve as a useful foundation for future research of post-disaster entrepreneurial behavior. The propositions highlight the relationship between opportunities, self-efficacy, feasibility, desirability, fear of failure, and resilience that complement macro-level research with micro-level antecedents. Implications entail new methodological avenues for future studies of humanitarian and post-disaster entrepreneurial activities.

This paper suggests ways in which public policy and educational, state and community programs can be designed and executed so that entrepreneurial intentions are developed and entrepreneurial action is not hindered. Moreover, it clarifies several ways to achieve more effective action (or inaction) to serve those affected by natural disasters and minimize disaffection.

The study illustrates that natural disasters can and do create opportunities for entrepreneurial behavior even as they generate powerful and sweeping negative effects on socioeconomic systems. Its unique approach explores individual-level variables concerning intent and motivation that drive entrepreneurial decisions in disaster contexts.

Despite the important role of entrepreneurial implementation intentions for closing the intention-behavior gap, empirical evidence on their drivers and mechanisms is scant and inconclusive. In the case of college students’ technology-driven entrepreneurship, the objective of the present study is to examine whether implementation intentions are contingent on the university environment in which the progression from entrepreneurial intentions to subsequent actions unfolds. The sample for this study is composed of 299 Bulgarian STEM students, who reported technology-based entrepreneurial intentions. A binary logistic regression is applied to examine four specific mechanisms that facilitate or impede the students’ actual implementation intentions. Findings suggest that students enrolled in universities that provide greater concept development support are more likely to have formed specific implementation intentions, while students in more research-intensive universities are less likely to do so. Practitioner implications and recommendations for future research are provided.

This study aims to investigate how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator.

A cross-sectional survey of 261 pupils in the South African province of the Eastern Cape was used in the research study. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The research revealed that having social entrepreneurial role models has a positive impact on both social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intent. In addition, a connection was found between social entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurial action. The influence of moral obligation was found to be a positive and a significant moderator. Moreover, the association between social entrepreneurial role models and social entrepreneurial intent was mediated by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The findings are not generalizable to nonstudent samples because students constituted the sample for gathering data. Future study therefore requires considering nonstudents to generalize the outcomes. This research should be replicated in other South African provinces and other developing countries for comparative outcomes.

Since social entrepreneurial role models have been practically linked to social entrepreneurship intent and entrepreneurial efficacy, understanding the factors that influence student’s decision to start a social enterprise is critical in South Africa to develop targeted interventions aimed at encouraging young people to start new businesses. Policymakers, society and entrepreneurial education will all benefit from the findings.

This study contributes to bridging the knowledge gap as it investigates how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator. Encouraging social entrepreneurship among South African youth would also help address societal issues. This is a pioneering study in the context of an emerging economy such as South Africa, where social entrepreneurship is so integral.

The current research proposes a model that integrates certain psychological and demographic factors in developing and strengthening young Saudi women's perceptions of entrepreneurial resourcefulness, which eventually may lead to the development and enhancement of their entrepreneurial intentions. The study also examines the ways in which changing socio-cultural norms and values may augment investments and/or efforts to enhance cognitive enablers, including entrepreneurial resourcefulness, and thereby build and strengthen entrepreneurial intentions among female entrepreneurs (i.e. human capital) in a transitioning society. Saudi Arabia is a relevant research context because the Saudi government has invested enormous resources to develop the country's human capital, particularly Saudi government intends to enhance Saudi women's participation in entrepreneurial spheres to be enhanced significantly. Saudi Arabia is undergoing a radical socio-cultural transition, and the kingdom seeks to capitalise on this ongoing transformation to further encourage women to tap into their under-utilised potential. This study seeks to corroborate such moderation effects.

The authors utilise the intellectual capital (IC) framework and theory of planned behaviour (TBP) to propose the conceptual model in this study. Using a sample of 628 young female respondents – potential entrepreneurs studying at various universities in Saudi Arabia, the authors test the hypothesised associations through partial least squares (PLS)-based path modelling.

The authors found a significant positive impact of psychological factors, such as perceived behavioural control, attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, on the development and enhancement of perceived entrepreneurial resourcefulness. In addition, demographic factors, including family income, family background, family business experience and entrepreneurship education, play a significant positive role in enhancing individuals' entrepreneurial resourcefulness perceptions. The authors further found that enhanced perceptions of perceived entrepreneurial resourcefulness develop and enhance entrepreneurial intentions among female entrepreneurs. However, the transformation in social and cultural norms significantly moderates this cause and effect relationship.

This study is among the first of its kind to investigate the moderating effects of social and cultural transformation on efforts and/or investments to enhance intellectual capital (more specifically, human capital) and thereby promote entrepreneurship. The study is also valuable for its focus on a unique context, i.e. female entrepreneurship in the Middle East and, more specifically, Saudi Arabia. The study offers useful insights and implications both for theory and practice, particularly for policymakers seeking to augment their intellectual capital formation efforts through an effective orchestration of socio-cultural transformation, which seeks to empower female entrepreneurs to succeed in the face of significant socio-cultural impediments.