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Intentions are central to entrepreneurial thinking and thus entrepreneurial action yet we have not explored the different pathways of how intent evolves. How does an easily assessed measure of cognitive style influence how entrepreneurs develop their intentions?

We examine how cognitive style interacts with entrepreneurial intentions testing the model separately with subjects scoring as Intuitives or Analytics on cognitive style, plus nationality and gender as covariates with entrepreneurial intensity as a prospective moderator, using 528 university students from Norway, Russia and Finland.

Cognitive style does moderate the intentions model. For intuitives, country influenced social norms and entrepreneurial intensity proved a moderator. For analytics, neither perceived desirability, country, nor entrepreneurial intensity were significant.

We will replicate these findings in different samples, especially non-WEIRD settings. It will also be useful to test alternate measures of cognitive style and other likely moderators.

We offer diagnostics for educators and ecosystem actors given that our findings suggest intriguing differences in the entrepreneurial mindset.

Understanding multiple pathways exist to entrepreneurial intent and thus action helps policymakers and entrepreneurial champions better able to help nurture entrepreneurs and thus entrepreneurship in their communities.

Cognitive style has dramatic effects on the specification of the formal intentions model arguing for multiple pathways to entrepreneurial intent. For example, two entrepreneurs might arrive at the same intention but through very different processes because they differ in cognitive style.

Our study draws on gender role congruity theory to theorize and test an integrative conceptual model outlining how motives for entrepreneurial action explain the relationship between female entrepreneurship and innovation in nascent ventures.

To test our hypotheses, we employed structural equation modeling (SEM) in a sample of early-stage entrepreneurs (N = 533).

We found a positive relationship between nascent female entrepreneurs and innovation, and that this relationship is mediated by motives for recognition, respect, and autonomy.

By revealing a positive relationship between female entrepreneurship and innovation, our work provides a complementary perspective to the literature, which suggests that there are limits to innovation potential for female entrepreneurs. Further, we find that this relationship is explained by motives for recognition, respect, and autonomy, but not financial security. Finally, most empirical research focuses on the innovative outputs of established new ventures, while our work leverages a sample of early-stage entrepreneurs.