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The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of locus of control (internal and external) on entrepreneurial intention of final year undergraduate students in Ghana.

The study adopts descriptive and cross-sectional survey designs. It also employs quantitative approach to collect the data from 300 final year undergraduate students in selected universities in Ghana. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression techniques.

The results reveal that there is a positive relationship between locus of control (both internal and external) and entrepreneurial intention. However, it is found that external locus of control has more influence on entrepreneurial intention compared to internal locus of control. In addition, gender has no controlling effect on the relationship between locus of control and entrepreneurial intention.

The findings imply that entrepreneurial course contents should include topics on locus of control that will expose the students to the reality of their environments so as to learn how to take control and create opportunities out of their environments. Again, students should be encouraged and educated on how to build up personality traits such as the need for achievement, innovativeness and risk-taking, since these traits have direct impact on their locus of control which in turn impacts on their entrepreneurial intentions.

This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by investigating determinants of entrepreneurial intention from a different perspective, and reveals that individuals (regardless of their gender) with external locus of control are more likely to become entrepreneurs in a developing economy.

COVID-19 and its precautions, including social distancing, have revolutionized traditional retailing- and consumption patterns. In this turbulent environment, the purpose of this study is twofold. First, this paper explores the direct effect of consumers’ internal/external health locus-of-control on their hygiene consciousness, which, in turn, affects their social distancing behavior. Second, this study posits that social distancing, in turn, impacts consumers’ current online grocery shopping behavior and their future online grocery shopping intentions, thus uncovering important insight.

To address these gaps, this paper develops a model that links consumers’ internal/external health locus-of-control to their adoption of e-tailing-based grocery services. Data collected through a web-based survey was analyzed by using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that consumers’ health locus-of-control indirectly affects the way they shop for their groceries during the pandemic. In particular, consumers’ internal (external) health locus-of-control drives higher (lower) hygiene consciousness and greater (lower) social distancing behavior. In turn, consumers’ online grocery shopping behavior was found to increase during the pandemic, with their corresponding intent to continue this behavior in the future. Moreover, this study finds the effects of consumers’ social distancing on their current grocery shopping behavior and future intentions to be contingent on consumer age, with stronger effects identified for older consumers.

This study shows how consumers’ internal/external health loci-of-control exert opposing effects on their social distancing behavior, as mediated by hygiene consciousness. Overall, the empirical analyzes corroborate the association of consumers’ social distancing- and online grocery shopping behavior (for consumers of different age profiles), both during and after the pandemic.

This study aims to examine the moderating effects of perceived supervisor support (work environment variable) and internal locus of control (personality variable) on the relationship of work‐family conflict with job satisfaction.

Questionnaire surveys were administered. Data were collected from correctional officers in Taiwan. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

Results show that work‐family conflict has a negative effect on job satisfaction. Perceived supervisor support and internal locus of control not only have direct effects on job satisfaction but also significantly moderate the relationship between work‐family conflict and job satisfaction.

This study suggests that a supportive leadership style, and a mentoring and training program, among others, may help reduce work‐family conflict and increase the job satisfaction of Taiwanese correctional officers.

This study contributes to the extant work‐family conflict and correctional literature. The moderating effects of perceived supervisor support and internal locus of control are explored to further elaborate on the relationship between work‐family conflict and job satisfaction.

This study examines the effects of variables such as financial literacy and locus of control on the financial behavior of individual investors. Additionally, this article aims to reveal the moderator effect of financial literacy on locus of control and financial behavior.

Responses were collected from a questionnaire given to a convenience sample of 1,347 individual investors. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which reveals the factor structure of the scale, was used at the beginning of the study, and then confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to confirm this new factor structure. Hypothetical relationships were examined using structural equation modeling.

The study provides statistical support for the validity and reliability of the scales. The statistical results of the analysis reveal that financial literacy and locus of control have a positive effect on financial behavior. Moreover, the authors prove that financial literacy changes the relationship between internal locus of control and financial behavior. In conclusion, financial literacy plays a significant role as a moderator variable that interacts with locus of control.

The findings of the research are important in demonstrating empirical evidence for the theoretical correlations. In support of the current literature, this study has confirmed the positive effects of internal locus of control and financial literacy on the financial behavior of individual investors. In addition, it has been determined that the relationship between an individual's financial behavior and internal locus of control varies according to their level of financial literacy.

This study examines the hypothesis that life experience may alter the orientation of locus of control. (The literature ascribes to successful managers an internal locus of control, signifying that they perceive success or failure as a consequence of their own actions.) Subjects were 112 Israeli public school principals with limited autonomy, in a centralized system. A total of 39 were ranked by supervisors as highly successful, 43 as moderately successful, and 30 as unsuccessful. Subjects were tested for basic and work‐related locus of control traits. Successful principals have a basic orientation toward an internal locus of control. With respect to work, however, they tend more toward an external locus of control than less successful colleagues. The author concludes that the locus of control test should be supplemented by investigation of previous and current experience. Practical implications of the selection of applicants for different types of managerial positions are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the relative influence of personality (locus of control) and situational control (job autonomy) on the experience of work‐to‐family conflict (WFC), family‐to‐work conflict (FWC), and positive work‐family spillover (PS).

Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n=3,504) and from O*Net, an independent database of occupational characteristic ratings, regression analysis was used to test direct effects, relative weights analysis was used to determine the relative influence of locus of control and job autonomy on work‐family outcomes, and mediation analysis was used to examine the mediating influence of perceived job autonomy.

Dispositional control (i.e. internal locus of control) was more strongly associated with the outcome variables than was situational control (i.e. objective job autonomy). As expected, internal locus of control was negatively related to WFC and FWC, and positively related to PS. Job autonomy, however, was unexpectedly related to higher levels of FWC and was unrelated to WFC and PS. Relative weights analysis revealed that situational vs dispositional control were differentially related to the outcome variables. Perceived job autonomy mediated the relationship between locus of control and WFC and PS.

The correlational design prevents conclusions about causality.

Knowing that both personality and job autonomy are important in understanding work‐family outcomes enables managers to intervene appropriately.

This study increases our understanding of the role of personality in relation to work‐family outcomes. In addition, it used a novel technique to partial the effects of situational and dispositional control, and used an objective measure of job autonomy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between servant leadership and customer service behaviors by probing the mediating role of promotion focus and the moderating role of internal locus of control.

The authors hypothesized an indirect relationship between servant leadership and customer service behaviors through promotion focus. Also, the authors predicted that the positive relationship between servant leadership and promotion focus would be stronger for employees with low internal locus of control. The authors tested the theoretical model with data gathered across two phases over three months from 280 supervisor-subordinate dyads.

Results indicated that servant leadership was positively related to customer service behaviors via promotion focus. Results also showed that internal locus of control moderated the relationship between servant leadership and promotion focus, such that the relationship was stronger for employees low on internal locus of control. Furthermore, this moderated mediated model was supported. As predicted, the indirect effect was stronger when internal locus of control was low.

This study extends the regulatory focus theory to the service context to investigate how and when servant leadership enhances customer service behaviors. The authors suggested promotion focus as a key mediating mechanism and revealed internal locus of control as a boundary condition for the effectiveness of servant leadership.

This study highlights the importance role of promotion focus in fostering customer service behaviors and provides novel theoretical insight regarding when servant leadership enhances customer service behaviors.

The study aims at clarifying whether locus of control may act as a bias in organisational decision‐making or not.

Altogether 44 managers working at Skanska (a Swedish multinational construction company) participated in the study. They were asked to complete a booklet including a locus of control test and a couple of decision tasks. The latter were based on case scenarios reflecting strategic issues relevant for consultative/participative decision‐making.

The results revealed that managers with low external locus of control used group consultative decision‐making more frequently than those with high locus of control. There was also a tendency showing that high externals more frequently used participative decision‐making than low externals. This was in line with the general trend, indicating that managers on the whole predominantly used participative decision‐making.

The results of the present study are valuable for HRM practice, especially with regard to the selection of individuals to management teams.

The Dutch juvenile justice system locks up an increasing number of adolescent boys and girls at a cost of approximately €250,000 for each inmate annually (Boone & Moerings, 2007; Tonry, 2005). Questions have been raised, however, about the cost‐effectiveness of treatment in closed institutions. This study, with a sample of 49 adolescents residing in a Dutch youth prison, examined the role of group climate in establishing and maintaining treatment effects. Results show that an open group climate, with group workers paying more attention to the psychological needs of the adolescents and giving them ‘space’ to experiment, led to inmates feeling that they were ‘being understood by the group workers’. This perception of being understood was associated with greater treatment motivation and higher internal locus of control. Positive prison workers in the living group turned out to be a key factor in building an open group climate and subsequently higher internal locus of control and greater treatment motivation.

The article examines the potential mediating role of the Islamic work ethic between locus of control, role conflict and role ambiguity. The study uses a sample of 397 employees in a variety of manufacturing and service organizations in an Islamic country, the United Arab Emirates. The results of correlational analysis and regression models suggest that the Islamic work ethic is related to locus of control. Furthermore, the results of a series of regression models indicate that the Islamic work ethic mediates the relationship between locus of control and role ambiguity. On the other hand, the results point out that the Islamic work ethic does not mediate the relationship between locus of control and role conflict. Results further point out that there is a significant correlation between the Islamic work ethic and role ambiguity. Limitations, lines of future research, implications and contributions are discussed.