A Cognitive Approach towards Understanding Entrepreneurial Intentions Through Self-efficacy and Gender

Abstract

Entrepreneurship despite being widely studied has mostly been explored in terms of its consequences. Fewer studies have been conducted focusing on the antecedents of entrepreneurship. This becomes particularly important when trying to understand the individual entrepreneur rather than the whole of entrepreneurship. Where the concept of entrepreneurship comes from and how it develops within an individual can be extremely critical in understanding the full process of entrepreneurship development and its success. Therefore, this study focuses on the person behind the entrepreneurial endeavor, and specifically their wish to start a new business. This research investigates the translation of intention to behavior, taking into account the person’s beliefs about their own abilities, culturing the cognitive and socio-cognitive theories in this area. Secondary data is used from India for the investigation. Results indicate that intention does successfully predict behavior in terms of entrepreneurship uptake. Self-efficacy also boosts the uptake given there is intention to start a business. When considering gender in the equation, given there may be gender based differences in the translation from intention to behavior, there is no observed difference between males and females. The implications are ample in terms of supporting entrepreneurship in a country like India wherein stimulation of the intention of individuals to start a business will most likely boost entrepreneurship and ultimately its correlates.