Understanding how and when personal values foster entrepreneurial behavior: A humane perspective

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine the role of entrepreneurial intentions and motivations in the interplay between humane-oriented personal values and entrepreneurial behavior. Using data from 593 individuals in 2010 and 2019, we uncover how and when humane-oriented personal values (conservation and self-transcendence) lead to self-employment. Results suggest that entrepreneurial intentions function as a mechanism that triggers self-employment decisions for individuals with humane-oriented personal values and that this effect is stronger when they engage in opportunity-based entrepreneurship. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on personal values and the intention-action link.

KEYWORDS:

• Personal values
• humane entrepreneurship
• self-employment
• entrepreneurial intentions
• entrepreneurial motivations

Notes

¹ Self-employment is one of the occupational definitions of entrepreneurship, along with business owners (for example, OECD, 2019; Stephan et al., 2020).

² Conceptual definitions of the 10 basic personal values (adapted from Schwartz, 1994, and used in Schwartz, 2017): Power: Social status and prestige, dominance or control over people and resources; Achievement: Personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards; Hedonism: Pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself; Stimulation: Excitement, novelty, and challenge in life; Self-direction: Independent thought and action choosing, creating, exploring; Universalism: Understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature; Benevolence: Preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact; Conformity: Restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms; Tradition: Respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provides; Security: Safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self.

³ ELITE is the acronym for the name of the project in Spanish: Estudio longitudinal sobre el proceso de surgimiento de emprendedores de alto impacto.

Additional information

Funding

This manuscript has benefited from funding from the “ELITE: Emergence of High-Impact Entrepreneurs” project (Programa Estatal de I+D+i, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain) [Ref: ECO2016-75655-P].