A Cross-National Study of Personal Initiative as a Mediator between Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Intentions

ABSTRACT

Although considerable research has highlighted that high levels of self-efficacy are associated with high levels of entrepreneurial intentions, little attention has been paid to the mediating effects of different variables on the relations between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions. Integrating theoretical work on self-efficacy with personal initiative literature, I developed a model of entrepreneurial intentions that included both the independent effects of self-efficacy and control variables and the mediating effect of personal initiative on entrepreneurial intentions. I tested this model with a sample of 429 students from four universities in emerging and developed countries. Results indicate that personal initiative fully mediates the effect of self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions. I uncover that the level of self-efficacy is significantly higher among the students in an emerging economy. However, no significant difference was observed in the reported levels of personal initiative in two contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurial intentions
• Norway
• personal initiative
• self-efficacy
• Ukraine

Acknowledgements

The valuable comments of the Editor Desislava Dikova are warmly appreciated. All errors and omissions are the author’s own. The author thanks the reviewers for the suggestion to use the Preacher–Hayes bootstrapping test.