Has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the intentions of individuals for a business venture? An integrated structural model approach

ABSTRACT

This article provides distinctive insights into the main antecedents of entrepreneurial intention (EI) during the COVID-19 pandemic, merging Ajzen’s version of the Theory of Planned Behavior with an adjusted version of Shapero & Sokol’s Entrepreneurial Event Model, as well as an extended EI model developed by Krueger. Using a sample of 402 university students and applying structural equation modeling, the results identified attitudes toward entrepreneurship, perceived desirability and feasibility, and perceived self and collective efficacy as key drivers of EI, while capturing the turbulent investigation period through its impact on exogenous determinants, mainly the university environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurial intention
• covid-19 pandemic
• theory of planned behavior
• integrated model
• structural equation modeling

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• L26

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declarations

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors report there are no competing interest to declare.

Availability of data and material: Can be provided upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ioana Sorina Andreica Mihuț

Ioana Sorina Andreica Mihuț is currently a lecturer/assistant professor at the Department of Economics within the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she teaches a series of disciplines including Global Economy Mechanisms, European Economics, Economic Doctrines, Macroeconomics and History of Economic Thought. She has a PhD title in Economics and International Business and she conducted a postdoctoral research on the subject of economic governance as an instrument for promoting economic convergence in the European Union. During her doctoral and postdoctoral studies she benefited from scholarships at two universities, namely Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria and Kingston University from London, United Kingdom. Her main areas of interest in research include economic convergence, economic growth, entrepreneurial behavior and economic governance. She can be contacted at: [email protected]

Larisa Nicoleta Kanto Pop

Larisa Nicoleta Kanto Pop is currently a lecturer/assistant professor at the Department of Economics within the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she teaches a number of disciplines including Agricultural and Rural Development Policies, Communication Deontology, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. With a PhD conducted on price risk management and a postdoctoral research in the field on economic governance in the context of price instability on agricultural markets, international research internships in Florence, Italy (Centro Interuniversitario per le Scienze Attuariali e la Gestione dei Rischi, Università degli Studi di Firenze) and Aix-en-Provence, France (Aix-Marseille Université), the main areas of interest in research include price volatility, price risk management, agricultural policies, rural development, entrepreneurial behavior and economic governance. She can be contacted at: [email protected]

Dana Lucia Tulai

Dana Lucia Tulai is an assistant professor and PhD supervisor at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, within the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Economics, where she teaches Business Law. She has a multidisciplinary training, having obtained a Master’s Degree in 2006 in Banking and Capital Markets and a PhD in Civil Law in 2014. Her main areas of interest are Civil and Business Law and she has published numerous research papers concerning Commercial Contracts, Agency in particular, as well as the Corporate Governance of private and public enterprises. She can be reached at: [email protected].

Daniel Mican

Daniel Mican is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, România, within the Department of Business Information Systems. He completed his Ph.D. in 2013 in Cybernetics and Economic Statistics. His research interests are in the field of recommendation systems, web usage mining, collective intelligence, user behavior, social media, and PLS-SEM. His research has been published in reputable journals such as Social Science Computer Review (Q1), Decision Support Systems (Q1), Expert Systems with Applications (Q1), etc. He can be contacted at: [email protected]