Exploring Social and Commercial Entrepreneurial Intentions from Theory of Planned Behaviour Perspective: A Cross-Country Study among Namibian and German Students

Abstract

The demand for entrepreneurship to become more prevalent in societies worldwide highlights the need to better understand entrepreneurial intentions (EI). This is particularly important for African nations characterised by significant poverty and low income. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) this paper explores potential predictors of these intentions in two countries that differ considerably in their economic situation and culture. It chiefly focuses on SEI as socially desired, yet still unexplored phenomenon. The current study differentiates between social (SEI) and commercial (CEI) entrepreneurial intentions and explores their antecedents among university students in Namibia (n = 223) and Germany (n = 1326). The results suggest that TPB only poorly predicts SEI, particularly in Namibia. However, they support universally positive effect of perceived behavioural control on formation of CEI in both countries. This study contributes to emerging research into antecedents of SEI. It also highlights the need to test exploratory power of recognised theories such as TPB within different contexts and types of entrepreneurial activity.

Keywords:

• Entrepreneurial intention
• theory of planned behaviour
• commercial entrepreneurship
• social entrepreneurship
• cross-country study

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the help of Sophie Kögel and Maria Rähder in the data collection.

Disclosure statement

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