Received: 2022-07-11  |  Accepted: 2022-10-10  |  Published: 2022-12-30

Title

The determinants of entrepreneurial intention of scientist PhD students: analytical vs emotional formation of the intention


Abstract

We use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate the determinants of the entrepreneurial intention (EI) of two samples of PhD students in science in France (N=101) and Tunisia (N=308). We performed PLS-PM estimations of a structural path model. The survey design makes possible an explicit distinction between the direct and indirect measures of the Attitude, Norm and Control for the prediction of the EI. In a situation of “analytical” decision making process we would expect a strong connection between direct and indirect measures which not observed in the case of Attitude. In both countries the main direct explanatory variables of EI are the Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) and the Attitude (ATT) whereas the Subjective Norm (SN) has no direct significant impact. We also observe a very strong relationship between the SN and the PBC and between PBC and ATT. It raises questions concerning the real causal relationship between these explanatory variables which could have important consequences in terms of entrepreneurship promotion strategies. In contrast with SN and PBC we observe that the indirect measures of ATT are not strongly connected to its direct measure. It may indicate in the case of SN and PBC that the evaluation process is analytic whereas it would be more “emotional” for ATT. We discuss the implications of that distinction. Our results indicate that the manipulation of believes related to PBC is certainly the most relevant strategy of behavioral change.


Keywords

entrepreneurial intention, Theory of Planned Behavior, academic entrepreneurship, science and technology policy, rational decision-making, PhD student entrepreneurship


JEL classifications

O10 , L26 , C10


URI

http://jssidoi.org/ird/article/116


DOI


Pages

63-82


Funding

The dissemination of the research supported by European Union's Horizon 2020 project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014 CLUSDEVMED, Grant Agreement Number 645730730

This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Authors

Cabagnols, Alexandre
University of Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France https://www.uca.fr
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Maâlej, Ali
University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia https://univ-sfax.tn
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Mauchand, Pierre
Université de Lyon, Saint-Etienne, France https://www.universite-lyon.fr
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Kammoun, Olfa
Université de Tunis, Montfleury, Tunisia http://www.utunis.rnu.tn
Articles by this author in: CrossRef |  Google Scholar

Journal title

Insights into Regional Development

Volume

4


Number

4


Issue date

December 2022


Issue DOI


ISSN

ISSN 2345-0282 (online)


Publisher

VšĮ Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, Vilnius, Lithuania

Cited

Google Scholar

Article views & downloads

HTML views: 964  |  PDF downloads: 485

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