Resumo

Entrepreneurship has been pointed out as key for economic development, as it generates income and jobs for the populations in different contexts (Zhao et al., 2005). As it is intricately connected to entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intentions have become a widely studied topic, as research has been dedicated to better understand the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurship as a social phenomenon (Ferreira et al., 2017).

This study addresses to the following research problem: what is the impact of self-efficacy, passion, and creativity as antecedents of entrepreneurial intention? Thus, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial passion, creativity, and self-efficacy predictors of entrepreneurial intention.

Entrepreneurial passion includes deep and consciously positive feelings, vital to personal identity. The combination of these two aspects (strong positive emotions and identity centrality) leads to lasting emotional experiences, which often last longer than emotional episodes. Thus, entrepreneurial passion can be theoretically defined and measured through the following dimensions: strong positive emotions and identity centrality, being reflected in three role identities: invention, foundation, and development (Cardon et al., 2013).

As previously mentioned, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial passion, creativity, and self-efficacy as predictors of entrepreneurial intention by employing questionnaires in a sample of university students (Cooper and Schindler, 2016). This non-probabilistic sample comprised 190 respondents, who were reached electronically through social networks. For such, a seven-point Likert questionnaire with questions on sociodemographic characteristics, self-efficacy, creativity, entrepreneurial passion, and entrepreneurial objective was used with this sample.

This study contributes the literature on entrepreneurship by demonstrating the mediating roles of self-efficacy and creativity in relation to entrepreneurship and the relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial passion with entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, this research introduces a model applied to a heterogeneous group composed by university students who also worked in regular jobs; thus, this sample shows a result closer to the social reality of most people in Brazil.

Our findings point out to high values of creativity and passion (78.9%; 75.8%), with self-efficacy showing a lower value (61.4%), indicating that, although they are cognitively present as entrepreneurs, the individuals comprised in the sample are insecure about carrying out such behavior, reducing their intention to start a business (65.9%). This fact can be explained by the lack of entrepreneurial education, considering that the sample is made up of university students but who did not have entrepreneurship as part of their courses’ curricula.

Ajzen, I. (1991), “The theory of planned behavior”, Organizational behavior and human decision processes, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp.179-211. Ajzen, I. (2002), “Perceived behavioral control, self‐efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior”, Journal of applied social psychology, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp.665-683. Alammari, K. (2019), “Post-materialistic values and entrepreneurial intention – the case of Saudi Arabia”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp.158–179.