Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy And Its Relationship With The Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurship is one of the key concepts to understand Chinese rapid economic growth after the reformation and opening towards the world, which relate to the revitalization of the Chinese nation. How to formulate effective entrepreneurship policies and promote the entrepreneurship education to facilitate the entrepreneurship were important issues concerned by government, education institutions and social commonalties. So it is necessary to explore the psychological and cognitive mechanisms of people"why he choose to be an entrepreneur", along with his/her power source of being an entrepreneur. In the theoretical research, entrepreneur's source of entrepreneurial action and behavior was the hot issue for the entrepreneurial research. And cognitive perspective, which was considered and recommended by many famous scholars, would reveal the critical aspect of entrepreneurial process. Based on the previous studies,"entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE)"and"entrepreneurial intention (EI)"were generalized in this paper as the main research concepts of linking the research of traits, behavior and cognitive studies in the field of entrepreneurship.From the cognitive perspective and based on the entrepreneurial theories, this paper involved three cross-field researches: cognitive psychology, social cognition and leadership research, and included the following subjects: structure and influence factors of ESE from the individual level; the influence process and mechanism of ESE towards EI; the impact of attitude (perceive behavior control, PBC) and cognitive (cognitive style) factors in this process. According to the research propositions, three kinds of hypotheses, which were variable structure hypotheses, variable discrepancy hypotheses and variable relationship hypotheses, were presented on the bases of related theories study and literature review. The data were collected from the public communities in random sampling and college students in subjective sampling. The survey were conducted in three stages, including pre-survey, pilot survey and main survey; response rate was 71% (college students); and 956 valid copies of questionnaire were collected. Many statistical methods were used on the data to test the hypotheses. The results and the limitations of the research were discussed and explained combined with the Chinese history, culture and social backgrounds. In general, the main conclusions and originalities of the study included as followings:(1) On the aspect of theoretical studies. By the reference of the previous studies on the manager's role, and through the introduction of Kotter's leadership theory, the paper developed three-factor ESE model based on the entrepreneur's role, which simplified the structure and enhanced its scope of the interpretation and application. And ESE role model was the foundation for the further studies in this paper. By using the data collected from Chinese sample, the paper discussed three sources of influence factors for ESE; proved the influence and mechanism of ESE towards EI. On the grounds of social cognitive theory and planning behavior theory, the paper analyzed partial mediating effect of PBC, which considered as the attitude/motivation factor, in the process of ESE on the EI. It testified the impact of cognitive style on the ESE, and the further investigation found the moderating role of"Sufficiency of Originality cognition"(SO cognition) on the ESE and EI. The paper also disclosed the influence mechanism of both cognitive factor (SO cognition) and attitude factor (PBC) on the ESE and EI, which would make the theoretical foundation and preparations for the further investigation to reveal the individual's psychological and cognitive process for the business venturing. Finally, the paper provided some research thoughts for the organizational cognition research on the base of present entrepreneur cognition, and the exploring formation process of leadership and organizational culture.(2) On the aspect of research methods, the paper's research developed and simplified the DeNoble's ESE scale, which provided the modified instrument for ESE measurement and extended the scope of its application and practicability. The paper fully considered the influence of common method bias during the investigation and made the program control on it. It testified the mediator and moderator during the cognitive process of ESE towards EI. On the statistical methods, besides the t-test, correlation analysis, hierarchical regression, SEM path analysis, etc., the paper also adopted mediator testing method generalized by When and his comrades, which reduced the statistic procedure. According to When and his comrades'recommendation, the paper fully considered the effect of the moderated mediator and the mediated moderator, disclosed the mechanism of the SO cognition's moderating effect being fully through the PBC's mediating role. As the limitation of paradigm and the methodology originated from Postpositivism, the paper presented the view that borrowing ideas from the Structuralism.(3) On the aspect of practical application, the paper proved the important role of entrepreneurial education on the shaping process to the entrepreneurs. It demonstrated that entrepreneurial education is an effective way of enhancing the whole society's entrepreneurship. Based on the empirical study, the paper pointed the view of improving the current entrepreneurial education on the focus of attention, structure and content, teaching methods, etc. Also the related research results and the modified ESE scale would provide the guidance and tool for the policy making, human resources development, entrepreneurial education and performance evaluation.