Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Epidemic Intensity On Employees’ Part-time Entrepreneurial Intention In COVID-19

COVID-19(Covid-19)is a disease caused by infection in novel coronavirus,which is characterized by strong toxicity and rapid infection at the early stage of the outbreak.Due to the time lag of medical research on the disease at that time and the lack of effective treatment methods,the state took containment measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic for the sake of people’s life and health.During the three years of the outbreak,the national economic activities were seriously affected,which brought strong negative effects to all aspects of society.In terms of entrepreneurship,the epidemic has led to an increase in the cost of entrepreneurship and the risk of failure,and entrepreneurial activities have become sluggish due to the epidemic;In terms of enterprise development and company management,in the face of sudden epidemic events,a large number of industries choose to lay off employees,reduce wages,stop recruiting,go bankrupt and other negative strategies to deal with them.The job continuity expected by employees is severely challenged,and the unemployment risk increases sharply.How to deal with these challenges,ensure their income stability and improve their ability to cope with unemployment risks is a problem worthy of study after the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic.In the study of entrepreneurship,how to enhance the public’s entrepreneurial intention has always been an important research direction that scholars pay attention to.The existing research on entrepreneurial intention mainly discusses the influence of individual personality traits(such as initiative personality,self-efficacy,etc.),entrepreneurship education,entrepreneurship system and policies on entrepreneurial intention from the perspective of its influencing factors,while the research on part-time entrepreneurial intention is relatively rare in published literature,especially the research on part-time entrepreneurship under the background of major events is still in its infancy.Event system theory points out that the attribute of event intensity emphasizes how likely it is that the event will attract the attention of related entities(such as people),which will lead them to mobilize their resources and inputs and have an impact on them(such as changing or influencing the behavior and internal characteristics of entities and inspiring new events).The starting point of a large number of studies on the epidemic situation in COVID-19 is to do research based on its environmental background.For example,there have been studies on the impact of the epidemic situation in COVID-19 on entrepreneurial willingness.Therefore,this paper chooses to pay attention to the epidemic intensity in COVID-19 and explore its influence on employees’ part-time entrepreneurial intention.Previous studies have shown that the perception of epidemic intensity in COVID-19 is related to employees’ job insecurity.Some studies believe that job insecurity is a stressor,which can be divided into obstacles and challenges.When it is regarded as a challenging stressor,it can promote individuals to take positive coping strategies to respond.At the same time,some studies believe that job insecurity will lead to individual’s self-interest in some situations,which may promote them to carry out part-time activities in response to this insecurity.Therefore,this paper discusses the mediating role of job insecurity in the relationship between the epidemic intensity and part-time entrepreneurial intention in COVID-19.In the study of events,the interaction between the internal characteristics of entities and experienced events can be considered.Accordingly,the greater the intensity of the event,the more it will have an impact on the behavior and thoughts of the entity.When people face challenges,some will choose to actively respond or passively accept them.These choices are related to people’s internal characteristics,and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is one of people’s internal characteristics.Therefore,this paper chooses to introduce entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a moderating variable to explore the moderating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on the relationship between job insecurity and part-time entrepreneurial intention.To sum up,based on the event system theory,this paper explores the influence mechanism of COVID-19 epidemic intensity on employees’ part-time entrepreneurial intention,as well as the mediating role of job insecurity and the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy.In order to verify the relationship between the above variables,this study adopts a two-stage questionnaire survey method.After eliminating the invalid questionnaires,216 paid employees are taken as the research samples,and the following research conclusions are drawn according to the data analysis results:(1)The intensity of epidemic situation in COVID-19 has a positive impact on employees’ part-time entrepreneurial intention;(2)The intensity of epidemic situation in COVID-19 positively promotes employees’ job insecurity;(3)Employees’ job insecurity has a positive impact on their part-time entrepreneurial intention;(4)Job insecurity plays an intermediary role between the epidemic intensity in COVID-19 and part-time entrepreneurial intention;(5)Entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays a moderating role between job insecurity and part-time entrepreneurial intention;The higher the level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy,the stronger the influence of job insecurity on part-time entrepreneurial intention,and the weaker it is.This study enriches the research on the influence mechanism of event influence in entrepreneurial activities,and it is innovative to intervene from the perspective of part-time entrepreneurial intention.Moreover,this research conclusion also provides some reference for the formulation of entrepreneurial policy,enterprise management and personal career development when major impact events occur.