Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
PLoS One. 2018 Jun 28;13(6):e0199924. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199924. eCollection 2018.
The interest in the promotion of entrepreneurship is significantly increasing, particularly in those countries, such as Italy, that suffered during the recent great economic recession and subsequently needed to revitalize their economy. Entrepreneurial intention (EI) is a crucial stage in the entrepreneurial process and represents the basis for consequential entrepreneurial actions. Several research projects have sought to understand the antecedents of EI. This study, using a situational approach, has investigated the personal and contextual determinants of EI, exploring gender differences. In particular, the mediational role of general self-efficacy between internal locus of control (LoC), self-regulation, and support from family and friends, on the one hand, and EI, on the other hand, has been investigated. The study involved a sample of 658 Italian participants, of which 319 were male and 339 were female. Data were collected with a self-report on-line questionnaire and analysed with SPSS 23 and Mplus 7 to test a multi-group structural equation model. The results showed that self-efficacy totally mediated the relationship between internal LoC, self-regulation and EI. Moreover, it partially mediated the relationship between support from family and friends and EI. All the relations were significant for both men and women; however, our findings highlighted a stronger relationship between self-efficacy and EI for men, and between support from family and friends and both self-efficacy and EI for women. Findings highlighted the role of contextual characteristics in addition to personal ones in influencing EI and confirmed the key mediational function of self-efficacy. As for gender, results suggested that differences between men and women in relation to the entrepreneur role still exist. Practical implications for trainers and educators are discussed.
创业的兴趣显著增加，尤其是在意大利等国家，这些国家在最近的经济大衰退中遭受了重创，随后需要振兴经济。创业意向（EI）是创业过程中的一个关键阶段，是后续创业行动的基础。许多研究项目都试图了解 EI 的前因。本研究采用情境方法，调查了 EI 的个人和情境决定因素，探讨了性别差异。特别是，研究调查了一般自我效能感在内部控制源（LoC）、自我调节、家庭和朋友支持与 EI 之间的中介作用，以及性别在这些关系中的调节作用。研究涉及 658 名意大利参与者，其中 319 名男性，339 名女性。数据通过在线自我报告问卷收集，使用 SPSS 23 和 Mplus 7 进行分析，以测试多组结构方程模型。结果表明，自我效能感完全中介了内部 LoC、自我调节和 EI 之间的关系。此外，它部分中介了家庭和朋友支持与 EI 之间的关系。所有关系对男性和女性都是显著的；然而，我们的研究结果强调了自我效能感和 EI 之间的关系对男性更强，以及家庭和朋友的支持与自我效能感和 EI 之间的关系对女性更强。研究结果强调了情境特征除了个人特征外，对 EI 的影响，并证实了自我效能感的关键中介作用。就性别而言，结果表明，男性和女性在与企业家角色相关的差异仍然存在。讨论了对培训师和教育者的实际意义。
