Pérez-Fernández Héctor, Martín-Cruz Natalia, Delgado-García Juan B, Rodríguez-Escudero Ana I
Department of Business and Marketing, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
Department of Business Economics, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 17;11:588634. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588634. eCollection 2020.
Although entrepreneurial intention has been widely studied using cognitive models, we still lack entrepreneurial vocation and, therefore, lack disruptive innovations. Entrepreneurship scholars have some understanding of the reasons underlying this weakness, although there is much room for improvement in our learning concerning how to promote entrepreneurship among university students, especially in the transformed context of digital technologies. This paper focuses on the early stages of start-up, and in particular seeks to evaluate what role social and psychological factors play in the development of entrepreneurial intentions. Drawing on network theory, we consider the impact of social networks on entrepreneurial intention. Specifically, we analyze the influence of two types of social networks: face-to-face and online social networks, with the latter proving especially important in digital transformations. In addition, based on affective congruency theory, we relate affect with entrepreneurial intention. Particularly, we evaluate the influence of positive and negative dispositional affectivity on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, since affect and emotions can also be related with social relationships, we analyze whether dispositional affectivities influence entrepreneurial intention through the mediation effect of social networks. Using structural equation modeling, we confirm the impact of both online and face-to-face social networks, as well as positive dispositional affectivity on entrepreneurial intention for 589 higher education students in Spain. However, negative dispositional affectivity is not seen to influence entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, both face-to-face and online social networks are influenced by positive dispositional affectivity. Moreover, these two types of networks can even partially mediate the relationship between positive dispositional affectivity and entrepreneurial intention. Positive dispositional affectivity can thus influence entrepreneurial intention in two different ways: directly and indirectly through both face-to-face and online social networks. This study provides further insights and adds to the literature on affect, social networks, and entrepreneurial intention. From a broader perspective, we also contribute to the literature on disruptive innovations by explaining how the development of entrepreneurial intentions would have positive consequences for university students vis-à-vis achieving these disruptive innovations.
尽管创业意向已通过认知模型得到广泛研究，但我们仍缺乏创业使命感，因此也缺乏颠覆性创新。创业学学者对这一薄弱环节背后的原因有所了解，不过在如何促进大学生创业方面，我们的认知仍有很大提升空间，尤其是在数字技术变革的背景下。本文聚焦创业初期，特别旨在评估社会和心理因素在创业意向发展中所起的作用。基于网络理论，我们考量社会网络对创业意向的影响。具体而言，我们分析两种类型社会网络的影响：面对面社会网络和在线社会网络，事实证明后者在数字变革中尤为重要。此外，基于情感一致性理论，我们将情感与创业意向联系起来。特别地，我们评估积极和消极特质情感对创业意向形成的影响。最后，由于情感和情绪也可能与社会关系相关，我们分析特质情感是否通过社会网络的中介作用影响创业意向。通过结构方程模型，我们证实了在线和面对面社会网络以及积极特质情感对西班牙589名高等教育学生创业意向的影响。然而，消极特质情感并未被发现会影响创业意向。此外，面对面和在线社会网络均受到积极特质情感的影响。而且，这两种网络甚至可以部分中介积极特质情感与创业意向之间的关系。因此，积极特质情感可以通过两种不同方式影响创业意向：直接影响以及通过面对面和在线社会网络间接影响。本研究提供了进一步的见解，并丰富了关于情感、社会网络和创业意向的文献。从更广泛的角度来看，我们还通过解释创业意向的发展如何对大学生实现这些颠覆性创新产生积极影响，为关于颠覆性创新的文献做出了贡献。
