Seminario Pieter Vandekerkhof y Maarten Colson

Pieter Vandekerkhof and Maarten Colson (University of Hasselt, Belgium) will present their paper “Exploring the entrepreneurial passion-behavior relationship through implementation intentions: the moderating roles of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and risk-taking propensity”, joint work with Wim Marneffe and Jelle Schepers (University of Hasselt). 

Abstract

This study explores the entrepreneurial passion-behavior association as both scholars and policy makers recognize the importance of this distinct motivational construct in stimulating new venture creation. Concretely, since this relationship has remained underexplored, this paper studies how and when individuals with a passion for founding effectively engage in entrepreneurial start-up behavior. Our underpinnings draw on the identity-based framework of entrepreneurial passion to operationalize a robust moderated mediation model. Empirically, we exploit a unique sample of 493 Belgian nascent entrepreneurs. This study’s results provide new insights that individuals who are passionate about founding a new venture will devise action plans that specify where, when and how to engage in gestation activities as this reduces the uncertainty and challenges to reach the envisioned goal of launching a new venture. This means that implementation intentions function as a mediator in the passion-behavior relationship. Next to this, the results show that this mediation model is contingent on individuals’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and willingness to take risks. On the one hand, when individuals with a passion for founding believe that they possess the required knowledge and skills to start a new business, they will significantly develop more implementation intentions to engage in entrepreneurial start-up behavior. On the other hand, when individuals have a higher risk-taking propensity, these implementation intentions will be converted significantly more into actual entrepreneurial start-up behavior. This study makes two contributions by adding new insights to the discussion on the factors that predict and stimulate actual engagement in new venture creation behavior. We discuss these implications for theory and for practice.