The Impact of Group Support on College Student’s Online Business Motivation: The Uncertainty Avoidance Thinking as a Moderating Factor

Lifu Li, Kyeong Kang and Osama Sohaib

Business Perspectives and Research, 2026, vol. 14, issue 1, 123-140

Abstract: This article establishes a research model to analyze how group support factors, including peers’ support and family support, impact college students’ motivation to establish online business. College entrepreneurs need to consult their family members before starting a new career because of the power distance. Meanwhile, based on the collectivist cultural background, college students understand the importance of cooperation with peers’ group. Furthermore, influenced by uncertainty avoidance thinking, college entrepreneurs tend to rely on group supports, such as family funds and peers’ experiences, to reduce the probability of failure. Hence, this research designs uncertainty avoidance thinking as a moderating factor to explore its impact on the correlation between group support factors and college students’ online business motivation. To test the research model, it utilizes Chinese college students as samples and distributes online questionnaires to them. Through analyzing 458 samples based on the partial least squares path modelling and variance-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the data analysis identifies that group support can positively affect college students’ online business motivation. The uncertainty avoidance factor also positively moderates the correlation between family support and college students’ online business motivation. To assist these students in establishing confidence in the online business, the Entrepreneurship Centre should pay much attention to the impact of peers’ support and family support.

Keywords: College student; group support; live streaming platform; online business motivation; uncertainty avoidance thinking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/22785337231163946 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:busper:v:14:y:2026:i:1:p:123-140

DOI: 10.1177/22785337231163946

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Business Perspectives and Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().