Intended entrepreneurs' commitment: a new perspective on the mind-sets, antecedents and outcomes

Anne-Flore Adam and Laëtitia Gabay-Mariani

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2021, vol. 44, issue 1, 11-29

Abstract: Even though many people intend to become entrepreneurs, only few of them will actually complete the process successfully. Willing is not enough, and although intention models are widely used in entrepreneurship, their volitional part has been understudied. Understanding why some intended entrepreneurs act while others do not is crucial to gain expertise in the entrepreneurial process. Commitment has been mentioned by socio-psychological researchers as a key factor in the intention-behaviour relationship, but has never been studied in the entrepreneurial context. This is why this paper proposes a longitudinal, exploratory study to enter the 'black boxes' of intended entrepreneurs, focusing on their commitment. We expose four mind-sets of intended entrepreneurs' commitment: affective, continuance (based on sunk costs or based on the lack of alternatives) and normative. Our qualitative study conducted on six nascent entrepreneurs aims at understanding how their mind-sets would mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and behaviour. It then proposes a model of antecedents and expected behavioural consequences of these mind-sets.

Keywords: entrepreneurial process; entrepreneur commitment; entrepreneurial intention-behaviour gap; entrepreneurial mind-sets. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:44:y:2021:i:1:p:11-29

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