Entrepreneurial Intention of Two Patterns of Planned Behaviour and Alertness: Empirical Evidence in China

Abstract

Researches based on the pattern of planned behavior holds that the three variables of entrepreneurial attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control influence each other and influence entrepreneurial intentions respectively. However, there are also different, even conflicting research conclusions that continue to emerge. Researches based on the pattern of alertness, believe that profit opportunities and individuals’ pursuit to truth are the driving forces. Many scholars have demonstrated the impact of individual entrepreneurial alertness on entrepreneurial intentions. However, as an exogenous causal agent, profit opportunities have a logical problem: if there are no other assumptions, the mere existence of opportunities does not adequately explain entrepreneurial alertness. To address this gap, this study considered samples from mainland China, where entrepreneurial activities are very active currently, to test the role that entrepreneurial alertness is assumed to play in the planned behavior model. The results show that the three dimensions of alertness, individually partly intermediate the influence of entrepreneurial attitude on entrepreneurial intention, the influence of subjective norms on entrepreneurial intention, and that of perceived behavior control on entrepreneurial intention. This article studied the production of entrepreneurial intention by integrating the two patterns of planned behavior and alertness through empirical analysis, and opened up a new field for subsequent research on entrepreneurial intention.