Examining How Entrepreneurs’ Multiple Goals and Means Influence New Venture Creation

Abstract

Answering the question – why do people at some point of their life become entrepreneurs – is crucial to the field of entrepreneurship. The dominant view in the literature states that the critical stage in the process of becoming an entrepreneur is the formation of the entrepreneurial intention, which is formed when an individual considers the creation of a new venture as desirable, feasible and not conflicting with perceived social norms (Ajzen, 1987; Shapero, 1982). The extensive empirical work supporting this notion usually assumes that individuals set a single goal that they try to attain (Kolvereid, 1996; Krueger at al., 2000; Kolvereid & Isken, 2006). However, in most real-life situations, people hold simultaneously onto multiple goals. Following the notion that “single goals cannot be understood when isolated from other goals” (Austin & Vancouver, 1996, p.338), I used the theory of goal systems (Kruglanski et al., 2002) to develop a conceptual model that explains how individuals form an intention to become an entrepreneur and how this intention is transformed into action, taking into consideration the multiplicity of goals that individuals hold.