Predicting self-employment intentions and entry in Germany and East Africa: an investigation of the impact of mentoring, entrepreneurial attitudes, and psychological capital

Abstract

Self-employment is a feasible and in some contexts the most available form of employment especially for new entrants into the labor market. Understanding student’s willingness to go into self-employment and the factors important to the process of becoming self-employed is therefore important. This paper explores the role of entrepreneurial mentoring, attitudes, and psychological capital in development of self- employment intentions among students. A two-year longitudinal survey of final year university students (288 German and 498 East African) was conducted. The follow-up survey (T2) of 103 participants was conducted within 6 months and 2 years after graduation. Results suggest that entrepreneurial mentoring, attitudes, and psychological capital are directly related to self-employment intentions. Attitudes mediated the relationship between mentoring and intentions. Furthermore, psychological capital moderated the effects of mentoring and attitudes on self- employment intentions. East African participants reported higher intentions (T1) and higher rate of entry into self-employment (at T2) compared to the German participants. Contrary to our assumption, however, psychological capital did not have substantial effects on self-employed entry. The implications of these findings are discussed.