Abstract
The aim of this research is to study the mediating role of the learning process in explaining the relationships between certain psychological and biographical characteristics and entrepreneurial intention. The findings suggest that the effect of psychological and biographical aspects on entrepreneurial intention depend on the extent to which students are able to take advantage of their personal capabilities in order to develop an effective learning process. Learning process factors (information about course guides, student effort and educational processes) mediate the relationships between specific psychological factors (achievement need, internal control and autonomy) and entrepreneurial intention. With regard to biographical factors, we find no mediating effect on entrepreneurial intention through the learning process. The present study provides a better understanding of the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention, helping to fill the gap in the literature.
Highlights
According to the Central Business Register (INE 2018), in August 2018, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) made up 99.80% of the Spanish industrial fabric
2,870,935 companies, only 4473 were considered large companies. These SMEs employed a total of 8,277,215 workers compared to 5,173,179 for large companies, that is, 53.5% of workers in Spain were employed in SMEs, 33.5% in large companies and the remaining 13% corresponded to self-employed workers without dependent employees
Another theoretical contribution is that we provide new evidence about one of the key predictors of entrepreneurship, namely entrepreneurial intention (Kautonen et al 2015)
Summary
According to the Central Business Register (INE 2018), in August 2018, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) made up 99.80% of the Spanish industrial fabric. Faced by a business structure with a clear predominance of small businesses and self-employed workers in most countries, entrepreneurs are gaining significant importance as they are able to generate new jobs and contribute to the growth and modernization of the economy (Carlsson et al 2013). In this sense, entrepreneurship is a key factor for economic growth, the generation of new jobs, increased innovation and improved productivity in countries (Türker and Sonmez 2009; Gómez-Gras et al 2010; Keat et al 2011; Urbano and Aparicio 2015). This key role of entrepreneurship has generated a growing interest in areas such as politics, economics, psychology, management and cognitive aspects since the last decades of the past century (Kuttim et al 2014)
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