The moderating role of self-efficacy on the cognitive process of entrepreneurship: An empirical study in Vietnam.

• Author: Doanh, Duong Cong

INTRODUCTION

Promoting entrepreneurship has recently been seen as the key priority of the Vietnamese government and an impassioned topic in both political and social debates. Antecedents and consequences of venture creation or entrepreneurship have been the interest of many researchers (Nguyen et al., 2018). Entrepreneurship is related to both economic and social activities (Kot et al., 2016). Governments, scholars, and policymakers take into account developing small and medium businesses as they are deemed to be the sustainable development paths in many countries (Sivvam, 2012). Grzybowska (2004) defined business venture as individuals' conscious behavior, which derives from many different conditions, including the economic situation of the country, technological development, cultural value, policy and other social problems. Nevertheless, individuals' willingness to take risks is perceived as a crucial part of accomplishing business success. Therefore, entrepreneurs play an important role in promoting economic activities, as well as producing added value for society by making profits, creating jobs, and contributing to government budgets (Gawet, 2010).

Although business venture has been a topic of interest for many researchers in recent years, it is still considered a developing research field within the sphere of management science. In addition, the research methods and literature in this field should be developed (Churchill & Bygrave, 1989; Kot et al., 2016). The research on entrepreneurship is very diversified and is divided into three different areas by Busenitz et al. (2003): Firstly, research on the process of recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities; Secondly, research on the characteristics of individuals and teams, the processes associated with the development of intellectual or human capital by entrepreneurship; Thirdly, research on the methods of entrepreneurship and finally, research on cultural, institutional, and environmental factors that facilitate or obstruct entrepreneurship. Among those research areas, the factors that influence an individual's conduct of entrepreneurship activities are receiving special attention from researchers and state macro governance agencies.

Entrepreneurship is also seen as the process of innovation and creativity, which play a crucial role in producing new services and products, improving productivity and job creation, revitalizing industry, diversifying markets, increasing social welfare and promoting the development of national economies (Guerrero et al., 2008). In the entrepreneurship field, the reason why a person has or does not have entrepreneurial intention has been the interest of many scholars (Moriano et al., 2012; Krueger et al., 1994; Kolvereid, 1996a). With more and more independent contributions to the entrepreneurship field, many researchers have realized the potential value of an intention approach (Bird, 1988) because of the two following reasons. Firstly, entrepreneurial intention formation is not only seen as the first, but also an indispensable stage in the process of starting up an own business (Shook et al., 2003). Therefore, the research on factors affecting intention is considered as a feasible behavioral approach (Wong et al., 2015). Secondly, entrepreneurship is always planned and has a clear intention (Krueger, 2000). This behavior is the result of a process of careful consideration and selection by individuals (Bird, 1988). Empirical studies on various research fields, including entrepreneurship, emphasize that intention is a very effective variable to predict a particular behavior (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Kautonen et al., 2013). Linen (2008) also states that the correlation between intention and behavior is very high - from 0.9 to 0.96 (Ajzen, 1991).

Moreover, it can be asserted that entrepreneurship is perceived as a conscious, time-consuming, carefully planned, and highly cognitive process (Wu, 2010). Thus, the decision to start a business is considered planned behavior and can be explained by intention models (Zhao et al., 2005). Kolvereid (1996a) also confirmed that the theory of planned behavior, which is proposed by Ajzen (1991), is the most appropriate model to explain and predict entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, Linen (2008) also argued that the entrepreneurial decision is seen as a complex one, and it requires an intentional cognitive process. Three attendances in the theory of planned behavior, including attitude towards behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, are perfectly combined to investigate the intention and behavior. In other words, the theory of planned behavior shows the cognitive process to plan and execute an action. For the entrepreneurship field, this is entrepreneurial action. Walker et al. (2013) have pointed out that there are three reasons why the theory of planned behavior is perfectly appropriate for entrepreneurial studies: (i) entrepreneurship is a planned and intended act; nobody engages in starting a business in a timely manner; (ii) subjective norms mentioned in the theory of planned behavior are determined as an independent variable, which influence entrepreneurial intention more than many concepts of general cultural factors in other studies; (iii) this theory has been tested and proven to be feasible when applied to investigate the various type of intention and behavior.

Besides the three attitudinal antecedents in the theory of planned behavior, entrepreneurial self-efficacy has been determined as the best predictor to investigate a person's entrepreneurial intention and success (Tsai et al., 2014; Linen, 2008). The previous research has made significant contributions to the entrepreneurship literature. However, questions related to the moderating influences of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on the relationships between these components and entrepreneurial intention in the theory of planned behavior still do not explain it clearly (Tsai et al., 2014). Moreover, personal beliefs regarding the ability to perform a specific behavior have impacts on attitude towards behavior, perceived behavioral control, and intention (Ajzen, 1991). So, entrepreneurial self-efficacy can moderate the links between attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurial intention. In addition, some studies show that the relationship between subjective norms and entrepreneurial intention is significant (Kolvereid, 1996a; Krueger et al., 2000; Maresch et al., 2015), while others argue that this correlation is insignificant (Autio et al., 2011; Linen & Chen, 2009; Solesvik, 2013; Tsai et al., 2014). Nevertheless, attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control can mediate the link between subjective norms and entrepreneurial intention. Thus, this study aims to fill existing research gaps in the business venture literature by answering the following research questions:

RQ1: Does self-efficacy moderate the relationship between attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurial intention among Vietnamese students?

RQ2: Do subjective norms have an indirect effect on entrepreneurial intention through attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control?

The contributions this research make to entrepreneurship literature are shown in two manners: Firstly, the moderating role of entrepreneurial selfefficacy on the links between attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurial intention are presented, while prior studies are only interested in the direct or mediating effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on start-up intention (Chen et al., 1998; Markman et al. 2002; Qiao & Hua, 2019; Naktiyok et al., 2010; Shahab et al., 2019; Segal el at., 2005; Tsai et al., 2014). Secondly, while a body of prior studies only focused on exploring the direct link between subjective norms and entrepreneurial intention (Engle et al., 2010; Linen et al., 2011), this study presents the indirect effect of subjective norms on entrepreneurial intention through attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Many definitions of entrepreneurship and entrepreneur have been developing over recent decades. Schumpeter (1975) argues that entrepreneurs are defined as individuals who produce new products and services to fulfill market demand whereas business venture is seen an important factor for developing a nation's economy (De Bruin et al., 2006; Schumpeter, 1960). "The environment itself creates entrepreneurship" (Bernat et al., 2016, p. 271) is why running a business requires not only a quick reaction to changes in the complex business environment, but also "it is the process of designing, launching and running a new business" (Timmons, 1990). Kirzner (1985) defines an entrepreneur as someone who is optimistic about the information gained in a way that can discover new entrepreneurial opportunities (Zicba & Golik, 2018). Talpas (2014) considers entrepreneurship to be an identifiable process, via business activities, that indicates effective leadership ability to adapt to a business environment that is characterized by risks, competitions and fluctuations, while entrepreneurs can be defined as owners with a skilful manner, that are likely to utilize limited production resources to produce new products and services, or transforming smaller resources into bigger ones effectively to make a profit (Zimmer & Scarborough, 1996). Indeed, business venture is determined as a cognitive process of running a new business organization (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000), which not only produces new products and services, and create jobs, but also develops the economy of the locality and country. Thus, exploring the roles of entrepreneurship in economic development as well as the effecting factors on...