Present study provides a useful tool to analyze behavioral responses to different anxiety conditions. Accordingly, it is demonstrated that a condition of increased anxiety deeply modifies the structure of male Wistar rat's behavior in hole board. In addition, our results suggest that evaluation of head dip/edge sniff ratio can be considered a reliable index to appraise effects of pharmacological manipulation of anxiety and related behavioral elements.

Although many studies have shown that entrepreneurial intention can be explained according to a theory of planned behavior, some scholars have provided interesting insights into the role of entrepreneurial self-identity perception as a significant precursor of entrepreneurial intention. A questionnaire was administered to graduates and students of an Italian university (N = 153). A hierarchical regression analysis controlling for demographic variables was performed in order to test the research hypotheses. The findings of this study are discussed, with particular attention paid to the unexpected, weak, or non-significant effects of perceived behavioral control and social norms on entrepreneurial intention.

Although entrepreneurship is considered one of the most powerful drivers of national economies around the world, there is little consensus about what informal factors foster entrepreneurial intention. In accordance with recent literature, entrepreneurial self-identity perception, the perception of corruption in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and perceived exogenous and endogenous obstacles to entrepreneurship were hypothesized as antecedents of college students’ and graduates’ entrepreneurial intention. A study with a sample (N = 153) composed of college students and graduates from an Italian university was conducted. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to test the research hypotheses. The hypotheses that entrepreneurial self-identity perception and corruption perception of the entrepreneurial ecosystem are positive antecedents of entrepreneurial intention were confirmed. Corruption was considered as a viable and socially acceptable strategy that entrepreneurs might adopt in order to easily overcome governmental norms and rules about managing firms. It was hypothesized that the perception of corruption of the entrepreneurial ecosystem might be a positive antecedent of entrepreneurial intention if the subjects perceived the corruption as pervasive of the economic ecosystem and the effort made by national government to control corruption as ineffective. From this point of view, the positive causal relationship between perceived corruption and entrepreneurial intention could reveal college students and graduates’ propensity to perceive corruption as a phenomenon capable of generating a “grease the wheel” effect.

A limit of the questionnaires measuring Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) is the lack of a multidimensional vision of its antecedents. The definition of a multidimensional model of the main drivers affecting the intentions of aspiring entrepreneurs in building a start-up seems a fundamental milestone to overcome this pitfall. This paper aims to explore the internal consistency reliability of a new multidimensional questionnaire measuring the antecedents of EI and Entrepreneurial Education Intention (EEI). The tool consists in a self-administered online questionnaire that has been built in accordance with the Theory of Planned Behavior in entrepreneurship research. It includes 54 items adapted by others studies or created by the authors and it has been administered to college students and graduates (N = 70). Cronbach's Alpha and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were performed using SPSS v23. The value of Cronbach's Alpha and the CFA confirmed the internal stability of the questionnaire, even if the post hoc diagnostic information forced the authors to remove some items with a low value of their standardized regression weights and to estimate some within-factor correlated errors to improve model fit. Although the number of subjects involved in the study was small, this pilot study shows a good internal consistency reliability of the questionnaire.

Although researchers have identified corruption as a factor capable of affecting the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the national level of analysis, scholars have reported conflicting results regarding the exact nature of the relationship between corruption and entrepreneurial intentions. This paper formulates some propositions about the complex relationship between corruption and entrepreneurship at different levels of analysis and it suggests and explores the socio-cultural consequences of such domains’ interactions. Finally, the slippery-slope effect will be discussed as an intra-individual psychological mechanism that could explain why even morally-engaged people might replicate corrupt behaviors. The limitations of this work, and its implications for future researchers and for government policies will be analyzed.