The relationships between gender, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intentions were examined for two sample groups: adolescents and adult master of business administration (MBA) students. Similar gender effects on entrepreneurial self-efficacy are shown for both groups and support earlier research on the relationship between self-efficacy and career intentions. Additionally, the effects of entrepreneurship education in MBA programs on entrepreneurial self-efficacy proved stronger for women than for men. Implications for educators and policy makers were discussed, and areas for future research outlined.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons behind the significant gender gaps observed in entrepreneurial interest among adolescents. Specifically, the authors aim to test multiple models that analyze direct and indirect relationships between work and leadership experience, presence of a parental role model, self‐efficacy, and interest by teens in becoming entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachA sample of over 5,000 middle and high school students participated in the larger study from which the data were drawn. Participants completed measures of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, entrepreneurial intentions, work and leadership experience, and parental entrepreneurial role model. The authors analyzed the data using structural equation modeling.FindingsWhile the study confirmed previous empirical findings regarding the antecedents of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions, significant differences across gender emerged. First, while boys and girls hold jobs outside of school in comparable numbers, this work experience is much more powerful in generating self‐efficacy among boys. Additionally, the findings indicated that self‐efficacy seemed to have a stronger effect on entrepreneurial interest for girls than for boys, and that having an entrepreneurial mother or father had a significant and positive effect on girls' (but not boys') levels of the entrepreneurial interest.Research limitations/implicationsCommon method variance and other typical limitations of cross‐sectional self‐report surveys are acknowledged. Future research should use longitudinal and multi‐method approaches to overcome such limitations.Practical implicationsFindings suggest that feeling like they are able to succeed as entrepreneurs might count more for girls than for boys when considering career options, and demonstrate the value of entrepreneurial role models for young girls, especially those who already have the confidence and perceived skills to launch their own future ventures.Originality/valueThe paper documents research that represents one of the few large‐scale studies of US teens examining entrepreneurial intentions and antecedents across gender.

To capture the talents of the next generations in new venture creation and to maintain the levels of entrepreneurship in our society, a vibrant "pipeline" of potential entrepreneurs is required. Previous research has shown this pipeline may still be weak, especially for women entrepreneurs. This paper explores the relationships between gender, entrepreneurial education, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions and behaviors using the data from different sample groups in three different stages of education and career development: middle and high school students, MBA students, and early career adults. The results of our analyses underscore the importance of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a key component in understanding entrepreneurship interest and actual career choice. The positive influence of entrepreneurship education on self-efficacy proved stronger for women than for men. Implications for entrepreneurship educators as well as study limitations and areas for future research are discussed.

Individuals differing in the extent to which they enjoy thinking (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) were exposed either to factual or to evaluative messages pertaining to a fictitious automobile. The results show that message appeal moderates the relationship between need for cognition and judgments about the message, whereas beliefs about the product attributes mediate the relationship between message judgments and product evaluations. Theoretical and practical implications of the moderator‐mediator distinction are discussed.

The institutional entrepreneurship is a cross-organizational field behavior. Its essence is the interaction between organization and environment. The analysis of institutional entrepreneurship can be explained from embedded and agency perspectives. This paper puts forward the analysis of entrepreneurial behavior from the perspective of integration, as embedded-agency view. We sum up the 12 strategies and divide them into four kinds of strategic behaviors, find out legitimacy acquisition and legitimacy construction logic by combing the literature.