How Does the Appeal of Environmental Values Influence Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention?

Abstract

Global challenges posed by climate change and environmental deterioration are increasingly driving entrepreneurship with sustainable entrepreneurial intention as a key driver in predicting entrepreneurial activities. Together with experience, the environmental values of an entrepreneur are vital for sustainable entrepreneurial intention. However, the extent to which experience is a key factor to start up a sustainable enterprise is still rather unclear. To study the role of experience, we derive from the theory of planned behaviour three factors (personal attitude, social norm and self-efficacy) to examine their impact on environmental values and sustainable entrepreneurial intention. Based on a meta-analysis, the overall directions and effect intensity of the different factors in this relationship can be investigated. We develop a structural equation model to explore the mechanism behind the interaction between the different variables. We utilize information from 37 scientific articles using 40 empirical samples, 117 effect sizes and 192,015 observations. We found that environmental values are indeed positively related to a sustainable entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, the relationship between environmental values and sustainable entrepreneurial intention is moderated by experience, as well as personal attitude, social norms and self-efficacy. In addition, environmental values are more positively related to the intention to set up a sustainable venture for entrepreneurs with low-experience compared to those entrepreneurs with high-experience. For policy makers and managers, it becomes important to stimulate environmental values to promote sustainable entrepreneurial intentions in order to stimulate the growth of sustainable enterprises. By enhancing these three factors, sustainable entrepreneurial behaviour can be facilitated by increasing entrepreneurs’ sustainable intention.

Exploring Personal and Contextual Variables of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor through the Rasch Mathematical Model

“…Personal values are the principles that guide human behavior and are also essential predictors for entrepreneurial intention [68,69]. Therefore, differences in values produce various entrepreneurial intentions and activities [70][71][72].…”

Entrepreneurship education and green entrepreneurial intention

“…The emergence of interest in a person's behavior is influenced by the emergence of the initial attitude of the person. Several studies have shown that attitude toward behavior has a positive and significant effect on green entrepreneurial intentions (Vuorio et al, 2018;Thelken & de Jong, 2020;Nordin, 2020;Yasir et al, 2021;Peng et al, 2021). While the research by Sargani et al (2020), shows that attitude towards behavior does not affect green entrepreneurial intentions.…”

“…According to the theory of planned behavior, subjective norm involves the social pressure felt by a person from the majority of people who are important to him, which the individual considers whether to perform the behavior. Several studies have shown that Subjective Norm has a positive and significant effect on Green Entrepreneurial Intentions (Sargani et al, 2020;Londono et al, 2020;Yasir et al, 2021;Peng et al, 2021). Meanwhile, other research shows that Subjective Norm does not affect Green Entrepreneurial Intentions (Ranasinghe & Ajward, 2019;Nordin, 2020;Thelken & de Jong, 2020).…”

“…Perceived behavioral control in entrepreneurship is the perception of a person's belief in his or her ability to become an entrepreneur. Peng et al (2021), stated that perceived behavioral control is a key predictor of green entrepreneurial intention. Several other studies have shown that Perceived Behavioral Control has a positive and significant effect on green entrepreneurial intentions (Qazi et al, 2020;Nordin, 2020;Thelken & de Jong, 2020;Yasir et al, 2021).…”

Entrepreneurial Intention: A Gender Study in Business and Economics Students from Chile

“…However, given that the creation of companies involves the planning of behavior on the part of the individual, the literature has shown that the behavioral intention models; considering aspects about culture, social, educational, and family environment; are robust in this field of research on entrepreneurial intention [9]. In particular, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) [10,11], had been widely used in various areas to predict different types of behavioral intentions [12][13][14][15][16]. As many authors claim, TPB constitutes the most widely used model in the study of EI in different countries [17][18][19][20][21].…”